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In Plain Sight: Simple, Difficult Lessons from New Jersey's Expensive Effort to Close the Achievement Gap
Gordon MacInnes, Century Foundation Press, 1/9/2009
Improving On No Child Left Behind: Getting Education Reform Back on Track
Richard D. Kahlenberg, Century Foundation Press, 10/15/2008
America's Untapped Resource
Richard D. Kahlenberg, Century Foundation Press, 1/14/2004
Public School Choice vs. Private School Vouchers
Richard D. Kahlenberg, Century Foundation Press, 9/24/2003
Can Separate Be Equal? The Overlooked Flaw at the Center of No Child Left Behind
Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation, 4/23/2004
Divided We Fail: Coming Together through Public School Choice
The Century Foundation, Century Foundation Press, 9/18/2002
All Together Now
Richard D. Kahlenberg, Brookings Institution Press, 2/15/2001
A Notion at Risk
Richard D. Kahlenberg, Century Foundation Press, 9/15/2000
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Four Lessons from New York's Test Results
Gordon MacInnes, The Century Foundation, 8/11/2010
On July 28,  New York State chancellor Meryl Tisch and commissioner of education Joseph Steiner released state test results and in doing so exposed that a  majority of states have been lowering proficiency standards as a part of the No Child Left Behind game. Tisch and Steiner’s effort to align New York’s tests to what students need to know in order to be college-ready sets an example for every state as well as for federal education officials. In a new issue brief, Four Lessons from New York’s Test Results, Century Foundation fellow Gordon MacInnes writes that, “The sensible honesty of the New York leadership deserves national attention, particularly from advocates of ‘transformational reform.’” 
Download the Brief.
Gordon MacInnes' Commentary on Education Policy
False Impression:How A Widely Cited Study Vastly Overstates The Benefits Of Charter Schools
Marco Basile, Economic Policy Institute, The Century Foundation, 8/1/2010
One significant change in American education in recent years has been the proliferation of charter schools throughout the country. Although charters are publicly funded, they are allowed to operate independently from traditional public school systems while abiding by rules that vary from state to state. Advocates of charters argue that their independence enables them to innovate and be more flexible in serving their students. Many charter supporters also believe that, by relying on teachers who in most cases are not unionized, better results will arise, in part because it is easier to fire ineffective non-unionized instructors unprotected by tenure and due process dismissal rules. 
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The Feds Move to Protect Students against the For-Profit Educational Industry
Gordon MacInnes, The Century Foundation, 6/24/2010
On June 16th the Obama administration filed a reversal of policy with proposed rules that would ensure protection to students enrolled in for-profit schools. In a new issue brief, Century Foundation fellow Gordon MacInnes explains how for the past thirty years Congress and federal regulators have jiggered the rules to favor aggressive proprietary schools at the expense of poor, vulnerable students. MacInnes discusses how the Department of Education’s new proposal, if passed, will protect the hundreds of thousands of low-income students who seek financial aid to pursue higher education. 
Gordon MacInnes' Commentary on Education Policy
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Rewarding Strivers
Richard D. Kahlenberg, Century Foundation Press, 6/17/2010
Today, higher education is a major force in promoting social mobility, yet colleges and universities seem more concerned with prestige than finding ways to make higher learning more accessible. Rewarding Strivers outlines two high-profile models that colleges and universities can follow in making the American Dream a realistic one for all students.  
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View related article in Inside Education.
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View related article in Diverse Issues in Higher Education.
Keeping the Spotlight on Student Loans
Gordon MacInnes, The Century Foundation, 4/15/2010
With the signing of the budget reconciliation bill on March 30, the federal student loan program basked briefly in its reflected glory. Student loans were the sidekick of health care reform. Reconciliation ends the nonsensical practice of subsidizing banks to originate loans that are almost fully guaranteed by the federal government. By this July, all student loans will be issued directly by the government. The $6 billion in annual savings will be used to increase Pell Grants, assist historically black and community colleges, and ease re-payments by borrowers in public service or other lower-paid jobs. 
