More than 40 states plan to assess student performance with new tests tied to the Common Core State Standards. In summer 2013, results from Common Core-aligned tests in New York showed a steep decline in outcomes. Common Core advocates hailed the scores as an honest accounting of school and student performance, while others worried that they…

This article describes the results of a California state law established in 2010 that created "Districts of Choice." The District of Choice law was meant to encourage districts to compete for students by offering innovative programs and this-school-fits-my-child options that parents wanted. This designation meant that children from any…

This article presents an interview with Terry Grier, superintendent of the Houston Independent School District (HISD), Texas's largest district. Before taking this post, he had been a principal or superintendent for most of three decades and remains a reformer five years into his leadership. Grier has maintained his passion for improving…

Education entrepreneurs create either a for-profit or nonprofit enterprise, based on their fundraising needs, the revenue model that will suit their product or service, and the employees they hope to entice. Those who take the for-profit route face mistrust on the part of policymakers and many parents, and for-profit ventures have consequently…

Scott Hamilton is the Forrest Gump of education reform, although with a lot more IQ points and fewer chocolates. He worked for Bill Bennett in the U.S. Department of Education and for Benno Schmidt at the Edison Project. He authorized charter schools in Massachusetts, co-founded the KIPP network, quadrupled the size of Teach For America (TFA), and…

In this article, June Kronholz talks to co-chief executives of Teach For America (TFA), Elisa Villanueva Beard and Matt Kramer about how TFA has managed to keep its forward momentum for almost 24 years. Four primary reasons are discussed: (1) Common Vision, Regional Innovation; (2) Data-Driven Improvement; (3) Global Reach; and (4) Stoking the…

The past few years have seen a raft of efforts to reform teacher evaluation, pay, and tenure. Amid all this, less attention has been paid to another thorny question, the role of teacher preparation in licensing teachers for the field. In this issue's forum, both contributors agree that teacher preparation requires some big changes. Making the…

Washington is at a crossroads on K-12 education policy. Policymakers can (1) continue down the path of top-down accountability; (2) devolve power to states and districts, thereby returning to the status quo of the mid-1990s; or (3) rethink the fundamentals, do something different, and empower parental choice. This article discusses how the federal…

This article shares the author's vision for a more responsive education system. States can create a more agile, more American, system of governance that eliminates impediments to improvement, empowers schools to innovate, and uses data to help families find the right schools for their children. The author presents four proposals that would move…

Michigan's former governor, John Engler, was naturally attracted to charter schools. He had seen for too long how school districts treated students as their property and the state as an endless funding source, and he wanted that to change. Engler saw the chartering strategy as a politically viable means for gaining leverage over school districts…

Five years after Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans public schools bear little resemblance to the disintegrating system that was further undone by the catastrophic flood. Two-thirds of city schools in 2004 were rated "Academically Unacceptable" under Louisiana's accountability standards; in 2010, about 4 in 10 rate that designation, and the…

Merit pay proponents argue that monetary incentives for better teaching can improve the quality of instruction in the nation's classrooms. Yet only a handful of studies have evaluated the impact of teacher merit pay on student achievement. These studies offer no conclusive recommendations regarding the optimal role of merit pay in U.S. school…

In this article, the author talks about the resignation of New York State's commissioner of education David Steiner, and how it will affect the state's Race to the Top. He contends that Steiner was savvy enough to understand the importance of Race to the Top and able enough to turn the state's education energies toward it. The "Washington Post"…

The Supreme Court declared in 1954 that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." Into the 1970s, urban education reform focused predominantly on making sure that African American students had the opportunity to attend school with their white peers. Now, however, most reformers take as a given that the typical low-income minority…

For as long as there have been struggling schools in America's cities, there have been efforts to turn them around. But overall, school turnaround efforts have consistently fallen far short of hopes and expectations. Quite simply, turnarounds are not a scalable strategy for fixing America's troubled urban school systems. Fortunately, findings from…