The Gadfly Daily’s week in review
A look around at wit and wisdom from the Fordham Institute's blogs for the week April 23, 2012.
A look around at wit and wisdom from the Fordham Institute's blogs for the week April 23, 2012.
Guest blogger Eleanor Laurans, co-author of “The Costs of Online Learning,” asks, Can online learning be less expensive and better for students?
Mike tries to explain why we’re seeing such strong progress (in math at least, especially among our lowest-performing students) at the elementary and middle school levels, but not in high school.
From potential to reality
Education Sector's John E. Chubb wonders how to encourage public schools to adopt technology at a pace governed more by what works for students and less by what is comfortable politically.
Fordham's latest publication, Education Reform for the Digital Era, explains how the U.S. education system must change in order to realize the potential of digital learning.
Watch the full video from yesterday's panel discussion on the future of digital learning.
Can we be smarter about taking high-quality online and blended schools to scale—and to educational success? Yes, says this volume, as it addresses such thorny policy issues as quality control, staffing, funding, and governance for the digital sector. Read on to learn more.
Is digital learning education's latest fad or its future? What fundamental changes to the ways we fund, staff, and govern American schools are necessary to fulfill the technology's potential? Will policy tweaks suffice or do we need a total system overhaul—and a big change in the reform priorities that can bring this about? Who will resist—and do their objections have merit? Fordham is bringing together experts on all aspects of education policy—from governance to finance to human capital—to examine how policymakers can make digital learning a transformative tool to improve American education...and weigh the dangers that lie ahead. The panel featured the governance expertise of the Hoover Institution's John Chubb, insights into teaching's future from Bryan Hassel of Public Impact, analysis of the costs of online learning from the Parthenon Group's Eleanor Laurans, and the cautionary perspective of Emory University's Mark Bauerlein.
Fordham president Michael J. Petrilli explains three solutions to schools’ money woes.
In Fordham's latest policy brief, Mike Petrilli provides districts dos and donts for dealing with tight budgets.
In April 2012, Texas adopted new math standards. Fordham reviewed the draft standards and found them to be a modest improvement. But not by much, and they remain inferior to the Common Core math standards. Download the review to learn more.
There’s still time to hear experts answer that question by registering for this Thursday’s panel discussion, “Education Reform for the Digital Era,” from 9 to 10:30 a.m. EDT.
A look back wit and wisdom from the Fordham Institute for the week of April 9, 2012
Bring on the school inspectors
8 reasons private school choice still struggles
The "new normal" of tougher budget times is here to stay for American K-12 education. So how can local officials cope? This policy brief, by Mike Petrilli, provides a useful tool for navigating the financial challenges of the current school-funding climate, complete with clear dos and don'ts for anyone involved in or concerned with local education budgets.
Louisiana became the latest state to embrace the introduction of school vouchers, but the legislative moxie it showed should stimulate a new conversation about private school choice and accountability.
Watch the unique story of a traditional public school that was going to be shut down by its district until the community rallied around the school to keep the school from closing the doors.
As it turns out, journalists (especially broadcast journalists) are enamored with policies put forward by lefty reformers.
Fordham's latest publication asks, how can better standards get greater traction?
Paul Farhi’s smackdown of education reform and education reporting in the American Journalism Review may be inspirational to those who would march with the status quo, but it is dangerous coming from a publication that sets the standard for how newsrooms ought to conduct their affairs.
Rigorous standards and aligned assessments are vital tools for boosting education outcomes but they have little traction without strong accountability systems that attach consequences to performance. This pilot study lays out the essential features of such accountability systems, intended to add oomph to new common standards and aligned assessments.
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision a decade ago didn't end the fight over private school choice, even though it should have caused states to rethink what they so sweepingly consider “aid” to sectarian institutions.