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Parents, Choice, and Some Foundations for Education Reform in Massachusetts
/0 Comments/in Press Releases, Press Releases: Education, Press Releases: School Choice, Related Education Blogs, School Choice /by Editorial StaffAuthor: William G. Howell, Harvard University Drawing from a telephone survey of 1,000 public school parents in the ten largest school districts in Massachusetts, this paper critically examines public school parents’ knowledge of and interest in alternative schooling options. From the analysis, three basic findings emerge: First, while parents claim to be familiar with NCLB, the vast majority of those who in fact qualify for NCLB’s choice provisions do not know that their child’s school is on the state’s list of underperforming schools. Second, parents with children in underperforming schools are especially interested in pursuing alterna- tive schooling options; this interest, however, does not derive from pointed dissatisfac- tion with their current schools, and it is regularly directed toward options […]
A ‘No Excuses’ Look at Education Reform
/0 Comments/in News /by Pioneer InstitutePioneer Institute held a forum December 19, 2003, with the authors of No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning. Abigail Thernstrom is a former member of Pioneer’s Board of Academic Advisors and Stephan Thernstrom is a professor of government at Harvard University. Arguing that the poor academic performance (on average) of black and Hispanic students is a civil rights crisis, the Thernstroms call for the replication of charter and other innovative schools “with great leaders and great teachers who have high academic and behavioral standards.” Two respondents, Brett Peiser, founder and executive director of South Boston Harbor Academy Charter School, and Michael Contompasis, chief operating officer of the Boston Public Schools, gave their perspectives. The remarks of each speaker are excerpted below.
Getting Home: Overcoming Barriers to Housing in Greater Boston
/0 Comments/in Housing, Press Releases, Press Releases: Government /by Editorial StaffAuthor: Charles C. Euchner, Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. With Elizabeth G. Frieze, Harvard University Affordable housing is important to the vitality of Massachusetts communities, but the state needs to encourage the marketplace to create a broader range of housing types. The first step is to identify the factors that raise the cost and reduce the supply of housing in the Commonwealth. Both state and local governments have a legitimate interest in regulating certain aspects of housing development to assure reasonable safety and health standards and allow for the overall well-being of the community and its character. Some regulations are clearly necessary. Government support of affordable housing may also require grants, tax […]
Getting Home: Overcoming Barriers to Housing in Greater Boston
/0 Comments/in Economic Opportunity, Housing, Press Releases, Press Releases: Economic Opportunity /by Editorial StaffAuthor: Charles C. Euchner, Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. With Elizabeth G. Frieze, Harvard University Affordable housing is important to the vitality of Massachusetts communities, but the state needs to encourage the marketplace to create a broader range of housing types. The first step is to identify the factors that raise the cost and reduce the supply of housing in the Commonwealth. Both state and local governments have a legitimate interest in regulating certain aspects of housing development to assure reasonable safety and health standards and allow for the overall well-being of the community and its character. Some regulations are clearly necessary. Government support of affordable housing may also require grants, tax […]
Rationalizing Health and Human Services
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Healthcare, Press Releases, Press Releases: Education, Press Releases: Health Care /by Editorial StaffAuthor: Charles D. Baker, Jr. The proposal to rationalize health and human services presumes that EOHHS would eliminate its existing operating agencies over time and replace them with an integrated Secretariat organized along functional, rather than product, lines. In this model, each operating division would be led by a commissioner, who would report directly to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The implementation process would happen one commissioner consolidation at a time and would take place over at least a two-year period. Each one would involve the development and submission to the legislature (and presumably to the public) of a timetable for consolidation, a set of deliverables as the process unfolded (staffing, resources, responsibilities, key interfaces), and a set […]