The fallout from last week’s news that Washington and Wisconsin can join 24 other states with flexibility from NCLB has centered on the New York Times’ front-page coverage and whether ESEA waivers represent A) sensible relief to states from an impossible task or B) an all-out retreat from school accountability, particularly for disadvantaged and underserved students.

State education offiContinue Reading »

As Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney’s record on education mirrored that of President Bush, including rigorous standards, assessments, and charter schooling. He even supported No Child Left Behind. But as Andy Rotherham noted in TIME nearly a month ago, “As the presumptive nominee of a party that is increasingly allergic to a robust federal role in most areas of domestic policy, Romney talContinue Reading »

On Friday, Rep. John Kline (R-MN), Chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, released the final two pieces of House Republicans’ piecemeal strategy to overhaul No Child Left Behind, and reactions to the bills are trickling in. The Committee had already approved legislation relating to school choice, funding flexibility, and program consolidation. While the latter two were approvContinue Reading »

With a weekend of reflection between me and the markup of the Harkin-Enzi ESEA Reauthorization Bill, I am caught up on sleep, but still coming to terms with the implications of last Thursday’s events. Yes, the bill passed out of committee 15-7, receiving only 3 Republican votes. But what did we really learn about the direction of federal K-12 education policy, the positions of key players, and Continue Reading »

If you haven’t heard, Senators Harkin and Enzi introduced a substitute version of their ESEA Reauthorization bill today. While I’m disheartened and disappointed by these changes, Secretary Duncan released a more muted statement on the new bill. As a public service, Quick and the Ed is going to break down the key changes so you don’t have to re-read the 860-page bill again (seeContinue Reading »

Photo from jasonthebaldguy.com

As my colleague Anne wrote in her earlier blog post on ESEA reauthorization, the Harkin-Enzi ESEA bill would require states to identify 5% of high schools and 5% of all other schools as Persistently Low-Achieving (PLA) Schools.  This 5-year designation would target schools with low academic achievement or growth and low graduation Continue Reading »

“Split Classroom-Achievement Gap” Copyright © by Amanda Long.

More than any other provision of the Harkin-Enzi ESEA bill (synopsis here),  the rollback of federal accountability for student performance in schools and districts (no more AYP and targets for student achievement, no strict consequences for schools that fail to make AYP) has gotten the most attentioContinue Reading »

Yesterday, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) released a long-awaited bill to reauthorize No Child Left Behind. After a series of Republican bills in the House and Senate as well as the Obama administration’s ESEA Waiver plan, the draft legislation represents the first bipartisan effort to rewrite NCLB in this Congress and is the product of months of compromise between Harkin and the Senate Health, EducContinue Reading »

UPDATE: On-demand video of this event coming soon. We’ll let you know when it’s ready, so stay tuned!

Join us today at 1:30 p.m. (EST) for a look into the future as experts discuss their vision for how the next decade of educational data could help to create much smarter, more actionable, and real-time information to improve student outcomes.

States across the country are somewhere in the process of identifying the schools that will be eligible for a share of the $3.5 billion in School Improvement Grants (SIG). Making this type of investment in turning around the lowest performing schools in the country is long over due. But, the current disregard for the planning and implementation time that some of these reforms take puts the entiContinue Reading »