In memory of Robert Kern
Chester E. Finn, Jr.We mourn the passing of Robert D. Kern at 96, even as we recall some of the great good he did—and our encounters with him.
Why homework matters
Eva MoskowitzHomework is the perennial bogeyman of K–12 education. In any given year, you’ll find people arguing that students, especially in elementary school, should have far less homework—or none at all. Eva Moskowitz, the founder and CEO of Success Academy charter schools, has the opposite opinion. She’s been running schools for sixteen years, and she’s only become more convinced that homework is not only necessary, but also a linchpin to effective K–12 education.
New York City shortchanges its advanced students
Kristina Raevsky, David ArmorWhen New York City School Chancellor David Banks announced a new screened high school admissions policy last month, many were quick to rejoice that the de Blasio reign of “lottery admissions” was finally over.
Impacts of a content-rich literacy intervention
Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.Teaching young children to read fluently by the end of third grade is fast becoming a national priorit
School choice and parental compromise
Jeff MurrayWhat parents are looking for in an ideal school choice scenario is often very different from what they settle for in the real world. Cost, distance, academic quality, safety, extracurricular options, and a host of other factors are all at play, meaning trade-offs are unavoidable. Recently-published research findings try to capture the matrix of compromises being made.
What we're reading this week: November 10, 2022
The Education GadflyThe cracks in affirmative action have grown into fissures as immigration and demographic shifts change the country’s make-up.
The future of exam schools
Hilde KahnEditor’s note: This essay was part of an edition of “Advance,” a newsletter from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute that is published every other week. Its purpose is to monitor the progress of gifted education in America, including legal and legislative developments, policy and leadership changes, emerging research, grassroots efforts, and more.
Wonkathon 2022: We must reinvent high schools, but state policies stand in the way. How do we remove them?
The Education GadflyThis year’s Wonkathon is over, and the results are in! 2022’s Wisest Wonk: Keri Ingraham, for “Teacher certification and uniform salary schedules hinder CTE staffing.” Second place:
High expectations in the classroom: When the unlikely becomes the possible
Stuart KimeFor any teacher, administrator, or policymaker who wants to make strong choices that are likely to benefit their students’ outcomes, Seth Gershenson’s recently-published Fordham Institute report on “the power of expectations in district and
Governors should stop spinning NAEP results and start proposing solutions
Marc Porter Magee, Ned Stanley“In light of this barometer of our kids’ success, there’s no time to waste to catch our kids up. We must continue to pour on the gas in our efforts,” Arizona Governor Doug Ducey said last Tuesday in response to the NAEP results.
Lowering expectations for students isn’t the answer to pandemic learning loss
Amber M. Northern, Ph.D., David GriffithFordham’s new study, “The Power of Expectations in District and Charter Schools,” seeks to examine the role that high expectations should play in our nation’s academic recovery and supply deeper understanding of whether and how such expectations operate in the traditional public, charter, and private school sectors. It finds, among other things, that teacher expectations have a positive impact on long-run outcomes and that expectations tend to be higher in charter schools.
Holistic admissions: The good, the bad, the ugly
Chester E. Finn, Jr.As the Supreme Court weighs the future of race-sensitive affirmative action in admitting students to selective colleges, all manner of ideas are popping up for how to achieve “diversity” in the entering class without explicitly counting by race.
How federal charter school grants help marginalized students
Tressa PankovitsIt makes good sense for the federal government to provide grants to high-quality public charter schools seeking to open or expand. That’s the gist of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released last month.
Cheers and Jeers: November 3, 2022
The Education GadflyA partnership of several research organizations has announced a $31 million initiative to study the effectiveness of thirty-one tutoring programs across the nation.
What we're reading this week: November 3, 2022
The Education GadflySeveral studies show a strong connection between school closures, remote learning, and learning loss, making clear that shutting down schools was a failed policy.
Charter schools complicate the narrative on Covid shutdowns and learning loss
Michael J. PetrilliThis week’s news of sharp declines on the National Assessment of Educational Progress gave partisans yet another chance to relitigate the debate over keeping schools closed for in-person learning for much or all of the 2020–21 school year. We conservatives are eager to identify the teachers unions as the primary culprits, and we’re not wrong. But there is one complication we should acknowledge: the curious case of urban charter schools.
Treating my NAEP hangover
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Monday was insane, with everyone and his grandmother (and her pet dog) attempting to make insightful, quotable comments on the avalanche of new data from the Nation’s Report Card. Some of it was indeed insightful, but much was simply self-promoting, as were many attempts to position oneself in advance as an expert to be taken seriously.
Determining the factors that lead to kindergarten ability group placement
Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.Ability grouping—arranging students in a classroom into smaller learning groups based on their aptitude in a given subject—is a common practice among teachers as early as kindergarten.
What we're reading this week: October 27, 2022
The Education Gadfly“I thought at least 50 percent credit for no work was okay.
High-achieving middle schoolers have suffered devastating math losses, finds NAEP
Brandon L. WrightEditor’s note: This is an edition of “Advance,” a newsletter from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute written by Brandon Wright, our Editorial Director, and published every other week. Its purpose is to monitor the progress of gifted education in America, including legal and legislative developments, policy and leadership changes, emerging research, grassroots efforts, and more.
Could NAEP affect midterm elections? And other questions about next week’s release.
Michael J. PetrilliThe 2022 results from the “main” National Assessment of Educational Progress will be released October 24. They’ll include fourth- and eighth-grade scores at the national level, as well as state by state and for two-dozen large urban districts. Especially after the Covid shut-downs, it’s a big freakin’ deal. Here are three major storylines to look forward to.
Must we battle over civics education?
Chester E. Finn, Jr.In a way, the battles we’ve seen in recent years over what to teach schoolkids in civics class resemble the war in Ukraine: They’re wholly unnecessary—and may be entirely the work of aggressors.
How one company made billions on a flawed approach to reading instruction
Dale ChuFew reporters in education journalism have had greater impact in recent years than Emily Hanford.
Will pandemic learning loss cost $700 billion to fix?
Nat MalkusA new study released this month by Kenneth Shores and Matthew Steinberg tackles the question of whether federal pandemic relief for public schools was provided in the right way and in the right amount.
What we're reading this week: October 20, 2022
The Education Gadfly“Young children were massively overlooked for special education.