The passage of ESSA has ushered in a new era of educational governance and leadership, but questions remain regarding how well the new law will protect students' rights to an equitable education. Lance Fusarelli and Jennifer Ayscue examine key provisions of the law, provide an update of states' implementation, and speculate about whether ESSA will…

Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), federal education mandates will be decreasing, which means states will have more flexibility and authority than they've had in decades. State education agency (SEA) leaders are confronting great change and great opportunity as many agencies move away from a focus on compliance with federal regulations,…

People dislike the Common Core for several different reasons, and so it is important to disaggregate the sources of opposition and to assess and then to dispel some of the myths that have built up around it. It also is important to understand the unusual political alliances that have emerged in opposition to Common Core implementation and how they…

Policymakers are placing tremendous faith in assessment, a technology with many limitations. Assessment-driven improvement policy uses mandatory testing to leverage desired change, but it narrows the curriculum, punishes teachers for things beyond their control, expands bureaucracy, and does not work. Alternative strategies for school leaders are…

Implementation is actually a complex and continuous process of policy evolution. Thus, the implementation of a policy idea will vary because not all the policy's many potentialities will be recognized and because any given idea will be interpreted differently in different settings. (Author/IRT)

Like most other reform endeavors, the current restructuring movement may fail. Advocates often oversimplify restructuring, overlooking serious underlying issues, such as the politics of organizational change, and ingrained U.S. schooling characteristics, including inclusiveness, deep structure, knowledge industry influences, growth of state power,…

A Minnesota study showed that changing school starting times to accommodate adolescent sleep patterns profoundly affected many families. Implementation processes substantially influenced how families received changes. Policy makers should inform and involve all stakeholders, allow ample time, provide research-based justifications, support…

Firm evidence shows that formative assessment is an essential ingredient of classroom work and that its development can raise achievement standards. Achieving this goal demands a four-point scheme for teacher development: learning from development, a slow, yet steady dissemination process, reduction of obstacles, and substantive research efforts.…