This article reports on a campaign, dubbed "ED in '08" and announced last spring, that was billed as an attempt to make K-12 education a top issue in the presidential election. So far, though, most analysts have seen little evidence that the ED in '08 campaign--financed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Broad Foundation--is succeeding…

Amid a struggling economy, a raft of foreign-policy headaches, and the tail end of a heated campaign season, President Barack Obama carved out time in his schedule last month to watch students in the State Dining Room demonstrate a solar-powered model car, a water-purification system, and a soccer-playing robot. The science fair was the fifth…

When President Barack Obama pledged on the campaign trail last September to step up federal aid for "successful" charter schools, he was touching on a matter of mounting concern: how to ensure better and more consistent quality across the growing charter sector. Amid worry about the mixed academic results for charter schools--and a belief that too…

Kicked off the week of April 10, 2006 with a big plug on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," a new campaign spearheaded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is aiming to drum up public action to address what its organizers see as a crisis in America's public high schools. The Stand Up campaign comes as high schools have emerged as a focus of public-policy…

This article deals with President Bush's plan to push for expanded accountability in high school. President Bush will enter his second term with a range of campaign plans on education, from expanded testing demands to new cash awards for effective teachers, only some of which are likely to become law. One thing is clear, the controversial No Child…

This article discusses the reason behind President Bush's selection of Margaret Spellings as his new secretary of education. President Bush's decision to nominate Margaret Spellings, his chief domestic-policy adviser, as the new U.S. secretary of education, signals a steady course on education policymaking from the administration. It also suggests…

Margaret Spellings, 47, was named in November by President Bush to replace Education Secretary Rod Paige, who tendered his resignation shortly after the 2004 election. Spellings has won strong votes of confidence from both sides of the political aisle, as well as from national education groups. And yet, at least some educators outside the…

There's no doubt that President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry, the two major-party candidates in the hard-fought presidential contest, part company on some education issues. President Bush, for instance, backs private school vouchers while Senator Kerry wants to see bigger spending increases for schools. This article discusses how much…