Located in western Massachusetts, UMass Amherst is the flagship campus of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' five-campus University of Massachusetts system. UMass Amherst is a nationally recognized teaching and research institution with a current enrollment of about 28,500 students.

University of Massachusetts Amherst

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Expert Inquiry

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

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

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

The Old College Try

Off the Mark: How Grades, Ratings, and Rankings Undermine Learning (but Don’t Have To)

The disturbing state of racial diversity in Massachusetts public schools

Beyond Test Scores: A Better Way to Measure School Quality

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."

Educational Assessment

Standardized Tests

Standardized Testing

Measuring School Quality

UMass Amherst Faculty Profile

Center for Education Policy

Have You Heard Podcast

Beyond Test Scores Project

department of education buidling

How the Department of Education came into existence

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

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

teacher at Massachusetts State House

Massachusetts teachers unions face leadership changes

Moms for Liberty faces new challenges and growing pushback over its conservative education agenda

What experts say parents should know before using school rating websites like Niche, GreatSchools

elementary school students

Should Mass. consider a ‘nuclear option’ for catching kids up in school? Here are 7 big ideas.

The End of Scantron Tests

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

Jennifer Berkshire grew up in the Midwest, and while she has long since been transplanted to the East Coast, she will forever be a Heartlander at heart. She discovered her love for storytelling while covering a series of bitter labor battles in her native Illinois in the early 1990s. Grad school couldn’t compare, and so she forsook academic life for one of an itinerant interviewer. Her interest in—some would say ‘obsession’ with—public education began in 2006 when she took a job editing the statewide newspaper for AFT Massachusetts. She would go on to start an irreverent blog called EduShyster, chronicling the excesses of the education reform movement.
Jennifer writes about the intersection of education and politics for the Nation, the New Republic, the Baffler, the New York Times, and other publications. She is the author of two books: A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School (with Jack), and More Worlds to Negotiate: John Dunlop and the Art of Problem Solving. She teaches in the journalism program at Boston College and in the Education Studies program at Yale University. A licensed public school teacher, Jennifer lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Follow her on Twitter.

Jack Schneider is a scholar, teacher, writer, and activist. In his day job, he is an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he teaches in the Ph.D. and Ed.D. programs and leads the Beyond Test Scores Project. His academic research broadly examines how educators, policymakers, and the public develop particular views about what is true, what is effective, and what is important in education, and he is particularly interested in how those views can diverge from ground-level reality inside schools and communities. Much of his work, for instance, looks at how student learning and school quality are quantified, and details the intended and unintended consequences of such efforts.
Jack also writes frequently for the public in outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, and Atlantic, often making the case that educational reform is more complex than many of its champions would have us imagine. In his work with Jennifer—on the podcast and on the page—he has established a reputation as a defender of public education's core principles, even as he has been an outspoken critic of racial and economic injustice. As a result, he tends to be unpopular with those who blame schools for inequality, and he is generally loathed by free market zealots. Follow Jack on Twitter.

Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider - A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door

Jennifer Berkshire &amp; Jack Schneider - A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door

Jack Schneider is a scholar, teacher, writer, and activist. In his day job, he is an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he teaches in the Ph.D. and Ed.D. programs and leads the Beyond Test Scores Project. His academic research broadly examines how educators, policymakers, and the public develop particular views about what is true, what is effective, and what is important in education, and he is particularly interested in how those views can diverge from ground-level reality inside schools and communities. Much of his work, for instance, looks at how student learning and school quality are quantified, and details the intended and unintended consequences of such efforts.
Jack also writes frequently for the public in outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, and Atlantic, often making the case that educational reform is more complex than many of its champions would have us imagine. In his work with Jennifer—on the podcast and on the page—he has established a reputation as a defender of public education's core principles, even as he has been an outspoken critic of racial and economic injustice. As a result, he tends to be unpopular with those who blame schools for inequality, and he is generally loathed by free market zealots. Follow Jack on Twitter.

Jack Schneider - Teachers Make a Difference - David Tyack

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