Download the PDF.
View more commentary on education policy by Gordon MacInnes.
Why It Matters Who Your Classmates Are: A National Perspective
Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation, 3/22/2010
View Richard Kahlenberg's Powerpoint from a presentation at North Carolina University on March 20, 2010. 
Download the Powerpoint Presentation.
ESEA Reauthorization: The Feds Leverage Their 7.5 Percent
Gordon MacInnes, The Century Foundation, 3/17/2010
The federal government pays 90 percent of the bill for interstate highways, and even secessionist states such as Texas and South Carolina go along with its specifications for lane width, signage, and speed limits. Now, the Obama Administration seeks to greatly extend the reach of federal policy with an ante of just 7.5 percent or so of the annual bill for public education. The vehicle for this audacious play is the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Act (ESEA), formerly known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Download the PDF.  
View more TCF commentary on NCLB.
Gordon MacInnes' Commentary on Education Policy
What Educators Can Learn from ER
Gordon MacInnes, The Century Foundation, 1/29/2010
Educators could learn a thing or two from the craft of medicine, even medicine practiced on television. Doctors on the popular television series ER, for example, are not surprised to learn that mortality rates are higher at County General Hospital than at Pleasant Valley Community Hospital. Doctors at County see a lot more drug abusers, gunshot victims, obese diabetics, alcoholics, and the homeless, not to mention heart attacks, strokes, and concussions. Pleasant Valley might see more lawn mower and hockey injuries, to go along with heart and cancer problems. Its patients arrive in better overall health, have regular check-ups, and better insurance coverage. These factors make a difference—a huge difference—in outcomes between the two hospitals. Download the Issue Brief (PDF).  
Gordon MacInnes' Commentary on Education Policy
Turnaround Schools That Work: Moving Beyond Separate but Equal
Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation, 11/12/2009
Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s far-reaching efforts to transform the country’s lowest performing schools into successful ones, don’t reach far enough according to a new report from The Century Foundation. In “Turnaround Schools That Work: Moving Beyond Separate but Equal,” TCF Senior Fellow Richard Kahlenberg details why ‘turnaround” approaches that focus on changing principals and teachers but fail to address issues related to parents and students, have fallen short of expectations. 
Turnaround Schools that Work (Powerpoint Presentation)
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Eight Reasons Not to Tie Teacher Pay to Standardized Test Results
Gordon MacInnes, The Century Foundation, 10/27/2009
In a new issue brief, Eight Reasons Not to Tie Teacher Pay to Standardized Test Results released by The Century Foundation, Fellow Gordon MacInnes points out why this plan doesn’t make the grade.  According to MacInnes the problems with the plan range from the government’s rationale for the plan, to its ability to implement the rules fairly among states with widely differing educational standards. Download the issue brief here.  
Download the PDF.
View more commentary on education policy by Gordon MacInnes.
Building on Success: Educational Strategies that Work
Greg Anrig, The Century Foundation, 3/5/2009
As President Barack Obama continues to shape his domestic agenda, he has indicated that he plans to identify, support and expand programs that work, while eliminating things that don’t work. In a new policy brief from The Century Foundation, Greg Anrig, vice president for policy, looks at three highly successful state education initiatives that are working for children, their families, and their communities.  
Download the Report.
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View related book: Improving On No Child Left Behind: Getting Education Reform Back on Track
View related book: In Plain Sight: Simple, Difficult Lessons from New Jersey's Expensive Effort to Close the Achievement Gap
Socioeconomic and Racial School Integration
Richard D. Kahlenberg, 1/22/2009
View a PDF of the PowerPoint presentation from Richard D. Kahlenberg's speech on a conference: "Passing the Torch: The Past, Present and Future of Inter-district School Desegregation” Charles Hamilton Houston Institute, Harvard Law School, January 17, 2009  
View the Powerpoint presentation (PDF).
