Let’s assume that nobody is going to end up taking state assessments or end-of-course exams this spring. One way or another, everyone will be waived from those federal obligations and their state-imposed counterparts, mainly at the high-school level. The College Board and ACT are striving to improvise, reschedule, and reformat their volitional tests, such as AP and SAT, and some—maybe a lot—of that will continue for purposes of college admissions and credit.

As I expected, many readers reacted heatedly to last week’s column on a proposal to reduce teacher retirement plans so that teachers who produced the best results could be paid more.

Schools may be shuttered and families hunkered down, but teacher Tim Rodman is keeping his Maryland classroom going during the coronavirus pandemic — ever the energetic voice of AP Macroeconomics as he hosts a video call with students who live 40 miles away.

A few weeks back, before the coronavirus swept aside all other conversations, I penned a post remaking on the disappointing educational legacy of the 2010s. My jump-off point was Diane Ravitch's new book; my takeaway was that it reminded me that Ravitch and the reformers she opposed were, in important ways, mirror images of one another—plagued by similar mistakes and missteps.