The Education Gadfly Show #767: The fight to get kids back in class five days a week
The Education Gadfly Show #766: The U.S. Department of Education’s puzzling take on testing in 2021
The Acceleration Imperative: A Plan to Address Elementary Students’ Unfinished Learning in the Wake of Covid-19
In school districts and charter school networks nationwide, instructional leaders are developing plans to address the enormous challenges faced by their students, families, teachers, and staff over the past year. To help kick-start their planning process, we are proud to present The Acceleration Imperative, an open-source, evidence-based document created with input from dozens of current and former chief academic officers, scholars, and others with deep expertise and experience in high-performing, high-poverty elementary schools.
The narrow path to do it right: Lessons from vaccine making for high-dosage tutoring
Mike Goldstein, Bowen PaulleHigh-dosage tutoring is receiving a lot of buzz as a promising tool to address learning loss in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. But unlike vaccines, successful tutoring programs are challenging to scale with fidelity. In this paper, long-time educators Michael Goldstein and Bowen Paulle explain how leaders can smartly scale promising tutoring programs that can boost student outcomes.
The Education Gadfly Show: Does Biden have the right tack on school reopenings?
Robbers or Victims? Charter Schools and District Finances
Mark WeberOpponents of charters contend that they drain district coffers, while proponents argue that it is charters that are denied essential funding. Yet too often, the claims made by both sides of this debate have been based on assumptions rather than hard evidence.
The Education Gadfly Show: The education issues facing state legislatures in 2021
Webinar: How should schools spend federal Covid-19 aid?
With federal coronavirus relief, schools are wrestling with a host of thorny questions. Especially under the new Joe Biden administration, how much federal aid is coming? What rules will govern its use? Most importantly, how can schools spend the funds effectively when reopening schools, improving remote learning, and helping students get back on track?
Bridging the Covid Divide: How States Can Measure Student Achievement Growth in the Absence of 2020 Test Scores
Ishtiaque Fazlul, Cory Koedel, Eric Parsons, Cheng QianWhen the Covid-19 pandemic hit the U.S. last spring, schools nationwide shut their doors and states cancelled annual standardized tests. Now federal and state policymakers are debating whether to cancel testing again in 2021. One factor they should consider is whether a two-year gap in testing will make it impossible to measure student-level achievement growth during this historic period.
The Education Gadfly Show: Emily Oster and Noelle Ellerson Ng answer the big question: Will schools reopen this spring?
Teacher Effectiveness and Improvement in Charter and Traditional Public Schools
Matthew P. Steinberg, Haisheng YangStudy after study has found that new teachers tend to be less effective than educators with more experience. But despite having more junior staff, charter networks (referred to as CMOs) often outperform their district peers. So what’s their secret? To find out, this study explores how teacher effectiveness varies and evolves across traditional and charter public schools, as well as within the sector’s CMOs and standalone schools.
The Education Gadfly Show: What the election means for education reform