Earlier this year, PRESIDENT OBAMA announced a plan to provide public pre-K education to low- and middle-income children, a proposal that has provoked debate about the actual demonstrated bene...
Every three years, the OECD, in the PISA assessment , studies 15-year-olds around the world to measure performance in reading, mathematics, and science. The results of the 2012 PISA assessment, ...
https://freakonomics.com/2013/12/u-s-math-education-still-in-the-doldrums-2/
One of our first Freakonomics Radio podcasts was about an innovative New York City Department of Education pilot program called School of One. You can listen to the podcast here , but here's the...
https://freakonomics.com/2013/12/teach-to-ones-first-report-card/
Public higher education in the U.S. is not in good shape—and the main reason is lack of funds. States will not increase their funding, and often they severely limit tuition increases. My un...
https://freakonomics.com/2013/11/product-placement-at-universities/
We are in the midst of a nationwide search for a single magic bullet in education. But the more evidence that is gathered, the more obvious it becomes that no such single magic bullet exists. T...
https://freakonomics.com/2013/10/in-praise-of-smaller-schools/
JOHN LIST and URI GNEEZY have appeared on our blog many times . This guest post is part a series adapted from their new book The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics ...
https://freakonomics.com/2013/10/does-early-education-reduce-the-achievement-gap/
A Freakonomics Radio listener named SANDRA ELSEN writes: > Today, I went to my son's kindergarten. He attends the local > International School (what the Realtor described as...
https://freakonomics.com/2013/10/should-we-stop-children-from-learning-to-cheat/
The argument over tenure for university professors is a long and boisterous one. LEVITT, for one, is in favor of abolition . If you are on that side of the argument as well, you may be please...
https://freakonomics.com/2013/09/are-tenured-professors-better-classroom-teachers/
PRESIDENT OBAMA recently proposed an interesting solution to the skyrocketing cost (and declining popularity ) of law school: make it shorter : > “This is probably controversial to say,...
https://freakonomics.com/2013/08/how-many-years-does-it-take-to-learn-to-be-a-lawyer/
A new working paper (abstract ; PDF ) by ERIC V. EDMONDS and MAHESHWOR SHRESTHA analyzes whether schooling incentives (in the form of conditional cash transfers) effectively reduce child labor...
https://freakonomics.com/2013/08/paying-kids-to-go-to-school-instead-of-working/
Maybe not. A new working paper (abstract ; PDF ) by MARIA FITZPATRICK and MICHAEL LOVENHEIM finds that offering early retirement to experienced schoolteachers doesn't have a negative effect on st...
https://freakonomics.com/2013/08/losing-experienced-teachers-is-bad-for-schools-right/
A new working paper (abstract ; PDF ) by PAUL GERTLER, JAMES HECKMAN, and several other co-authors examines the impressive long-term effects of a Jamaican program that taught low-income parents ...
https://freakonomics.com/2013/07/what-happens-when-you-teach-parents-to-parent/
At the core of the debate over the value of college is a collage of evidence showing that it produces better lifetime outcomes not just in income but in health and happiness. How does this happ...
We've discussed before -- in blog posts and a podcast -- the value of a college degree. Writing for the New York Times Economix blog , CATHERINE RAMPELL points out that college degrees are p...
If you are the sort of person who worries that the U.S. is not producing enough college graduates with science degrees , it's worth wondering exactly why that is. In a new working paper, RALPH ST...
https://freakonomics.com/2013/07/the-economics-of-higher-education-part-1-science-is-hard/
1. Six female scientists who didn't get their due. 2. Why kids in France don't get ADHD . 3. When averages don't tell the story: the U.S. has many of the world's brightest students , and also ...
A new NBER working paper (PDF ; abstract ) by economists SCOTT E. CARRELL and BRUCE SACERDOTE finds that educational incentives, even those that are offered to students late in their senior ye...
https://freakonomics.com/2013/05/convincing-kids-to-go-to-college/
Our latest podcast, "Crowded at the Top," presents a surprising explanation for why the U.S. unemployment rate is still relatively high . (You can download/subscribe at iTunes , get the RSS fee...
https://freakonomics.com/2013/05/its-crowded-at-the-top-a-new-marketplace-podcast/
1. First-year medical residents made more mistakes when they were required to work fewer hours. 2. Automated education: EdX offers classes online , marks essays and tests. 3. Telemedicine has ...
A working paper (abstract ; PDF ) from economists MICHAEL BAKER and KEVIN MILLIGAN advances another possible explanation for the lagging academic performance of boys -- preschool boys, at leas...
https://freakonomics.com/2013/03/parents-and-their-preschoolers/