What we're reading this week: April 25, 2024
The Education GadflyA new survey of American teenagers reveals interesting opinions and trends in cellphone and social media use, bullying in schools, and absenteeism. —EdChoice Vying and jockeying for Trump’s secretary of education have begun.
Next, curtail the Chromebooks
Daniel BuckPhone bans are the hottest education policy since banning critical race theory. Districts across the country are strictly limiting their use, locking them in Yondr bags, or confiscating and sealing them away before the first bell. The next step in making classrooms conducive to teaching and learning: limiting the laptops.
Are America’s schools ready for World War III?
Dale ChuNoah Smith, writing in his Substack newsletter last week, argues that Americans are imprudently burying their heads in the sand at the increasing prospect of a global Sino-American clash.
Books can save democracy
James TraubA few weeks ago, I was sitting in an eleventh-grade history class at a high school in the suburbs west of Chicago. Mr. DiTella was firing off questions about the civil rights movement and getting precious little in return, despite the fact that he had assigned a reading on the subject. When we spoke afterwards, Mr.
High-dosage tutoring can help remediate learning loss, but funding is running out
Jeff MurrayAcross the country, schools are working to help students recover from pandemic learning losses.
Early childhood education matters. Is “transitional kindergarten” a feasible option?
Meredith Coffey, Ph.D.High-quality early childhood education (ECE) offers a promising means of boosting both achievement and equity, yet districts and states across the nation face educator
What we're reading this week: April 18, 2024
The Education GadflyThe Supreme Court appears likely to kill “Chevron deference.” What that would mean for the U.S. Department of Education. —Education Next Ed reform has done a poor job defining success, equality of opportunity, and equality of outcome.
How did teacher evaluation become a thing?
Tim DalyEditor’s note: This was first published on the author’s Substack, The Education Daly. Are teachers interchangeable parts?
Doing educational equity wrong
Michael J. PetrilliFor the past several months, Petrilli been pumping out posts about “doing educational equity right.” This series concludes with a twist by looking at three ways that schools are doing educational equity wrong: by engaging in the soft bigotry of low expectations, tying teachers’ hands without good reason, and acting like equity isn’t just an important thing, but the only thing.
The “case for curriculum” is about reducing teachers’ workload
Robert PondiscioLast weekend, I gave a talk at the U.S.
Schools must go beyond surface-level learning, and better tutoring can help
Laurence HoltIn the mid-1970s, Ference Marton and Roger Säljö of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden noticed that their students took different approaches to learning.
What we're reading this week: April 11, 2024
The Education Gadfly“Plans for first religious charter school in the U.S.
Lengthy school closures were especially hard on high achievers
Brandon L. WrightTo gauge the magnitude of global learning loss during the pandemic, a team at the World Bank examined data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) from 2018–2022, which tests fifteen-year-olds in math, reading, and science.
School choice need not mean an expensive windfall for the rich
Michael J. PetrilliThe school choice movement continues to rack up dramatic wins nationwide. This growth in “educational freedom,” as many advocates now call it, is a fantastic development. But under the surface of these victories, an important debate is brewing: how to balance the drive for maximum choice with other values, including fiscal responsibility and fairness.
We’ve made teaching impossible or: What I learned talking to 200 teachers
Daniel BuckLast week, I did something unorthodox. I asked teachers to message me directly via X (formerly known as Twitter) to vent their frustrations. Within hours, I received almost 200 messages expressing not only frustration, but also hope, humor, fatalism, and quite a bit of hesitancy to converse with a complete stranger on the internet.
Cross-partisanship vs. bipartisanship in education
Chester E. Finn, Jr.In last week’s Gadfly, Karen Nussle and Lorén Cox penned a thoughtful piece on “cross-partisanship,” a concept they explore at greater length in a very nice paper for the Aspen
Can an upfront cash incentive improve teacher recruitment and retention?
Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.A recent study in the Economics of Education Review Journal looks at one promising effort to recruit and retain teachers: providing upfront grants and loans to financially-strapped potential teachers to encourage them to become and remain educators.
What TIMSS and PISA have in common
Jeff MurrayThe Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) are arguably the most important international tests in education. Both have been administered for decades in dozens of countries. Each new set of student outcomes is tracked, analyzed, and endlessly written about.
What we're reading this week: April 4, 2024
The Education GadflyChronic absenteeism remains one of the most persistent problems facing schools post-pandemic. —New York Times “What’s missing from states’ reading laws?
Introducing Education Policy Research Barbie
Gadfly KenMattel, in partnership with the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, is proud to announce the latest addition to its iconic Barbie lineup: Education Policy Research Barbie. Modeled after Fordham’s very own Vice President for Research Amber Northern, this groundbreaking doll combines glamour with intellect, empowering young minds to dream big and break stereotypes.