The History of Reform in One Easy Lesson

Following links from Steve, I started reading the blog Education Realist, by a public school teacher who sees what education reform, both liberal and "conservative", looks like at ground level. I especially found useful this piece on the history of federal education mandates.

First up, of course, was the Elementary and Secondary Education Act’s Title I, designed to improve educational outcomes for the poor. More money would help the poor and close the achievement gap, so the thinking went–and still goes, although the Coleman Report, issued a year later, established that school spending had far less to do with student outcomes than student SES and background. But the expectation was set into law—all outcomes should be equal. No research, no science, no school has ever proven this out. It was just the sort of blithe expectation we had during the civil rights era that certainly seemed to be true.

Read the whole thing.