May 30, 2019

Media: “High-quality education behind bars can reduce recidivism” in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser

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I have an opinion piece out today in the print and online editions of Hawaii’s paper, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser (note that the online version is behind a paywall). Hawaii senator Brian Schatz is the author of a bill that would expand Pell Grant access for people in prison. I argue that more access is essential, but that more without better isn’t enough:

The research is clear that education during incarceration reduces recidivism and improves outcomes. These programs save money and make everyone safer. Having more and better programs should be a no-brainer. But since there are so many types of programs, and the people who participate in these programs didn’t get to choose their college, it’s essential that we also think about quality and equity: Is everyone getting access to a high-quality program that meets their needs?

Read the full op-ed here. And check out some of our other work on education opportunity and quality behind bars.


May 29, 2019

Media: “To reform education, Kentucky must focus on rural, impoverished schools” in the Louisville Courier Journal

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We have an op-ed in today’s print and online editions of the Louisville Courier Journal about overlooked rural communities in Kentucky:

One-third of Kentucky’s student population, or almost 200,000 students, live in rural areas. In fact, half of Kentucky’s counties are rural, but you wouldn’t know this from the conversations about education in the media, among funders or between state policymakers.

Despite the concentration of rural students in Kentucky, education reform efforts continue to focus almost exclusively on two of the largest school districts in the state: Jefferson and Fayette counties. On top of that, the state’s existing reforms strategies don’t always reach rural communities or address their primary concerns.

Read our full op-ed here, and check out Bellwether’s new resource, “Education in the American South,” for more context.


May 28, 2019

65 Years Too Late: Education in the American South After Brown v. Board

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65 years after the landmark Supreme Court ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, over 300 school districts remain under court desegregation orders, 88 percent of which are in the South. Alabama’s constitution still contains racist language about education, and around the U.S., schools and district attendance zones mirror the housing segregation in our communities. Brown v. Board’s anniversary earlier this month reminds us that the legacy of discriminatory in education, housing, and other social policies continues to challenge access and opportunity for a significant proportion of our students.

A new Bellwether analysis released last week illuminates challenges the American South continues to face and points to opportunities to better serve its students. In our slide deck, we examine education in the American South through regional and education trends and historical context. To highlight Southern states’ role in national education reform, we also describe key initiatives and policies that began in the South and expanded to the rest of the country. (Our definition of the South includes 15 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.)

The South is home to many promising solutions to help better serve minority and low-income students. For example, in charter schools in Texas, Florida, and New Orleans, African American and Hispanic students have demonstrated better performance in comparison to district-managed schools. In higher education, 90 of the remaining 102 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are located in the South. HBCUs produce 24 percent of black STEM graduates and confer almost 35 percent of all bachelor’s degrees earned by black graduates in astronomy, biology, chemistry, math, and physics. Local investments have contributed to this progress, but national funding and philanthropy don’t always keep up with highest need areas in the South.

With 56 percent of all black students in the U.S. living in the South, as well as substantial portions of the nation’s English language learner and migrant student populations, funders, policymakers, and school leaders must acknowledge the persistence of segregation in the South and the failure to sufficiently support our students. We can’t wait another 65 years.

Read our comprehensive slide deck, “Education in the American South,” here and follow the conversation on Twitter at #EduSouth.


May 23, 2019

Media: “Education donors ought to give attention, money to rural Georgia” in Atlanta Journal Constitution

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Yesterday, my colleagues and I published Education in the American South: Historical Context, Current State, and Future Possibilities. Our hope is that this report sparks a conversation about the need for greater attention to and investment in education in the South, particularly outside of major cities.

In an op-ed published yesterday in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, I look at Georgia’s student enrollment and test score data to argue that funders need to focus on the communities outside of metro Atlanta if they want to improve education for a lot of high-need kids:

Of the 1.8 million students enrolled in Georgia public school districts, just 52,400 of them – less than 3 percent – are enrolled in Atlanta Public Schools. Even throwing in the school systems surrounding APS – Clayton, Cobb, Douglas, DeKalb, and Fulton Counties – accounts for just 439,306 students, or 25% of all students statewide. 

That means that three out of every four public K-12 students in Georgia goes to school outside of metro Atlanta.

And yet policymakers and philanthropists involved in education continue to disproportionately focus on Atlanta. Philanthropic funders spend $453 per person in metro Atlanta, compared to $329 per person in other parts of the state. Students and schools throughout Georgia’s mid-sized cities, small towns, and rural communities aren’t getting the attention they need and deserve. 

For more detail about how this dynamic plays out across the South, take a look at our report here. And you can read my full piece in the Atlanta Journal Constitution here.


May 21, 2019

The Perry Preschoolers are All Grown Up and Their Experiences Continue to Guide the Field

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If you’ve ever sat through a presentation on education research or early childhood education, you’ve likely heard of the Perry Preschool project. This seminal research study examined 123 preschool children in Ypsilanti, Michigan who were at risk for school failure. The kids were randomly divided into two groups: One group attended a high-quality preschool program and the comparison group received no preschool education. The participants were tracked throughout their lifetimes.

The widely studied long-term positive results of attending the preschool included higher rates of graduating high school, higher employment rates, higher earnings, and fewer teen pregnancies and criminal behavior. As one of the only randomized control trials in early childhood education, the Perry Project remains widely cited.

Even though fifty years have passed since the Perry Preschool program actively served children, the results still offer lessons for the early childhood education field.

Current discussions of early childhood interventions often focus on whether pre-K programs raise children’s readiness for kindergarten or their elementary school test scores. But new research from Nobel prize winning economist James Heckman and co-author Ganesh Karapakula — the first analysis of Perry Preschool participants through mid-life — illustrates the short-sightedness of this approach. Their report demonstrates that high-quality early childhood interventions can have a dramatic impact not only on program participants’ life outcomes but also the life outcomes of their future offspring. Some of their findings: Continue reading →