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Interested in reading more? Here's a sampling of articles, commentary, and blog postings by and about Joanne Weiss.

ARTICLEs & Commentary

McKinsey Report, February 2024. Advisor on Spark and Sustain: How al the world’s school systems can improving learning at scale.

Washingtonian Magazine, May 2023. Named one of Washington DC’s 500 Most Influential People in Education.

The Accomplishment Podcast with Sir Michael Barber, March 2023. Interview with Joanne Weiss.

FutureEd, March 18, 2021. Perspectives on How Schools Should Spend Covid Relief Aid.

The Report Card, November 19, 2020. The Election is Over. What’s Next for Education? American Enterprise Institute.

Education Next, May 4, 2020. A Blueprint for Back to School

The Education Gadfly Weekly, December 11, 2019. Reading Between the Lines: What States Can Do About America’s Literacy Challenge

The National Center on Education and the Economy. Global Ed Talks with Anthony Mackay: An Interview with Joanne Weiss [video conversation]

FutureEd, June 20, 2019. What Teachers Think, Results from a New International Survey (OECD TALIS 2018) [video conversation]

The Education Gadfly Blog, January 18, 2017.  A Competitive School Choice Program that Puts Families First

The Education Gadfly Blog, January 17, 2017.  School Choice that Puts Families First

Phi Delta Kappan, May 2016.  States as Change Agents under ESSA (co-authored with Patrick McGuinn)

Educational Testing Service, March 2016.  Reflections on the Race to the Top Assessment Program in The Road Ahead for State Assessments: What the Consortia Built, Why It Matters, and Emerging Options

The Education Gadfly Weekly, February 17, 2016.  ESSA Accountability Design Competition: My big takeaways

Education Week, December 10, 2015.  ESSA Cements the K-12 Obama-Duncan Legacy

Stanford Social Innovation Review, Fall 2015.  Competing Principles

Education Next, Fall 2015.  What Did Race to the Top Accomplish? Education Next Talks with Joanne Weiss and Frederick Hess

Education Next, Fall 2015.  Innovative Program Spurred Meaningful Education Reform

TNTP Blog, October 9, 2014.  The Widget Effect: Five Years Later

Center for Reinventing Public Education, September 26, 2014.  The Long Road to Accountability

EdWeek, April 24, 2014.  Policymaking and Innovation Mindsets

Homeroom, the Official Blog of the U.S. Department of Education, September 16, 2012.  Wyoming Career Academy Feeds Local Demand for Energy and Health Care Workers

Harvard Business Review Blog, March 31, 2011.  The Innovation Mismatch: "Smart Capital" and Education Innovation

U.S. Department of Education, April 17, 2010.  Race to the Top Assessment Competition 

Education Week Commentary, July 23, 2009.  Education's 'Race to the Top' Begins 

In the News

The Regulatory Review, August 6, 2022. Has the “Every Student Succeeds Act” Left Children Behind?

Education Gadfly, June 16, 2022. Encouraging progress on “high quality instructional materials.”

The74, November 10, 2021. Will the Tea Party of 2022 Emerge from the Debate over Schools? Virginia Election Offers GOP Template for Midterms.

Chalkbeat, May 13, 2021. After a High Point in the Obama Administration, Philanthropies No Longer Drive Education Policy.

USA Today, December 23, 2020. Biden to Pick Miguel Cardona, Proponent of Reopening Schools, as Education Secretary.

US News & World, May 8, 2020. How School Will Change When Kids Return to Classrooms.

AEI Webinar, May 4, 2020. Webinar — A Blueprint for Back to School: How Should School Prepare? (video)

The74, October 30, 2019. A ‘Disturbing’ Assessment: Sagging Reading Scores, Particularly for Eighth-Graders, Headline 2019’s Disappointing NAEP Results.

The74, October 9, 2019. When It Comes to Maximizing School Funds, Ed Talking Heads at Policy Event Trumpet Choice, Transparency and a Quick Game of ‘Would You Rather?’.

