Describes Sandia National Laboratories' wide-ranging analysis of local, state, and national education systems. On most measures (dropout and retention rates, standardized test scores, higher education enrollment, education spending, international comparisons, educator status, and work-force skills), lab found steady or slight improvement. Schools…

Examines dropout rates, standardized test scores, commission reports, university enrollments, per pupil expenditures, special education costs, employment trends, and other indicators to show that U.S. education is not in the sorry condition its critics claim. Rereading "A Nation at Risk" (1983) discloses a xenophobic screed having little…

In Texas, control of schooling has shifted from the public toward business-controlled management accountability systems--exemplified in the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills ("the Texas Accountability System"). TAAS adversely affects teaching and learning by mandating a "test-prep" noncurriculum, discriminating against…