A recent strange happening saw Indiana first agree to support the Common Core standards and then pass a law blocking itself from implementing the Common Core. Wyoming’s issues are more worrisome.

Wyoming, a center of activity in the fossil fuels industry, has determined that the Next Generation Science Standards are ‘a threat to the state’s […]

I posted this entry on the Brookings ‘Chalkboard’ forum. NAEP data suggests that recent trends for subgroups like special education and free-lunch students have caused them to diverge from white students, a cautionary tale in the context of waivers and their tolerance for not looking at achievement of subgroups.

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/brown-center-chalkboard/posts/2014/04/30-naep-score-gaps-dynarski

My recent post on the Bush Institute forum.

http://www.bushcenter.org/blog/2014/04/09/myth-high-achiever-accountability-all-schools

I used a simple fact as the title of this post. The Common Core standards are probably the biggest thing affecting K-12 education since No Child Left Behind. They are in the news and trade press constantly. But something odd is happening.

That the Common Core is a set of standards, which are voluntary, has become less and less […]

These are comments I delivered at a Congressional briefing on prevention hosted by Rep. Bobby Scott (D, VA), on September 10, 2013.

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Dropping out affects many people and has significant costs. The problem is not so large as to be out of reach of action, though.

How numerous are dropouts? The Census Bureau

Educators wrestle with an array of challenges, such as raising achievement, reducing dropout rates, and helping students with disabilities or students learning English. At the same time, researchers study education problems, develop practices or programs, and assess their effectiveness. A more productive interaction between the two is the topic here.

If we start from the […]

Researchers studying the problem of young people dropping out of school have heard it many times. Students who drop out disengaged from school at some point, and schools may have done little to re-engage them. So, the thinking goes, maybe educators should measure engagement, and do something about it if it seems low.

A recent […]

Randomized trials increasingly are being used to assess the effectiveness of new approaches and strategies in education and social policy settings. The method can be a powerful and flexible tool in education settings in which approaches are being designed for whole classrooms or schools. But there are some aspects of cluster trials that can trip […]