In Plain Sight: Simple, Difficult Lessons from New Jersey's Expensive Effort to Close the Achievement Gap
Gordon MacInnes, Century Foundation Press, 1/9/2009
This is a story about what happens when a state education department partners with city school districts in an attempt to close the achievement gap between poor, minority city students and their counterparts in the predominantly white and more affluent suburban districts. It is a story set in New Jersey, but the lessons apply in any American city that has concentrations of poor children in failing school districts. What sets New Jersey apart is the generous level of court-mandated funding available, and the fact that preschool in the state begins at age three. 
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Left Behind: Unequal Opportunity in Higher Education
Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation, 11/4/2008
The 1965 Higher Education Act and its successors have sought to ensure that no student would be denied a college education because of his or her financial condition. President Lyndon B. Johnson set out the ambitious goal that “a high school student anywhere in this great land of ours can apply to any college or any university in any of the fifty states and not be turned away because his family is poor.” Continue Reading Here (PDF).

Read other reports in the Reality Check series here. Originally Published in 2004, this publication was updated in November 2008. 
Can Separate Be Equal? The Overlooked Flaw at the Center of No Child Left Behind
Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation, 11/4/2008
NCLB's failure to recognize the effects of concentrated poverty in American schools.Read the Reality Check (PDF).
 
Improving On No Child Left Behind: Getting Education Reform Back on Track
Richard D. Kahlenberg, Century Foundation Press, 10/15/2008
In Improving On No Child Left Behind: Getting Education Reform Back on Track, a new book from The Century Foundation edited by Senior Fellow Richard D. Kahlenberg, some of the nation’s most respected authorities on education reform examine three central defects of the act: the under-funding of NCLB; the flawed implementation of the standards, testing, and accountability provisions; and major difficulties with the provisions that are designed to allow students to transfer out of failing public schools. The authors detail what needs to be addressed in each of these areas, and propose ways to fix the problems.  
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View the Introduction by Richard D. Kahlenberg
View the contributors' biographies.
Fixing No Child Left Behind
Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation, 6/12/2008
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was passed in 2001 with broad bipartisan support, but in the years since its enactment it has come under sharp attack from many quarters. The controversial legislation, which requires states receiving federal funding to test students in reading and math in grades 3 through 8 and to hold schools accountable for making adequate yearly progress in raising student achievement, is now widely acknowledged to need a major overhaul when it is reauthorized. Richard D. Kahlenberg explores these issues. Download the PDF here to continue reading.  
Download the PDF here.
View The Agenda Series archive.
View Press Release.
Socioeconomic Affirmative Action
Richard D. Kahlenberg, 4/11/2008
View the Powerpoint presentation from Richard D. Kahlenberg's speech on affirmative action cosponsored by the Ford Foundation and Howard Samuels Center. 
View the Powerpoint presentation (PDF).
Spin Cycle: How Research Is Used in Policy Debates: The Case of Charter Schools
Jeffrey R. Henig, Century Foundation Press, Russell Sage Foundation, 2/11/2008
One important aim of social science research is to provide unbiased information that can help guide public policies. However, social science is often construed as politics by other means. Nowhere is the polarized nature of social science research more visible than in the heated debate over charter schools. In Spin Cycle, noted political scientist and education expert Jeffrey Henig explores how controversies over the charter school movement illustrate the use and misuse of research in policy debates.  
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Using Socioeconomic Diversity to Improve School Outcomes
Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation, 10/11/2007
View the Powerpoint presentation from Richard D. Kahlenberg's speech, "Using Socioeconomic Diversity to Improve School Outcomes." He delivered the presentation at the Rochester State of Fair Housing Conference on October 11, 2007.  
View the Powerpoint presentation (PDF).
