New York State's system of public elementary and secondary schools is in steep decline, but it is salvageable. The roots of its problems pre-date the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, but the system's response to that challenge accelerated discontent with the schools and harmed students. The damage of those years will not be undone if…

Purpose: In December 2015, President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act, which was a long overdue reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. What is remarkable about this new federal legislation is that it explicitly reverses the decades-long federal effort to more tightly couple the U.S. educational system. While not…

Governments are increasingly publishing information about the performance of the services they provide, in part to help citizens hold their elected representatives accountable for government service outcomes. Yet there is little evidence concerning the influence of information about government service performance on voter behavior. This paper…

School principals across the nation are asked, each year, to implement policy changes in schools that are meant to improve student performance on standardized tests and increase student achievement. Principals, however, face numerous obstacles that prevent them from implementing policies with fidelity to the policy designs. In New York City (NYC)…

There is growing concern that almost 20 years after the 1988 Education Act, top-down, large-scale reform has stalled. The policy mix of choice, competition, markets, regulation, accountability and leadership seems not to have closed the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged areas and individuals, while most variations in school performance can…

As part of a larger project to rethink the federal role in elementary and secondary education, the Center on Education Policy prepared this compendium, which summarizes the findings of major studies of the implementation and effects of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) conducted by various organizations and agencies. The brief summaries are…

A significant problem of higher education today is public skepticism. If the educational leadership will stimulate political leaders to cope constructively with six central problems, the remaining years of the 1970's could be an "age of wisdom." The problems are: (1) the need for the assurance of greater resources in coming years; (2) the need for…

Notes that, despite years of public outcry, children's issues still receive little attention from legislators and others in public policy. Suggests that lack of active commitment and involvement by administrators, teachers, and the public permit this to continue. Offers four key ingredients that together comprise a strategic framework for action…

Budgeting is examined in view of the increasingly complex relationship between colleges and universities and state governments. It is noted that there needs to be dramatic revisions to improve the responsiveness of state government to the needs of society, and institutions of higher learning have a stake in the outcome of this so-called…