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Episode 68: What Policy Solutions Should We be Focused On in the Year Ahead?
Free to Offend Episode 68 | Guest: Geoff Lawrence, Director of Research, Nevada Policy At first glance, it seems like divided government should make it harder to get meaningful reforms passed into law … but the truth is, there are still plenty of opportunities. Geoffrey Lawrence, director of research for… Read More
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Class Size Reduction
Reducing class size is a persistently seductive idea. It just "seems" as if it should be advantageous to everyone: to the students who would garner more teacher time, to the teachers who would have less paper work, to the administrators who would have a contented staff and satisfied parents. It "feels" right, but it raises many questions. First of all, what is the optimum student/teacher ratio? How much does it cost? Will it favorably affect achievement?
Is Nevada Open for E-Business?
Nevada's politicians, like their counterparts across the nation, seek to draw information-technology (IT) firms to their state, as well as foster the creation of native IT enterprises. It's little wonder why such businesses are attractive to legislative careerists -- "dot coms" and other New Economy firms pay their employees well. The American Electronics Association reports that high-tech workers earn an average salary of $53,000, a figure which is 80 percent higher than salaries in other industries. Yet few of these quality jobs exist in Nevada. A recent survey which examined the percentage of technology-related employment for each state ranked Nevada a dismal 45th. Unfortunately, the state's elected officials and bureaucrats are doing very little to fix this problem -- in fact, they're making things worse.
Plato Knew
Although school reformers have not gone so far as attempting to reach the Platonic ideal student-teacher ratio of one to one, tutor to pupil, they have been enthusiastic advocates of reducing class size. It is a proposal Which has enormous popular and political appeal, one of those innovations that just "feels" like it should work. Some two decades of research studies have indicated a relationship between classes of fewer than 20 students in the early elementary grades and achievement gains for the children fortunate to be in them.