Armed with nearly $100 billion in education aid from the 2009 economic-stimulus package passed by Congress, Secretary Duncan used $4 billion to entice states into embracing common standards, charter schools, and teacher evaluations tied to student test scores through his Race to the Top contest.

He's advanced that general platform more recently by granting states waivers from compliance with many of the core tenets of the NCLB law if they adopt the Obama administration's preferred improvement ideas—even as education research paints a mixed picture about whether such measures as charter schools and merit pay have much effect on student learning.

Successful schools — whether charter or traditional — have features in common: a clear mission, talented teachers, time for teachers to work together, longer school days or after-school programs, feedback cycles that lead to continuing improvements. It’s not either-or.

ndeed, the economy is moving from one based on large industries to one based on mass entrepreneurship. With its emphasis on creativity and individual development, progressive education prepares kids for precisely such an economic reality. It's not that business leaders want schools to produce cogs for the industrial machine, it's that they don't realize that the testing movement will produce a less innovative workforce and make America less competitive. Let's educate them.

Perhaps for the first time in history, however, the philosophy of progressive education is simpatico with our changing economy in its demand for innovation, critical thinking, and individuality.