Reports by issue topic
Education
Education at all levels has been a deep interest of The Public Policy Forum for more than eight decades. We publish an annual study on public schooling in Southeastern Wisconsin, which analyzes the enrollment, staffing, finances and outcomes of the 94 school districts in the seven-county area. In addition, the Forum is currently undertaking several grant-funded studies of education reform in Milwaukee with a focus on their national implications
| New regulations impacting school choice program: School closures up, number of new schools down |
February 19, 2010 |
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| research brief |
| Between the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years, fewer new schools joined the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) than ever before. In addition, 13 MPCP schools closed and another three schools merged - the most year-over-year closures the program has seen. In this 12th edition of the Public Policy Forum's annual census of MPCP schools, we find 112 schools are participating in the choice program, enrolling 21,062 students using taxpayer-funded tuition vouchers. The number of full-time equivalent students using vouchers is greater than in any other year of the program's 19-year history; however, there are fewer schools participating today than earlier this decade. |
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| Milwaukee Voucher Schools - 2010 |
February, 2010 |
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| full report |
| 2010 directory of schools participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. |
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| The Price of Quality |
December, 2009 |
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| full report |
| early childhood education are seen by community leaders as a strategy for improving outcomes in areas such as K-12 education, workforce development, and economic development. Indeed, many research studies conclude that high quality early learning environments produce social, educational, and economic benefits for children and the communities in which they live. As a result, many state and local governments around the country are seeking to capture these benefits by investing in quality improvement efforts. Wisconsin is no different; the 2009-2010 state biennial budget calls for the Department of Children and Families to create a strategy for improving the quality of publicly-subsidized child care.
While policymakers increasingly are looking to maximize the benefits of high-quality early childhood education, budget realities often dictate that they do so while minimizing the expenditure of public funds. Thus, this report seeks to inform these decisions in Wisconsin by estimating the costs of achieving improved quality in child care and early learning programs in southeast Wisconsin and analyzing policy options associated with quality improvement initiatives.
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| 12th annual comparative analysis of the Racine Unified School District |
October, 2009 |
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| full report |
| This is the 12th annual report on conditions affecting the Racine Unified School District (RUSD). This year, our analysis again focuses on the long-term historical trends in RUSD. The analysis compares RUSD data to data of nine peer school districts as well as statewide data. The peer districts are defined as those Wisconsin districts with enrollments most similar to the enrollment in Racine. In addition to enrollment trends, the findings pertain to three RUSD quality objective measures: operational efficiency, student engagement, and student achievement. Operational efficiency includes finance data, student engagement includes attendance and disciplinary data, while student achievement includes test scores and graduation rates.
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| Public Schooling in Southeastern Wisconsin |
September, 2009 |
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| full report |
| For the 23rd consecutive year, the Public Policy Forum has compiled and analyzed data from Southeastern Wisconsin's school districts in order to better inform policymakers and the public about progress-or lack thereof-on commonly utilized measures of academic achievement. This year's analysis of the 2008-09 academic year indicates cause for encouragement in some areas, but also cause for significant concern.
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| 2008-2009 Southeastern Wisconsin School District Performance (pull-out poster) |
September, 2009 |
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| full report |
| Pull-out poster providing Southeastern Wisconsin school performance in an easily readable format. Performance of the K-12 school districts includes enrollment, district finances, student participation and student performance measures. |
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| MPS teachers link preschool to better performance in Kindergarten |
July 24, 2009 |
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| research brief |
| A survey of Milwaukee Kindergarten teachers finds nearly all (97%) report they can generally tell early in the school year which children attended preschool and which did not. Teachers also feel that those who attended preschool typically perform much better in Kindergarten and at least somewhat better after that.
The survey of 77 teachers of five-year-old Kindergarten (K5) in the Milwaukee public school district (MPS) also finds that most teachers (93%) feel children with preschool or four-year-old Kindergarten (K4) backgrounds are somewhat to much better prepared to enter K5 than their peers. In addition, the majority (83%) feel spending time in preschool or K4 is very important prior to entering K5. These findings hold true for teachers in schools with higher-than-average enrollments of low-income children, as well as teachers in schools with fewer low-income children.
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| Preparing the Future Workforce: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Policy in K12 Education in Wisconsin |
June, 2009 |
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| full report |
| Last December, the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education Coalition - a national organization of more than 600 groups representing knowledge workers, educators, scientists, engineers, and technicians – wrote to President-elect Obama urging him to "not lose sight of the critical role that STEM education plays in enabling the United States to remain the economic and technological leader of the 21st century global marketplace."
While that imperative appears to have resonated in Washington, has it and should it resonate in Madison? This report attempts to answer that question by examining the extent to which STEM skills are a necessity for tomorrow's Wisconsin workforce, whether our schools are preparing students to be STEM-savvy workers, and where STEM falls in the state's list of educational priorities. |
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| The Economic Impact of the Child Care Industry in Southeast Wisconsin |
May, 2009 |
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| full report |
| In the latest report from its three-year research project on early childhood care and education, the Public Policy Forum conducts a comprehensive analysis of the economic impact of southeast Wisconsin's child care industry. The aim is twofold: to provide policymakers and economic development officials with a sense of the economic magnitude of this industry, and what its condition means to the economic well-being of the region; and to lay the groundwork for a follow-up report - to be released later this year - that will enumerate the costs and benefits of a potential high quality early childhood care and education system in southeastern Wisconsin. Taken together, these reports will provide insight for policymakers as to the scope of investments that would be required to achieve a high quality system, and the returns that might be generated should those investments materialize.
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| School District Governance Reform: The devil is in the details |
February, 2009 |
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| full report |
| To what extent has governance reform in large, urban public school districts resulted in better student performance, greater accountability, and more educational innovation? When a school district is governed by a mayor, do the district's fortunes improve?
The answers to these questions, unfortunately, are not clear cut. Large urban districts that have experienced governance reform have often seen several iterations of reform over the course of several years and mixed results. Still, despite the complexity of their reform efforts over the past decade, comparable school districts have much to teach policymakers and educators in Milwaukee.
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