Brown Center Report on American Education

At this event, the Brookings Institution’s Brown Center on Education Policy will release its annual report assessing various aspects of student achievement as the new school year begins. Brown Center director Tom Loveless, the report’s author, will reveal the new study’s findings and their implications.

Last year’s Brown Center report created considerable controversy by critiquing the federal government’s Blue Ribbon Schools Program, showing that many schools selected for this award were not particularly high achieving in reading and mathematics. Program officials have recently announced that procedures for selecting award winners will be overhauled to place primary emphasis on academic achievement.

The 2001 Brown Center report is expected to have a similar impact, as it again presents revealing data related to the current state of American education. Some of the issues to be addressed at this year’s forum include:

What do foreign exchange students think of American high schools?

Results are discussed from a survey of foreign exchange students who have studied in the United States.

Is the “reading gap” really widening?

This spring, two official reports described a widening achievement gap in the 1990s between the nation’s best and worst readers. However, there is evidence that the gap may not have widened at all and even may have narrowed.

How are urban school districts doing on state tests?

An analysis of test data from urban districts in 21 states.