American schools are not as good as they need to be, according to President Obama, the Republican presidential candidates, business leaders, and many others. It has not been for want of trying to improve education, so the problem must be the way we have gone about it. Over the last
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
During last month’s Republican primary debate in Orlando, something very significant — and dangerous — happened. All of the candidates agreed that education should not be a concern of the federal government. Romney said the federal government should get out of education. Huntsman declared that to improve education we need
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
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
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
