This article reports that the National standards--once the untouchable "third rail" of American education policy--now have the backing of the nation's governors, a growing number of education leaders, and the U.S. secretary of education. The National Governors Association last week adopted a policy statement endorsing a process to develop common…

In the continuing debate about American competitiveness in the global economy, politicians and educators alike have pointed not to students' test scores, but to their creativity and ingenuity, as models for the rest of the world. Teaching creativity has been a hot-button topic this fall, from the National Academy of Education's annual meeting in…

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…

Large companies and major business groups are known for hiring well-heeled lobbyists to push for their interests, especially in such areas as tax and spending laws. Their federal lobbying presence on education issues has been relatively modest. The author discusses the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable--two prominent…

Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and several key senators traveled to India last week to examine how that country, whose schools generally have fewer resources than those in the United States, has managed to produce top-notch engineers and technology professionals. Secretary Spellings arrived in India early in the week and met with…

For the past decade and a half, the fight to improve America's schools has been fought largely on two fronts: academic standards as one battleground, and accountability the other, with the issue of mandatory testing adding heat to a very public--and increasingly politicized--debate. The questions for policymakers and educators are as direct as…

This article reports that two University of Pennsylvania researchers are questioning a basic tenet of national efforts to enhance U.S. economic competitiveness: the idea that colleges and universities are producing too few mathematics and science teachers to meet the demand in the nation's classrooms. Richard M. Ingersoll, a professor of education…

Proposals to make high school more rigorous continue to surface in the states. Governors, lawmakers, and blue-ribbon panels are championing the plans, which are fueled by local and national concerns about economic competitiveness and jobs. But the agenda is growing to included calls for better middle school preparation, more flexible options for…

Business leaders from important sectors of the American economy have been urging schools to set higher standards in math and science--and California officials, in mandating that 8th graders be tested in introductory algebra, have responded with one of the highest such standards in the land. Still, many California educators and school…

Preparing students to succeed in the workforce is increasingly seen as a key to global competitiveness. But employers aren't sending clear-cut answers on what young people need to know and be able to do on the job. In efforts to obtain information about workforce readiness, various agencies sent out surveys to various employers. One such agency is…

The Department of Education's May 2, 2006 announcement of a variety of methods that high schools may use to provide a "rigorous" curriculum to allow low-income graduates to qualify for a new federal college-grant program was welcome news to those who had feared that the government's reach into the classroom was too expansive. Students who complete…

Back in 1983, the National Commission on Excellence on Education issued a dire warning: The United States' "once unchallenged, pre-eminence in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout the world." Policy observers say such calls have been a leitmotif in the national discourse on…

With an urgency not seen in decades, policy leaders concerned about America's global competitiveness and widening income gaps within U.S. society are propelling issues of academic and workforce preparation to the forefront of the nation's education policy debates. Worried that current expectations and structure are ill suited to the 21st century…

At a time when many policymakers and business leaders are clamoring for American children to take up the languages of Asia and the Middle East to help buttress the United States' international competitiveness and national security, the policies and resources are as much of a mismatch as the languages that are being taught. More than 90 percent of…