Words and Deeds: University of Virginia

By: Katlyn Riggins  The University of Virginia (UVA) is no stranger when it comes to the fight for racial justice.  The infamous “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville left a scar on the university’s campus. The violence in Charlottesville accelerated the removal of Confederate statues from several U.S. cities, and UVA’s Board of Trustees voted

Words and Deeds: Washington and Lee University

By: Katlyn Riggins  Since George Floyd’s murder, it has become clear institutional leaders can no longer remain silent on the brutality Black Americans face on a daily basis. Several university leaders have made statements in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, but all too often these words are not backed up by outcomes. Our

Race To The Top – Arne Duncan

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