A Decade of Effort

Quality Counts marks its 10th year in print with a comprehensive review of the nation's movement toward higher academic standards and greater accountability.

By Lynn Olson

In March 1996, the nation’s governors met in Palisades, N.Y., and called for an “external, independent, nongovernmental effort” to measure and report on each state’s annual progress in raising student achievement and improving the public schools.

Education Week responded by launching the first edition of Quality Counts in January 1997, with the goal of producing an annual report card on public education in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

At the time, standards-based education was in its infancy, spawned largely by frustration with a fragmented public education system whose governance was spread across more than 14,000 school districts, 50 states, and the federal government, and by low levels of student achievement, especially among...