Here are some recent useful posts and articles on educational policy issues (You might also be interested in The Best Articles, Videos & Posts On Education Policy In 2016 – So Far):

Vouchers Could Be the Big Winner in Trump’s School Choice Plan, but Is That a Victory for Students? is from The 74. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning Why School Vouchers Are A Bad Idea.

‘Asking students to observe lessons? You may as well ask the class hamster about the best way to teach phonics’ is by Tom Bennett. I think it’s a bit over-the-top, but it does echo my opinion that student evaluations of teachers should have no high-stakes attached to them. I’m adding it to Best Posts On Students Evaluating Classes (And Teachers).

Texas Rejects Mexican-American Studies Textbook Seen As Racist is from NBC News (I’ve shared past stories about this saga previously).

The real secret to Asian-American success was not education is an important piece from The Washington Post. Here’s a key excerpt:

The picture became much clearer when he compared people with similar levels of education. Hilger’s finds that in the 1940s, Asian men were paid less than white men with the same amount of schooling. But by the 1980s, that gap had mostly disappeared.

“Asians used to be paid like blacks,” Hilger says. “But between 1940 and 1970, they started to get paid like whites.” 

In 1980, for instance, even Asian high school dropouts were earning about as much as whites, and vastly more than blacks. This dramatic shift had nothing to do with Asians accruing more education. Instead, Hilger points to the slow dismantling of discriminatory institutions after World War II, and the softening of racist prejudices. That’s the same the explanation advanced by economists Harriet Orcutt Duleep and Seth Sanders, who find that in second half of the 20th century, Asian-Americans not only started to work in more lucrative industries, but also started to get paid more for the same kind of work.

In other words, the remarkable upward mobility of California-born Asians wasn’t about superior schooling (not yet, anyway). It was the result of Asians finally receiving better opportunities — finally earning equal pay for equal skills and equal work.

Why couldn’t African-Americans close the wage gap? It’s hard to say. Hilger finds some evidence that there were underlying differences in skill. Between Asians and African-Americans with the same amount of schooling, African-Americans tended to achieve lower scores on military enlistment tests during the 1940s.

But it’s also likely that postwar racial attitudes shifted differently for Asians than for African-Americans.

I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Why Improving Education Is Not THE Answer To Poverty & Inequality.