Author Archives: Don Soifer
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FEDERAL EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION PROPOSALS COULD PROVE HAZARDOUS FOR CHILDREN, TAXPAYERS
March 26, 2009- Don Soifer Issue Brief President Obama has consistently described improving America’s education system as a central component of his strategy to increase long-term economic growth, beginning with a plan for federal early childhood education he calls “Zero to Five.” Proponents of a [Read More...] -
The Federal Government and Early Childhood Education
March 17, 2009- Don Soifer Testimony U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor WATCH VIDEO TESTIMONY BEFORE THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR DON SOIFER, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, LEXINGTON INSTITUTE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION MARCH 17, [Read More...] -
ENGLISH LEARNERS AND CHICAGO’S FUTURE: What Is Working and What Changes Are Needed?
November 18, 2008- Don Soifer Education Policy Briefing by the Lexington Institute and the Illinois Policy Institute In recent weeks, accolades for the performance of Illinois (and Chicago) students on the state standardized tests have been hard to miss. The day preliminary data for the [Read More...] -
PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENTS A WRONG TURN FOR OBAMA
October 24, 2008- Don Soifer Issue Brief This week, a spokeswoman for Senator Barack Obama told National Public Radio that the Senator supports the use of portfolios to assess student academic performance in place of current No Child Left Behind (NCLB) testing requirements. If Melody [Read More...] -
ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
October 17, 2008- Don Soifer Testimony My name is Don Soifer, and I am executive vice president of the Lexington Institute, a nonpartisan policy think tank based in Arlington, Virginia. English learners need to be considered one of our most critical school populations, and their [Read More...] -
REGULAR ASSESSMENT INTEGRAL TO ENGLISH LEARNER SUCCESS
October 6, 2008- Don Soifer Issue Brief It has become common, when discussing education in the No Child Left Behind era, to describe students, often English Language Learners in particular, “filling in bubbles on standardized tests.” Such conversations frequently consider whether the time students spend [Read More...] -
Charter School Gains Coming, Slowly, in Virginia
September 10, 2008- Don Soifer Issue Brief The past week has been a good one for charter schools. Barack Obama proclaimed his support for this innovative public school model, promising to double funding for the federal Public Charter Schools program. Last week, John McCain underscored [Read More...] -
SUCCESS TEACHING ENGLISH MUST BEGIN EARLY
August 21, 2008- Don Soifer Issue Brief Senator Barack Obama raised eyebrows last month when he told a Georgia audience not to worry “about whether immigrants can learn English — they’ll learn English — you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish.” But [Read More...] -
D.C. CHARTER BOARD IS A SYSTEM WORTH PRESERVING
July 18, 2008- Don Soifer Issue Brief “A mistake is simply another way of doing things,” suggested Katherine Graham, the emphatic, longtime Washington Post publisher. Not, however, when that mistake threatens harm to others, such as the 20,000 District of Columbia schoolchildren currently attending its [Read More...] -
UPU Geneva Conference Proposals: Potential Implications for U.S. Consumers and Markets
July 10, 2008- Don Soifer Testimony Before the Department of State Advisory Committee on International Postal and Delivery Services I know that some of you have already put in a great many hours analyzing over 400 proposals and documents for the Universal Postal Union Congress [Read More...]