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Many of the initial reactions to Donald Trump’s choice for Education Secretary — Betsy DeVos, an education-reform advocate — were predictable. Many conservatives praised her, and many liberals blasted her. For anyone who still has an open mind about the politics of education, though, I’d urge a nuanced, wait-and-see reaction.

Education reform — an inchoate mix of standards, accountability and choice — has succeeded in some big ways. These successes don’t get as much attention as they deserve, which is in part the fault of us in the media; we tend to focus on bad news, and to be sympathetic to traditional schools.

For a very quick sense of the reform movement’s successes, you can look at the results in Washington or New Orleans, two laboratories of change (or read my recent column from Boston, which reviews the academic research).