Welcome
I’m Jack Jennings. My web site is dedicated to the improvement of public education by using objective analyses based on sound data.
Several years ago, at a congressional hearing which I had organized, committee chair Gus Hawkins asked the disputing witnesses if they could at least agree on what the data showed. The witnesses were taken aback and did not know how to respond. They could only repeat their earlier testimony which was irrelevant to the question. In fact, they were using data not as a guide but rather as a way to support their previously determined positions.
My beliefs were greatly influenced by my experiences in the 27 years I worked for the U.S. Congress. This career was made possible by four Congressmen who were leaders of the Committee on Education and Labor in the House of Representatives. Although these men represented very different parts of the country, they shared a belief that the federal government had a role in education.
Roman Pucinski of Chicago, Carl Perkins of Kentucky, Gus Hawkins of Los Angeles, and Bill Ford of suburban Detroit each believed that the federal government ought to work to improve education and to encourage people to gain as much schooling and training as possible.
Congressman Pucinski, hired me just out of law school, Congressmen Perkins, Hawkins, and Ford retained and promoted me although they had no obligation to do so. In 1995, that portion of my career ended when I retired. I am grateful for the opportunity to create legislation to improve education despite obstacles as seen in the earlier reference to the Hawkins hearing. A specially critical area is aid for poor children, with controversies over accountability, tuition vouchers, and many other ideas.
To help you with your research, the material is arranged by topic and by date published. Also, the newest entries are shown below.
The idea behind Oldies But Goodies is that earlier postings which are still relevant in today’s policy debates ought to be brought back for another viewing. Several times a month different ones will be posted mostly from a pool of 43 blogs that I wrote for the HuffPost. If you can’t wait and want to read all those blogs, go to https://www.huffpost.com/author/jackjenningsdc-435
Oldies But Goodies
A Civil Right to a Good Education (January 2012)
The results of the latest student test results were disappointing. Both PISA, an internationally sponsored exam, and the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the U.S. government tests, found that students’ education suffered during the pandemic. Particularly sad were the low scores of children from the families with the lowest incomes.
American educators are working to reverse these trends, but they need help.
The U.S. should enact a law requiring that every child receive a good education. If necessary, this statute could be limited in its range to class action lawsuits and not permit an individual right to sue. That provision would make the administration of the law more manageable without limiting its effectiveness.
We must do more than we are doing now and we should do it in a different way. How many more reports do we need?
Below is a blog I wrote in January, 2012 about this issue for the HuffPost. Jack Jennings
by Jack Jennings, first published by the HuffPost on January 30, 2012.
Literary Works by Jack Jennings
I have had three careers in my life: working for Congress for 27 years, establishing and running a Washington-based think tank, and writing fiction. My first attempt in this new career was the following article on getting older.
Fatigued by School Reform
Latest book by Jack Jennings available online and at many bookstores.
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 them. This book concludes that the country’s major reforms missed the mark because they did not address adequately the great influence of family backgrounds on school success, as the Coleman Report of 1966 clearly documented.
Fatigued by School Reform shows the importance of involving parents in their children’s education, and helping poor and lower middle class students to overcome the limitations of low socio-economic status. Also essential is raising teacher quality.
A fundamental part of school reform, however, has been ignored by almost all reformers. If economic and social conditions are improved leading to better family backgrounds, student performance should also improve. Students’ family backgrounds are that influential.
This book was published in 2020. A year later President Biden secured one-year funding that would reduce the number of poor children in school by nearly one-half. Senator Bennet (Dem. Colo.) said that this change was really school reform.
As of summer 2022, Biden and Bennet’s one-year funding has not been extended; both, however, have said they will continue to press forward. Fatigued by School Reform shows the need for this policy or for similar changes.
Long-lasting school improvement is dependent on factors outside the school building. That is the key conclusion of this book.
Available now at:
Privileging the Few over the Many in Education
Ideas matter. In education, an under-appreciated but powerful example of the impact of ideas can be found in the influence of Ayn Rand, a Russian-American novelist and polemicist who died in 1982. In Rand's case, her ideas have helped to shape an environment where the...
Why Tests Should Not Be Used to Measure Teacher Performance
Many states have reformed their teacher evaluation systems to hold public school teachers accountable for the academic achievement of their students. The hope is that if teachers are measured by the improvement -- or lack thereof -- in their students' achievement,...
The Neglected Purpose of Education
"To prepare all citizens to become responsible members of a democratic society" "To develop socialization and citizenship skills in children" "Preparing students for responsible, productive citizenship and imbuing them with values common to one democratic society"...
Proportion of U.S. Students in Private Schools is 10 Percent and Declining
One in 10 U.S. students in grades preK-12 attends a private school, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education. Surprised it's not a higher share? Perhaps even more surprisingly, the private school share of total enrollments has decreased...
California Is Back!
Educators in the Nation's largest state are breathing a deep sigh of relief that public schooling has been freed from the political and economic morass in which it has been mired for over a decade. Bottles of champagne are not yet being popped because educators want...
Breaking the Congressional Logjam on Education
Daily, members of Congress orate on the need for American schools to improve. Yet today, the legislation authorizing every major federal program to assist education has expired or will soon lapse due to the lack of action by Congress. The only way these programs...
Mind the Gap!
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....
Making Neighborhood Schools Better: Hard Work, Not Magic
Many people hope that magic solutions can be found to improve low-performing schools. Philanthropists, hedge fund millionaires, and others interested in reform have put their funds and faith in charter schools or virtual learning, as though these approaches have...
“Heroes” Aren’t Just Men and Women in Military Uniforms
Two basic functions are essential to democratic societies: educating the young and defending citizens from attack. But in the U.S. today, quite different attitudes have developed about each of these functions. In a nutshell, our nation's schools are considered...
When Politics Comes First: The Reasons Republicans Shifted to Supporting Private Schools
Mitt Romney has pledged that if elected president he will enact a voucher program that would allow parents of low-income and special needs students "to choose from any district or public charter school, or a private school where permitted by state law." This position...
The Power to Motivate
The classic scene from a sports movie occurs in the locker room at half time when the coach delivers a rousing speech to motivate the players to win. Beneath this cliché lies a basic truth -- that in sports, the desire of the players to do their best is as essential...
The Learning First Alliance Names Jack Jennings as its 2012 Education Visionary Award Winner
Read the press release here!
A Civil Right to a Good Education
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....
Coal for Christmas
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...
Have We Gotten It Wrong on School Reform?
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...
A Serious Step Backward
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...
A Ray of Sunlight in Education
The nation is awash in pessimism. Persistent unemployment, continuing wars, unexpected earthquakes, searing droughts, and drenching hurricanes have dampened the usual optimism of the American people. This week, a ray of sunlight pierced the clouds of doom. According...
Teacher Pay: U.S. Ranks 22nd Out of 27 Countries
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...
School Vouchers: No Clear Advantage in Academic Achievement
In the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s, private school advocates tried to build support for tuition vouchers, payments of public tax funds for private school tuition. President Richard Nixon most notably endorsed this idea. Proponents of vouchers argued that parents who...
Education Budget Cuts Imperil Reform
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...