How should “success” be defined and measured at America’s community colleges? It sounds like an easy question that should have an equally easy answer. But the question turns out to be complicated. So does the answer. A common approach to measuring success at most educational institutions – from high schools and community colleges to four-year [...]

For years, community colleges have borne the brunt of state budget cuts nationwide, and they continue to receive the equivalent of poverty wages in federal and state funding. And yet community colleges are much more dependent on state funding than four-year institutions. In Texas, for example, community colleges receive roughly 70 percent of their funding [...]

In a segment called “Waiting for Superman: Fact or Fiction?” on the BAM! Radio Network this Monday, education historian Diane Ravitch and four members of the media (including yours truly) discussed Davis Guggenheim’s latest documentary, Waiting for “Superman.” Our host, Errol St. Clair Smith, wanted to know whether we thought the film would lead to [...]

Economic downturns aren’t all bad news: one upshot is that they force people to reexamine their expenditures. When money’s tight, most of us start to scrutinize where every cent is going. We reprioritize. Spending $25 for a night out at the movies, when we stop to think about it, doesn’t really make much sense – [...]

Race to the Top winners for round two were announced this morning by the U.S. Department of Education. The ten winners were Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C. There were many more surprises today than in the annoucement of finalists on July 27th. For those who [...]

A quarter-century ago, the nation was transfixed by the question, Where’s the beef? Now, the question we should be asking ourselves about our nation’s schools is, Where’s the rigor? Or, Where’s the academic beef? Concerns about the lack of rigor in U.S. schools were renewed yesterday, when new data were published on how prepared — [...]

If April showers bring May flowers, what does July heat bring? Not August meat. August is instead open season on college rankings — which are, of course, mostly fluff. The idea that the overall quality of U.S. colleges and universities can be reduced to a single number, which allows institutions to be rank-ordered first to last, is hugely [...]

Tough talk on teacher accountability is all the rage this summer. Trouble is, we don’t know how to handle the perverse incentives that arise the moment we place undue weight on easily manipulated exams.

Today’s announcement of round two Race to the Top finalists mostly lacked drama. As is true of student performance, the best predictor of each state’s performance in round two was its performance in round one. In fact, all of the first-round finalists who didn’t win in that round found themselves in a familiar position today: they are once again finalists.

What can a student learn at a for-profit school? The growing sector offers everything from diplomas in massage therapy to MBAs – on campuses and online – along with certificates in areas such as “addiction counseling” and “diversity studies.” Online, students can even earn a J.D. from Kaplan’s Concord Law School or a doctoral degree [...]

Reports of another “Texas Miracle” are making the rounds in the media, as the Lone Star state says that the dropout rate for the Class of 2009 was 9.4 percent. That is, only one out of 10 students in Texas who entered high school in the fall of 2005 had quit school four years later.

That young people look up to Hollywood stars and professional athletes as role models is a fact of life. Often, these superstars disappoint us by revealing that they, too, are only human. This is an especially difficult reality for children to accept. We want — and we need – heroes. Superheroes, even. For a brief bit after 9/11, we fixated on firefighters and police officers as superheroes. Rightly. But it didn’t last.

Every now and then we also come to see teachers as superheroes.

Should every student in this country be able to name the president? If so, by what age? Should every child know how to tell time to the nearest minute? By first grade, or by fifth grade? Surprisingly, only 26 states have learning standards that say students should be able to name the president. Iowa is [...]

The grammatically challenged of this world have new hope: Pearson Education announced today that it’s releasing a series of applications for the iPhone and iPod touch called “GrammarPrep” that will apparently help “college students, professionals and English learners quickly and easily improve their writing skills.”

After a year of development, the much-anticipated “common core standards” for English and mathematics were unveiled Wednesday morning, just a day after states’ second-round applications were due in the federal Race to the Top competition. Officially named the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI), the effort was spearheaded by the National Governors Association and the [...]

Scrutiny shows that these programs do set high standards and design well-aligned assessments.

The day we can accurately measure a teacher’s performance has finally arrived. Or so the likes of D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg would have us believe. In a speech to New York’s state legislature last November, Mayor Bloomberg praised “data-driven systems” while arguing that student test scores should [...]

Student test scores released this week on the math portion of the “nation’s report card” will make more urgent the rethinking of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. The act is up for reauthorization by Congress later this year, and test scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are certain to be [...]