Jack Schneider

Dwight W. Allen Distinguished Professor of Education and Director of the Center for Education Policy University of Massachusetts Amherst

  • Amherst MA

Jack Schneider studies what is effective and important in education with a particular interest in looking beyond standardized test scores.

Contact

University of Massachusetts Amherst

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Expertise

Educational Assessment
Standardized Tests
Standardized Testing
Measuring School Quality

Biography

Jack Schneider is a prolific author and speaker who examines how educators, policymakers, and the public develop particular views about what is true, what is effective, and what is important in education. He has a particular interest in strengthening public education by looking beyond standardized test scores.

He leads the Center for Education Policy at UMass Amherst, which works to strengthen public education and advance equity through more humane assessment. Schneider is also co-host of the Have You Heard podcast that explores the "age-old quest to finally fix the nation's public schools, one policy issue at a time."

Video

Education

Stanford University

Ph.D.

Education

Stanford University

M.A.

History

Haverford College

B.A.

Political Science

Select Recent Media Coverage

How the Department of Education came into existence

NPR  radio

2025-02-05

Jack Schneider is interviewed about the history of the U.S. Department of Education. “I think that these roots of what is today the Department of Education help us understand what the department is really good for,” he says.

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Why did satisfaction with K-12 rise in the past year despite little changes?

The Hill  online

2024-09-03

Jack Schneider says, "We have finally begun to hear Democrats talking about education as something that advances the common good, as something that makes our community stronger and as something that is worth standing up and fighting for.”

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As critics decry religion in classrooms, some fear how far Florida will go

Tampa Bay Times  online

2024-07-16

Jack Schneider is quoted in an article about efforts to insert religion into public schools in the U.S. He notes that similar efforts have occurred throughout the country’s history but, as the population grew more diverse, church and state have largely remained separate to maintain a unified public education model. “That’s why we don’t want to have publicly funded religious education, because it’s been too divisive. It created fragmentation,” Schneider says.

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Select Publications

Why Hasn’t Trump Already Closed the Department of Education?

The Nation

Jack Schneider

2025-02-21

Jack Schneider writes, “Even in the midst of a raging culture war, Americans are still pragmatic people who maintain practical interests in their communities and the institutions that anchor them. So when the Trump administration lets loose a wrecking ball on the schools"

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The MCAS doesn’t measure learning. We need to replace it.

The Boston Globe

Jessica Tang and Jack Schneider

2024-10-11

In an op-ed, Jack Schneider calls to replace the MCAS standardized test. “[The test] does very little to identify school strengths and weaknesses, offering little guidance on how to improve educational processes, Mostly, it’s a tool for blaming and penalizing those it was intended to help," he says.

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Why “Fund Students, Not Systems” Is a Recipe for Disaster

The Nation

Jennifer C. Berkshire and Jack Schneider

2024-06-01

Jack Schneider is the co-author of a feature about the mentalities that threaten public education. “If we are to preserve our schools, it must be clear that public education is for all of us. If we fail at that, we will lose our schools. And if we lose them, they won’t come back,” he writes.

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