An Urgent Call to Action for Education Leaders

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, top business and government leaders in the United States rallied together around school reform. Their vision stemmed from a belief that transforming education was a necessary economic-development strategy to improve global competitiveness. The strategies of that era—including high academic standards for all students, measuring academic progress, improving teaching, and introducing school choice to a monopoly system—found reinforcement in federal law with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. For the past quarter-century, the nation has embraced these reforms by investing billions of dollars and lots of hard work.

Yet, school reform investments of these past decades were insufficient and, unfortunately, alienated a number of constituents along the way. Our education system made only modest progress in closing achievement gaps and preparing greater numbers of students for success in college and 21st-century careers. In spite of the aspirations of private- and public-sector leaders, achievement gaps continue to correlate closely with socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, language-learning status, and disabilities. This is especially disturbing given that more than 50 percent of U.S. public school students are children of color and from low-income backgrounds. A profound change will require bold, visionary leadership for reforms that allow schools to more successfully educate disadvantaged students....

Read more at Education Week.