More than seven years ago, President George W. Bush signed No Child Left Behind (NCLB) into law. Sweeping calls for testing, intervening in persistently low-performing schools, and policing teacher quality made it the most ambitious legislation on K-12 schooling in American history. The law, due for congressional reauthorization in 2007, still…

In November 2002, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) was dissolved. Out of the reorganization arose two new offices within the department, the Institute of Education Sciences and the Office of Innovation and Improvement, signaling the Bush administration's commitment to both scientifically…

The onetime head of the U.S. Department of Education's research and development efforts challenges the department's new Office of Innovation and Improvement to support well-designed, promising improvements in American educational practice without frittering away federal funds on one-shot hot ideas and hucksters. (MLF)

Historical review of the education commission precursors to "A Nation at Risk," beginning with the recommendations of the Committee of Ten in 1893. Lauds important contributions of "Risk" report such as the need for schools to have high expectations and a reasonably rigorous academic curriculum for all students. (PKP)

Three articles examine whether school choice will undermine the common culture. The first remembers the author's own historical and literary educational canon. The second worries more about the current crop of state tests than the effects of school choice. The third predicts that choice is less harmful to the culture than are the effects of…

Argues that school choice runs counter to the common culture taught in most American public schools until the late 1960s. Discusses reasons why schools no longer teach a common culture. States that if the public schools returned to teaching a common American culture, school choice would be less compelling. (PKP)