State Ed. Departments Should Lead Reforms, Report Says

By Mark Stricherz

State education departments, rather than governors or legislatures, should lead the effort to improve their states' public school systems, a report released last week argues.

The 25-page paper, released by the Institute for Educational Leadership, a Washington-based research organization, outlines the major actors in state K-12 politics and singles out the state education agency as the "pivotal player."

In fact, in arguing for a central role for the agencies, the report criticizes those other actors. Legislatures are sometimes "downright foolish," businesses offer merely "quick and tidy" reforms, and state school boards suffer from high...