Think Tank Round-Up: Teaching to The Test Edition.

This week's TTR takes a look at how to measure poverty right, the history of education reform, what we can learn from history about the Honduras coup, and whence came the budget deficit. We're also welcoming our newest intern, Jessica Lambertson.

• Poor accounting. [PDF] The Center for American Progress joins a piece by TAP’s editors in looking for new ways to more accurately assess poverty levels in the United States. Based on past experimental work and the recommendations of a National Academy of Sciences panel, an improved measurement would result in higher poverty thresholds, a higher incidence of poverty, especially among immigrants and the elderly, but lower rates of extreme poverty. Moving forward, Obama administration action -- rather than legislative action - could provide the most flexibility in determining proper metrics and eligibility rules for federal funding benefits. See also: TAP's Special Report on Poverty. -- LL
• The federal government and the future of education. Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institution joins Kojo Nnamdi on Washington's WAMU 88.9 to discuss the history of the education debate. Helping to dispel myths about the “Golden Age of Education,” Loveless discusses the American dialogue of educational decline and draws connections between early schoolhouse recitation to the much-derided concept of “teaching to the test." Ultimately, Loveless concludes that the stakes facing education reformers today may be higher than they've been before. -- JL
• Sanctions and Honduras [PDF]. Members of Congress from both parties urged President Obama to do more after June's coup d'état in Honduras. Alexander Main and Jake Johnston of the Center for Economic and Policy Research look at past examples of U.S. governments using economic sanctionsafter volatile political developments to put the administration's reaction in perspective. -- JL
• Where'd we get this deficit, anyway? [PDF] The Economic Policy Institute provides some analysis of the latest budget projections in an attempt to find out where our historically high debt comes from. As reflected in the graph below, the authors conclude that "the years between 2001 and 2007 saw a large deterioration in the budget balance, which was driven chiefly by legislated policy changes. The Bush-era tax cuts are the largest contributors to this period of policy-induced increases to the federal budget deficit." -- TF
  

-- TAP Staff

Previous Round-Ups:
8/25/09
8/11/09