Rescuing Brown v. Board of Education: Profiles of Twelve School Districts Pursuing Socioeconomic School Integration
Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation, 6/28/2007
The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to curtail significantly the ability of school districts to integrate by race has shifted attention to a new and growing alternative form of integration based on the socioeconomic status of students. In a report released on June 28, TCF Senior Fellow, Richard D. Kahlenberg examines twelve school systems and finds that when socioeconomic school integration plans are well implemented, they can boost academic achievement and also provide students with a racially integrated schooling environment. Download the PDF document here. 
View the Press Release Here (PDF).
Could Transparency Bring Economic Diversity?
Richard D. Kahlenberg, New England Board of Education-Connection, 4/1/2007
The Spellings Commission report calls for greater access to higher education for low—and moderate income students, greater transparency in the way higher education works and greater accountability for producing results. These recommendations are all significant in their own right, but the three concepts also converge to provide powerful support for an important new idea: requiring greater transparency and accountability of colleges for whether or not they are honoring a commitment to the American Dream—the ideal that someone from even the most humble background can, through hard work and talent, get a good education and do well in American society. Continue reading PDF document.  
A New Way on School Integration
Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation, 11/27/2006
This term, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering challenges in two school districts to the constitutionality of voluntary racial school integration plans in elementary and secondary education. In the latest issue brief from the Century Foundation, Richard D. Kahlenberg discusses the possible effects of the court's decision. 
Download the PDF file here.
View a transcript of the Issue Brief release event here (PDF).
The American Middle Class in International Perspective
Bernard Wasow, The Century Foundation, 10/23/2006
In this issue brief, The Century Foundation's Bernard Wasow takes a close look at why most Americans want to be categorized as middle class. He notes that the poor are perceived as losers, the rich as snobs—the middle is where America’s hard-working families want to see themselves. 
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Promoting School Readiness Through Universal Preschool
Kristen J. Oshyn, Laura Newland, The Century Foundation, 10/18/2006
The federal government should provide financial incentives for states to add high-quality universal preschool programs to their public school systems in order to promote higher student achievement among students of all socioeconomic classes and provide long-term benefits to society.
Download in PDF Format
Helping Children Move from Bad Schools to Good Ones
Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation, 6/15/2006
A guide for specific changes to the No Child Left Behind Act that would provide the opportunity for more children to attend economically integrated middle-class public schools. 
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One Pasadena: Tapping the Community's Resources to Strengthen the Public Schools
Richard D. Kahlenberg, Pasadena Educational Foundation, 5/24/2006
The research suggests that low-income students can learn at high levels if given the right environment. But in Pasadena-area schools – and in much of the country – low-income and minority students are not reaching their full potential because they are educated in separate schools, outside the mainstream. 
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Race, Class and Education
Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation, 5/5/2006
A presentation on socioeconomic integration prepared for the Center for Children and Childhood Studies of Rutgers University. 
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Economic Diversity on Campus
Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation, 4/14/2005
Powerpoint presentation from National College Action Network conference. 
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All-Day, All-Year Schools (Rev. 2004)
Ruy Teixeira, The Century Foundation, 4/27/2004
To alleviate public school overcrowding, provide more effective instruction, raise the performance level of students, and reduce pressure on working parents, the federal government should support a move to keep public schools open all day and throughout the year. A Century Foundation Idea Brief. 
Download in PDF format
Can Separate Be Equal? The Overlooked Flaw at the Center of No Child Left Behind
Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation, 4/23/2004
NCLB's failure to recognize the effects of concentrated poverty in American schools. 
Download in PDF format
Left Behind: Unequal Opportunity in Higher Education
Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation, 3/19/2004
America has failed to make good on the promise of equal opportunity in higher education, even though the benefits of having a college education are greater than ever. 
Download in PDF format
America's Untapped Resource
Richard D. Kahlenberg, Century Foundation Press, 1/14/2004
A group of notable experts examine the substantial economic divide in higher education and discuss the ramifications of that divide. 
