This week's TTR recognizes the president's visit to the Russian Federation with two reports on U.S. relations with that country and its neighbors; we also take a second look at airline deregulation and consider new ideas about how to best evaluate teachers.
- Another Potential Disaster [PDF]. A recent memo from the Council on Foreign Relations focuses on the dormant standoff between Ukraine and Moscow, stemming from dispute over the supply of natural gas to Ukraine, as well as the prospect of naval conflict around Crimea. The paper outlines scenarios that could force the United States' involvement in the conflict, including Kiev appealing to the U.S. government for assistance under the 1994 Budapest memorandum on security assurances by claiming a threat to Ukrainian sovereignty. While U.S. options to prevent escalation are limited, recommendations include advising Kiev in foreign policy prudence and further supporting Western NGOs stationed on the peninsula in order to establish a stronger regional presence. -- AS
- Warming up Russia-U.S. relations [PDF]. The Center for American Progress has released its recommendations for U.S. policy toward Russia. Taking into consideration Russia's foreign policy agenda, the authors suggest that Russia may not be ideologically prepared to take Obama up on his offer of a strategic reset but the current economic clime might necessitate such an action. The global economy is not exactly welcoming Russia -- IKEA recently announced that it would no longer invest in Russia due to corruption and demands for bribes -- so Russia could use a strong U.S. ally to bring it into the club. The authors suggest a comprehensive strategy toward U.S.-Russia relations that includes partnering over shared interests, facilitating Russia's integration into the international community and economy, supporting democratic development, and several other key objectives. -- CIA
- Time to test teachers. The time is right for major change in teacher evaluation, according to a new report by the Center for America Progress. Among the trends leading to this conclusion are increasing competition from voucher programs and charter schools, an influx of new teachers and principals who are more receptive to performance-based incentives, and advances in how to evaluate various teaching methods. The authors examine why teacher evaluation has historically had so little effect on instruction, learning, and achievement, describing a “Lake Wobegon effect” where the vast majority of teachers receive "satisfactory" evaluation ratings. External and internal constraints collude to produce evaluations that have few negative or positive consequences, hampering evaluators’ ability to be honest and teachers’ motivation to take evaluations seriously. The report stresses that cultural changes are more important than structural ones if districts and states are to make meaningful improvements in teacher evaluation. -- MD
Airline deregulation fail. It was supposed to usher in a new era of competition and growth, encouraging a free-market air travel utopia rife with more choices and better service. But since its passage in 1978, the Airline Deregulation Act appears to have done just the opposite, finds this new report from Demos, co-authored by American Prospect co-founder Robert Kuttner. In the decades since most regulations were lifted, the airline industry has shrunk and coalesced into something of an oligarchy, the report finds, with just three major airlines controlling more than two thirds of domestic travel. Most low-cost airlines started since 1978 have closed, and the remaining six mainline companies have slashed jobs, cut corners on maintenance and service, and “outsourced” more than 35 percent of their domestic travel to regional affiliates. These changes may be major contributors to the growing job loss and increasing flight delays plaguing the industry, and to the recent spate of crashes and malfunctions. The report calls for a new federal task force to examine the industry and recommend ways to help save it. -- CKS
-- TAP Staff
