Evaluating the Evaluators
Balancing the personal and the statistical in teacher assessments
On the Newsstand:Innovation
The Fierce Urgency of Whatever
In a culture that often values boldness above all else, American politics is surprisingly allergic to big ideas. Despite the clamor over President Obama's health-care reform plan, it is important to remember that it proposes fairly incremental changes.
Light Rail Policy Picks Up Speed
Governor Michael Dukakis on the politics and potential growth of high speed rail public transportation
The Source of the Problem
Confronting prescription drug abuse Prescription drug abuse is perhaps the most overlooked addiction problem in America today. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, prescription painkillers now rank as the nation’s second-most popular drug, behind marijuana. Nonetheless, prescription drug abuse does not garner nearly as much public attention as drugs like cocaine or heroin. Yet tackling prescription drug ... Read More
Broken State Governments
Chaos reigns as states try to budget in the recession The financial crisis affected millions of Americans, drove down property values, crippled the mortgage industry, spiked unemployment rates, and revealed the unwieldiness of the American banking system. In response, the U.S. government attempted to resuscitate the economy with a nearly $800 billion stimulus. Meanwhile, state governments have been struggling ... Read More
Shovel-Ready Spaceflight
Obama neglects the best stimulus of all: space exploration In the past few months President Obama has proposed hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending to lift the United States out of the recession. Employing arguably the most talented engineers and scientists and involving the most cutting-edge research, spaceflight is one of the very best ways in which Obama ... Read More
Summer 2009
Urban America Volume 36, Number 2, Summer 2009. Letter from the Editor The Ten-Year Plan IAN MERRIFIELD Daring to end homelessness The Future of Urban Education Tiffany wen and jyoti jasrasaria The impact of new innovation on urban school systems Cities Without Limits Chris danello and ashley fabrizio How long-term factors drive municipal economies A New Approach to a Chronic ... Read More
Too Soon to Tell
Predicting political realignment Most discussions of youth politics tout blog posts and text messages rather than grand realignments. Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube & the Future of American Politics goes for the latter, and makes the case that America is at the crossroads of a political realignment driven by the distinct character of Millennials. Though the book’s title references new media, ... Read More
The Politics of Line Drawing
The future of gerrymandering after the 2010 census When Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) withdrew his nomination for commerce secretary in February, Republicans blamed the debacle on the White House’s alleged attempt to usurp control of the 2010 census, which rests with the Commerce Department. This short-lived controversy reminded us that while the census might be one of the least visible, ... Read More
The Future of Urban Education
The impact of new innovations on urban school systems The 1983 report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, entitled “A Nation at Risk: The Imperative For Education Reform,” established the need for a comprehensive assessment of the nation’s schools in order to meet the challenges of a changing national and international community. The report set off a series ... Read More
The Crescent City Waxes on Education
New Orleans takes a chance on charter schools In his recent response to the State of the Union address, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal took the unusual step of drawing national attention to an issue in his own home state: education reform. He declared, “After Katrina, we reinvented the New Orleans school system, opening dozens of new charter schools, and creating ... Read More
Crisis in International Finance
Is a new international financial regulatory system necessary? The federal takeover of U.S. mortgage-lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac in the wake of the sub-prime mortgage crisis stunned the country and sent shockwaves through the international financial system, exposing risky lending and burgeoning trade deficits in countries around the world. Today, the international financial system is reeling from the ... Read More
