Standardized tests are harming our schools
The Michigan Department of Education recently came out with a new set of proposed accountability guidelines for Michigan schools, detailing how Michigan schools’ A through F school report cards will be formulated. The major takeaway is that the evaluation system continues to rely, to an overwhelming degree, on standardized test scores. What this means in […]
Michigan colleges and economic mobility, part 2
In my last post I analyzed an important data set recently released by economist Raj Chetty and colleagues, that measures every college’s contribution to economic mobility in America. I looked at the percentage of the poorest students in each cohort at Michigan colleges who, by their early thirties, were in the top 40% of earners. […]
Are Michigan colleges serving as engines of economic mobility?
I’m generally not a fan of measuring a college’s value by the incomes of their graduates. If a high proportion of a school’s alumni enter a lower-paid field like social work, I don’t think this should count against the college. In addition, simply looking at salary data ignores the significant non-pecuniary benefits of getting a […]
When technology advanced, Michigan shifted from farms to factories. We must adapt again.
Amidst the flood of articles predicting how technology like automation and artificial intelligence will change our economy in the future, it’s helpful to have a solid understanding of how the economy works today. How have the technological advancements, increased productivity, and increases in wealth we’ve witnessed over the past half century altered the structure of […]
How to think about “Grit”
For the past several years, non-cognitive skills have been a dominant theme in education. While the concept has been around for some time, the current focus can be traced back to the book How Children Succeed, by Paul Tough. That book popularized the notion that a student’s long-term success was determined by a whole range […]
Chessboards and rice: A lesson for exponential growth
In the book The Second Machine Age, MIT professors Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson document the way in which technology and automation are changing our economy. And one particularly effective way they do it is through a story about a chessboard, rice, and Gordon Moore. Gordon Moore is the cofounder of Intel and in the […]
Lessons learned from the PISA
Another round of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) exam results was recently released, allowing researchers to compare education systems around the world. The PISA matters because unlike the majority of standardized tests, it asks students to think critically, to make arguments, to problem-solve, to identify patterns. In the words of Amanda Ripley, author […]
The easy part of education reform
At Michigan Future we spend a lot of time talking about how we can prepare Michigan students – all Michigan students – for the 21st century economy. This is an economy in which the returns to “highly-skilled” workers – who can communicate well, think critically, and have deep content knowledge and technical skills – continue […]
The real skills gap
Odds are, you’ve heard by now that there’s a serious skills gap in this country. And there certainly is one – though it’s just not the one you’re thinking of. There’s a been a lot of talk in Michigan about the shortage of Michiganders prepared for skilled trade jobs. The rationale is that there are […]
More on why school funding matters
In my last post, I argued that we should be spending more on our k-12 schools. And I argued we should do that in order to provide for all students what parents of means make sure are provided for their children: well-paid teachers, small class sizes, broad and engaging curriculum. But I also mentioned that […]