A Small Wonder

Delaware's early commitment to standards-based accountability may have helped push it from the low tier of states to well above the U.S. average on national tests in reading and mathematics.

By Debra Viadero

Milford, Del.

If you want to understand Delaware’s success in raising achievement over the past decade or so, you might ask educators or policymakers what the state did right, study some reports, or sift through old news accounts.

Or you could come here to Lulu M. Ross Elementary School and read the writing on the wall.

Educators at this 629-student school, which serves children in grades 2-5, have plastered charts tracking its educational progress to a wall in the lobby. Among other statistics,...