Home Page - Nonpartisan Education Review

The Nonpartisan Education Review provides a forum for those interested in education issues but put off by the closed and censorial education policy groups affiliated with the political parties. We aim to make a difference by remaining non-aligned and non-partisan. Learn more about us and read the Nonpartisan Education Review^® (ISSN 2150-6477), our peer-reviewed, open access electronic journal.  

Recently published in the Nonpartisan Education Review:

• Innes, Mississippi: Progress Commanding Attention or Outright Miracle? (blog post)
• Phelps, The Education Writers Association Today: The High Price of EWA's News (blog post)
• Merrifield, Using Targeted Private School Choice to Eliminate Pockets of Persistent Urban Poverty: A Preliminary Assessment (article) (pdf) (docx))
• Ongong, Cyberespace et risques de manipulation de la jeunesse : pour une approche critique de l'éducation à la citoyenneté numérique (pdf) (article)
• Walker, The Iowa Academic Standards Hold Teachers Hostage (blog post)

Special Section: Phelps: Appendices for book, The Malfunction of U.S. Education Policy: Elite Misinformation, Disinformation, and Selfishness (resources)
• 1.The Enablers (pdf)
• 2.Sources of Citations in C. C. Ross's Measurement in Today's Schools (pdf)
• 3.Research Literatures Dismissed, by Scholar or Media: Some Examples (pdf)
• 4.Pack Funders and Strategic Partners: Some Examples (pdf)
• 5.Comparing Two Testing Effects Literature Searches (pdf)
• 6.Bellwether's Web of Organizational Links (pdf)
• 7.Career Paths of the Permanent Education Press (pdf)
• 8.Media Expert Source Counts (pdf)
• 9.Michael Petrilli's Compliments and Expertise (pdf)
• 10.Expert Sources of Journalists Barnum and Barshay (pdf)
• 11.The Education Writers Association: Then and now (pdf)
• References (pdf)


• Walker, The absolute worst "real world" problem I have ever encountered (blog post)

Special Section: Bilingual Education: Two Views
• Granle, Overgeneralization in Bilingual Education and the Dual Language Classroom (essay)
• Martinez, Bilingual Education: A Perennial Cultural Contention (essay)


• Breuning, Cheating in the Classroom: We all have a choice (blog post)
• Huang, Jo Boaler's Fame, Stanford's Shame; Students' Gloom, America's Doom: Part 1 (pdf) (resource)
• Huang, Jo Boaler's Fame, Stanford's Shame; Students' Gloom, America's Doom: Part 2 (pdf) (resource)
• Huang, Jo Boaler's Fame, Stanford's Shame; Students' Gloom, America's Doom: Part 3 (pdf) (resource)
• Simpson, Texas Developmental Education Crisis (article)
• Byrne, Mary Byrne's letter to US Education Department regarding information collection under FERPA (blog post)
• Price, The Sabotage of Public Education (blog post)
• Byrne, Comments of Mary Byrne to Springfield, MO public schools board on critical race theory (blog post)
• Innes, Preserving History, Problems with Kentucky's Social Studies Standards, Must be Redone (pdf) (resource)
• Huang, Jo Boaler's Reform Math Fallacy Outline (blog post)
• Fitzhugh, Academic Fitness (blog post)
• Huang, Breaking the Spell of Math Reformists (blog post)
• Milgram & Bishop, Letters from mathematicians R.James Milgram (Jim) and Wayne Bishop to a parent of the Palo Alto School District, California, 2016-2018 (pdf) (resource)
• Stotsky, How to Clean Up the Common Core Mess in Massachusetts (resource)
• Nelson, Addressing Math Deficits to Improve Chemistry Success (pdf) (resource)
• Price, K-12 is a Land of Mystery (blog post)
• Martel, Response to John Merrow's advocacy of Project-based Learning (blog post)
• Huang, Why Have American Schools Failed in Closing the Achievement Gap? A Case Study of California's Palo Alto School District (testimonial)
• Merrifield, Asymmetry in Local Government Responses in Growing vs. Shrinking Counties: The Case of Education Finance (pdf)
• Ligon, Test Critics Fail the Test: Critics of Testing Don't Understand the Basics of Testing (article)
• Stotsky, Why Were my Last Four Books Necessary? (essay)
• Innes, Beware New Quality Counts State Rankings (blog post)
• Phelps, A Decade in the Paranoid World of US Education Research, Part 1: The Scoldings (article)
• Hayes, Review of DIVE online math and science school program (program review)
• Stotsky, How To Become Secretary of Education Without Really Doing Anything (book review)
• Dancis, Exceptional Learning Results From Exceptionally Good Textbooks: Singapore Yes! Finland No! (presentation)
• Wilson, Advanced Placement Calculus is not College Calculus (essay)
• Martel, Letter to NPR's Ari Shapiro and producers of their "individualized learning" podcast (blog post)

