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...
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...
The only valid national assessment of the nation’s public schools must be improved.
The current federal education law rests on the same faulty foundation as the last law.
Insultingly low wages for many, more students needing extra assistance, and great pressure to raise student test scores and graduation rates. Meanwhile, politicians orate about the importance of education....
DC's public schools' progress is tainted by some phony "improvement" due to enormous pressure to produce higher graduation rates and test scores. Better education will come when the emphasis is on real factors such as teacher quality....
The academic achievement of elementary and secondary students from the 1970s through to the current decade is shown through the unique Long-term Trend Assessments, but the usefulness of that trend line measurement is imperiled by a proposed delay of 12 years until its next administration. This paper argues for greater support for this assessment.
During the last fifteen years, the reputation of the federal government in education has gone downhill.
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Fifty years ago, President Lyndon Johnson launched a campaign to improve education, especially of children from low-income families. An unprecedented billion dollars of new aid was sent to the schools under the first part or "title" of the Elementary and Secondary...
Congress is finally grappling with which parts of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) ought to be repealed or retained. Various officials, and the president who must sign the final agreement, have different lists. After the squabbling, a shadow of a national school...
The Phi Delta Kappan magazine (April 2015) contains an article written by Jack Jennings on the 50th anniversary of the enactment of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the fundamental federal law in the area of education. ESEA at 50 should be available through http://pdk.sagepub.com/content/96/7.toc.
Test-driven accountability has produced a negative atmosphere for school reform, without fulfilling its promise of general improvement. The country must move to a positive, long-term improvement strategy based on research and educators’ experiences. The following article by Jack Jennings, which appeared in Education Week the week of February 23, 2015, describes this need drawing from his book, Presidents, Congress, and the Public Schools (Harvard Education Press).
When shopping for a car, dishwasher, or cell phone, a prospective buyer will often go to the Consumer Reports to learn about important aspects of the possible purchase. How does the product's performance compare to that of its competitors--and why? What are an item's...
In March the Harvard Education Press released a new book by Jack Jennings. Presidents, Congress, and the Public Schools analyzes a half century of national school improvement efforts, such as Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the No Child Left...
By 2014, every child should be proficient in reading/English language arts and mathematics. In so many words, this noble purpose was established in 2002 by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) as the Nation's guiding principle for improving public education. But,...
It's late August, and thoughts are turning toward getting the kids ready for school. It seems hardly a few weeks ago that school was over for the summer, and here it is time for them to go back. Kids will be in a higher grade than last year, and they are speculating...
A blizzard of education reports and studies appears every year. This swirl of information, analysis, and commentary -- some of which is contradictory -- makes it difficult to understand the condition of America's public schools. In short, are the schools getting...
American tourists are often amused when traveling on the London "tube" to hear the announcement at each station to "mind the gap." This attention-getting advice is meant to warn passengers exiting the subway car to step over the space between the car and the platform....
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...