Robert F. Kennedy – ESEA Author and Progressive Proponent of Assessments and Accountability

by Charles Barone I distinctly remember waking up for school the morning of June 6th, 1968 and finding out that Robert F. Kennedy had been shot in Los Angeles just after midnight. My father was a Republican and my mother a Democrat, but they were both shocked and saddened by the news. I don’t remember

Progressive Higher Education Reform Now

by Michael Dannenberg When it comes to federal aid and accountability for results, progressive advocates should have three bottom line demands for the pending Higher Education Act (HEA) reauthorization: (1) A sizable federal-state partnership designed to support quality, “college promise” initiatives that leverages improvements in K-12 education, boosts on-time completion, and in turn, ensures sustained improvement in

U.S. Department of Education Failure to Enforce ESSA – Part 2: Abandoning Proficiency Benchmarks Takes the “Every” Out of ESSA

By Dana Laurens and Charles Barone Last week, we focused on ED’s failure to enforce ESSA guardrails that quite sensibly require state accountability system indicators be comparable and statewide. A second set of equally sensible and necessary ESSA requirements – that ED has also chosen to ignore – stipulates that all state accountability systems incorporate

Democratic Voices on ESSA Accountability

by Dana Laurens The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides a great deal of flexibility over the previous federal law when it comes to state design of their school accountability systems. It did, nonetheless, establish clear federal guardrails to help ensure those systems emphasize academic achievement and identify schools that are falling short in providing

Those Talking the ESSA Law Talk Are Not Walking the ESSA Law Walk

by Charles Barone   A high-decibel throng of advocates is trying to make the case that the U.S. Department of Education (ED) has overstepped its role in its reviews of state plans under the Every Student Succeeds Act. But look closely and you’ll find that many of those talking the ESSA law talk are not

The Unnoticed Threat to Public Schools

By Michael Dannenberg From Friday’s op-ed on tax reform in Democracy Journal  While the eyes of public education advocates remain transfixed on Secretary Betsy DeVos and President Trump’s private school voucher and “skinny budget” aspirations, they are missing the far graver threat to public schools—tax reform. Most mainstream media publications report that the federal role in

Make Tax Reform Work For Kids

By Michael Dannenberg From Thursday’s op-ed in U.S. News & World Report   Trump should seize the opportunity of tax reform to increase support for public education – and make the system fairer. When the Trump administration and congressional Republicans unveil a major tax reform package in the coming weeks, they’ll likely reveal a dirty

In Trump’s America, Where is the Moral Leadership We Need From Our Public Flagship Universities?

“The University of Arizona community has serious concerns about provisions of the Executive Order…This approach violates the principles on which international university communities of thought, learning, and research are based…We oppose the Executive Order and believe that lawsuits challenging it will be successful.” – President Ann Weaver Hart, University of Arizona By Mary Nguyen Barry The

Civil Rights Statement Opposing H.J. Res. 57 to Keep ESSA Implementation Moving Forward

  Keep ESSA Implementation Moving Forward — Oppose H.J. Res. 57 In a letter to the House of Representatives, we joined the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and 28 organizations urging the Representative to oppose H.J. Res. 57 and to support continued implementation of the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act. Congress should reject the effort

Business and Civil Rights Coalition Statement Urging Opposition to H.J. Res 57

Business and Civil Rights Coalition Statement Urging Opposition to H.J. Res 57 In a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, we joined six business and civil rights organizations in urging the Speaker and Leader to vote no on a resolution that disapproves ESSA regulations.  The resolution would cause unnecessary confusion, disrupting