Unless school leaders do more to help teachers, students, parents, taxpayers, and other key groups understand the need for change and the key roles they can play, school improvement will be spotty and nearly impossible to sustain, writes Public Agenda senior fellow Jean Johnson. Citing multiple surveys of these groups conducted by Public Agenda,…

The nonprofit organization Common Core looked at curriculums, standards, and assessments in nine nations that consistently outrank the United States on the Programme for International Assessment (PISA) to see whether differences in countries' PISA scores are due to differences in the content they teach. Findings revealed that top-performing…

High school is boring, writes the author, in part because lock-step diploma requirements crowd out personalized and engaged learning. It is also boring because current content standards are based on traditional, subject-area notions of curriculum instead of on the essential question, What do students need to be well prepared for their adult lives?…

In its analysis of more than 15,000 high school transcripts, the Education Trust-West found that non-college-bound students tend to take a weak academic load and disconnected electives. As a result, far too many students--most often low-income students and students of color--are bound for low-level jobs, prepared for neither college nor career.…

Over the past few years, South Side High School, in Rockville Centre, New York, has attempted to increase enrollment in its International Baccalaureate program while maintaining the program's high academic standards. A multiyear detracking effort helped more students prepare for the rigors of IB. Counseling sessions, safety nets, and ensuring that…

Teachers often grapple with the challenge of giving report card grades to students with learning disabilities and English language learners. The authors offer a five-step model that "offers a fair, accurate, and legal way to adapt the grading process for exceptional learners." The model begins with a high-quality reporting system for all students…

Over the past three years, Patricia L. Scriffiny has transformed the grading system in her high school mathematics classroom by replacing the traditional points-based system with a standards-based system. Instead of assigning points for assignments, she lists student progress toward meeting clearly defined course objectives. In this article,…

The author, director of the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project, tackles the following question: Should the United States have national standards with teeth, that is, a single set of standards tied to assessments and agreed to by the states? Proponents advance five main arguments for implementing such a standard. In his rebuttal, the…

Educators and governments are paying increasing attention to international comparisons as they seek to develop effective policies to improve the performance of their education systems. Data from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are useful in revealing best practices across the world. Current data show that the United…

What people mean when they use the phrase "content standard" varies all over the lot. In some states, content standards are little more than category labels describing collections of curricular aims in particular content areas. If a state's content standards are too numerous, then teachers do not know where to aim their instructional efforts. This…

Describes attributes of Met School, a small urban public high school in Providence, Rhode Island, where the individual student is the primary focus of instruction. Powerful relationships, high standards and expectations, and student interests and real work are the hallmarks of the instructional program. (PKP)

Minority students face numerous academic barriers for achievement in the classroom as well as outside the school. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) suggests six principles for maintaining the standard of school mathematics.

The Martin Luther King School in Boston and nine other Massachusetts public schools used a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Education to expand their school days by at least two hours. Each school lengthened the time students spent in reading and math instruction. Farbman focuses on the Martin Luther King School's foray into an extended…

As European countries become integrated into the European Community, they are examining each other's standards and those of the U.S. and Japan. British and French high school graduation practices are based on terminal assessment. All European universities charge home students only nominal fees; all European countries have elaborate student finance…

What William Spady calls "educentric" standards are clear, rigorous, discipline-based principles that will help prepare students for any future direction. The American Federation of Teachers supports the standards movement because members want all kids to have access to a rich and challenging curriculum and be motivated to achieve at…