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Table of Contents (pdf)
Public School Choice vs. Private School Vouchers
Richard D. Kahlenberg, Century Foundation Press, 9/24/2003
This collection of The Century Foundation's extensive work on the issue of school vouchers seeks to go beyond the arguments that the marketplace delivers better results for anything, including education, than the public sector. 
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Table of Contents (pdf)
Economic Affirmative Action in College Admissions
Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation, 4/2/2003
Three alternatives for affirmative action programs in higher education: race-based preferences, admission based on high-school class rank, and preferences for economically disadvantaged applicants regardless of race. 
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Pell Grant Recipients in Selective Colleges and Universities
Donald E. Heller, The Century Foundation, 3/31/2003
Pell Grant eligibility is a better indicator of status as a lower-income student than the often-used marker of students who are designated as “eligible for financial aid.” Data gleaned from reports on Pell Grants can indicate roughly the socioeconomic make-up of college classes. 
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Socioeconomic Status, Race/Ethnicity, and Selective College Admissions
Stephen J. Rose, Anthony P. Carnevale, The Century Foundation, 3/31/2003
Seeks to expand the traditional debate over race and ethnicity in admissions to selective colleges by analyzing the issue of whether low-income students, too, should benefit from affirmative action policies. 
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Time to Care: Redesigning Childcare to Promote Education, Support Families, and Build Communities
Joan Lombardi, Temple University Press, 11/1/2002
Joan Lombardi, one of America's foremost experts on child care, shows how our current system is not meeting the needs of America's families. 
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Table of Contents
Side-by-Side Comparisons of Leading (ESEA) Reauthorization Proposals
The Century Foundation, The Century Foundation, 10/7/2002
Comparison of leading Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization proposals submitted in 2002 from President George W. Bush, Sen. Joe Lieberman, and Rep. George Miller. 
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A Response to Chester Finn
Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation, 9/27/2002
Response to a critique of Divided We Fail: Coming Together through Public School Choice. 
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Wake County Schools: A Question of Balance
Todd Silberman, Century Foundation Press, 9/19/2002
Examining the choices confronting schools in Raleigh, North Carolina as they try to strike a balance between public opinion and their own policies for educational equity. 
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Economic School Integration
Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation, 9/18/2002
An update on the research and policy developments that occurred in the two and a half years following the publication of Economic School Integration. Significant growth in the number of students attending economically integrated schools, plus additional positive research on the topic, make the case for economic schools integration even stronger. 
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Divided We Fail: Coming Together through Public School Choice
The Century Foundation, Century Foundation Press, 9/18/2002
Schools are becoming increasingly segregated by economic status and, often simultaneously, by race. The authors recommend reintegration through public school choice, based on lessons learned from programs in Wisconsin, Missouri, North Carolina, and Massachusetts. 
Table of Contents (pdf)
Controlled Choice in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Edward B. Fiske, Century Foundation Press, 9/18/2002
Examining controlled school choice in Cambridge, with a focus on the city’s 2001 decision to use socioeconomic status, rather than race, as the primary factor for promoting diversity in schools. 
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La Crosse: One School District's Drive to Create Socioeconomic Balance
Richard Mial, Century Foundation Press, 9/18/2002
In the early 1990s, when the district recognized it would need to bus more students in order to fill two newly constructed schools, district administrators saw a new transportation plan as an opportunity to better balance the student population by socioeconomic status and improve student learning.  
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St. Louis: Desegregation and School Choice in the Land of Dred Scott
William H. Freivogel, Century Foundation Press, 9/18/2002
St. Louis’s voluntary school desegregation program survives as an example of the new era of twenty-first-century school choice and integration. 
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The Problem of Taking Private School Voucher Programs to Scale
Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation, 6/27/2002
Even if it is true, as voucher proponents claim, that small voucher programs for low-income children increase the achievement of African American students, the best evidence suggests that if those programs were expanded to include much larger numbers of low-income students, the benefits would quickly fade away.  
