From the Capitol to the Classroom is about standards-based reform, which, in the 1990s, became the predominant policy approach of states and localities throughout the United States. After ten years or so of such reforms, it is time to look at results. While some evidence is emerging about student learning, since the reforms are still evolving and are in various stages of implementation, no overall verdict can be rendered. However, it is quite appropriate and not too early to ask whether classroom practice, which must change in order to produce increases in student learning, is improving in ways encouraged by reforms. This book focuses primarily on how schools and teachers are responding to standards policies.

This yearbook has focused on antecedent questions that are being addressed by many current studies and that are easier to answer at this stage in the reform process. Some have to do with the central theory of the reform: Are policies being aligned around standards? Do they embody incentives that motivate schools, teachers, and students to reach the standards? The others have to do with actual changes in practice. Is content and pedagogy changing in the directions sought by reformers? The chapters in this book have mixed answers to these questions. They report progress, but they also report numerous gaps in reform design and challenges in implementation.

This article examines the evolution of deregulation as a state education policy strategy, from limited waiver programs to charter programs and new accountability systems that include broad deregulation. The article discusses the substantial political and practical barriers to broad deregulation despite the assumption that greater school-level autonomy will lead to improvement.

This article focuses on opportunity-to-learn standards, which define a set of conditions that schools, districts, and states must meet in order to ensure students an equal opportunity to meet expectations for their performance.

Initial findings from a five-year study of the educational reform process and its effects are reported. Findings derive from interviews with state and local policymakers and educators in 24 districts and 59 schools from 6 states. Areas discussed are politics of reform, state role, student standards and teacher-related policies.