Education Sector has always been an independent think tank that challenges conventional wisdom in education policy. That means we try to follow the data wherever it leads us.

We recently learned that some of the information in Selling Students Short, a policy paper written by our research director, Andrew Gillen, was based on incorrect information. The U.S. Department of Education’s DataContinue Reading »

What is the nation to do when the lives of 20 precious and innocent first graders can be violently taken in the presumed safety of their neighborhood public school? What of the lives of the heroic teachers and administrators who perished trying to protect their students? We grieve, as perhaps we have never grieved a school tragedy before. Sadly we have too many for comparison. The deadly rampagContinue Reading »

Silly question—it might seem. How could someone be expected to teach piano if they do not know how to play themselves? Yet that is what the public schools are about to ask of teachers more generally. In two years, most public schools will administer new student assessments in reading and math, pegged to the higher academic standards of the Common Core. Although performance standards—how high a Continue Reading »

This is a test. If you are one of our readers with an interest in K-12 education, name two leading scholars, researchers, or policy analysts who address post-secondary issues. If you are one of our readers from the world of higher education, name two authorities in K-12. Quickly. No consulting Google. OK, name just one.

Since joining Education Sector last spring, I’ve given this teContinue Reading »

Last week’s GAO report on special education in charter schools prompted the predictable dust-up between charter advocates and opponents. Opponents hailed the report as evidence that charter schools cheat the public system by failing to serve as many special needs students as regular public schools do. Advocates responded that the GAO unfairly compared charter schools with public school systems:Continue Reading »

A couple weeks ago, when the Romney campaign unveiled its education plan, I predicted that it would quickly be characterized as a voucher program because it dares to include private schools in its choice proposals. Sure enough, in its first major story about the Romney plan, the nation’s newspaper of record, The New York Times, did just that on Tuesday.

It was no small task. The Continue Reading »

Unveiling his education plan for the nation, presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, today spoke first for the principle of school choice. He promised, if elected, to use federal dollars to encourage states to offer more choices to students from low income families, including traditional public schools, charter schools, digital schools—and private schools, if states allow it. Continue Reading »

Back in the day, a prominent education reformer asked me to send him a fax rather than an email. Asked why, he replied, only half jokingly, “if God had wanted us to use email he would not have invented the fax machine!” Reflecting on the remark I always chuckle, but then think: how prophetic. Technology has come slowly to K-12 education. Our schools and classrooms are not all that different froContinue Reading »

Digital learning may finally be reaching lift-off in K-12 education. Venture capital is flooding into education technology start-ups. School districts, strapped for funds in these post-recessionary times, are anxious to increase productivity, and digital appears to hold that promise. Hand-held and tablet devices are falling in price and making student access to the Internet easier and cheaper aContinue Reading »