Universal public education traditionally is seen as the one sure means to promote widespread economic and social advancement. But around the world, education is increasingly fueling inequality. Experts predict that by 2030, 825 million children--half of today's youth generation--will reach adulthood without the skills they need to thrive in work and life. More worrisome still, it will take approximately 100 years for the most marginalized youth to...

"From MOOCs to autograders to computerized tutors, technologies designed for large-scale learning have never lived up to the hype. Justin Reich once promoted these "transformative" novelties; now he reveals their failures. Successful education reform, he concludes, will focus on incremental institutional change, not the next killer app"--

"Ted Kennedy and George W. Bush agreed on little, but united behind the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Passed in late 2001, it was hailed as a dramatic new departure in school reform. It would make the states set high standards, measure student progress, and hold failing schools accountable. A decade later, NCLB has been repudiated on both sides of the aisle. According to Jal Mehta, we should have seen it coming. Far from new, it was the same approach...

"Mark Zuckerberg, Chris Christie, and Cory Booker were ready to reform our failing schools. They got an education. When Mark Zuckerberg announced in front of a cheering Oprah audience his $100 million pledge to transform the Newark Schools -- and to solve the education crisis in every city in America -- it looked like a huge win for then-mayor Cory Booker and governor Chris Christie. But their plans soon ran into a constituency not so easily moved...

"Matt was a smart, funny second grader when he started having difficulties concentrating on his schoolwork. It soon became clear the traditional school system was stacked against him and the way he learned. Compounding Matt's obstacles was a sleep disorder that was not diagnosed until he was fourteen. His family dove into a complicated maze of education rules and procedures in the hopes of finding a program that fit. From Individual Education Plans...

"The untold story of the root cause of America's education crisis--and the seemingly endless cycle of multigenerational poverty. It was only after years within the education reform movement that Natalie Wexler stumbled across a hidden explanation for our country's frustrating lack of progress when it comes to providing every child with a quality education. The problem wasn't one of the usual scapegoats: lazy teachers, shoddy facilities, lack of accountability....