The 2009 Brown Center Report on American Education

Front Cover

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Title Page

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Table of Contents

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pp. 2-

What Do The 2009 NAEP Scores Tell Us?

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pp. 7-18

THE LATEST SCORES FROM THE NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF Educational Progress (NAEP) were released in October 2009. Commonly called "the nation's report card,"� the NAEP assesses the reading and math achievement of fourth and eighth graders every two years on the main NAEP tests. Occasionally twelfth graders are tested. Other subjects are assessed less frequently and by no set schedule. The main NAEP is one of four assessments regularly administered to a randomly ...

Do Schools Ever Change? An Empirical Investigation

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pp. 19-25

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HAS MADE FIXING PERSISTENTLY failing schools a primary focus of its education policy. "Turn-arounds" are a hot topic. States applying for Race to the Top grants in 2010 will receive more favorable treatment if plans for turning around failing schools are included in the application. Much of the rhetoric on turnarounds is pie in the sky—more wishful thinking than a realistic assessment of what school reform can actually accomplish...

What Do We Know About Conversion Charter Schools?

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pp. 26-31

MOST CHARTER SCHOOLS ARE START-UPS, CREATED ORIGINALLYas charter schools. Conversion charter schools, in contrast, were once conventional public schools and then converted to charter status. Conversions make up only about 10 percent of charter schools nationally.¹⁸ Despite their small numbers, conversions attract a lot of interest from school reformers as a tool for turning around failing schools. The idea is this: after several years of failing to improve...

Notes

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pp. 32-33

Back Cover

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