In my new book, The Great School Rethink, I note the hard-won cynicism with which so many parents and teachers greet talk of “school reform.” Leaders will say, “I get it. People are skeptical. I have to earn their trust.” …

I’m out with my new book, The Great School Rethink. I’m excited about it and hope readers will find it both engaging and useful, but it was a funny project for me. As I note in the preface, “I didn’t want to write this book.” The thing is that lots…

David Steiner, the executive director of the Institute for Education Policy at Johns Hopkins University, has penned a new book, A Nation at Thought: Restoring Wisdom in America’s Schools. I first got to know David two decades ago, when I talked him into writing a chapter that took a hard…

I occasionally take up reader queries. If you’d like to send one along, just send it to me, care of Caitlyn Aversman, at caitlyn.aversman@aei.org. Dear Rick, I’ve been seeing a lot about education savings accounts in the past six months. I understand that several states have passed laws, and Republicans…

I find that when you tell someone a school costs $38,000, they usually picture a ritzy private school with lots of bells and whistles. Well, last month, the Citizens Budget Commission reported that New York City’s public schools will spend $38,000 per student next year. And yet there’s little evidence…

New Meridian is an assessment company that launched in 2016 with the goal of making tests more useful for educators and students. Today, it works with more than 2,500 districts in five states. Given the need for good measures of student progress and better instructional support, especially after devastating pandemic-era…

Forty years ago this month, in April 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education, created by then-U.S. Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell, issued A Nation at Risk. In a furious call to arms, the report declared, “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the…

In “Straight Talk with Rick and Jal,” Harvard University’s Jal Mehta and I examine some of the reforms and enthusiasms that permeate education. In a field full of buzzwords and jargon, our goal is simple: Tell the truth, in plain English, about what’s being proposed and what it might mean…

Teachers’ unions loom large when it comes to education politics and policy. Depending on how you see things, they’re either essential champions for kids and educators — or the biggest obstacle to school improvement. Well, Boston College professor and Hoover Institution scholar Mike Hartney has written a terrific book, How…