The National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) is a not-for-profit, policy analysis and development organization based in Washington, DC. It was formed by its current president, Marc Tucker, with the stated mission: “To analyze the implications of changes in the international economy for American education, formulate an agenda for American education based on that analysis and seek wherever possible to accomplish that agenda through policy change and development of the resources educators would need to carry it out.” [1]
In 1989, NCEE created the National Alliance for Restructuring Education (NARE), which was aimed at promoting student performance in large urban districts and progressive states through standards-based education reform. That same year, NCEE created the bi-partisan Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce and a year later the organization produced the report America’s Choice: high skills or low wages! [2]
In 1992 NCEE, in conjunction with 23 states and 6 cities, created the New Standards Project. The goal of New Standards was to develop standards for the core subjects in the curriculum and applied learning standards coupled with new assessment instruments designed to measure those standards using new, complex performance tasks that more closely resemble real world problems, thereby providing a rich context in which students could demonstrate their knowledge and skills [3].
Six years later, in 1998 NCEE created the America’s Choice School Design Program based on the work of NARE and New Standards.[2] The program provides research-based school instructional intervention solutions and programs for states, districts, and schools. In 2010, Pearson acquired America’s Choice from NCEE, with the vision of bringing the America’s Choice model to a worldwide market [4].
In 1999, NCEE launched the National Institute for School Leadership, a program designed to train principals for high performing schools. The Institute has since served more than 3,800 principals in 14 states, and was adopted as the primary statewide professional development program in both Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.[5] NISL now offers other professional development programs focused on specific issues such as early childhood, English Language Learners, excellence in science and students with disabilities.
NCEE’s most recent school-improvement program is the Board Examination Systems Program, an initiative to increase the number of students graduating from high school who are prepared to do college-level work.[1] The program provides a system of examinations aligned to curriculum and teacher professional development that have been benchmarked to worldclass standards. The program will be piloted starting the fall of 2011 in several states including Connecticut, Kentucky, Mississippi and Arizona. Four organizations have been certified to offer their board examination systems during the pilot program: ACT-Quality Core [6], University of Cambridge International Examinations (Cambridge IGCSE and Cambridge Advanced), International Baccalaureate (IB Diploma Programme), and The College Board (Advanced Placement Program).
Dillon, Sam. "High Schools to Offer Plan to Graduate 2 Years Early". The New York Times. 2010-18-2
[1] Official NCEE website
[2] America’s Choice History
[3] National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
[4] America’s Choice Press Release
[5] NISL
[6] ACT-Quality Core
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