By Thomas J. Kane. Since 2009, more than 40 states have rewritten their teacher evaluation policies. Given that school systems have neglected to manage classroom instruction for decades, it was inevitable that many schools would struggle to implement them. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo re-ignited the controversy by including a second round of teacher evaluation reforms in his budget this year.  Below, I describe the most promising opportunities in the new law.  Hopefully, New York will provide a blueprint for other states as they tweak their own systems in the coming years. More...

By Jenny Perlman Robinson. Educate! addresses a challenge that is far too common in many countries around the world—a mismatch between what is taught in school and what skills are demanded by the labor market. Perhaps no country faces this challenge more acutely than Uganda, which has the world’s youngest population coupled with a youth unemployment rate as high as 62 percent. The vast majority of jobs available are in the informal sector. More...

By Melissa S. Kearney, Brad Hershbein and Elisa Jácome. There has been tremendous focus in recent years on the plight of the typical American worker. With discussion among policymakers and the media around the impacts of globalization, technology, and other forces of change on the labor market, there are endless anecdotes describing the changing nature of work in the United States. This is a topic area in which the Hamilton Project has taken an active interest. In previous papers, the Project has considered the future of work, declining earnings for the median male worker, and the disparate earnings of those with different levels or types of education. More...

By Liesbet Steer. The UNESCO Global Monitoring Report (GMR) launched its annual report card this week on the sidelines of the World Bank and IMF spring meetings. The report presents a comprehensive, 500-page overview of education progress over the past 15 years. More...

By Michael B. Henderson and Martin R. West. Over the past year, the Common Core State Standards have risen from a topic of interest mainly to educators and school reformers to a top-tier issue in national politics. With likely Republican presidential candidates already staking out divergent positions, the standards and the federal government’s role in promoting them show strong signs of emerging as a key point of contention in the Republican primaries. How might this growing salience shape public opinion on the standards? A comparison of polls we’ve conducted nationally and in the state of Louisiana is instructive—and discouraging. More...

By Harry J. Holzer. With students at Corinthian University last week making national news for going on strike and refusing to pay their college loans, it’s an opportune time to re-examine the relationship between the costs of higher education, what students get in return and whether these institutions have any accountability to their charges and the taxpayers who often end up footing the bill.
These students are hardly alone: there are 40 million Americans with loans and their debt burden is over $1.3 trillion. More...

By Harry J. Holzer. Why is this the case? Some economists argue that labor market forces like technology and globalization shift demand away from middle-wage jobs (or even some higher-paying ones). Worker skills often remain too low for remaining middle- and high-wage jobs in health care, advanced manufacturing or various services, that often require more technical or communication skills and perhaps certain postsecondary credentials. In fact, many employers stress their inability to fill the middle-wage jobs they have, even at higher wages. More...