In journalism, especially, we tend to deal with large, complex systems by finding especially interesting people and story lines to focus on.

- Nicholas Lemann

I am always suspicious of the formulation that "politics" has prevented a great idea from being enacted by government. Politics IS government, in a d…

- Nicholas Lemann

I am not against standardized tests. There are tests and tests and tests, and, to simplify, the ones I favor are criterion-referenced tests of skills…

- Nicholas Lemann

In the current environment, attributing low student performance to teacher tenure is one of the great unproven causal links out there. The relationsh…

- Nicholas Lemann

You can't create a successful politics of support for public education on the basis of asking voters not to care about skills, and tests that measure…

- Nicholas Lemann

One of the most consistent findings about low performing schools and students is that "home variables" (parental income and education, etc.) are more…

- Nicholas Lemann

I think serious research tends to be associated with higher academic quality, more prestige, more resources, and even, heaven help us, better teachin…

- Nicholas Lemann

Profound question is how do you measure the non-skills component of what goes on in schools: values, curiosity, critical thinking, and so on. That's …

- Nicholas Lemann