Perhaps most troubling, on both tests, the gap between low-performing and high-performing students has grown, despite decades of education reforms meant to close those divides.

The results have led to a vociferous debate over what to blame, from subpar reading instruction to poverty to uneven implementation of the Common Core, the decade’s most ambitious school reform effort. Expect that debate to continue in 2020, especially as several cases travel through the federal court system arguing that schools are failing to adequately prepare American children for citizenship and for productive lives.

A Crisis in Elite College Admissions

The most explosive education story of the year was undoubtedly Varsity Blues, the federal government’s investigation of a corrupt college admissions consultant, Rick Singer, and the dozens of parents who paid him to cheat and bribe their children’s way into elite colleges like Stanford, Yale and the University of Southern California. News of prison sentences for TV stars and business leaders who fabricated athletic records and standardized test scores for their offspring captured media attention. But the case was far more than just tabloid fodder. It called attention to deep-seated inequities in the college admissions process, from unequal access to quality advising and test prep to the ability of wealthy parents to essentially purchase disability diagnoses that can earn a student extra time to take the SAT or ACT exams.

There was also a renewed focus on the role of race. A growing group of colleges have made the SAT and ACT exams optional in an effort to diversify their student bodies. The sprawling and influential University of California system is considering whether it will follow suit, as it faces a lawsuit claiming the tests have spawned a vast prep industry that discriminates against low-income and black and Latino students.

All of this coincided with a closely-watched federal lawsuit in Boston arguing discrimination against Asian-Americans in Harvard’s admissions process. The case was brought by Students for Fair Admissions, a group led by Edward Blum, a conservative legal activist who has long fought to overturn affirmative action policies and has successfully challenged the Voting Rights Act.