The New York City Charter Schools Evaluation project analyzes the achievement of 93 percent of the New York City Charter school students who were enrolled in test-taking grades (grades 3 through 12) in 2000-01 through 2007-08. The technical report, accessible here, which describes the methodology of assessment is what has interested our researchers

The Justice Select Committee in the United Kingdom has scheduled its first “evidence session” on possible revision of the Freedom of Information law. This Guardian article talks about the Information Commisioner, Christopher Graham’s response to requests for repealing the law.

A simple idea on linking financial literacy and education by Stephen J. Dubner on the ever-popular Freakonomics blog

Does linking teacher pay to performance work? – An evaluation by Karthik Muralidharan and Venkatesh Sundararaman which aims to contributes to the debate on the relative effectiveness of input-based versus incentive-based policies in improving the quality of schools. The study involved a randomized evaluation of a teacher performance pay program implemented in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh (AP).

A Freedom of Information blog-post on the order of the India Central Information Commission telling the Ministry of Environment & Forests to put more information on its website.

An incisive commentary by Paul Krugman on how morality and money is connected, and how the US should keep its focus steady on inequality, instead of focusing attention on the so-called declining moral values.

Daniel Schuman at the Sunlight Foundation has come up with benchmarks to measure success in making legislative data available online.

An interesting book which examines identities, violence and conflict in the context of internal migration within India. The second volume in this annual series, India Migration Report 2011 focuses on the implications of internal migration, livelihood strategies, recruitment processes, and development and policy concerns in critically reviewing the existing institutional framework.

An interesting debate – Surjit Bhalla in an Indian Express column tried to measure corruption by looking at NREGA performance. Martin Ravallion in this EPW paper, responds to Bhalla’s comments.

Thanks to Shailey, Gayatri, Ambrish, Indrojit, Yamini and Laina for this week’s list.