HOOVER INSTITUTION'S
Koret Task Force on K–12 Education

The K–12 Education Task Force focuses on education policy as it relates to government provision and oversight versus private solutions (both within and outside the public school system) that stress choice, accountability, and transparency; that include systematic reform options such as vouchers, charter schools, and testing; and that weigh equity concerns against outcome objectives. Its collaborative efforts spawned a quarterly journal titled Education Next, one of the premier publications on public education research policy in the nation.

Chester E. Finn, Jr. serves as chair of the Task Force on K–12 education.

September 24, 2009
Peterson and Finn discuss No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
Hoover senior fellows Paul Peterson and Checker Finn discuss their concerns that NCLB is being not being given priority by Congress. Although both agree that NCLB is flawed, they say that none of its problems are being addressed by Congress because it is hard to agree on what needs to change and because Congress has many other pressing issues. podcast. (7:27)

September 18, 2009
The media colloquium “Getting Beneath Current Educational Policy Debates”
Policy debates within the field of education were the focus of a media colloquium held September 18 as part of a meeting by the Hoover Institution’s Koret Task Force on K–12 Education.

September 17, 2009
Koret Task Force on K–12 Education dinner
Hoover’s Koret Task Force on K–12 Education is embarking on a project that looks at the future of American education. At a dinner, which was part of the task force’s semiannual meeting, task force members gave us a glimpse at what their expectations are and what might be done to address problems on the horizon. Topics include technology, family structure, school organization, district organization, political implications, standards, performance, teachers, finance, privatization, and school choice. The final report will be published in 2010.

September 17, 2009
Peterson and Finn discuss collective bargaining and current education topics
Hoover senior fellows Paul Peterson and Checker Finn discuss charter schools, merit pay, unions, collective bargaining, and linking student achievement with teacher records in this podcast. (5:29)

May 2009
Hanushek, Hoxby, ‘Leading Matters,’ May 2009
Eric Hanushek, the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow and member of the Koret Task Force on K–12 Education, and Caroline M. Hoxby, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and member of the Koret Task Force on K–12 Education, discuss the effects of economic growth and economic outcomes on education.

Featured op-eds

Building on No Child Left Behind
Science, November 6, 2009 (Subscription Required)
by Eric Hanushek (Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow in Education
member of the K–12 Education Task Force)

A dominant strand of U.S. educational policy for the past two decades has been incorporation of information about student achievement into management and regulation of schools. . . .

The Changing Selectivity of American Colleges
National Bureau of Economic Research, October 27, 2009 (Subscription Required)
by Caroline M. Hoxby (Senior Fellow
member of the K–12 Education Task Force)

This paper shows that although the top ten percent of colleges are substantially more selective now than they were 5 decades ago, most colleges are not more selective...