THE PIONEER BLOG

Sandra Stotsky

Schizophrenia in the New York Times Editorial Office (by Sandra Stotsky)

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The New York Times is suffering from a split personality about what the quality of public education should be. It claims it likes rigor. At the same time, it supports Common Core and its even poorer relative in the standards arena, Next Generation Science Standards. The NYT has apparently infected its education reporters with the same schizophrenia. Kenneth Chang is the latest victim. On September 2, the NYT published his article titled “With Common Core, Fewer Topics but Covered More Rigorously.” Centered on Common Core math, the article implicitly praises New York officials who claim Common Core math is modeled on “the teaching strategies” of high-performing countries—especially “attention to memorization and recall, drilling around math facts.” The article ends with […]

Jim Stergios

Who you calling dumb?

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Calling your opponents “stupid” is the refuge of those who can’t be bothered to consider their arguments.  That is precisely what Bill Keller does in his New York Times piece on Common Core. There are certainly some who, as Keller writes, disapprove of anything President Obama supports.  As Keller notes there is indeed a “if-that-Kenyan-socialist-in-the-White-House-is-for-it-I’m-against-it crowd.” But driving to make our schools internationally competitive requires that we all (and that includes the at times very partisan Keller) put political friendships in the back seat.  There are those on the right and left who support Common Core — some are friends.  The same is true of the opposition. At Pioneer Institute, our focus for 25 years has been on getting education […]

Joshua Archambault

Will ACA Cause Rate Shock in Massachusetts? It Appears So, Small Biz To See Premiums Rise Up to 97%

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Conventional wisdom has held that the ACA impact on Massachusetts will be small. Some high profile academics have gone as far as to attack presidential candidates with colorful language if they suggest otherwise. Well, the conventional wisdom has had a nuclear bomb dropped on its head with the release of an independent analysis by the major insurance companies in Massachusetts. The implications are clear– the ACA will supply a rough ride for many small companies in the state. Unlike other states where the rate shock will be most pronounced in the individual marketplace and/or for younger adults, the ACA will cause the most turmoil in the much larger small business market in the Bay State. For some companies in Massachusetts, the shock will be […]

Editorial Staff

Have the T’s Retirement Plans Gone Off the Rails?

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Study Finds Financial Condition of MBTA Retirement Plan Deteriorated Sharply, But Lack of Transparency Makes It Impossible To Know Why Plan doesn’t post financial statements or investment performance online, isn’t subject to state pension regulations BOSTON – The MBTA Retirement Plan’s financial condition has been deteriorating and a lack of transparency makes it impossible to know all the reasons why, according to Have the T’s Retirement Plans Gone Off the Rails, a Pioneer Institute policy brief by Senior Fellow on Finance Iliya Atanasov published today. Have the T’s Retirement Plans Gone Off the Rail The MBTA Retirement Plan (MBTARP), which until very recently did not publish a database of retiree benefits, was not established under Chapter 32 of the Massachusetts […]

Joshua Archambault

Do Insurer Rate Filings Tell Us About the ACA/Obamacare in Mass? Not really

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This morning the state of Massachusetts released quarterly rate filings from insurers for Q4 2013, and Q1 2014. Some will interpret these as the first sign of the impact of the ACA on Massachusetts residents, but it is far from that. A few thoughts on the filing: 1. These are base rate increases (or decreases), so they will not reflect the rating factor changes that are coming under the ACA. This is well worth mentioning since the ACA rating factor changes will be responsible for roller-coasting premiums +/-50%. As I discussed in this Pioneer blog post there are many other factors to consider.  In other words these will not be the percent increases or decreases that residents will actually see next year.   2. […]

Sandra Stotsky

New York State Test Results: Uninterpretable But a Portent of the Future (by Sandra Stotsky)

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In the original version of David Steiner’s talk on the meaning of the drop in test scores in New York State, he says: “The truth we are now trying to tell, for the first time, is relative to something called college- and career-readiness, roughly equivalent to the ability to enter a community college without the need for remediation.” That statement is also in the version appearing in his Education Next blog. Something happened to this truth in his op-ed in the New York Post on August 8, 2013. The truth is still relative to something called college-and career-readiness, but that concept is now “roughly equivalent to the ability to enter and succeed in college.” Not “community college.” Two very different […]

Jim Stergios

Common Core is neither internationally benchmarked nor state-led

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I have nothing against IHOP.  I eat there if there is nothing else better around.  But I wouldn’t take my kids there on a regular basis. The food may have the moniker of “international” but I don’t think that anyone actually believes that.  (It’s not even close to mom’s cooking.) Alas, the syrupy Common Core website dishes all kinds of nonsense about the national standards.  I’m glad to see that it wiped the website clean of its claim that Common Core was “internationally benchmarked.”   Many other proponents, such as the Foundation for Excellence in Education, say similar things (“benchmarked to top performing schools around the world”).  Interestingly, if you look at Common Core’s website today, their claim has been watered down […]

