Education in America

A few years ago educational standards and national testing seemed on their way. But the push for standards has set off predictable reactions from different quarters. Ironically, testing now may be downgraded in importance.

The conventional wisdom is that American students perform woefully compared to their foreign peers. Not so: America’s kids stack up far better than the critics allow. But there is much to learn from experience abroad about improving our schools.

Surprisingly, even without federal mandates, the states have both increased and equalized school outlays. There is a political lesson here — about coalition building and grassroots activism.

Where the get-tough movement in education gets it wrong.

Despite significant improvement in recent decades, blacks still score consistently lower than whites on tests of academic performance. But recent studies show that the gap is not genetic in origin and suggest how it can be closed.

I n 1993, an innovative group of parents and teachers received permission to create the Minnesota New Country School. Despite its early success, the school has demonstrated how even the most successful charter schools are unlikely to improve a state’s educational system. Opened in 1994, the school is located in the small town of Le […]

T he schools in the southern section of Sacramento City are generally among the district’s worst. The neighborhood is one of the city’s poorest and many of its students come from a burgeoning immigrant population that often does not speak English at home. But something surprising is happening at Bowling Green Elementary, the district’s only […]

Boston’s Renaissance Charter School initially foundered when it apparently attempted to discourage the enrollment of disabled children (although the school’s Edison Project sponsor has always insisted that these efforts violated its policies). This year Renaissance reformed its special education program in an attempt to bring it more in line with Edison’s own stated ideals and […]

In exchange for autonomy from school districts, charter schools promise to achieve measurable progress in children’s performance. But the movement is based on a dubious premise.