by Eric Hanushekvia Room for Debate (New York Times)
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Despite decades of study and enormous effort, we know little about how to train or select high quality teachers. We do know, however, that there are huge differences in the effectiveness of classroom teachers and that these differences can be observed.
The cyberattack late last year against Sony, attributed by the US government to North Korea, has highlighted the issue of international norms — especially those related to impermissible actions in cyberspace and permissible actions in response to them. For the United States to effectively advance norms it must balance secrecy and transparency as well as build and sustain credibility.
Though polls employ different scientific methodologies, as a whole they are more often right than wrong. Everyone assumes that sampling public opinion remains an art, and is not immune from the biases of the pollster.
There may be some poetic justice in the recent revelation that Hillary Clinton, who has made big noises about a "pay gap" between women and men, paid the women on her Senate staff just 72 percent of what she paid the men. The Obama White House staff likewise has a pay gap between women and men, as of course does the economy as a whole.
Just a few days ago, a not-so-veiled swipe at the politics of “triangulation” fueled speculation that former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley was gearing up for a challenge to Hillary Clinton.
by Kori Schakevia Debate Club (U.S. News & World Report)
Monday, March 2, 2015
President Barack Obama does deserve credit for increasing economic sanctions and espionage against the Iranian nuclear programs. Keeping the Russians, Chinese and Europeans supporting economic and diplomatic isolation of Iran is a major achievement, and probably had more to do with Iran agreeing to negotiate than did the election of a reformist president in Iran.
by Charles Blahousvia e21, Economic Policies for the 21st Century
Monday, March 2, 2015
With their selection of Keith Hall to direct the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the incoming chairs of the House and Senate Budget Committees, Dr. Tom Price and Senator Mike Enzi, have passed an unusually rigorous test. Their choice should be expected to not only well serve lawmakers, but also reflect well upon Congress, in the years ahead.
Lack of means is no part of the reason why U.S. policy is failing to restrain Russia. Rather, that reason lies in the U.S. government’s simultaneous pursuit of self-contradictory objectives, what Henry Kissinger extolled as “creative ambiguity.” This has opened a fateful gap between words and deeds. Clear, univocal policy that unites words and deeds, ends and means, has ever been the prerequisite of seriousness.
Serfdom was one of key institutions in Russian history. This column argues that relatively late abolition of serfdom was an important factor of divergence in economic development between Russia and Western Europe.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul discusses Secretary John Kerry’s meeting with his Russian counterpart amid continuing tensions over Ukraine. McFaul also talks about the aftermath of the death of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.
In a week when Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen got grilled pretty hard on Capitol Hill, and Fed Vice Chair Stanley Fischer, said the central bank was likely to start raising interest rates this year, there were a couple items that stood out as important with respect to future policy decisions.
In his memoirs of the Russian revolutions of 1917, their Boswell, the ubiquitous left-winger Nikolai Sukhanov, observed Joseph Stalin as "a grey blur, emitting a dim light every now and then and not leaving any trace.
Education battles on social media have a tendency to appear overblown, with furors over scandals and celebrity comments that explode and just as quickly flare out.