Special Section: Phelps, Common Core Collaborators: Six Organizational Portraits

• The Organization Named Achieve: Cradle of Common Core Cronyism
• The CCSSO and NGA: Whom do they serve?
• Real Clear Propaganda: Bellwether's Education News Bias
• The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and Institute: Influence for Hire
• Does College Board Deserve Public Subsidies?


• Martel, DCPS closes 15 schools in 2013: Parents' lawsuit reveals secrets (resource)
• Stamm, The Illusion of Rigor (essay)
• Peters, My letter to Bill Gates on how to prepare students for algebra (blog post)
• Stotsky, Who watches the watchmen? Transparency might guard the integrity of the tests given by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (essay)
• Furst, Retrieval Practice: The roads between research and practice (presentation)
• Zuti & Lukovics, Fourth Generation Universities and Regional Development (presentation & article)
• Stotsky, Is Common Core Racist? Check Out The Results (essay)
• Phelps, Dan Koretz's Big Con (book review)
• Dancis, Fewer Students Learning Arithmetic and Algebra (blog post)
• Milgram, R. James Milgram on the Common Core in Indiana (resource)
• Stotsky, An ELA Curriculum Framework for American Public Schools: A Model (resource)
• Nelson, Cognitive Science and the Common Core Mathematics Standards (article)
• Martel, How Making the Graduation Rate into a School Performance Measure Undermined Teaching and Learning (resource)
• Price, Constructivism is a Big Fat Con (essay)
• Ramazanova and Kerimkhanova, Scholarly Prowess or Learned Helplessness? The Case of Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools in Kazakhstan (testimonial)

Special Section: District of Columbia Public Education Documents: Agreements, Audits, Reports, Requests, etc.:

• DCPS & Walton Foundation, Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the Washington, D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) and the Walton Family Foundation (WFF)
• Martel, Documents Related to DCPS Altered Student Records (resource)
• Martel, Open Letter to the DC Federal City Council: Transparency in performance metrics needed for all schools, including charters (article)
• Martel, The GAO Report on DC Charter Schools' Suspension Rates (resource)
• Martel, INVESTIGATION REQUEST: Into the process of selecting a Chancellor nominee (or, the DC Public Schools lie with statistics ...again (article)


• Dupre, The Dark Side of Education Reform: Students as Victims and the Destruction of a Manhattan High School (testimonial)
• Merrifield, Public School Choice is Not Good Enough: Very Costly with a Low Upside (essay) (pdf)
• Bishop, Significance of PISA math results (blog post)
• Price, Critical Thinking: Not all that critical (essay)
• Phelps, Dismissive Reviews in Education Policy Research - A List (resource)
• Bishop, Note on Aspen Ideas Festival: Is Math Important? (essay)
• Stotsky & Holzman, The Costs of Federal Intervention in Local Education: The Effectiveness of America's Choice in Arkansas (article)
• Bishop, Does Common Core add up for California's math students?* (blog post)
• Innes, John Hopkins flawed report on Kentucky (blog post)
• Innes, Testimony to Georgia House's Federal Government's Role in Education Study Committee Regarding: Common Core Standards and Testing Issues (testimonial)
• Phelps, The Gauntlet: Think Tanks and Federal Research Centers Misrepresent and Suppress Other Education Research (essay)
• Fitzhugh, It's the Students, Stupid! (essay)

• Milgram, Review of Final Draft Core Standards (review)
• Stotsky, Letter to sponsors (review)
• Wiliam, Comments (review)

• Bishop, Clopton, & Milgram, A Close Examination of Jo Boaler’s Railside Report (article)
• Milgram, Private Data – A Huge Problem with Education Research (essay)
• Bishop & Milgram, A Response to Some of the Points of: When Academic Disagreement Becomes Harassment and Persecution (essay)
• Staradamskis, Measuring Up: What Educational Testing Really Tells Us (book review)

PUBLISHED: Unproductive School Choice Debates: All Sides Assert Much That Is Wrong, Misleading, or Irrelevant by John Merrifield and Nathan Gray, with a foreword by Terry Moe, Rowman & Littlefield, June 2023.