Olson, Lynn. The New Testing Landscape: How State Assessments are Changing Under the Federal Every Student Succeeds Act. FutureED, September 2019.

Education Week, June 26, 2019. Teach For America's Defenders and Detractors Are Both Wrong. by Jeffrey R. Henig

Education Week Teacher, June 20, 2019. Teaching in the U.S. Should Be More 'Intellectually Attractive,' Global Expert Says

The74, November 10, 2018. Midterm Post-Mortem: Was the Election a Repudiation of Ed Reform? Or Just a Sign That it’s Going ‘Under the Radar’?

The74, June 21, 2018. The Department of Education and the Workforce: Why Trump Officials Are Looking to Merge Two Agencies, With a Focus on Better Developing a Modern Workforce

Education Next, Fall 2017. Louisiana Threads the Needle on Ed Reform

The74, April 6, 2017. The 25 Experts Joining Forces to Give State ESSA Plans a Harder Accountability Look

Stanford Social Innovation Review, Spring 2017. Social Innovation Comes to Pennsylvania Avenue

MLive (Michigan), February 14, 2017. What to Expect Now that Betsy DeVos is U.S. Education Secretary

Deseret News, October 21, 2014. It's 2014: Are all our Schools Proficient Yet?

NPR, October 11, 2014. It's 2014. All Children Are Supposed to be Proficient. What Happened?

Wall Street Journal, September 17, 2013.  A Bridge to Somewhere: Education Panel Focuses on 'Democratizing Digital Learning' 

Education Gadfly, August 28, 2013.  By the Company It Keeps: Joanne Weiss

National Journal, July 16, 2013.  Joanne Weiss, Chief-of-Staff

EdWeek, July 6, 2013.  Joanne Weiss Leaving as Arne Duncan's Chief of Staff

Washington Post, July 11, 2012.  Talking Leadership with Joanne Weiss, Arne Duncan’s Chief of Staff at the Department of Education

Aspen Ideas Festival, July, 2012. Will Technology Disrupt the Way We Learn?  (Video) 

Stanford Social Innovation Review, Spring, 2010. Joanne Weiss Q&A

Selected Publications

Bailey, John, Frederick Hess, et al. May 2020. A Blueprint for Back to School. American Enterprise Institute.

Weiss, Joanne and Patrick McGuinn. September 2017. The Evolving Role of the State Education Agency in the Era of ESSA and Trump: Past, Present, and Uncertain Future. Consortium for Policy Research in Education. (Also available here from FutureEd at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy.)

Weiss, Joanne. January 2017. School Choice that Puts Families First. The Fordham Institute.

Weiss, Joanne and Patrick McGuinn. July 2016. The Evolving Role of the State Education Agency in the Era of ESSA: Past, Present, and Uncertain Future. Education Commission of the States and Aspen Institute Education & Society.

Weiss, Joanne and Patrick McGuinn. May 2016 (97: 28-33). States as Change Agents under ESSA. Phi Delta Kappan.

Adams, Jacob, Christopher T. Cross, Christopher Edley, James W. Guthrie, Paul T. Hill, Michael W. Kirst, Goodwin Liu, Susanna Loeb, David H. Monk, Allan R. Odden, Joanne Weiss. 2008.  Funding Student Learning: How to Align Education Resources with Student Learning Goals. Seattle: University of Washington, Center on Reinventing Public Education, School Finance Redesign Project.

Weiss, Joanne. 2007.  Conditions for Student Success: The Cycle of Continuous Instructional Improvement. Working PaperNo. 4. Seattle: University of Washington, Center on Reinventing Public Education, School Finance Redesign Project.

Ito, Mizuko, Cathy Davidson, Henry Jenkins, Carol Lee, Michael Eisenberg, Joanne Weiss. 2007. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning (A Six-Volume Series). Boston: MIT Press Journals.