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.

March 8, 2010
Hoover Press: Advancing Student Achievement, by Herbert Walberg
How do students learn? How can family, classrooms, and school practices help them learn more?

February 9, 2010
Hoover fellow says teaching quality needs a major overhaul
Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a member of the Koret Task Force on K–12 Education. In a talk titled “Will U.S. Schools Bring America Down?” Hanushek discussed how American schools are not performing as well as schools in other countries and suggested ways for the United States to improve education and close the achievement gap.

January 25, 2010
The high cost of low educational performance
Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a member of the Koret Task Force on K–12 Education; Ludger Woessman is from the University of Munich. Hanushek and Woessman discuss a recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that links modest and achievable gains in student learning with large increases in gross domestic product (GDP) over the long run. Video transcript (5:38)

January 13, 2010
Hoover fellow John Chubb’s book is reviewed
John Chubb is a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, a member of Hoover’s Koret Task Force on K–12 Education, and author of several books. Education Review describes Chubb’s latest book Learning from No Child Left Behind, as a thought-provoking book that advocates for reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

January 13, 2010
Studies find no effects
In this podcast, Paul Peterson and Checker Finn, Hoover senior fellows and members of Hoover’s Koret Task Force on K–12 Education, discuss whether randomized field trials in education should be abandoned because they rarely find that the ensuing remedies have had any effects. (7:02)

January 12, 2010
Learning as We Go: Why School Choice Is Worth the Wait, by Paul T. Hill
Issues behind the hotly debated topic of school choice are scrutinized by Hoover fellow Paul T. Hill in Learning as We Go: Why School Choice Is Worth the Wait (Hoover Press, 2010).

November 24, 2009
The effect of the stimulus package on education
Paul Peterson and Checker Finn, Hoover senior fellows and members of Hoover’s Koret Task Force on K–12 Education, discuss how the education sector has proven to be good at creating and saving jobs but not good at improving education. Test scores have not improved; nor has education. The Obama administration needs to find more effective, efficient, and productive ways not just to save jobs but to improve education. podcast (5:03).

Featured op-eds

Smaller Schools, Better Performance
New York Times, March 11, 2010 (Registration Required)
by Herbert J. Walberg (Distinguished Visiting Fellow
member of the K–12 Education Task Force )

A huge amount of research, including my own, in more than 25 states shows that other things being equal, smaller schools produce higher academic achievement than larger schools. . . .

A Turning Point on Education Reform
AOL News, March 11, 2010
by Chester E. Finn Jr. (Senior Fellow
Chair, K–12 Education Task Force)

If the nation's education system finally makes a meaningful turn for the better, March 10 may very well mark the turning point. . . .