Report

Albert Einstein once defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." If his assertion is true, then the recent history of California’s school-improvement efforts paints a picture of sheer madness.

For more than a decade, California has tossed hundreds of millions of dollars at low-performing schools in a series of unproductive "reform" initiatives. Instead of drilling down to fix the conditions that create a cycle of under-performance, these programs have skimmed the surface of school improvement and produced minimal gains.