Monthly Archives: December 2011

National initiatives and grassroots political support for early childhood programs

Posted on December 22, 2011 by

The federal government recently announced the state winners for its Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge (ELC). ELC will provide support for states to better coordinate their early childhood programs, provide better assessment of program quality, and provide … Continue reading →

Posted in Early childhood programs, National vs. state vs. local

Accountability systems need to improve quality, not make things worse

Posted on December 15, 2011 by

The New York Times op-ed by Helen Ladd and Ed Fiske that I linked to the other day was based in part on a much longer recent paper by Helen Ladd. That paper is well worth reading. Professor Ladd reviews … Continue reading →

Posted in Early childhood program design issues, Early childhood programs

School reform and early childhood education

Posted on December 13, 2011 by

Yesterday Julie Mack, the education reporter at the Kalamazoo Gazette, posted my somewhat lengthy thoughts on education reform. The essay posted at Julie’s blog originally was an email to a friend of mine. She was running a forum at her … Continue reading →

Posted in Early childhood programs

Class matters: New York Times op-ed

Posted on December 12, 2011 by

This morning’s New York Times has a strong op-ed by Helen Ladd and Ed Fiske. Helen Ladd is a well-known public finance economist at Duke. Ed Fiske is the former education editor of the Times, but is perhaps best known … Continue reading →

Posted in Distribution of benefits, Early childhood programs | 1 Comment

Why is the political support for evidence-based policies so weak and inconsistent?

Posted on December 8, 2011 by

A recent New York Times article by Annie Lowery pointed out that several important programs with strong research support for effectiveness are being threatened in the federal appropriations process. In particular, a House appropriations subcommittee recommended cutting all fiscal year … Continue reading →

Posted in Early childhood programs, Economic development

Bigger funding needed for big ideas for job creation

Posted on December 6, 2011 by

A project entitled “Big Ideas for Job Creation” recently released a policy brief on a wide range of job-creation proposals.  This project was managed by the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at the University of California-Berkeley, and funded … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic development

How socially valuable is additional employment?

Posted on December 5, 2011 by

I have a new working paper available that looks at how job-creating policies should be evaluated in benefit-cost analyses. The paper is technical, and is mainly addressed to economists interested in benefit-cost analysis. However, the paper’s findings have some important … Continue reading →

Posted in Business incentives, Distribution of benefits, Early childhood programs, Economic development, Local variation in benefits

Two new reviews of “Investing in Kids”

Posted on December 2, 2011 by

Two new book reviews have been published of my book Investing in Kids. One review  appeared in Business Economics, the academic journal of the National Association for Business Economics. This review is by Steve Barnett, one of the leading scholars … Continue reading →

Posted in Business incentives, Early childhood programs, Economic development