In this statement to the Rhode Island State Legislature, Ian Rowe presents a case for education equality. He acknowledges that America is not perfect, but there is a need to confront the inequities faced united rather than divided. In preparing for this testimony, he pulled 8th grade NAEP reading proficiency scores for Rhode Island students since…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) program periodically conducts national-level assessments of student achievement in geography. In July 2019, the National Assessment Governing Board announced a decision to eliminate geography, economics, arts, and foreign language assessments from the NAEP testing schedule through 2029. In…

Education standards do not flop spectacularly. Their failure gives rise to nothing like the black-and-white films of early aeronautical experiments: no missiles exploding on launch pads or planes tumbling from the sky. But 10 years after 46 of the 50 states adopted the Common Core standards, the lack of evidence that they have improved student…

The 10th anniversary of Common Core's launch offers the opportunity to take stock of the impact these nearly national standards have had on student learning, as well as their future prospects. In this article, Morgan Polikoff shares his view that the standards movement in general, and Common Core in particular, have achieved all they are going to…

The Common Core State Standards, released in 2010, were rapidly adopted by more than 40 states. Champions maintained that these rigorous standards would transform American education, but the initiative went on to encounter a bumpy path. A decade on, what are we to make of this ambitious effort? What kind of impact, if any, has it had on the…

Paul Jablon's "The Synergy of Inquiry" (2014) is well-timed. The 2014 deadline set by No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2002) for universal student proficiency has come and gone, and according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, "proficiency rates last year were below 50 percent for nearly every racial and ethnic group, in…

This paper is a response on the topic of school reform efforts being promoted by Bill Gates and other prominent education policy advocates. Last week, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates published an op-ed in the Washington Post, "How Teacher Development could Revolutionize our Schools," proposing that American public schools should do a…

Every two years the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), "the Nation's Report Card," reports the nation's average reading and math scores in grades 4 and 8. Despite the strong focus on reading under the 2001 No Child Left Behind law, the recent 2009 reading scores were not statistically different from those of 2007, which…

The latest release of scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) provides no evidence for the effectiveness of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. In long-term trends, the achievement gap between white and minority students has hardly budged over the past decade. Congress should get rid of No Child Left Behind…

As heated as the controversy is and has been, most opponents of homework actually support at least a modest amount of "independent study," and the most ardent advocates are likely to emphasize moderation in the amount of homework and emphasis on the quality of independent assignments. In this article, the author focuses on this troublesome issue…

Most of the nation's eighth graders aspire to college. Unfortunately, the vast majority of them will not realize their ambition to complete their higher education and gain some advantage in the job market. In this article, the author contends that the connections between high schools and higher-education institutions are still not what they should…

More than seven years ago, President George W. Bush signed No Child Left Behind (NCLB) into law. Sweeping calls for testing, intervening in persistently low-performing schools, and policing teacher quality made it the most ambitious legislation on K-12 schooling in American history. The law, due for congressional reauthorization in 2007, still…

By the end of fourth grade, African American and Latino students, are two years behind their wealthier, predominantly white peers in reading and math. By eighth grade, they have slipped three years behind, and by 12th grade, the gap is full four years. These are just two examples of the most alarming figures that threaten the educational equity of…

Describes a study of eighth graders that compared the effects of two-dimensional and three-dimensional illustrated texts on eye movement strategies and on retention of information. Results are reported that support earlier research findings that realism in illustrations is not necessarily facilitating and may even be distracting. (Contains 19…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was originally used to report academic improvement or decline in the performance of 9-, 13-, and 17-year olds across major geographic regions. State-by-state comparison was carefully avoided. In 1988, however, Congress authorized the NAEP to conduct voluntary Trial State Assessments. (CJS)