Jim Stergios

Brief take on the tax holiday

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(from the Providence Journal) Tax holidays are fine.  I like feel-good events as much as the next guy.  But the fact is that they have little long-term impact on investment, business growth and job creation.  No business owner I know will hire anything more than temporary help for that one Sales Tax Holiday. Comparing the number of jobs in Massachusetts today to the number in 1990, one observes really no growth in jobs.  Meanwhile entire cities in Massachusetts have had over 10% unemployment for the last half a decade. What we need instead is a different approach to business – where we lower the costs compared to their competitors elsewhere and where we make it easier to hire people.  That’s […]

Sandra Stotsky

9 Signs of Academic Rigor in English Standards (by Sandra Stotsky)

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What makes one set of English language arts standards more rigorous than another set? How can reporters or policy makers tell? What makes Tom Luna of Idaho or Kathleen Porter Magee at the Fordham Institute think Common Core’s English language arts standards are more rigorous than Idaho’s or many other states’ previous standards? We don’t know because they don’t tell us. They don’t know, either, we suspect. They simply repeat the R word like well-trained parrots. [quote align=”right” color=”#999999″]So, how can one judge the academic rigor of a set of English language arts standards. What are some of the things to do or look for?[/quote] Many researchers and state department of education staff love to do “crosswalks.” What they do is […]

Jim Stergios

Some takeaways on FL Commissioner’s resignation

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Tom LoBianco of the Associated Press (Indiana office) did some crack reporting on the question of how the A to F accountability system worked in Indiana.  What he dug up were emails that clearly showed troubling lapses in judgment on the part of former Indiana state superintendent of schools and current Florida commissioner of education Tony Bennett.  It is alleged that Dr. Bennett stayed on the case with his analysts until a school went from a C rating to a B rating ultimately to an A rating.  You can see the emails here, here, here, here and here. Pioneer came out early and called for Bennett’s resignation, saying that: Bennett needs to resign his Florida position for violating the trust […]

Jim Stergios

Public statement on the resignation of Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett

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Dr. Tony Bennett did some good work in Indiana and more recently in Florida to advance key K-12 education reforms. Some of these reforms were very important, including expanding parental choice options. Pioneer Institute believes that public accountability for school performance is an integral part of state K-12 education reform efforts. Without strong accountability, it becomes very difficult to undertake hard reforms like raising the academic expectations we have for our children and providing high quality school options such as private school choice, public charter schools, and digital learning. But all public leadership and especially public educational leadership must teach by example and uphold the public trust by setting the very highest standards of conduct. In regards to schooling and […]

Editorial Staff

Lawrence’s Failed Public Pension System

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by Guest Blogger Rohit Chaparala Pioneer’s newest transparency tool, MassPensions.com reveals a pressing need for reform in Lawrence’s public pension system. Launched earlier this month, the site allows Massachusetts residents to view details of public pension plans throughout the state, providing access to performance indicators including a plan’s financial condition, investment performance, and asset allocation.  From this data, the site then generates an overall composite grade for the plan. The City of Lawrence’s plan ranks among the worst in the state.  Over the past five years (2008-2012), Lawrence’s public pension system has yielded a D, F, C, D, and an F. Here’s a statistical breakdown:  From 2009 to 2010, Lawrence’s funded ratio, the percentage of pension assets available to cover […]

Jim Stergios

The implosion of the PARCC assessments

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As they say, where there is smoke, there may be fire. EdWeek was reporting last week that the Partnership for Readiness in College and Careers (PARCC) assessment, one of the two state consortia developing national assessments, announced its product pricing.  At $29.50 a student, it was in line with Massachusetts’ pricing for the MCAS test, but it is two and three times the amount in many of the member states.  There are also big questions about the assessments viability. In recent months, a number of states have pulled out of PARCC.  After the pricing announcement, Georgia pulled out of PARCC.  Just now came a press release from Indiana: GOVERNOR PENCE ANNOUNCES INTENT TO WITHDRAW INDIANA AS A MEMBER FROM THE […]

Jim Stergios

Is Detroit coming to Massachusetts’ cities?

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Anybody who expects a Chapter 9 filing in Massachusetts in the next couple of years does not know what he or she is talking about.  Feel better now?  You shouldn’t. Not that I want it to occur — hardly the case as it is painful, unfair, and proof that our political institutions are showing rot. Here are some basic facts on Detroit’s Chapter 9 filing and what it means for Massachusetts. Chapter 9 is not a frequent occurrence, and Detroit’s filing should not lead us to expect a wave of Chapter 9 filings. Only a few states allow it. It’s tough medicine. Chapter 9 wipes clean the past – all pension deals, all bargained wage agreements can be rendered null […]

Sandra Stotsky

4 Steps to Upgrade Teacher & Administrator Prep Programs (by Sandra Stotsky)

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How to Upgrade Teacher and Administrator Preparation Programs The part of public education that has received the least attention for reform is the most important: whom our education schools admit and how they are prepared to be teachers, administrators, education researchers, and education policy makers. Although there is very little high quality research on these topics, useful information for reforming education schools came from the massive review undertaken by the National Mathematics Advisory Panel for its report in 2008. It found no relationship between student achievement and traditional teacher education programs, certification status, and mentoring and induction programs. That means that teachers who have completed a traditional teacher preparation program, hold a teaching license, and have participated in an induction […]