Education Reform for Arkansas and the World
Education Reform for Arkansas and the World
HNRS 300H1-002
Taught by faculty across education disciplines
Spring 2025
T 5 - 6:40 p.m.
GEAR 258
Improving education is at the top of Americans’ policy priorities in 2024 and has been for the past few years. This need for improvements in education has only been intensified by the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic brought significant PK-12 education learning losses and increased chronic absenteeism, the experience of alternative ways of teaching and learning, declines in enrollment in traditional public schools, increased concerns about the health of the teachers’ labor force, and an expansion of school choice options across the country. This Forum will introduce students to various education policy issues and interventions that hold promise for improving student outcomes and will subject those policies and proposed interventions to vigorous discussion and debate. The policies discussed will include improving the quality and diversity of the teacher workforce, enhancing school leadership, overhauling school funding formulas, expanding and improving the delivery of gifted and talented programs, promoting results-based accountability, introducing new curriculum models, and expanding school choice, among others. Students will be expected to complete assigned readings on these topics and write brief reaction papers each week in advance of engaging in lively, informed, and civil discussions of the strengths and weaknesses of the various policies and interventions. The Forum will be team-taught by the entire multidisciplinary faculty of the Department of Education Reform, including Endowed Chair professors with backgrounds in public policy, economics, and psychology and with expertise in the areas of school choice, teacher quality and teacher labor markets, school accountability and finance, school leadership, and gifted education.
About Forum Faculty
Albert Cheng, Associate Professor in Education Reform
Robert Maranto, Chair in Education Leadership
Josh McGee, Chair in Accountability
Sarah McKenzie, Director of the Office for Education Policy
Harry Patrinos, Chair and Department Head in Education Reform
Jonathan Wai, Chair in Education Policy
Patrick Wolf, Chair in School Choice
Gema Zamarro, Chair in Teacher Quality