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Mixed Report Card for Education Stimulus After 2 Years

Verdell Schoats is a “pride promoter” at Gilcrease Middle School in Tulsa, Okla. His job, which helps ensure safety in the halls and provides support to teachers on discipline, is financed with federal economic-stimulus money.

—Shane Bevel for Education Week

By Michele McNeil

Two years after Congress made the federal government’s largest one-time investment in the nation’s public schools, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—the economic-stimulus package—has prevented massive teacher layoffs, spurred states to devise sweeping education overhaul plans, and invigorated the national conversation about turning around the worst-performing schools.

Yet a critical question remains: Will the ARRA’s nearly $100 billion in education aid result in higher academic achievement, particularly for those students most at risk of academic failure? Or, in the words of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, will the country’s education “moonshot” hit its target?

“We have a long way to go. We have not done it,” Mr. Duncan said in a December interview, adding that his goal is for the United States to lead the world in academic achievement. “We’re not...