The Heartland Institute

Is Common Core Becoming Less Common? Back in 2010, 45 states agreed to adopt a single set of requirements for what K-12 children should know in each grade in math and English. Approximately 80 percent of the public does not know about the Common Core education standards, which comprise one of the most comprehensive ...

The Michigan legislature is considering in its 2014 budget a measure that would prohibit the state department of education from using public funds to implement Common Core, national education standards and tests in math and English that 46 states, including Michigan, have adopted. Another bill is in play that would withdraw ...

A consortium of consultants and science educators has released its final draft of what it plans will become national education standards for K-12 science. They are titled Next Generation Science Standards but are also Common Core science standards because created by the same groups and designed to fit with Common Core math ...

Included in President Barack Obama’s 2014 budget is a proposal to expand federally funded pre-K, to be paid for by raising the federal cigarette tax from $1.01 per pack to $1.95. Research on preschools has shown they have a limited positive effect on the very poorest and neediest children, and research on broader government ...

Executive Summary In 2010-2011, more than 48,000 Wisconsin students were suspended. The disruptive behavior leading to these suspensions is detrimental to teachers, school cultures, and ultimately, student learning. Reducing suspension rates in Wisconsin school districts with high numbers of disruptive pupils can substantially increase ...

The collective grasp of basic history and civics among American students is alarmingly weak. Beyond dispiriting test results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress and other measures, poor performance in history and civics portends a decay of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed for a lifetime of active, engaged ...

Common Core’s English language arts standards will not develop critical thinking or college readiness, will reduce the quality of the teaching force, and cannot be changed unilaterally by Michigan educators no matter what legislators and parents are told, says Dr. Sandra Stotsky in invited testimony to the Michigan legislature ...

This Policy Brief summarizes past research and presents new analysis showing how a proposal called the Taxpayer Savings Grant Program (TSGP) would enable the state of Texas to comply with its constitutional mandate to “establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free ...

With support from the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, CIRCLE has released a working paper that explores digital badges and alternative assessments for civic skills, knowledge, and dispositions. This working paper, entitled “ New and Alternative Assessments, Digital Badges, and Civics: An Overview of Emerging Themes and Promising ...

A new Joyce Foundation- Chicago Tribune poll shows strong and widespread support — among parents of CPS students and among other Chicagoans — for unchaining more charters in Chicago. The poll of 1,010 Chicagoans found: • More than 6 in 10 respondents (63.7 percent) favor making it easier for charters to expand in neighborhoods ...

Problem Maryland has struggled to balance its books in recent years and is barely getting back on its feet after the recession. Payments on state debt are projected to triple between 2007 and 2022. The state spends approximately $12 billion, or one-third of its budget, on elementary, secondary, and higher education, according ...

The speech in the attached PDF was delivered by Heartland Institute President Joseph Bast on February 23, 2013, at the Eighth Annual Wisconsin Conservative Conference, Bluemound Gardens, Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. An excerpt is below: In 2016, in time for the next presidential election, every child now in high school will be eligible ...

Maine legislators are considering an education reform that has garnered significant national attention: the Parent Trigger. The legislation, first passed in California, has been considered in approximately 20 other states, and legislators in five states have stated their intention to propose it in early 2013. A Parent Trigger would ...

South Carolina legislators are considering an education reform that has garnered significant national attention: the Parent Trigger. The legislation, first passed in California, has been considered in approximately 20 other states, and legislators in five states have announced their intentions to propose it this year. A Parent Trigger ...

Scientists, mathematicians, and curriculum experts reviewing the second Common Core draft science standards conclude they are vague, omit large sections of crucial content, and emphasize failed progressive pedagogy over the actual science knowledge students need. The authors give examples of the many crucial omissions, such as acids ...

A wave of political rhetoric and action immediately followed the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting that ended 27 lives, in which a mentally ill young man used his mother’s legally acquired guns to kill her, 20 children, and five educators before shooting himself. Many prominent politicians insisted this atrocity showed the ...

States To Tackle Income Taxes While Congress and the president recently hiked taxes for 77 percent of the nation’s taxpayers, proposals for sweeping tax cuts continue to gain momentum at the state level. In the new year governors and influential state lawmakers from Indiana, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio ...

Common Core State Standards for K-12 schools were adopted without debate by every state but Alaska, Nebraska, Texas, and Virginia in 2010, part of the price of getting federal dollars under the Obama administration’s “Race to the Top” program. Now educators, parents, and policymakers are taking a closer look at what they agreed ...

The State Teacher Policy Yearbook provides detailed analysis of any and every state policy that impacts the teaching profession. The Yearbook is a 52-volume encyclopedia (51 state reports including the District of Columbia plus a national summary) produced every other year, measuring states' policies against a realistic blueprint ...

One of the great privileges I have in working for Heartland is the opportunity to help elected officials at all levels of government discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to economic and social problems. Heartland realizes busy elected officials have little or no staff and need a reliable source of research ...