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The article reports that a national panel in the U.S. is raising concerns about the quality of much of the research on charter school achievement, and has outlined recommendations to help ensure better analyses in the future. The first in a series of white papers from the group of researchers notes that while the volume of research on student performance in charters has grown dramatically, the actual quality of that research doesn't seem to be improving. The paper was drafted by the Charter School Achievement Consensus Panel, a group convened by the National Charter School Research Project at the University of Washington in Seattle.

This article reports that, according to a research paper by the World Bank concludes, the fees that many countries around the world require children to pay to attend public schools are an obstacle to enrollment in primary school for many youngsters But when such fees are abolished, it's important for countries to have a source of revenue to replace the fees, or the quality of schooling can drop dramatically as school systems become overwhelmed, according to the paper. It says the World Bank is reconsidering some of its past support for policies in some countries that require fees, including textbook fees, for primary school pupils.

The paper says that those who educate early childhood teachers in colleges of education should themselves have experience in the field and that multiple departments and schools within universities not just education can contribute to a preparation program for such teachers. Authors make a number of recommendations for schools, colleges and departments of education, among them, teacher preparation programs should be linked to states' early learning standards. State efforts to help educators understand the law have also not been effective, authors write, except in Georgia, where the state Professional Standards Commission hired regional consultants to work with districts on the highly-qualified-teacher mandate, which public schools must meet by the end of the 2005-06 school year.