school grades

Here’s the One Thing We Just Can’t Agree on When It Comes to Schools
Ask any parent and they’ll tell you they want their child to go to a good school. But ask them what makes a good school,…

3 Truths Every Parent Needs to Know About D.C. Public Schools Graduation Scandal
D.C. Public Schools is having a moment. Last month, reporters found out a lot of kids graduated from their high schools that shouldn’t have—mostly for…

Bad Schools Are Like Restaurants With Cockroaches, We Like Them Until We Discover the Cockroaches
When I sent my oldest child to school for the first time I wasn’t sure my wife and I had made the right choice. I…

Kentucky’s 5-Star School Rating System is Poised for Greatness, But They Could Still Screw it up
If Kentucky’s new education plan lives up to expectations, it’s going to get a lot easier to understand how public schools are doing in the…

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: Hanna Skandera on Her Preferred Coffee Shade, New Mexico’s Rise and Truth-Telling
The schools of New Mexico have benefitted from strong and stable leadership at the state level for the past seven years. During that time, Secretary…

How States Are Approaching School Accountability
For the most part, what states measure for school quality has already been decided by federal law under the Every Student Succeeds Act. Every state,…

Before You Panic About Your High School Ranking, Find Out What the Data Really Says.
Oh, the angst that could be prevented by a bit of accurate data. One of my neighbors recently posted to our community Facebook group lamenting…

Parents Can’t Just Use Test Scores to Choose a School. They Need the Whole Story.
Whenever parents would get into a discussion about “good schools” and “bad schools,” I would urge them to look beyond the simple rankings of test…

A Parent’s Guide to the Changes Coming to Florida Schools
Let’s just start with the bottom line: Florida lawmakers passed a big education bill Monday that is mostly good for kids: It protects recess for…