WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced on Monday that three more states would join the ranks of those given permission to ignore par...

WASHINGTON -- Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced on Monday that three more states would join the ranks of those given permission to ignore part...

More than two-thirds of North Dakota's public school districts failed to meet annual federal education standards, and one superintendent says it's bou...

As droves of states wiggle out from some of the toughest components of the much-maligned federal No Child Left Behind Act, school districts in states ...

A big part of successful policy making is unyielding attention to detail (an argument that regular readers of this blog hear often). Choices about des...

Nowhere is the movement against high-stakes testing as strong as it is in Texas where all this started. Now, 86 percent of the state's school boards have adopted resolutions opposing the over-reliance on high-stakes testing.

How did Pearson, which claims to have checkpoints "built into the process to ensure consistent progress in achieving school improvement goals," attempt to establish the validity of the Atlanta school district's claims for off-the-charts improvement on test scores before taking credit for the results?

The latest example came late on Good Friday when an Atlanta grand jury indicted 35 teachers, administrators and principals under laws meant to target the mafia.

Perhaps the best way to think of these cheating scandals is that they are the result of a natural experiment: What happens when you change incentives so that low test numbers translate into pain and high test numbers translate into rewards?

We've all seen teachers assign texts and say, 'There will be a test to follow.' This is how the system is set up -- but it's not the kind of learning that kids need. What are they going to do when they get out in the real world?

North Carolina Bill Targets Teachers A top North Carolina lawmaker has introduced several education reform measures du jour -- including one that would end tenure -- reports the News & Observer. "Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger on Tuesday unveiled what he called the second round of education reforms aimed at holding schools and teachers more accountable for students' progress - including ending tenure and grading entire schools," the N & O reports. Last year, he introduced the same bill. But this time around, Republicans hold a veto-proof majority, so one never knows.

Michelle Rhee Sets Up Shop In SC StudentsFirst, the former D.C. chancellor's national lobbying group, is branching out into South Carolina, reports the Post and Courier. The paper notes that SC received a "D" grade on SF's recent policy report card -- not exactly stellar. On the group's SC agenda: turnarounds, teacher evaluations, charter school accountability, and the parent trigger.

John Legend, Saving Your Schools? Musician John Legend appeared at USC last night to promote his education reform agenda, according to the Daily Trojan. "If we think demography is destiny, we will allow our school system to confirm that belief," Legend said, echoing basically the entire reform movement. He serves on the board education advocacy group Stand for Children.

Even though 34 states and the District of Columbia have No Child Left Behind Act waivers in hand, many of them are still negotiating with the U.S. Dep...

When he campaigned for his Houston-area legislative seat last year, Democrat Gene Wu heard so many complaints from parents and teachers about Texas' new standardized test that he took the 5th grade math test himself.

House Education Panel On School Safety On Wednesday, members of the House Education & Workforce Committee mulled over ways to keep schools safe in light of the horrific Newtown, Conn. elementary school shooting, reports Politics K-12. Witnesses told the committee that "school resource officers, additional guidance counselors, and professional development for educators can help schools head off tragedies," the blog reports. But there was next to no conversation about gun control. Hmmm.

When we grant subsidies to large corporations, or bail out the financial leaders who led our economy to the brink, we don't ask the recipients of social largess to take semi-annual drug tests. We only mistrust the poor folks who are the victims of an increasingly inequitable society.

As of last month, 86 percent of Texas school boards representing 91 percent of the state's 5 million public school students had adopted resolutions opposing high-stakes testing.

-- Many states granted waivers from the No Child Left Behind law are relaxing or ignoring federal regulations designed to hold schools accountable fo...

Netflix Reauthorizes No Child Left Behind? Or so quips this EdWeek headline. Real-life Congress hasn't yet reauthorized NCLB (since 2007!), but characters on the Netflix series "House of Cards" do. "[Writer Beau] Willimon noted on Twitter that he hinged the plot on education because it affects us all directly and indirectly, and because of the contention that often revolves around education reform," EdWeek writes. Read the full story for a taste of which education fights the show covers. My take: Obviously TV isn't reality, but there are a few major inaccuracies. The most glaring one in my eyes is that teachers unions can't legally hold a national strike over some federal legislation they dislike!