When the rankings of the best school systems in the world were released earlier this year, Americans were shocked: our former number one standing slipped again, this time to number 26.

The rankings showed a new trend: the highest-performing school systems in the world are mostly in Asia.

What are...

Last week, First Lady Michelle Obama underscored the Obama administration's commitment to the 100,000 Strong Initiative, a national effort designed to dramatically increase the number and diversify the composition of American students studying in China. The event, which took place on the campus of Howard University, coincided with the visit...

PISA, Programme for International Student Assessment, is an enormously valuable mechanism. It provides the foundation for a serious dialogue among nations on what works in education, and how those successes can be adapted to different geographic, cultural and political contexts.

The recently released 2009 PISA results are grounds...

Whether it's acknowledging the fundamental importance of our economic ties to China, confirming our strong business and strategic connections with India or announcing new military strategies in Afghanistan, President Obama's actions over the past two weeks reflect a new reality. In matters of national security, environmental sustainability, and economic development,...

To succeed in this new global age, our students need a high level of proficiency in the English Language Arts. The ability of schools to develop such proficiency in students requires the kind of fewer, clearer and higher common core ELA standards that the Common Core State Standards Initiative is...

A new report by the Center on Education Policy released last week, shows that based on data from 2002 - 2008, the achievement gap appears to be narrowing. It further shows that this does not seem to reflect slower progress by high-achieving students, but instead reflects increased achievement by...

On Tuesday, September 8th, despite all the passing strange hubbub about the appropriateness of the President of the United States speaking to the nation's schoolchildren about the value of education, President Obama made a national address in which he issued this challenge, "You'll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you...

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the release of $4.35 billion in new grant opportunities for states and school districts across the country as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Obama Administration's $100 billion bet that American education can be fundamentally transformed to prepare students for...