J. Larry Berger is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Wireless Generation, which has its headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y. He is also a trustee of Editorial Projects in Education, the nonprofit corporation that publishes Education Week. David Stevenson is the vice president for business development and government affairs at Wireless Generation. This commentary was adapted for Education Week from their essay in the book Carrots, Sticks, and the Bully Pulpit: Lessons Learned From a Half Century of Federal Efforts to Improve America’s Schools (Harvard Education Press, 2012).