Author Archives: Don Soifer
Feds’ Arizona Investigation About Adults, Not Children
Issue Brief
Civil rights authorities at the federal Education and Justice departments have called off their investigation of Arizona policies intended to ensure that teachers of English Language Learners (ELLs) can speak and write proper English themselves. Their new deal [Read More...]
Education For A Great Nation
Jack Kemp Foundation – Game Plan for an Exceptional America
“America needs an education system where parents have influence and values have a voice.” — Jack Kemp
A great nation requires an effective system of education, in the twenty-first century [Read More...]
Effective English Language Policies Promote Economic And Educational Growth For Pennsylvania
Testimony before the Pennsylvania House of Representatives State Government Committee
An effective policy focus supporting English language use would have strong potential to benefit Pennsylvania educationally and economically. If implemented soundly, it can benefit the state’s economy by reversing a [Read More...]
English Learners Likely Losers of NCLB Waiver Plan
Issue Brief
Obama Administration officials announced earlier this month that they would consider waiver requests from states “seeking relief” from provisions in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Without offering specific parameters for the waivers, an emphasis on flexibility [Read More...]
Student Loan Policies Most Harmful For Disadvantaged Students
Issue Brief
President Obama this week continued to describe his Administration’s changes to federal student lending programs as essential steps in fighting rising college costs. But research continues to demonstrate that financially disadvantaged and minority students are most likely to [Read More...]
Why Teaching American History and Civics Matter
Daily Oklahoman
The waning of U.S. history and civics as subjects taught in public schools has received little attention in education reform debates of recent years, except for occasional alarms raised by scholarly commissions. Now, national report cards are littered [Read More...]
The Coming Teacher Union Offensive
Washington Times
Already, national political fundraising machines are beginning to hum and sputter toward early targets in their quests to break another election cycle’s worth of spending records.
The nation’s largest teacher union, the National Education Association (NEA), was the [Read More...]
Amid Signs Of Civic Ignorance, Governor’s School Projects Hope
Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch
The latest national sampling of what students know and understand about United States history yielded an answer in line with numerous surveys done by both governmental and independent authorities in recent years:
Alarmingly little.
Results of the [Read More...]
Considering The Postal Platform In The Digital Age
Presentation to the USPS Policy Roundtable
Presentation, “Considering the Postal Platform in the Digital Age,” made by Don Soifer, Executive Vice President of the Lexington Institute, at a policy roundtable hosted by the U.S. Postal Service, Office of the Inspector [Read More...]
Education Technology
Armed Forces Journal
Letter to the Editor
Online programs that utilize state-of-the-art education technology represent a promising venue for officer education educational development, as retired Col. Gwynne Burke suggests, (“A Better Way to Educate,” AFJ, March 2011).
The remarkable learning [Read More...]