Background
During the last ten years, the Education Program has sought to take advantage of key windows of opportunity to advance the education system, as a whole, toward better student outcomes. Anticipating and capitalizing on these windows has been important because education is a conservative field—resistant to anything but incremental change, yet bombarded by reform efforts. It is also decentralized, with policymaking spread among national, state, and local governments, making it difficult to identify leverage points to create widespread, sustainable improvement. Lastly, there is little agreement within the sector on goals and indicators of progress; where agreement does exist, it is often quickly politicized and short-lived.