On Constitution Day, in search of the public mission of schools
When school boards describe their missions, they often overlook citizenship. Robert Pondiscio and Kate Stringer
When school boards describe their missions, they often overlook citizenship. Robert Pondiscio and Kate Stringer
The first few weeks of September make up a sweet spot between seasons, with summer's last days of warmth and play mingling with the beginning a new school year. All that beauty and excitement can make it easy to forget the significance of today's date: Fourteen years have passed since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania.
In Faith Ed: Teaching About Religion in an Age of Intolerance, Linda K.
Today marks the first class in a yearlong seminar in civics and citizenship I teach at Democracy Prep Charter High School in Harlem. My goal is for students to see America as their own, a country worthy of their dreams and ambitions. I will assign readings and papers, lead discussions, and design tests. I should take them all to see Hamilton on Broadway as well.
Questions of education governance are often considered moot by policymakers, who typically assume that the governance challenges plaguing their local schools are both universal and inevitable. Given the ubiquity of everything from local school boards to state superintendents, this seems to be a logical assumption.
Editor's note: This post originally appeared in a slightly different form at InsideSources.
Editor's note: This post originally appeared in a slightly different form at U.S. News & World Report
Editor's note: This post originally appeared in a slightly different form at U.S. News & World Report
School districts across the land are contending with rising education costs and constrained revenues. Yet state policies for assisting school districts in financial trouble are uneven and complex. Interventions are often haphazard, occur arbitrarily, and routinely place politics over sound economics.
Privileged outliers get media attention, while far greater numbers of kids live inactive and unchallenged lives. Robert Pondiscio
The College Board listened—and set AP U.S. History right. Chester E. Finn, Jr.
The Education Gadfly
The potential for customization is no bull. Kevin Mahnken
For years, I worried that I was auditioning to be the Edward Gibbon of urban Catholic schooling, chronicling the decline and fall of an invaluable, sprawling institution.
Let’s not break those things about Catholic schools that make them effective. Kathleen Porter Magee
CTE works, but some programs are better than others. James White
Step one: Teach the math. Step two: Have the students practice it. Step three: There is no step three. Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.
More of the same nonsense from TED talk superstar Sir Ken Robinson. Robert Pondiscio
A great way to get kids knowledge, skills, credentials, and work experience. Robert Schwartz
The Education Gadfly
In Pre-K and Charter Schools: Where State Policies Create Barriers to Collaboration, authors Sara Mead and Ashley LiBetti Mitchel examine thirty-six jurisdictions that have both charter schools and state-funded pre-K programs to determine where charters can provide state-funded pre-K.
June marked the end of my first year as superintendent of Partnership Schools, a nonprofit school management organization that (thanks to an historic agreement with the Archdiocese of New York) was granted broad authority to manage and operate six K–8 urban Catholic schools.
Editor's note: This post originally appeared in a slightly different form at the Core Knowledge Blog.
I taught fifth grade for many years at P.S. 277, in New York City’s South Bronx. But the school's full name was the Dr. Evelina Lopez-Antonetty Children's Literacy Center.
In Redefining the School District in America, Nelson Smith reexamines existing recovery school districts (RSDs)—entities in Louisiana, Tennessee, and Michigan charged with running and turning around their state’s worst schools—and assembles the most comprehensive catalog of similar initiatives underway and under consideration elsewhere.
It’s working! Evidence of positive changes in teaching practices under Common Core. Robert Pondiscio
District curriculum choices should be transparent—and making it so is easy. Robert Pondiscio
A free online curriculum taps a need—and a nerve.
We’re doing an awful job of ensuring that kids graduate from high school with the skills to succeed. Chester E. Finn, Jr.
States shouldn’t sugarcoat the bad news when reporting Common Core test results to parents. Chester E. Finn, Jr.