In the absence of national standards, we have evolved a haphazard, accidental, disconnected national curriculum based on mass-market textbooks and standardized, multiple-choice tests. This article explains former Education Secretary Lamar Alexander's efforts to ameliorate this situation by promoting America 2000, establishing the National Council…

In the 2000 presidential campaigns, both Vice-President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush want to enlarge the federal role in education. In separate essays, Bush and Gore explain their plans to invest more federal dollars in improving poor children's educational progress and opportunities. (MLH)

A former U.S. Commissioner of Education during Lyndon Johnson's administration discusses his 50-year educator career and his views about leadership responsibility, school desegregation, funding for black colleges, the limitations of poverty and standardized tests, and putting excellent teachers in charge of teacher preparation programs. (MLH)

The intensive drive to promote national standards and assessments has gathered support from unproven connections between U.S. economic success and the nature of learning in schools. Now that teachers are being challenged to produce a bottom-up sea-change in their own classrooms, Uncle Sam's presence in the back of the room may be a growing problem…

Highly visible roster of villains--people who have retarded or damaged public education--would encourage those in power to exercise more perspicacity. Top baddies are Congress (for lobbying for curative instead of preventive programs), Lewis Terman (for advocating tracking), James Bryant Conant (for advising high schools to become larger). All…

Those commenting on the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act find themselves at an interesting juncture. Debates over projected outcomes of the law have now begun to give way to certainty. An August 2002 piece the author edited and distributed to school administrators in Indiana, titled "The Grim Reaper," pointed out that, as it was being…

On the silver anniversary of the U.S. Department of Education, participants on all sides of the perpetual debate over the proper role of the federal government in education are taking its survival for granted. The Cato Institute this year issued its customary biennial call for Congress to demolish the department. Based on interviews with some of…

The federal journey into public education has followed a long and winding road. Most educators know that the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act is simply the latest version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which dates all the way back to 1965. In the years since its initial passage, the ESEA road has taken a number of…

Draws on results of recent major research efforts to assess the nature, quality, and effectiveness of vocational education programs, particularly those offered in comprehensive and vocational high schools. Three specific changes in the ways comprehensive high schools respond to their vocational education responsibilities are recommended. (PGD)

Demands for immediate answers to education's problems affect federal support for needed long-term educational research programs. The National Institute of Education has made significant progress toward establishing valid research methods and a solid foundation for future research efforts, though restricted in its activities and denied due credit.…

Assesses the National Educational Association's (NEA) influence and power to effect political change. Concludes that the NEA is neither very powerful nor very weak and that its potential is considerable if Reagan's conservative program falters. (WD)

Views President Bush's America 2000 plan as a rhetorical masterpiece with minimal public input and maximum government interference. Examines program recommendations regarding teacher improvement, choice, the New American Schools Development Corporation, and national testing. Discusses three omitted topics: school finance, growing youth poverty,…

Emphasis on school performance and lack of emphasis on societal harm suffered by U.S. children are misguided. Bush administration decries 9 year olds' eighth-place finish among 15 nations in the mean science score while disregarding the U.S.'s nineteenth-place world ranking in infant mortality. America 2000 is a quest for image; educational…