Most Recent Analysis and Perspectives

Undergraduate Education

Carrots, Sticks and Transfer

In Outside the Circle, Kevin Carey argues the college credit transfer "system" is chaotic, inefficient, and difficult on students. The key to fixing the problem is offering incentives that keep students' best interests in mind.

Undergraduate Education

Popping the Tuition Bubble

What if students could have investors pay their college bills in return for a set percentage of their future income? Education Sector's Kevin Carey and Frederick Hess from the American Enterprise Institute explain.

Undergraduate Education

What's Missing From 'Open' Courses

In Outside the Circle, Kevin Carey wonders why he and others who enjoy the free online courses offered by many top universities can't get a grade for their work.

Undergraduate Education

Demise of a Good Idea

This week in Outside the Circle, Kevin Carey explores the controversy around the proposed federal "unit record" database.

Teacher Quality

Letter to the Next President

In the Journal for Teacher Education, Education Sector's Andrew J. Rotherham co-authors a letter to our next president urging an aggressive agenda to improve teacher quality.

Most Recent Research and Reports

Education Finance

School Funding's Tragic Flaw

In this report from Education Sector and the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), Kevin Carey and Marguerite Roza examine funding disparities between two seemingly similar schools in Virginia and North Carolina. Carey and Roza find that the federal, state, and local policies designed to distribute education funds systematically provide more money to higher-income students and wealthier schools.

Teacher Quality

Waiting to Be Won Over

In the national conversation on teacher quality, there is considerable debate about what teachers think and what they want. Too often assumptions guide the discussion rather than actual evidence of teachers' views. In a new report, Education Sector and the FDR Group provide that evidence, detailing findings from a national survey of public school teachers.

Undergraduate Education

Graduation Rate Watch

College graduation rates for minority students are often shockingly low. And most institutions have significantly lower graduation rates for black students than for white students. But, as Research and Policy Manager Kevin Carey documents in a new Education Sector report, these high-failure rates are not inevitable: Some institutions are graduating black students at a higher rate than white students.

Teacher Quality

The Benwood Plan: A Lesson in Comprehensive Teacher Reform

Chattanooga's Benwood Initiative is one of the most widely touted school-reform success stories of recent years. And many credit its success to financial incentives used to lure new teachers to low-performing schools. In this report, Senior Policy Analyst Elena Silva argues that Benwood's success was not just about attracting new talent, but helping existing teachers improve the quality of their instruction.