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...
Jack Jennings
Federal Aid to the Schools–Wasteful or Helpful?
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...
Turning Around the Lowest Performing Schools: A Noble Goal and a Daunting Challenge
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...
Can Boys Succeed In Later Life If They Can’t Read As Well As Girls?
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...
Get the Federal Government Out of Education? That Wasn’t the Founding Fathers’ Vision
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...