As Congress considers the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA), there is bipartisan interest in finding ways to address concerns about student debt and the quality of higher education. One possibility for bipartisan cooperation might be an attempt to provide more accountability in the higher education sector, including additional data…

There are at least four key places where the Common Core intersects with current efforts to improve education in the United States--testing, professional development, expectations, and accountability. Understanding them can help educators, parents, and policymakers maximize the chance that the Common Core is helpful to these efforts and, perhaps…

Above all else, the American creed is one of liberty and opportunity. In the 21st century, whether the topic is economic opportunity, responsible citizenship, or political engagement, the role of education is more significant than ever before. That means political and civic leaders committed to a vision of opportunity--and especially to equal…

Extended learning opportunities have emerged as a useful way to rethink how schools are organized and funded. That includes reconsidering who teaches and how they go about their work. That effort should be guided by four key policy considerations and goals: 1. Reengineer the role of teacher. 2. Rethink K-12, higher education, and community-based…

More than a decade ago, Michael Lewis penned the influential book "Moneyball." An examination of how Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane used data to make his franchise competitive with wealthier baseball teams, the book struck a chord. Beane's strategy of making decisions based on data had a powerful and positive impact on the…

Answering the question of how a Romney administration would tackle education requires us to keep three things in mind. First, education is a minor issue in this election and would be a secondary concern for a Republican President focused on economic growth, the deficit, tax cuts, and reversing the Affordable Care Act. Second, there are few stark…

For more than a century, school boards have endeavored to govern America's schools and school systems. Collectively, the nation's nearly 14,000 school boards are responsible for the well-being of 52 million children, the expenditure of $600 billion per year, and the supervision of six million employees. Despite the magnitude of this…

In 2011, Indiana's legislature reshaped the state's education policy landscape with a package of laws that enabled local leaders to make swift and potentially sweeping changes to district and school operations. The Hoosier State's reforms, dubbed by supporters as the "Putting Students First" agenda, provide a valuable case study of the…

Digital learning makes possible the "unbundling" of school provisions--that is, it allows children to be served by providers from almost anywhere, in new and more customized ways. At the same time, because it destandardizes and decentralizes educational delivery, digital education is far harder to bring under the yoke of the…

In the run-up to the 2000 presidential election, candidate George W. Bush and his advisors made a strategic decision to appropriate educational rhetoric generally associated with Democrats and the left. This decision helped Bush present himself as "different kind of Republican" and a "compassionate conservative" and to…

What to do about persistently low-performing schools is a pressing challenge for policymakers and educators across the nation. Schools that fail to make "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) for five consecutive years under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) must be "restructured". The 3,500 schools in the United States currently in…

Education reformers have long questioned whether school boards have become an anachronism. Pointing to promising efforts in Boston and New York City, some have argued for handing over control of school districts to mayors. A review of the research suggests that advocates overstate the evidence and underestimate the pitfalls, but, on balance,…

Some four decades after the advent of collective bargaining in public education, the labor agreements it has produced now touch virtually all aspects of school district operations, from how teachers are paid and assigned to how they can be evaluated, how or whether they can be disciplined or fired, when and where they complete professional…

Today, state education agencies (SEAs) and their leaders face unprecedented demands. What was once a low-profile job of managing federal aid, providing curricular guidance, and ensuring compliance with various legal obligations is now a far more visible and politically fraught task. The new roles required of state education agencies due to the No…

After five years of experience with the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), and with reauthorization looming, it is time to draw some conclusions about how the act has actually unfolded--and how it ought to be changed. A new book from the AEI Press by Frederick M. Hess and Chester E. Finn Jr., "No Remedy Left Behind: Lessons from A Half-Decade…