NR PLUS Magazine

Rethinking High School

By Chester E. Finn Jr. October 10, 2013

As waves of reforms and would-be reforms have washed over American public education these past three decades, high schools have mostly stayed dry. Although test scores have risen slightly in ...

Margaret Thatcher, Education Reformer

By Chester E. Finn Jr. April 9, 2013

Foreign policy isn’t all that Margaret Thatcher and her team had in common with Ronald Reagan and his. The 1980s also saw much crossing of the Atlantic — in both directions ...

Obama for Governor!

By Chester E. Finn Jr. February 14, 2013

Maybe Barack Obama should follow the Pope’s example and resign — but then he should run for governor, presumably in Illinois (where he would definitely be an improvement on the ...

Politics & Policy

Just How Potent Are Teacher Unions?

By Chester E. Finn Jr. & Amber Winkler November 30, 2012

Hostess Brands is set to liquidate its 82-year-old company because it was unable to meet the salary demands of its unionized employees. Roughly 18,500 workers will lose their jobs because ...

Politics & Policy

The State of Education

By Chester E. Finn Jr. January 27, 2012

Sunday’s New York Times featured an extensive account of why Apple has its iPhones made in China rather than the U.S. The short version is that “the flexibility, diligence and ...

Politics & Policy

Good for Texas. Good for America?

By Chester E. Finn Jr. June 15, 2011

Deep in the heart of Texas is where some education-policy lessons might best stay. But they tend not to. Rick Perry’s imminent entry into the 2012 GOP presidential race suggests that, ...

Politics & Policy

Congress and Education Reform

By Chester E. Finn Jr. & Michael J. Petrilli October 7, 2010

We’ve previously noted our doubts about congressional Republicans when it comes to education reform. They don’t have much of an agenda, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan co-opted much of ...

Bravo, Brockton!

By Chester E. Finn Jr. September 28, 2010

A great school is a great school is a great school. It may be big, it may be small. Brockton High School, one of the largest in America, is now ...

Waiting for Superman

By Chester E. Finn Jr. September 16, 2010

Feeling just the least bit sheepish about being one of the few people in the throng who hadn’t already seen this film, I went last evening (with Fordham research director ...

Universal Preschool by Stealth

By Chester E. Finn Jr. September 8, 2010

In the name of boosting academic performance and giving struggling kids a better shot at succeeding in first grade, California appears to be headed down the slippery slope to universal ...