A new economic-policy initiative launched by the Brookings Institution last week includes specific suggestions for improving K-12 education, such as changing teacher hiring and retention practices, and setting up scholarships for low-income students to attend summer school.
The Brookings Institution, a research and policy organization based in Washington, started the initiative, called the Hamilton Project, to promote and discuss ideas from economic- and public-policy experts that are intended to help bolster the U.S. economy.
At last week鈥檚 unveiling of the initiative, economists presented papers on three topics: teacher hiring and retention practices, summer school scholarships for low-income students, and retirement savings for low- and middle-income adults.
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The first education paper highlighted as part of the initiative, 鈥淚dentifying Effective Teachers Using Performance on the Job,鈥� was written by Robert Gordon, a senior vice president at the Center for American Progress, along with Thomas J. Kane, a professor of education and economics at Harvard University, and Douglas O. Staiger, a professor of economics at Dartmouth University.
It argues that changing standard practices in teacher hiring and retention would have a positive effect on student achievement while also encouraging talented people to become educators. More specifically, the paper proposes downplaying certification as a measurement of teacher quality and using student-achievement data鈥攁s well as evaluations by principals, parents, and other teachers鈥攖o determine teacher effectiveness.
Summer Learning
The second education paper presented, 鈥淪ummer Opportunity Scholarships (SOS): A Proposal to Narrow the Skills Gap,鈥� was written by Molly E. Fifer, a graduate researcher at Princeton University, and Alan B. Krueger, a professor of economics and public policy at Princeton. It suggests that the skills gap between students from low- and high-income families is aggravated during the three-month summer vacation.
Ms. Fifer and Mr. Krueger propose establishing 鈥渟ummer opportunity scholarships,鈥� a $4 billion-a-year program that would allow low-income students in grades K-5 to participate in a six-week summer school program focused on reading and math skills.
鈥淚 think the proposal recognizes the role that summer learning loss plays in the achievement gap,鈥� Ronald A. Fairchild, the executive director of the Center for Summer Learning, based at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said in an interview.
