A recent New York Times article highlights an increasingly popular way of reporting academic performance, standards-based report cards.  Rather than the congenital A, B, C, D, and F grades (given by subject in the aggregate), students are assessed on their performance on specific skills against appropriate grade-level expectations. ...

"We're going to reward those states and those districts that are willing to challenge the status quo and get dramatically better," Education Secratary Arne Duncan said, March 16 at the White House. "Those who keep doing the same old thing, however, won't be eligible for the money," he added. The conversation around improvement has become central to access to stimulus money for schools. The challenge remains: how will we measure this success? How will we measure the impact of this money on Education in the U.S.? Duncan has specifically pointed States to these areas of improvement: ...

Six states - Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Utah Arizona, Delaware, and New Mexico – have committed to the “Tough Choices or Tough Times” education reform agenda created by the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce.  The Commission argues that today’s education system in the US fails to prepare workers for global competition; US graduates are ‘mediocre’ against international competition in the labor market. ...

There is an enormous opportunity ahead for ED, states, districts, schools, principals, teachers and, of course, students, to rewrite the rules of education in the US. Beyond the programs and innovations, the most meaningful advancement that can materially change the landscape of education in the US is longitudinal data systems that can follow individual students throughout their formal education. We are flying blind in the education reform world and without data (read truth and transparency) we will only have limited impact for few students rather than radical improvement for all students. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123723145666945761.html ...

'On track' measures academic performance in the first year of high school and guages whether a student is making sufficient progress to be on track to graduate within four years.  This measure, defined by the Consortium on Chicago School Research, is a better predictor of high school graduation than eighth grade test scores or student background characteristics.  It has been implemented by the Chicago Public Schools, and may prove useful to other school districts and systems. ...