Think Tank Round-Up: Least Undesirable Edition.

This week's TTR wonders if curriculum reform is the best way to fix our education problem, looks at how the modern workplace works for women, examines the latest thinking on the future of Afghanistan, and considers how to put science to work promoting human rights.

• We don't need education reform, we need curriculum reform. A new Brookings report shows that effective curricula in math, reading comprehension, and dropout prevention lead to greater improvements in those areas than going to a charter school, reconstituting the teacher workforce, and attending early childhood education programs. Furthermore, curriculum reform is likely to cost less than the hundreds of millions of dollars that the Obama administration has earmarked for other education initiatives that show variable success. Rather than have “governance people” in the administration take over the education agenda, the author proposes to prioritize the evaluation of curriculum effectiveness among teachers and local agencies. -- LL
• Workplace Must Adapt to Modern Women and Families. The Center for American Progress has released a large report on the status of working women and their families. “The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything,” discusses the ways that society has changed now that women represent half of the workforce. It urges both individuals and government to adapt to these realities. The report is intended as a launching point for a campaign for more family-friendly policies such as paid family leave and maternity leave. -- PL
• Three ways to say "Afghanistan." [PDF] Counter-insurgency expert Andrew Exum has written an Afghanistan policy brief for the Center for a New American Security that outlines three rather dismal scenarios for U.S. policy in that conflict. The potential outcomes range from the least likely, a Taliban regime taking over the country, to the most likely, an on-going proxy war against the Taliban, to Exum's best-case scenario, which is for the U.S. to expend the resources needed to build a functioning Afghan state. "Ultimately," Exum concludes, "the president must select the option he considers least undesirable." Great. -- TF
• New Tools, Old Traumas. A report from the Center For American Progress encourages the U.S. government to use modern technology to combat human rights abuses. Authors Sarah Dreier and William F. Schulz acknowledge that, while the nation has made significant advances in addressing economic, social and political concerns via technology -- for example, electronic data analysis and using the Internet as an advocacy platform – there is still more to be done. The report suggests increasing government funding to subsidize satellite imagery, forensic efforts and wide-spread communication outlets – crucial elements in bridging the “digital divide.” -- MH

-- TAP Staff

Previous Round-Ups::
10/13/09
10/6/09