ANNOUNCING: The US Department of State has awarded Richard Phelps a Fulbright Specialist grant to Romania at the University of Bucharest, Press Release (pdf)

PUBLISHED: The Malfunction of US Education Policy: Elite Misinformation, Disinformation, and Selfishness by Richard P Phelps, Rowman & Littlefield, April 2023.

ANNOUNCING: Richard Phelps has joined and will represent the Nonpartisan Education Group at the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers (NANR)

ANNOUNCING: John Merrifield has joined the Nonpartisan Education Review as an editor. He's probably best known for his work in school choice, writing, for example, The School Choice Wars and the just-released School System Reform, founding the International School Choice and Reform Conference, and serving as the second editor of the Journal of School Choice. John's participation expands the range of our topical expertise; naturally, he will manage all submissions pertaining to school choice and system reform.

ANNOUNCING: Richard Phelps was recently named chair of the Committee on Informing Assessment Policy and Practice for the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME). "This committee exists to provide education policy makers with access to the expertise within NCME and organizationally on issues involving uses of tests in public policy. A second, but related role of the committee is to increase the visibility of NCME as a resource for policy-makers in educational assessment. This committee develops strategic policy initiatives that address educational measurement and assessment."

PUBLISHED (on demand) and CONTINUOUSLY UPDATED: School System Reform: How and Why is a Price-less Tale, by John Merrifield. This book identifies root causes of persistently disappointing classroom outcomes, identifies the policy root causes of the classroom causes of Nation at Risk, persistently low school system performance, and then lays out a strategy for identifying the key elements of a high-performing school system, and then achieving their implementation.

ANNOUNCING: Critically Speaking, a podcast series hosted by Therese Markow, who writes:       " ... we separate facts from fallacies at the intersection of science and society.
"Every day we make decisions that affect our own lives, those of our children and the lives of everyone on the planet. With the enormous amount of unfiltered, anecdotal 'information' accessible from numerous public sources, wouldn't we want to make our decisions based upon solid scientific data, presented to us in terms we can understand?
"The goal of Critically Speaking is to bring you the results of sound investigations across a wide range of health and educational issues, through discussions with experts, to empower you to make the best decisions in your everyday lives."
013. Richard Phelps: Is our education system failing us? July 24, 2019 (39 minutes)
019. Michael Zwaagstra: Broken Education System September 4, 2019 (31 minutes)
020. Boris Konrad: Memorization and the brain September 11, 2019 (27 minutes)
098. Richard Phelps: No More College Admission Test? Mar 10, 2021 (21 minutes)
126. Richard Phelps: Should Everyone Go to College? September 22, 2021 (32 minutes)
133. Ben Albensi: How brains remember November 10, 2021 (28 minutes)

ANNOUNCING: Sandra Stotsky's The roots of low achievement: Where to begin altering them, from Rowman & Littlefield. Visit www.rowman.com or call (800) 462-6420 to place an order. Also available at Amazon, TextbookX, and Barnes and Noble. Find more of Sandra Stotsky's work at the New Boston Post and the Pioneer Institute.

INTRODUCING: The Learning Scientists:
"We are cognitive psychological scientists interested in research on education. Our main research focus is on the science of learning. Our Vision is to make scientific research on learning more accessible to students, teachers, and other educators. We aim to: motivate students to study; increase the use of effective study and teaching strategies that are backed by research; and decrease negative views of testing. This is not a product or a sales pitch - just science!"

ANNOUNCING: Pioneer Institute reports on Common Core:
The Education Writers Association Casts its Narrowing Gaze on Boston * Fordham Institute's Pretend Research * Setting academic performance standards: MCAS vs. PARCC * Testing the tests: Why MCAS is better than PARCC * Drilling through the Core: Why Common Core is bad for American education * The Revenge of K-12: How Common Core and the new SAT lower college standards in the U.S. * Common Core Standards can be replaced by first-rate standards overnight * Steps for states to replace Common Core * Doubling down on doublespeak * What reporters think they know about Common Core * Debunking Common Core myths * Wanted: Internationally benchmarked standards in English, mathematics, and science

INTRODUCING: New Educational Foundations: A Trans-ideological Journal of Criticism and Review^TM. Volume 1, Volume 2 & Volume 3 & Volume 4

INTRODUCING: Independent Voter News, "Unfiltered community news by independent contributors." (Tired of the Education Week, education-establishment, think-tank echo chamber?)
See IVN education articles here, here, & here.

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