This document presents the opening chapter of Quality Counts 2020, Education Week's annual, comparative examination of the nation's public education system based on a wealth of academic, financial, and socioeconomic factors analyzed by the EdWeek Research Center. This January installment--Chance for Success--is the first of three Quality Counts…

"Quality Counts 2019: School Finance," is the second installment of "Education Week's" annual evaluation of the nation's K-12 school system. This report in the series focuses on an issue of immediate practical concern to every school leader, policymaker, parent, and member of the public: money--how much there is for schools,…

Stagnation or promise? The third and final installment of "Quality Counts 2019" offers evidence for both in an annual summing up of the nation's K-12 system. The Education Week Research Center analyzed dozens of factors ranging from the academic to the socioeconomic in coming up with its all-inclusive state rankings and A-F grades. The…

In statehouses and cities across the country, battles are raging over the direction of education policy--from the standards that will shape what students learn to how test results will be used to judge a teacher's performance. Students and teachers, in passive resistance, are refusing to take and give standardized tests. Protesters have marched to…

The author reports on how cash-strapped school districts turn to outside groups for help in paying for staff and academic essentials, prompting frustration from some. In states and school districts still struggling to recover from recession-induced funding cuts, parent and community groups are feeling the pressure to raise money for instructional…

As the governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007, Mitt Romney championed aggressive education policies later embraced by the Obama administration and by other states. But for most of his second run at the Republican presidential nomination, voters have heard little about his education record in Massachusetts or initiatives that Mr. Romney was…

The use of analytic tools to predict student performance is exploding in higher education, and experts say the tools show even more promise for K-12 schools, in everything from teacher placement to dropout prevention. Use of such statistical techniques is hindered in precollegiate schools, however, by a lack of researchers trained to help…

States jockey for position as the U.S. Education Department readies billions of dollars in "Race to the Top" awards--the stimulus program's grand prize. Even before they've finished spending their first block of federal stimulus aid, states are getting a head start in a national "race to the top" for better public education,…

Billions in federal economic-stimulus dollars are slated to be spent to help improve public education, but Americans relying on traditional news outlets are likely to find out little, if anything, about what that effort might mean for the schools in their communities, a new report suggests. That's because education coverage of any type barely…

A report from Education Sector raises questions about the ability of charter schools and charter-management organizations (CMOs) to scale up as dramatically as their supporters might hope. "The extraordinary demands of educating disadvantaged students to higher standards, the challenges of attracting the talent required to do that work, the burden…

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…

Chicago has become a hotbed of "venture philanthropy" in education, as two local foundations contribute not only money, but also the hands-on work of some of the city's wealthiest and most influential residents, to help improve the schools in the nation's third-largest district. These two venture-philanthropy funds consist of the…

The eagerly awaited federal guidelines on some $100 billion in stimulus funding for public education aim to pump money out quickly, while giving the U.S. Department of Education leverage to demand improvements from states and districts. But those same states and districts are also warned not to expect the hefty sums for K-12 programs in the…

Hard-to-grasp dollar amounts are forcing real cuts in K-12 education at a time when the cost of fueling buses and providing school lunches is increasing and the demands of the federal No Child Left Behind Act still loom larger over states and districts. "One of the real challenges is to continue progress in light of the economy," said…

Technology-based forces of "disruptive innovation" are gathering around public education and will overhaul the way K-12 students learn--with potentially dramatic consequences for established public schools, according to an upcoming book that draws parallels to disruptions in other industries. In his "Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation…