GRO BOOKS

or all the nation's earnest intentions and
 
policy gyrations during the last decade, the United States has barely budged out of its deep scholastic hole.
Just wait, the optimists say. Wait for stan- dardized tests to reflect reforms already in place. Or wait for new reforms. Or wait for Washington and the rest of the country to get really serious (i.e. to pile even more billions upon the billions already added to American education). To which remarkably few skeptics respon...