The New TNTP: A conversation with CEO Daniel Weisberg
Fordham President Mike Petrilli talks with the TNTP helmsman about the organization’s future and the role of teacher evaluation in education reform.
Fordham President Mike Petrilli talks with the TNTP helmsman about the organization’s future and the role of teacher evaluation in education reform.
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.
The need for standards-aligned curricula is the most cited Common Core challenge for states, districts, and schools. Yet five years into that implementation, teachers still report scrambling to find high-quality instructional materials. Despite publishers’ claims, there is a dearth of programs that are truly aligned to the demands of the Common Core for content and rigor.
The Harvard political scientist discusses his new book and how education reform can help disadvantaged kids.
A panel of experts discuss our recent study on school closures.
Gregg Toppo talks about his new book The Game Believes in You: How Digital Play Can Make Our Kids Smarter.
The myriad challenges facing school principals in the United States have been well documented, including limited opportunities for distributed leadership, inadequate training, and a lackluster pipeline for new leaders. Recently, the Fordham Institute teamed up with the London-based Education Foundation to seek a better understanding of England’s recent efforts to revamp school leadership.
Jonathan Plucker, Rena Subotnik, and Tricia Ebner discuss what the new standards portend for high achievers.
Gadfly editorial by Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Amber M. Northern
Testing, accountability, and the new ESEA.
A daylong investigation into the role education can—and must—play in promoting upward mobility.
At the Education for Upward Mobility conference, the Thomas B.
Over the past decade, the English government has revamped that country’s approach to school leadership. At the center of the reform is the sensible idea that school leadership needs to be a team endeavor. While not a new idea—there’s been for years plenty of discussion about “distributed leadership” on both sides of the pond—the Brits got busy actually making it happen as opposed to jawboning about it. Central to their leadership structure is the formalization of three levels of school leaders, each with distinct roles and responsibilities: headteachers who lead schools (equivalent to the principal’s role in the U.S.), senior leaders or deputy heads who assist the headteacher (similar to the vice principal role in American education but...
What does school leadership development in England look like, how is it changing, and what can other countries learn from the English approach?
What happens when policymakers create statewide school districts to turn around their worst-performing public schools?
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute set out to answer a basic (yet complicated) question: how much does each school in the D.C. metro area spend on day-to-day operations for each student it enrolls? In the Metro D.C.
Twenty-six state-by-state rankings of charter school quality, growth, and innovation.
Fordham's Mike Petrilli and AEI's Mike McShane discuss the growth of Vergara-like fights nationwide and the pros and cons of taking the tenure debate to the courts.
This is a conversation and discussion with Elizabeth Green on new book, Building a Better Teacher: How Teaching Works (and How to Teach It to Everyone).
The number of non-teaching staff in the United States (those employed by school systems but not serving as classroom teachers) has grown by 130 percent since 1970. Non-teachers—more than three million strong—now comprise half of the public school workforce. Their salaries and benefits absorb one-quarter of current education expenditures.
Richard Whitmire’s forthcoming book, On the Rocketship: How Top Charter Schools are Pushing the Envelope, is “the best account yet of what is happening with charters,” says the
A school’s leader matters enormously to its success and that of its students and teachers. But how well are U.S. districts identifying, recruiting, selecting, and placing the best possible candidates in principals’ offices? To what extent do their practices enable them to find and hire great school leaders? To what degree is the principal’s job itself designed to attract outstanding candidates?
Fordham's Mike Petrilli and AEI's Mike McShane talk the future of Common Core. With Indiana, South Carolina, and Oklahoma backtracking from these standards, what's next in this political fight?
Join Fordham's Mike Petrilli and AEI's Mike McShane for a livestream event on the future of Common Core.
The Common Core is at a critical juncture. While many surveys show that support for the standards themselves remains strong, implementation has not been without major challenges.
The Fordham Institute's National Policy Director, Michael Brickman explains the benefits of course choice and the implications for students.
After twenty years of expanding school-choice options, state leaders, educators, and families have a new tool: course choice, a strategy for students to learn from unconventional providers that might range from top-tier universities or innovative community colleges to local employers, labs, or hospitals.
Michelle Gininger highlights a few moments from the Fordham LIVE discussion State Education Agencies: The Smaller the Better? Watch the full event.
In the era of Race to the Top, waivers, and waivers of waivers, the role of state education agencies (SEAs) has increased dramatically: taking on school turnarounds, teacher-evaluation systems, and now Common Core implementation.