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On virtually every measure, student performance in the United States lags behind many other nations around the world. U.S. fourth graders’ performance in math and science, on average, is below that of their peers in many countries such as Singapore and Japan. While fourth graders perform relatively well in reading, U.S. students still underperform compared to their peers in other industrialized nations through high school. Given these skill gaps, U.S. students are substantially disadvantaged in the competition for jobs in the global economy.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a discussion about how high-performing nations organize, manage, and fund their schools through the release of three new papers. Marc Tucker will explain the education systems in high-performing nations and recommend an expanded role for state education agencies in the United States. Ben Jensen will describe how Shanghai fosters close partnerships between low- and high-performing schools. Juliana Herman’s work highlights more equitable funding structures in some Canadian provinces. Panelists will also explore what lessons we can learn from around the world about how to govern our schools.

 

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Childcare can be more expensive than college. And with the majority of working moms earning less than $30,000 a year, too many low and middle-income families struggle to afford this basic work expense or to find quality early learning environments to help their children thrive. This shortage of affordable, high-quality pre-K and childcare slots carries consequences for women and families’ economic security today and children’s economic opportunity tomorrow.

As we prepare to celebrate Mother’s Day, join the Center for American Progress for a lively discussion on the importance of investing in pre-K and early learning, and how a national plan to expand early education would benefit moms, kids, and businesses.

With the August 2012 announcement of an agreement to reduce recidivism among adolescent boys at Rikers Island in New York City, Social Impact Bonds officially arrived on American shores. One of the most talked about social innovations in recent years, Social Impact Bonds are a financing tool for social programs that simultaneously leverage the resources of the private and philanthropic sectors, provide steady funding streams for high-performing social-service organizations, and enable government agencies to pay only for real, measurable improvements in social outcomes. The Social Impact Bond concept originated in the United Kingdom, where an ecosystem of organizations has sprung up since the first deal was signed in 2010. The U.K. Cabinet Office runs a Centre for Social Impact Bonds as well as a Social Outcomes Fund designed to help finance multiagency Social Impact Bonds transactions.

Join the Hudson Institute’s Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal and the Center for American Progress in welcoming the U.K. Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd. The minister will offer remarks on the British experience with Social Impact Bonds and engage in conversation with William Schambra and the audience.

 

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In his most recent book, Mark Mazzetti argues that the most momentous change in American warfare over the past decade has taken place away from the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq in the corners of the world where large armies can’t go. The Way of the Knife is the untold story of that shadow war—a campaign that has blurred the lines between soldiers and spies and lowered the bar for waging war across the globe. The United States has pursued its enemies with armed drones and special operations troops, trained local assets to set up clandestine spying networks, and relied on mercurial dictators, untrustworthy foreign intelligence services, and proxy armies.

Please join us for a discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Mark Mazzetti on his provocative new book.

Copies of The Way of the Knife will be available for purchase.

 

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In the two years since the Egyptian revolution, the Muslim Brotherhood has become the dominant political organization in the country’s transition. During this time, the U.S. government has sought to engage and support Egyptian efforts to rebuild their economy and develop an open, pluralistic, and democratic political system. The Brotherhood-led Egyptian government, however, has presided over growing political polarization, a deepening economic crisis, and a breakdown of governance across the country. Furthermore, the Brotherhood has recently pursued potentially worrisome policies on women’s rights, minority rights, and civil rights, such as freedom of expression and freedom of association. As Egypt moves forward in its political transformation, the United States must learn to navigate the difficult path of supporting the new, fragile government while standing firm on its own principles and values.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a discussion on U.S. engagement with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, focusing on emerging social policies and how the United States can contribute positively in a way that provides basic civil rights for all Egyptians while maintaining this important relationship.

As part of this event, James Zogby will release the results from a recent poll on U.S. attitudes toward Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Please join us for a Twitter town hall to discuss the post-2015 development agenda. Podesta will answer questions about his work with the U.N. High Level Panel and will provide an opportunity for the public to engage on the issues that concern them most as the world moves into the next phase of global poverty eradication.

Tweets should mention @johnpodesta with #PovertyQA.

 

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The issue of finding strategic ways to get the best, most effective people to become teachers and principals is a relatively recent policy initiative that has picked up speed quickly and caused major changes in both policy and practice. In fact, in a matter of two decades or fewer, our entire U.S. education system has been challenged in this area—including in the ways that we recruit, select, place, develop, evaluate, pay, promote, and dismiss educators. Some of these changes have been initiated by federal grant-giving policy initiatives that reward states and districts for innovation; others have sprung up due to the plethora of research that marks human capital as the single-most important factor in impacting student learning.

Whatever the reason for the human-capital-management reform movement, it is no secret that these reforms are hot and only growing in momentum in states and districts across the country. To be successful, these initiatives need to help solve major challenges in public education. In that process, they will likely be subject to much scrutiny.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a discussion about strategic human-capital-management changes, looking at the evolving landscape of these reform efforts through the release of Allan Odden’s paper, “Getting the Best People into the Toughest Jobs: Changes in Talent Management in Education.”

 

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President Barack Obama’s call for expanded access to preschool in his State of the Union address has raised national awareness of the transformative benefits of high-quality preschool, especially for low-income children and English language learners. Among other impacts, access to early learning is a fundamental element in helping children reach the key academic milestone of reading proficiently by the end of third grade.

One urban city—Union City, New Jersey—has seen the benefits of a long-term strategy reaching from preschool to high school, which includes strong early elementary schooling and pre-kindergarten for almost all 3- and 4-year-olds as essential pieces of their turnaround approach. The district’s subsequent educational achievement is striking and speaks for itself.

Please join us for a discussion about the seven guiding principles that helped transform Union City’s educational system. Professor David Kirp will speak about his research on Union City’s school system and present findings from his new book, Improbable Scholars: The Rebirth of a Great American School System and a Strategy for America’s Schools. Ralph Smith will discuss the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, an initiative to increase the number of children from low-income families reading proficiently by the end of third grade. Finally, our distinguished group of panelists will discuss current and future efforts to build high-quality public education for all children and to create a comprehensive and aligned pre-kindergarten to third-grade early-learning approach.

 

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The infrastructure that American citizens and businesses rely on needs to be upgraded and revitalized, from the roads, bridges, and ports that bring goods to market to the many water systems that provide safe and sanitary drinking water to millions of homes. Pension funds offer a source of capital that can help rebuild these essential assets in exchange for predictable returns that will provide Americans with a safe retirement. Please join the Center for American Progress for introductory remarks by Ed Smith, president and chief executive officer of Ullico Investment Company, and a panel discussion on the challenges and benefits of infrastructure investments for pension funds.

As part of this event, the Center for American Progress will release findings from a report on the challenges that pension funds face when investing in infrastructure and the federal policies that can encourage additional investment, as well as an issue brief on the intersection of organized labor and infrastructure investment.

 

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is often considered the second most important court in the land, after the Supreme Court.  The D.C. Circuit has sole responsibility for deciding cases having to do with the balance of powers of the branches of government and decisions made by government agencies affecting issues like health care, national security, environmental rules, and consumer protections and workplace safety.  More U.S. Supreme Court justices have come from the D.C. Circuit than any other circuit court, including four current Justices.

Today, four of the court’s eleven seats remain vacant, including one seat that has been unfilled since 2005. These vacancies have a crippling effect on the court’s ability to decide on critically key cases that impact the lives of Americans across the country, regardless of where you live or the issues you care about.

Please join the Center for American Progress, the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, and the Constitutional Accountability Center for a special presentation on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.