Federal law requires all public school students in grades three to eight to take an annual assessment in reading and math at the end of the year and requires students to take an assessment once during high school. The goal of this assessment is to measure the extent to which all students are meeting the state's academic standards. These standards…

New York State's system of public elementary and secondary schools is in steep decline, but it is salvageable. The roots of its problems pre-date the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, but the system's response to that challenge accelerated discontent with the schools and harmed students. The damage of those years will not be undone if…

This topic paper details how dual and concurrent enrollment programs can help states overcome workforce readiness and postsecondary access and completion challenges and how governors can strengthen these programs by using their bully pulpit, agenda setting authority and budgetary authority to do so. It concludes with a number of examples of how…

Scientific thinking and understanding are essential for all people navigating the world, not just for scientists and other science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals. Knowledge of science and the practice of scientific thinking are essential components of a fully functioning democracy. Science is also crucial for the…

U.S. school districts have taken widely varied approaches to reopening public schools for the 2020-2021 school year. The divergence stems from the highly localized approach to both schooling and addressing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and differences in COVID-19 transmission rates among communities. To develop a national…

Since the 1970s, American governors have become increasingly active in education politics. Where they once told state education chiefs to "make me the best education governor ever," they now demand control of state boards of education, push for state control of school funding, and urge statewide standards for teacher evaluation. This…

Opportunity-to-learn (OTL) standards respond to concerns that the use of new assessments based on more rigorous academic standards is unfair if some students lack the opportunity to learn what is measured on the assessments in the schools they attend. During 1992-93, the National Governors' Association (NGA) launched an effort to consider how…

The concept of "educational adequacy" may have its origin in the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 decision, San Antonio v. Rodriquez, that the state's responsibility is to provide not equal education but an "adequate minimum educational offering," so that students will have the "opportunity to acquire the basic minimal…

Recently, state policy began paying more attention to minority achievement in elementary, secondary, and higher education. The effectiveness of such policy in higher education depends upon institutional commitment and progress in increasing minority participation, retention, and achievement. Dealing with poor student preparation at the elementary…

"No Child Left Behind" (NCLB), the title of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, describes a worthy goal for this nation. Tragically, NCLB is aggravating, not solving, the real problems that cause many children to be left behind. NCLB must be overhauled if the federal government is to make a useful contribution to…

The goal toward which rural education appears to be moving at the close of the biennial period 1927-28 is that of equalization of educational opportunity within each of the several states. The most significant and generally accepted means of achieving it is apparently through increasing emphasis on the promotion of centralizing and coordination…

The No Child Left Behind Act has had a pervasive effect on American education in its drive to bring about improvement in student achievement through assessment and accountability. In its standards-based approach to reform, measurement by standardized tests is everything. In this article, the author discusses the issue of private school…

Volume 1 of a two-volume series, this case study tells the story of the events and decisions associated with the 1976 court-ordered shutdown of schools in New Jersey. It also analyzes the state educational decision-making structure. The school closing was undertaken because, according to the New Jersey Supreme Court, the state had not properly…

This report presents 10 suggestions for what the U.S. Department of Education can do to help schools raise achievement for all students and close the achievement gap by increasing teacher quality: (1) make improving teacher quality job one; (2) insist on good data; (3) ensure that states make an immediate priority of fixing the indefensible…