The impact of voucher programs: A deep dive into the research
Pedro EnamoradoLast month, my colleagues Mike Petrilli and David Griffith had a conversation with Patrick Wolf, a leading school choice scholar at the University of Arkansas, about the impact of voucher programs on the Education Gadfly Show podcast.
We are squandering the talents of too many low-income high achievers
Aaron Churchill , Michael J. PetrilliFar too many high-achieving children are drifting through middle and high school. Despite their potential, they don’t end up taking AP exams, achieving high marks on their ACTs, or going to four-year colleges. This limits their ability to move up the social ladder, threatens U.S. economic competitiveness, and derails our aspirations for a more just society. We must stop buying into the false assumption that high-achieving kids will do fine on their own.
Use pandemic recovery funds to empower both schools and families
Bruno V. Manno, ChairCovid-19 school shock disrupted our way of doing education, unbundling the familiar division of responsibilities among home, school, and community organizations. Nearly every parent of school-age children had to create from scratch a home learning environment using online technology and rebundling school services to meet their needs.
Measuring the social, emotional, and academic toll of remote learning
Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.After more than eighteen months of pandemic-induced commotion to education, data continue to roll in regarding various negative impacts on young people.
There’s a fiscal cliff coming, and some districts appear hell-bent on making it worse
Marguerite RozaWe’ve been polling district finance leaders about their biggest concern in this moment, and the most common answer is financial problems down the road.
A flawed study of Indiana’s voucher program
Jeremy SmithA recent study looks at the impact of
School choice is a better instrument for racial justice than critical race theory
Daniel BuckThe outlook has gotten bleak for the anti-racist and CRT movements in U.S. classrooms, as Americans saw these ideas in action and largely recoiled from them. But there's another K–12 strategy for achieving racial justice: school choice.
Ohio data show the pandemic's heavy toll on student achievement and the importance of in-person learning
Vladimir Kogan, Stéphane LavertuThe Covid-19 pandemic caused unprecedented disruptions to teaching and learning across America, including school closures, sudden changes to instructional delivery, economic hardship, and social isolation.
The wide-ranging benefits of natural mentorships
William RostA recent Annenberg working paper explores the effects of “natural” mentorships, which researchers define as voluntary and informal relationships between school personnel and students. It finds many benefits, especially for teens from low-income households.
Addressing constructive criticisms of Fordham’s report on state civics and U.S. history standards
David GriffithOur recent study of states’ U.S. history and civics standards attracted some constructive criticism from both the left and the right. It was, after all, explicitly bipartisan. Here are our responses to four critiques.
A downbeat assessment of students’ mental and social-emotional health in the Covid era
Jeff MurrayIt is no exaggeration to say that very little good can likely come from a global pandemic, especially in the short term. And while the “term” of the current pandemic seems to lengthen every day, we are still firmly in the realm of the immediate when discussing impacts.
NWEA measures the impact of the pandemic on student achievement and growth
Jessica PoinerResearchers at NWEA have been using data from their MAP Growth assessments to predict and analyze learning losses since the start of the pandemic.
Using deeper learning to strengthen our democracy
Kent McGuireThe past eighteen months have been some of the most tumultuous in the history of our nation. The twin pandemics of Covid-19 and social injustice have highlighted how today’s students face very different expectations than students encountered in previous generations.
Does the medium matter? Academic outcomes for print versus digital reading.
Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.Reading on a computer screen became a must for millions of youngsters at the onset of pandemic-induced school closures when they lost access to classrooms and library books in school buildings.
State civics and U.S. history standards are less politically biased than before. Let’s keep it that way.
Jeremy A. Stern, Ph.D.In 2020, as we began to look at state U.S. history standards for the first time since 2011, I was concerned about what we would find.
Can changing our eduspeak help with post-pandemic schooling?
Dale ChuThe radio show Marketplace recently ran a piece asking, “Can changing home appraisal language help close the wealth gap?” The story examined structural racism in the housing market, specifically the wealth gap that persists as a result of Black and Hispanic families having t
Groundhog Day for school discipline
David GriffithOn June 4, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights asked for information that would help it “support schools in addressing disparities and eliminating discrimination in school discipline and fostering positive and inclusive school climates,” suggesting that something resembling the Obama-era discipline guidance may be reinstated in the near future.
Busting the belief gap via regular student assessment
Jeff MurrayAt its simplest, the belief gap is the gulf between what students can accomplish and what others—particularly teachers—believe they can achieve. It is especially pernicious when beliefs around academic competency are fueled by extraneous information such as socioeconomic status, race, or gender.
The Education Gadfly Show #781: The House Democrats’ attack on charter schools
Districts are failing special-needs students. School choice is helping.
Ginny GentlesPublic schools have long failed to serve adequately students with disabilities, but school closures, disastrous for the millions of children with special needs, may finally encourage a critical mass of parents to do something about it.
Remote instruction is to blame for plummeting test scores
Nat MalkusTexas recently became the first state to release state test score data since the pandemic hit.
2.7 cheers for the NAEP Reading Framework
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Gadfly habitues have seen me grump, criticize, lament and recently brighten over the protract
How well do public schools in large cities overcome the effects of poverty and other barriers?
Jessica PoinerA recently released report by the Council of the Great City Schools seeks to determine whether urban public schools—including charters—are succeeding in their efforts to mitigate the effects of poverty and other educational barriers.
How do suspensions affect classroom learning?
Jeremy SmithA recent study in the journal Education Finance and Policy uses quarterly achievement and discipline data on nearly 16,000 seventh through eleventh grade students in an inner-ring suburban California school district to estimate the effect of suspensions on the English language arts and math achievement of non-suspended classmates.
Can investments in public libraries boost educational outcomes?
Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.Myriad stories have emerged of non-school entities providing strong academic support to students during the pandemic disruptions of the past two school years.
How not to write state standards for civics and U.S. history
Jeremy SmithAs discussed in Fordham’s new report, many states aren’t making the grade when it comes to their civics and U.S. history standards, which are often vague to the point of being meaningless.
Strong standards are vital for making history and civics central in K–12 education
Peter GibbonGone are the days when we could all agree with Ben Franklin’s sunny admonition: “Indeed the general tendency of reading good history must be, to fix in the minds of youth deep impressions of the beauty and usefulness of virtue of all kinds.” Instead, we must cope with political polarization, schools preoccupied with the achievement gap, students who learn from social media, and adults who are t
An improved forecast for the NAEP reading assessment
Chester E. Finn, Jr.The prolonged fracas within and far beyond the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) concerning a new “framework” for NAEP’s future assessment of reading has been ominous on several fronts—as I haven’t hesi