The nation is awash in pessimism. Persistent unemployment, continuing wars, unexpected earthquakes, searing droughts, and drenching hurricanes have dampened the usual optimism of the American people. This week, a ray of sunlight pierced the clouds of doom. According to local educators, America’s public elementary and secondary schools are on the
A few weeks ago, yet another study showed American students being outpaced in mathematics achievement by students in other countries. In “Teaching Math to the Talented,” published in the winter 2011 edition of Education Next, researchers from Stanford and Harvard compared U.S. math achievement at the advanced level with that
In the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s, private school advocates tried to build support for tuition vouchers, payments of public tax funds for private school tuition. President Richard Nixon most notably endorsed this idea. Proponents of vouchers argued that parents who sent their children to private schools were “taxed” twice
As the United States struggles to recover from the financial collapse of 2008-10, the newest casualty may be the promising reforms taking root in public schools across the country. The irony is that business leaders are calling with greater urgency for improvements in schooling, which they see as a precondition
Amid the intense debates about how much progress the nation has made in raising student achievement and whether federal investments in education have produced results, one important trend tends to be overlooked — namely, the notable gains made by African American and Latino students in reading and math achievement since
Federal funding for schools has not been effective, asserted some conservative members of Congress at a recent hearing on extending the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the main national law aiding public education. Soon, it is safe to bet, some members of Congress will propose eliminating such aid. Are
The Center on Education Policy has received dozens of calls from the news media about the Obama administration’s effort to improve the schools that rank among lowest-achieving 5 percent of schools in each state. This year, most of those schools in every state received substantial federal School Improvement Grants, often
March is national reading month — and a good time to focus on some rather bleak news about the reading gap between boys and girls. From elementary through high school, males are reading at lower levels than females. This doesn’t bode well for future job opportunities for men or for
Last fall on the campaign trail, Mike Lee, Utah’s new Tea-Party-backed senator, boldly asserted that: “…Congress has no business regulating our nation’s public education system, and has created problems whenever it has attempted to do so.” Other Tea Party candidates picked up this popular refrain. And increasingly other conservatives are
