Teaching – And Defending – American Democracy
If recent history demonstrates anything, it is the old truth that American democracy is a work in progress, and that it can suffer reversals as well as advances. The teaching of civics in our schools...
View ArticleThe Teacher Diversity Data Landscape
This week, the Albert Shanker Institute released a new research brief, authored by myself and Klarissa Cervantes. It summarizes what we found when we contacted all 51 state education agencies...
View ArticleWeaning Educational Research Off Of Steroids
Our guest authors today are Hunter Gehlbach and Carly D. Robinson. Gehlbach is an associate professor of education and associate dean at the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz Graduate...
View ArticleThe Casual Cruelty Of Privilege
Our week began with yet another profoundly disturbing chapter in the Trump Administration’s treatment of immigrant and refugee children. The New York Times reports that hundreds of underage Latino...
View ArticlePerkins And The Benefits Of Collaboration
Our guest author today is Stan Litow, a professor of Public Policy at both Duke and Columbia University. He is a former deputy chancellor of schools in New York City, former president of the IBM...
View ArticleWe Need To Reassess School Discipline
It has been widely documented that, in American schools, students of color are disproportionately punished for nonviolent behaviors, and are targeted for exclusionary discipline within schools more...
View ArticleCan American Democracy Survive?
Our guest author today is Eric Chenoweth, director of the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe and principal author of the Albert Shanker Institute’s Democracy Web, an extra-curricular resource...
View ArticleU.S. Voter Turnout (And Registration) In Comparative Perspective
As is too often the case, Election Day last week was marred by stories of voter suppression and difficulties, from voter roll purges, to long lines and machine malfunctions at polling stations. Despite...
View ArticleUpdate On Teacher Diversity Data: Good News, Bad News, And Strange News
A couple of months ago, we released a report on the collection and availability of teacher race and ethnicity data, based on our late 2017 survey of all 51 state education agencies (SEAs) in the U.S....
View ArticleHappy Holidays From The Shanker Institute
We at the Shanker Institute wish you a happy and healthy holiday season, and a new year in which the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice. Posts will resume in the new year.
View ArticleUnsustainable Trends In Teacher Debt And Teacher Pay
Higher education is often presented as the sure pathway towards upward social mobility. However, the idea that higher education is for all has been slowly fading away. The combination of soaring...
View ArticleTeacher Insurgency: What Are The Strategic Challenges?
The following post was the basis for a talk by Leo Casey, the Executive Director of the Albert Shanker Institute, which was delivered at “The Future of American Labor” conference held February 8th and...
View ArticleThe Offline Implications Of The Research About Online Charter Schools
It’s rare to find an educational intervention with as unambiguous a research track record as online charter schools. Now, to be clear, it’s not a large body of research by any stretch, its conclusions...
View ArticleInterpreting Effect Sizes In Education Research
Interpreting “effect sizes” is one of the trickier checkpoints on the road between research and policy. Effect sizes, put simply, are statistics measuring the size of the association between two...
View ArticleFinding Common Ground In Civics Education
The following post is based on remarks by Leo Casey, executive director of the Albert Shanker Institute, delivered March 13, 2019 at the ASI conversation, "Civic Education: Is There Common Ground?"Ever...
View ArticleDispatches From The Nexus Of Boring And Important
School finance is one of those education policy topics located at the extreme ends of the important continuum as well as the boring continuum. On the one hand, school funding is relevant to virtually...
View ArticleFederal Educational Investments Are Essential
Our guest author today is Stan Litow, a professor of Public Policy at both Duke and Columbia University. He is a former deputy chancellor of schools in New York City, former president of the IBM...
View ArticleA Mouse Gives Birth To A Mountain: What The Mueller Report Tells Us
Our guest author today is Eric Chenoweth, co-director of the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe and principal author of the Albert Shanker Institute’s Democracy Web, an extra-curricular resource...
View ArticleCitizenship, Rights, And Race
A week ago, the Departments of Sociology and History at the University of Michigan organized a symposium in honor of Peggy Somers, Theorizing and Historicizing: Political Economy, Rights, and Moral...
View ArticleThe Size And Legitimacy Of Gender And Motherhood Pay Gaps In Cross-National...
Gender pay gaps receive due attention in high quality academic (e.g., England 2005) and non-academic research worldwide (e.g., IWPR, OECD), as well as in the media. It is often overlooked, however,...
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