Bad to Good and Good to Great
How can we create an accountability system that empowers excellent educators to create top-notch schools while ensuring a basic level of quality for everyone.
Do Americans Know How Well Their State’s Schools Perform?
Evidence suggests that Americans have been wise enough to ignore the woefully misleading information about student proficiency rates generated by state testing systems when forming judgments about the quality of their state’s schools.
What We Can Learn From A Dinner Controversy In The Desert
Will we still need teachers as digital learning rises?
Behind the Headline: How Michelle Rhee Misled Education Reform
Reviewing her new book for The New Republic, Nick Lemann wonders why Michelle Rhee has become the standard bearer for education reform.
Why Private Schools Are Dying Out
A few elite institutions at both the grade-school and college levels are doing better than ever. But their health conceals the collapse of private-sector options in the U.S.
Am I a Part of the Cure … or the Disease?
Will testing and accountability make matters worse? No, they will make matters marginally better.
By the Company It Keeps: The U.S. Department of Education
This revealing back-and-forth with the United States Department of Education is the third and final installment in our testing-consortia series.
School Choice and Students with Disabilities in Milwaukee
There is no evidence that private schools in the Milwaukee voucher program discriminate against students with disabilities, but there is a great deal of misunderstanding about what the law requires.
Does Expanding School Choice Increase Segregation?
The findings reported here indicate that it is unlikely that charter schools—a prominent effort to increase school choice, especially for students from disadvantaged backgrounds—are making the problem worse.
By the Company It Keeps: Smarter Balanced
The second installment of my testing-consortia series is a conversation with Smarter Balanced.
U.S. Institute of Education Sciences Weighs In on Voucher Impacts on College Enrollment
The What Works Clearinghouse declared the voucher study to be “a well-implemented randomized controlled trial.”
How to Raise Smart Kids in the Wrong Zip Code
Parents have new options for patching together a truly superior education plan for their kids, regardless of neighborhood.
By the Company It Keeps: PARCC
An interview with PARCC, one of two consortia of states funded by the federal government to develop “next-generation” assessments aligned with the Common Core State Standards.
Behind the Headline: Where Private School is Not a Privilege
In poor countries in Africa and South Asia, private schools exist for families of all social classes.
To Close the ‘Opportunity Gap,’ We Need to Close the Vocabulary Gap
Rich parents are obsessed with their children’s social and intellectual development. They are spending dramatically more time parenting. How can we help poor kids catch up?
Why Don’t Entrepreneurs And Learning Scientists Talk Much?
All too often, products and services in the education market are not informed by what we know about learning.
The Open-Source School District
Imagine the creation of a virtual school district. It wouldn’t have any actual students, teachers, buses, or facilities, but it would have a school board, a superintendent, and a central-office staff.
District Replacers, Drama Standards, and Cranky Composing
Big happenings on the urban-schools front. In recent weeks, numerous cities have announced they’re looking for new district leaders.
Fixing Pell Grants
The federal government should inject an element of merit into the selection of Pell
grantees.
Behind the Headline: Hispanics Now Largest Ethnic Group in Texas’ Public Schools
Hispanic students have now passed white students as the largest ethnic group in Texas schools, making up almost 51 percent of public school enrollment.
Conservatives and the Common Core
When a group of state leaders, many of them Republicans, can come together to set expectations for the curricular core that surpass what most of them set on their own, conservatives ought to applaud, not lash out
The State of Charter Authorizing
It is troubling that many authorizers still don’t have high-quality practices in place.
A Better Blend: Combine Digital Instruction with Great Teaching
Today’s blended models will likely fall short unless they include excellent teachers playing instructional and team leadership roles that maximize technology’s impact in tandem with their own.
