The Common Core State Standards initiative (CCSS) seeks to "provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn" at various grade levels. For some education observers, CCSS will finally clarify for students, parents, and educators what students need to know and be able to do if they are to be prepared for…

Most people express strong opinions about public education. Only a few know the basic facts about the public schools: (1) how much they spend; (2) how well teachers are paid; and (3) what schools can and cannot do. What happens when the public learns the facts about schools and deliberates responsibly about public education? A series of…

This article presents the findings from the 2009 "Education Next" and Harvard's Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) survey which asks if information changes minds about school reform. The authors fielded the survey in March of 2009, when newly elected president Barack Obama enjoyed public approval ratings above 60 percent. The timing…

In school districts across the nation, voters elect fellow citizens to their local school boards and charge them with the core tasks of district management--hiring administrators, writing budgets, negotiating teacher contracts, and determining standards and curriculum among them. Whatever the task, the basic purpose of all school board activities…

In the contentious world of education politics, the need to spend more on public schools stands out as a rare point of agreement. The authors' recent national survey of American adults ("What Americans Think about Their Schools," Fall 2007) found that those who support increased spending on public schools in their district outnumber those who want…

Americans clearly have had their fill of a sluggish economy and an unpopular war. Their frustration now may also extend to public education. This article presents the results of the second annual national survey of U.S. adults conducted under the auspices of "Education Next" and the Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) at Harvard…

Americans both care about their schools and want them to improve. Though adults give the nation's public schools only mediocre grades, they are willing to invest more money in public education and they are reasonably confident that doing so will improve student learning. They are also open to a host of school reforms ranging from high-stakes…

It is not unusual for interest groups to issue reports that further their own political agendas--and to muddle the facts in the process. For this reason, newspapers generally ignore them, treat them with great skepticism, or make sure they properly vet the research with independent observers. Not so in the case of the study of charter schools…

In this article, the author takes an inside look at efforts in Worcester, Massachusetts to offer families the opportunities promised by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Worcester is the third largest school system in the state of Massachusetts, serving roughly 25,000 students in 46 public schools (36 elementary, 4 middle, 5 high, and one…

In "The Education Gap: Vouchers and Urban Schools" (Brookings, 2002), the authors and their colleagues reported that attending a private school had no discernible impact, positive or negative, on the test scores of non-African-American students participating in school voucher programs in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Dayton, Ohio. But after…