What educators are saying about School Performance in Context
It’s important that America understands what we’re facing as 
educators. We’re in a nation stricken with poverty and yet we’re not addressing it.
— Laurie Barron, superintendent, Kalispell, Montana
I come from a district with about 86 percent free and reduced lunch.
I want to take these findings and educate my community. We need to make sure we’re attacking factors like poverty and social services.
— Leslie Boozer, superintendent, Fontana Unified School District, California
It’s amazing that we’re such a rich country and yet in my Iowa 
district, 63 percent of our children have financial needs. We’re not doing enough to help them and schools can’t do it all.
— Martha Bruckner, superintendent, Council Bluffs, Iowa
School Performance in Context underlines the irrationality of 
assigning undue importance to standardized tests. Defining American education by a score on a test disregards the many factors affecting that score, childhood poverty being one of the most significant.
— Dan Domenech, executive director, American Association of School Administrators (AASA)
Globalization means we have to be internationally engaged, 
economically and culturally. Future-focused leaders will benefit greatly from immersing themselves in the realistic international comparisons contained in this report.
— Joe A. Hairston, co-director, AASA-Howard University Urban Superintendents Academy
The most striking thing from the data—and something that all 
policymakers should be concerned about—is that here we sit as the wealthiest nation in the world and we have the highest percentage of children in our schools living in poverty.
— Charles Fowler, Executive Secretary, Suburban School Superintendents.
It’s quite overwhelming to see the statistics on the broader context
brought together in this way. It is impressive that American schools do as well as they do in this environment.— Iris Rotberg, George Washington University; editor, Change and Tradition in Global Education Reform
The information in this report is far more informative than test 
scores alone. We can learn much from School Performance in Context about meaningful ways to help all children succeed in school.
— Diane Ravitch, New York University; author of Reign of Error
This report does what has been missing in international 
assessments like PISA and TIMSS…It provides a broader context to understand how education systems perform…simply an eye-opening reading experience!
— Palsi Sahlberg, Harvard University, author of Finnish Lessons
“This is a significant piece of work. I think it has
real potential for furthering the conversation about
where we really are in education in the United States.”
Karen Woodward, Superintendent, Lexington Schools, South Carolina
“A fascinating report that highlights the importance
of context and the…often deeply misleading nature
of test scores taken in isolation. Even readers who
think they know about context will learn many new and surprising things.”
Alison Wolf, Sir Roy Griffiths Professor, King’s
College, London, Education Advisor, Government
of Prime Minister David Cameron