Going back a quarter century to 1992, our last three presidents all made education an integral issue of their campaigns. However, education has been largely absent during the 2016 presidential contest. Why is education not drawing much attention? For most people, education is not as urgent as national security and the economy. Much of education's…

Drawing upon their new edited volume of essays looking back on the school reforms of the Bush and Obama years, the authors explain just how few of those reforms went according to plan. Some of the unexpected outcomes were positive, they note, pointing to the improvement of school data systems and the bipartisan compromise that put an end to No…

Foundations must encourage rigorous debate over objectives, strategies, and outcomes as they become more engaged in policy-focused giving. In doing this, they must make it abundantly clear that they won't blacklist critics. The value of skeptics is that they raise unpleasant issues and make it possible for those inside an organizational bubble to…

After the 2000 presidential election during which George W. Bush erased the enormous advantage Democratic nominees had enjoyed on education by relentlessly decrying the "soft bigotry of low expectations," the president worked with Congressman George Miller (D-Calif.) and Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) to assemble a bill that ultimately…

In this article, Frederick Hess discusses public opinion trends related to educational issues from the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2002 through 2006. Using data from three separate public opinion polls, Hess analyzes the general public's and parents' opinions on several issues, including the proper use of large-scale…

On January 8, 2002, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) into law. Surrounded by smiling members of the Democratic and Republican leadership, the President declared, "as of this hour, America's schools will be on a new path of reform, and a new path of results". NCLB brought sweeping changes to the…

This paper examines ways in which context influences the implementation of high-stakes accountability systems. The trajectory of implementation efforts has followed a familiar course, with the emergence of scattered opposition prompting officials to "refine" testing systems in predictable ways. These efforts placate critics while softening the…