The English learner (EL) population has grown by 35% in the last 20 years. However, in addition to new students being identified as ELs, the EL subgroup is being inflated by students who are not being reclassified within a reasonable and developmentally appropriate timeframe. These students, often labeled long term ELs (LTELs), are a product of…

Today, our schools are more racially segregated than at any time in the last 40 years, mainly because the neighborhoods in which they are located are themselves racially segregated. Yet, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its 2007 Parents Involved ruling, prohibited school districts from implementing even modest race-conscious desegregation plans. If…

In recent years, the federal government (under Republican and Democratic administrations alike) has encouraged the outsourcing of core parts of public education's work, including testing and test preparation, teaching and tutoring, data collection, and human resources management. However, researchers have found little evidence to support policy…

The nation's greatest anti-racist education policy -- school desegregation -- has proven no match for the adaptations of institutionalized racism. Over the last 40 years, school segregation has evolved and reemerged in housing patterns, school zoning policy, and curricular tracking. This has led to calls for new solutions to the problem of racial…

Today's youth increasingly are being expected to engage in civil deliberation in classrooms while simultaneously living in a society with a high level of political incivility. However, teaching students to argue--particularly in oral form--is enormously complex and challenging work. In this article, the authors report on a study of four high…

In this age of real and fake news, students need to be able to assess the trustworthiness of evidence. The authors' current research examines students' use of evidence in secondary social studies classrooms as students deliberate contemporary public policy issues. The authors found that students shifted their evaluations of the trustworthiness of…

Improving the quality of the teacher workforce is high on the nation's education policy agenda, but school systems continue to face difficulties in staffing STEM and special education classrooms with qualified teachers. This article documents the mismatch between the supply and demand of STEM and special education teachers in Washington State,…

With some 460 languages spoken across the land, the United States has a deep reservoir of linguistic diversity. But our nation's inconsistent language-learning policies and practices present a variety of obstacles for learning English. Understanding and then addressing student needs during the critical transition phase for newcomer students is an…

New discoveries in neuroscience suggest that school readiness interventions might come too late if they start after the child is three years old. Many of the skills needed to succeed in school are shaped during a baby's interactions with his or her caregivers. Unfortunately, the level of support and resources provided for new mothers and their…

An essential mission of schools, Mr. Bellamy and Mr. Goodlad argue, is ensuring that each new generation understands the principles and institutions that support democratic life. Schools require vigilant stewardship to serve this public purpose. Much of the needed work is local, but it depends on new and challenging collaborations among education…

When it comes to the role of research in shaping public policy and debate, one might reasonably argue that this is the best of times. No Child Left Behind (NCLB), with its frequent mention of evidence-based decision making, has underscored the role that objective knowledge should play in a democratic society. The Institute of Education Sciences,…

Suggests books for summer reading for Department of Education officials involved in closing all 16 ERIC Clearinghouses or touting the superiority of a Christian education, standardized test-makers, planners of the Gates Foundation, and the creator of the Algebra Project. For example, suggests that standardized test-makers read William Bennett's…

This article presents some pressing challenges facing early care and education policy and practice around the world and then highlights diverse country responses to these challenges with the goal of informing American decision-making. It focuses on three key cross-national challenges that are particularly relevant to current debates in the United…

Facing declining enrollment, higher education must try to find a new clientele while resisting the temptation to cater to the distorted set of national priorities currently being sold the American public by well-organized and economically powerful but short-sighted special interest groups. (Author/PGD)

Examines the differences in attitude toward education in the two political parties' platforms and candidates for president, but observes that overall federal policy trends have reduced the ability of the federal government to intervene in a major way in education. (Author/IRT)