High schoolers are reading more, but they are reading less than they need to. Drop outs and suspensions are unacceptably high and are disproportionately minority students. The results tell us what to celebrate and also where we need to work harder. Around the country, demands for better accountability for public investments in education have led to a variety of approaches. Some states have high stakes testing as a graduation requirement for students.
Some states have high stakes accountability for schools.
Some states have centralized decision making in an effort to direct improvement. Some states are leaving it up to local districts to decide what to do and how to do it. Some states have invested heavily in targeted efforts to retrain teachers and retool the system others less so. I am reminded of that Dickens line about the best of times, the worst of times. In many states standards and accountability efforts are leading to real and lasting improvements in public education.