Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post writes today that she feels compelled to “eat at least a spoonful of crow.”

Her menu selection is driven by her assessment of President Obama’s “education reform” accomplishments to date.

The term “education reform” is meaningless. All it implies is that, in whatever small way, things will be done differently from the way they have been done in the past. Not necessarily better, or worse, just differently. Even the president’s painfully vague campaign message (“Hope and Change”) at least indicated that the sought-after change was supposed to be in a positive direction. “Reform” doesn’t even convey that — let alone giving any indication of the nature, rationale or evidence for the change.

So, yes, the president is “reforming” certain aspects of education. But whether it’s higher-ed, pre‑k, or the qualified expansion of charter schools, the new form does not seem noticeably better than the old one.