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Hard Work for Good Schools
Gary Orfield, Elizabeth H.  DeBray, The Century Foundation, 1/1/2002
Leading education authorities look at the 1994 Title I reforms and how they have been implemented, examine recent research, and explore the future of the program.  
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Raising Standards or Raising Barriers?
Gary Orfield, Mindy L. Kornhaber, Century Foundation Press, 4/15/2001
More and more states require students to pass large-scale tests as a condition of promotion or graduation. But the benefits of such tests are assumed, and the costs are often ignored. 
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Table of Contents (PDF)
All Together Now
Richard D. Kahlenberg, Brookings Institution Press, 2/15/2001
Combining the classic educational concept of a “common school” for those from all social, economic, and cultural backgrounds with the current enthusiasm for choice in public schools, Richard Kahlenberg argues for the economic integration of schools to create more middle-class learning environments. 
Table of Contents (PDF)
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Charter Schools and Racial and Social Class Segregation
Camille Wilson Cooper, Alejandra Lopez, Jennifer Jellison Holme, Amy Stuart Wells, Century Foundation Press, 9/15/2000
Even as society becomes more racially and ethnically diverse, our public schools are becoming more racially and ethnically homogeneous. Charter schools can either improve or reinforce this situation, depending on how stringently diversity regulations are enforced. 
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A Notion at Risk
Richard D. Kahlenberg, Century Foundation Press, 9/15/2000
Focusing on the needs and shortcomings of urban public schools, especially those in poor neighborhoods, this volume’s contributing authors explore various facets of inequality in schooling and ask how different educational policies can reform our weakest schools. 
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Table of Contents (PDF)
Expanding the Supply of Quality Teachers
Ruy Teixeira, Thad Hall, Catherine Bloniarz, The Century Foundation, 8/9/2000
In order to address the current shortage of qualified teachers, the federal government should promote an initiative for attracting them with higher salaries and cultivating them with higher qualification and performance standards. A Century Foundation Idea Brief. 
Download in PDF format
Class Based Affirmative Action in College Admissions
Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation, 5/24/2000
To ensure greater fairness in the college admissions process and to maintain diversity at selective universities, affirmative action programs should be “mended” rather than “ended” so that preferences are provided on the basis of economic disadvantage. A Century Foundation Idea Brief. 
Download in PDF format
Universal Preschool
Eric Rhodes, The Century Foundation, 3/28/2000
Although public education has historically been viewed as an equalizing institution, educational inequality usually begins before children enter school. A federally supported universal preschool program would ensure that quality preschool education is available to every child in America.  
Download in PDF format
Economic School Integration
Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation, 2/4/2000
A system of public school choice and a commitment by school officials to ensure that, in all public schools, a majority of students comes from middle-class households could promote genuinely equal educational opportunity for America’s students. A Century Foundation Idea Brief. 
Read the Issue Brief
Kids Who Pick the Wrong Parents and Other Victims of Voucher Schemes
Gordon MacInnes, The Century Foundation, 9/1/1999
Investigating the debate over voucher programs. 
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The Way We Were?
Richard Rothstein, Century Foundation Press, 9/1/1998
American public education is better than we think. 
Table of Contents (pdf)
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Table of Contents (pdf)
Hard Lessons
Carol Ascher, Robert Berne, Norm Fruchter, Century Foundation Press, 12/15/1996
This report argues that the strong rhetoric asserting that the privatization of the nation’s public schools, using tax dollars, can lead to a no-cost improvement in urban schools is based on wishful thinking. 
Facing the Challenge: Report of the Task Force on School Governance
Century Foundation Press, 4/15/1992
Believing that other educational reform efforts will have only limited impact until the role of governance is addressed and the question of how basic decisions are made is answered, the Task Force report calls for fundamental changes in the structure and operation of the institutions of local educational governance.  
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