In 19th century England, children were told by their parents that if they didn’t behave, Father Christmas would bring them coal for Christmas instead of nice presents. Two weeks ago, American children in large urban school districts did not produce the higher test scores hoped for by adults. Does this
Benchmarking is popular in business. After studying the performance of the top companies in a particular arena, other companies emulate the leaders’ best practices seeking the same level of success. This method has made its way into education. For example, the new common state standards for reading and mathematics were
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
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
