Unsolved problems – and signs of hope – as 2012 dawns
The challenges and opportunities of the year ahead.
The challenges and opportunities of the year ahead.
Setting the record straight on Diane Ravitch.
Guest blogger Paul Teske reflects on the future of digital learning and Paul T. Hill's "School Finance in the Digital Learning Era."
School reformers are a dime a dozen these days, with education policy a suddenly sexy field and more than a few people willing to challenge the status quo.
“Consequential accountability,” à la No Child Left Behind and the high-stakes state testing systems that preceded it, corresponded with a significant one-time boost in student achievement, particularly in primary and middle school math.
After more than ten years under NCLB, that law’s legacy continues to be fiercely contested. This analysis of NAEP scores—focusing on Texas and on the entire nation—by former NCES commissioner Mark Schneider finds that solid gains in math achievement coincided with the advent of "consequential accountability," first in the trailblazing Lone Star State and a few other pioneer states, then across the land with the implementation of NCLB. But Schneider warns that the recent plateau in Texas math scores may foreshadow a coming stagnation in the country’s performance. Has the testing-and-accountability movement as we know it run out of steam? How else might we rekindle our nation’s education progress?