This is a translation of an article which appeared in September 2024 in Education Week. The original English version of the article also appears on this site. In English the title of the article is Federal Education Reform Has Largely Failed. Unfortunately, We Still Need It. La Reforma Educativa Federal
In the days ahead, friends will convene to honor the life and deeds of Marshall Smith. Popularly known as “Mike,” he was a master in the area of education policy, leaving a lasting imprint on American school reform. Few people in the country have had a career as broad or
Fatigued by School Reform, by Jack Jennings After a half-a-century of school reform, a majority of Americans consider the public schools as worse today than when they attended school. Those reforms missed the mark because they were not focused on the backgrounds of the students’ parents–by far the most important
Fifty Years of Federal Aid to Schools: Back into the Future? Jack Jennings* Excerpts from an article appearing in Volume 3 Education Law & Policy Review 2016 In 1965, the federal government began to provide major financial aid for education to states and local school districts. The Elementary and Secondary
Higher education has a bone to pick with public schools. Too many high school graduates entering colleges and universities are not prepared for post-secondary education. That complaint is true enough, but the missing element is that lower education cannot improve unless higher education gets much more involved in helping. The
John Thompson is a truth-teller. A Teacher’s Tale, his new book, honestly addresses the toughest issue in American education—how to improve urban schools impacted by concentrations of poor children. Thompson worked in higher education and then did legislative lobbying until at the age of 39 he decided to become a
No other federal law has generated more hostility from teachers and other educators than the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). That statute has been denounced for causing too much testing of school children, making teachers “teach to the test” to avoid penalties, and mandating the use of unproven improvement
Today, attention is on the Congress as it addresses changes to the No Child Left Behind Act. That action is overdue since the law expired eight years ago. But, it must be understood that congressional amendments are merely removing unpopular requirements, not creating a new agenda to improve the nation’s
