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A study released by Harvard's Program on Education Policy and Governance and Education Next yesterday compares U.S. students who performed at or above the proficient level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (generally dubbed the "Nation's Report Card") in math to the 15-year-olds tested through the Program for International Student Assessment, administered by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Researchers developed a crosswalk study of a sample of the graduating class of 2011, which participated in the 2007 NAEP as 8th graders and in the 2009 PISA as 15-year-olds.

The story in Atlanta is about race, gender, poverty, social class, and, of course, power. It's about fairness and integrity, about leadership and about failures of leadership, and it's also about social responsibility and the abdication of that responsibility.

In a New York City middle school, the principal asked teachers to spend fifteen minutes a day with students practicing how to answer multiple-choice math questions in preparation for the state-mandated test. One teacher protested, explaining she taught Italian and English, not math. But the principal insisted, and she followed his directive. As you might suspect, the plan failed, and in the end, fewer than one in four New York City middle schoolers passed the exam. While the importance of the test dominated the formal curriculum, the lessons learned through the hidden curriculum were no less powerful. Students learned that test scores mattered more than English or Italian, and that teachers did not make the key instructional decisions. In fact once the test was over, one-third of the students in her class stopped attending school, skipping the last five weeks of the school year.

Sometimes it seemed like a slick oilman or salesman was hovering around the room. Yes, he is personable, but personality does not resolve issues affecting the masses and the middle class if a genuine intent to do the right thing is absent.

The greatest challenge facing America's schools today isn't the budget crisis, or standardized testing, or "teacher quality." It's the enormous variation in the academic level of students coming into any given classroom. How we  as a country handle this challenge says a lot about our values and priorities, for good and ill. Unfortunately, the issue has become enmeshed in polarizing arguments about race, class, excellence, and equity. What's needed instead is some honest, frank discussion about the trade-offs associated with any possible solution.

Education reform at primary, secondary, and university levels in Chile is a longstanding social and political issue that has now forced President Sebastián Piñera to reassess the country's antiquated and class-ridden education system to meet the expectations of students. In a collective effort aimed at widespread reform, protesters have demanded greater transparency and state control, and above all, have insisted upon quality education without high university tuition costs. While the Piñera administration's attempts to pacify protesters have led to further social unrest, the nation and its students await an acceptable agreement to be reached.

In the latest issue of the New York Review of Books, Diane Ravitch, who has been writing critically and incisively for the last five years about the inadequacies of the "School Reform" movement, wrote a review of a book by Steven Brill called Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America's Schools (New York Review of Books, (9/29/2011) www.nybooks.com. ) The review itself convincingly dissects Brill's book for what it is: an advocacy for charter schools, standardized testing and other measures of the so-called "reformers" who are, essentially, defenders of the economic status quo. Since there has been no measurable improvement in student scores, as determined by reliable tests like the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) over the last decade, one would hope that some sensible policies might be considered to replace those failed ones. And there seem to be a few glimmers of hope, although they are only glimmers.

After a long summer involving layoff notices and late placements, Detroit Public School teachers are now faced with improper classroom assignments. In addition to the previous assignment of special education students to general classrooms, Emergency Manager Roy Roberts has placed special needs teachers in general education classes, where they are forced to provide instruction in areas where they don't have any experience.

For decades, research has confirmed that the big factor in determining how much students learn is not class size or the extent of standardized testing but the quality of their teachers. Policymakers have pushed mostly carrot-and-stick remedies: firing underperforming teachers, giving merit pay to high performers, penalizing schools with poor student test scores. People like Jim Knight think we should push coaching.

With NBC airing a second "Education Nation" special that resembles an infomercial for charter schools and online learning, the media watchdog group FAIR held an event Tuesday to clear the air. The panelists at the MisEducation Nation forum in New York City said the coverage offered by NBC was, at best, misguided-a noble but seriously uninformed effort, said Leonie Haimson, a New York City public school parent and leader of Class Size Matters, which advocates for reducing the number of students per teacher. At worst, "Education Nation" is a sounding board for the corporate education "reform" movement driven by the billionaires' agenda, said Brian Jones, a Brooklyn teacher.

The person who has had the greatest influence on my career in education was not a professor, policymaker or a fellow educator. It was an eleven-year-old girl named Tiffany Lopez, a fifth grader in my class during my second year of teaching in the South Bronx.

With NBC airing a second "Education Nation" special that resembles an infomercial for charter schools and online learning, the media watchdog group FAIR(Fairness & Accuracy in reporting) held an event on Sept. 27, 2011 to clear the air. The goal according to FAIR was to offer a more reasonable conversation about public education than the corporate-interest perspective featured in "Education Nation." The panelists at the MisEducation Nation forum in New York City said the coverage offered by NBC was, at best, misguided-a noble but seriously uninformed effort, said Leonie Haimson, a New York City public school parent and leader of Class Size Matters, which advocates for reducing the number of students per teacher.

For those who don't remember the Bobby Ewing letdown in the Dallas television series, let me summarize: Back in the 1980s, the actor who played Bobby left the show and his character was killed, presenting a problem a year later when he decided to return. The writers dealt with the dilemma by declaring the entire 1985-86 season of storylines a dream sequence. In other words: Never mind. That's what came to mind when I got to the last chapter of Steven Brill's book "Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America's Schools, " which has received a lot of attention in school reform circles because Brill - an author, entrepreneur and founder of the Yale (University) Journalism Initiative - is a significant presence in that world and because his narrative centers on the central reform movement players (Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, etc.).

The secret of their success, usually not mentioned when their records are analyzed, has as much to do with the people who put them in their jobs as with their individual gifts.

It sounds so democratic, a very American idea: break down the walls of "remedial," "average" and "advanced" classes so that all students in each grade can learn together, with lessons that teachers "differentiate" to challenge each individual. Proponents of this approach often stress that it benefits average and lagging students, but a new study from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute suggests that the upsides may come at a cost to top students - and to the international competitiveness of the United States. By trying to teach children of varying abilities in one classroom, is American society underdeveloping some of its brightest young people?

High school students might have to do more than pass their classes and have a good attendance record to earn their diplomas if Iowa joins the growing number of states that require exit exams as a condition of graduation. On Monday, state education officials will release a blueprint outlining the goals of Gov. Terry Branstad's education reform package he plans to take on a town hall tour across the state and then pass on to the Legislature in January. While the specifics haven't been made public, the blueprint is expected to call for changes in teacher pay and evaluations, encouraging the development of charter schools and the development of a new battery of tests that students will have to take --- and possibly pass --- as a condition of graduation

More than 1 million city students returned to class full of excitement about starting a new year, but parents and teachers yesterday worried over the cuts to public schools. The city has slashed more than 10% from school budgets since 2007, and this year the city expects to enroll nearly 10,000 more students while employing 2,600 fewer teachers.

Thursday is the first day of school, but hundreds of public school kids won't go to class because the city hasn't found them seats.

As millions of students prepare to go back to school, budget cuts are resulting in teacher layoffs and larger classes across the country. This comes as the drive towards more standardized testing increases despite a string of cheating scandals in New York, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and other cities. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan also recently unveiled a controversial plan to use waivers to rewrite parts of the nation's signature federal education law, No Child Left Behind. We speak to New York City public school teacher Brian Jones and Diane Ravitch, the former Assistant Secretary of Education and counselor to Education Secretary Lamar Alexander under President George H. W. Bush, who has since this post dramatically changed her position on education policy. She is the author of "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education."

Note: This is a continuation of the last post, so be sure to read that one first.