EXPLAINED: What Are Standardized Tests and Why Do We Need Them?

Few education topics get parents, teachers, and school leaders more riled up than discussions about using results from student tests to measure the quality of…

The Epidemic We’re Not Talking About: Most High School Seniors Can’t Read or Do Math

The National Assessment for Education Progress (NAEP)—nicknamed “America’s Report Card”—released their 12th grade scores at the end of October.  The horrifying results: Just 37% of 12th-graders reached or…

Mr. Biden, Will You Stand Up for Every Child, or Just Be Another Politician?

Dear Mr. President-elect Biden,  You have given us all a welcomed message: I pledge to be a president who does not see red or blue states,…

To See the Real Picture on NAEP, You Have to Know Where to Look

It would be all too easy to see the grim headlines about the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores as the whole…

Here’s Why You Should Worry Less About Your Kid’s Happiness and More About Their Test Scores

We’ve known this for a while, but here’s another survey to add fuel to the fire: Parents tend to inflate their kids’ academic progress and…

Coffee Break: Richard Kahlenberg on Knocking Down School District Walls That Separate Kids by Race and Class

Richard Kahlenberg is perhaps the nation’s leading proponent of the idea that for kids to succeed, schools must be places where families of all economic…

A Little Ditty About Donald and Diane

Donald Trump thinks the Common Core State Standards are a disaster and so does education historian turned anti-education reform advocate Diane Ravitch. This puts Ravitch…

For Millions of Students, the Entire K-12 Education System Is a Sham

Scores for 12th graders on the NAEP math and reading assessments were released this week, and the news wasn’t good. Reading scores were flat (and have…

We Have the Test Scores, Now What?

When I picked my daughter up from school that day, her usual, gleeful “Hi Mommy” did not enter the car. Instead I was greeted by…

Inside the Perfect Political Storm That’s Forcing Gov. Cuomo to Backpedal on New York Education Reform

These are whiplash-inducing times for public schools in New York, as state education leaders keep hitting the brakes on the very reforms they had aggressively…