The argument for national curriculum standards sounds simple: set high standards, make all schools meet them, and watch American students achieve at high levels. It is straightforward and compelling, and it is driving a sea change in American education policy. Unfortunately, setting high standards and getting American students to hit them is…

This study examines trends in Black student achievement and in the Black-White achievement gap over the period 2000 to 2007, employing data from ten states drawn from the NAEP Grade 8 mathematics assessments. Results are obtained for three levels of aggregation: the state, school poverty stratum within the state, and schools within poverty…

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…

Debates over the use of college rankings are often framed in binaries: ardent advocates versus outright rejectionists, rankers versus rankees. But the American higher education landscape is complex, and so too should be discussions of rankings. Moreover, the policymaking process is simultaneously intricate and predictable--information is processed…

The underlying principles of No Child Left Behind (NCLB)--the demand for high standards, greater accountability, and the focus on long-overlooked student populations--are good. NCLB has done well for public education. Still, tens of thousands of educators nationwide are hoping that this year's reauthorization debate in Congress will lead to…

This qualitative research study, in the format of an historical narrative, chronicles the issues, process of consensus, and the impact of the National History Standards Project (NHSP) on local policies and curricula in history education. The "culture wars" for the "National Standards for History" of 1994-1996 and quest for a…

The annual meeting of the ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education) IQA (internal quality assurance) Group gathered some 60 participants in the premises of the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO) in The Hague in June 2009. This seminar was a successful follow-up to the first ENQA IQA…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. This edition contains the following features: (1) Obama Signs "Largest Investment in Education in the Nation's History": Economic Recovery Legislation Includes Nearly $100 Billion…

"Alabama Education News" is published monthly except for June, July, and December by the Alabama Department of Education. This publication, authorized by Section 16-2-4 of the "Code of Alabama", as recompiled in 1975, is a public service of the Alabama Department of Education designed to inform citizens and educators about…

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…

Local autonomy is one of the recent trends in reforms of compulsory education. However, several parallel trends such as individual accountability, performance and visibility challenge professional autonomy. The aim of this article is to explore how accountability and transparency reforms affect teacher autonomy in Norway and Sweden. The authors…

In this essay, the authors explore the structures, processes, and messages that accountability reforms communicate about the goals and means of coming to know history. In other words, how do existing history standards and formal curricula officialize certain orientations toward historical knowledge and traditions through which that knowledge is…

This blueprint focuses on the policies that connect professional development activities and that support and make possible an effective implementation of a state system of professional development. It highlights policy principles and essential policy areas that build or sustain an integrated system--a system that ensures quality in all settings in…

This paper examines recent education and teacher education reforms in the USA and Namibia and analyzes two tensions that have been a central part of debates about teacher quality and teacher education in many parts of the world: whether we should prepare teachers as technicians or as reflective practitioners; and whether we should prepare teachers…

The establishment of the General Teaching Council for England (GTC) in 2000 created a professional and regulatory body for teaching in England. Acting in the public interest, GTC is responsible for contributing to improving the standards of teaching and the quality of learning, and for maintaining and improving standards of professional conduct…