After a decade ...
Education Week's tenth-annual "Quality Counts"
report examines the progress that states have made on a core set of
policy indicators related to standards-based reform. It finds that state
efforts to devise standards, assessments, and accountability systems are
positively related with gains on the National Assessment of Educational
Progress from 1996 to 2005. "An increasing number of states have
embraced a standardsbased education framework," said Virginia Edwards, the report's editor, "with some of the earliest and
most ardent adopters of standards-based accountability systems making
some of the most progress in student achievement. But, improvements
still have not come far or fast enough." As is true every year,
"Quality Counts" tracks student achievement across the 50
states and the District of Columbia and charts progress on states'
education systems in four areas: standards and accountability, teacher
quality, school climate, and school resources. States averaged a C+
across the graded categories, the same as last year. FOR MORE
INFORMATION, PLEASE GO TO http://www.edweek.org/ew/toc/2006/01/05/. (To
view the content, you must register. Education Week is offering free
access to "Quality Counts" until February 4.)