Commentary
Accountability & Testing
Standardized tests remain the best way to fairly and equitably assess students
Educational testing is under attack.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning
Texas’s shale boom boosted local tax bases. Here’s how it affected schools.
New and fascinating research uses a creative study design and a unique data set to address whether a thriving local economy leads to better student outcomes. Specifically, it examines how the Texas boom in shale oil and gas drilling, which brought with it large and localized effects on wages and the tax base, impacted district schools.
Policy Brief
Accountability & Testing
Fewer Children Left Behind: Lessons From the Dramatic Achievement Gains of the 1990s and 2000s
In this new monograph, Fewer Children Left Behind, Michael J. Petrilli, the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, examines whether America’s schools have improved over the past quarter-century of reform.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Everything we know about teacher effectiveness
On Wednesday, we sat down with Dan Goldhaber, director of the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER), on our Education Gadfly Show podcast for thirty minutes of engaging discussion.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Chad Aldeman: A review of Robert Pondiscio’s “How the Other Half Learns”
Robert Pondiscio won’t like my review of his new book, How the Other Half Learns.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
AP: Great for gifted high schoolers
When considering the available options for gifted high-school kids, the Advanced Placement (AP) program may not be the first thing that comes to mind. That’s too bad because AP might be America’s most effective large-scale “gifted and talented” program at the high school level.
Podcast
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
The Education Gadfly Show: Research Deep Dive: Everything we know about effective teachers
On this week’s podcast, Dan Goldhaber, the director of CALDER, joins Mike Petrilli, David Griffith, and Amber Northern to discuss what rigorous research says about identifying, developing, and retaining effective teachers.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, ESSA, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
A new era of accountability in education has barely just begun
Most states have spent the past decade overhauling their standards, tests, and accountability systems, and finally committing real resources to capacity-building, especially in the form of curriculum implementation. These pieces have only begun to come together in the last year or two, culminating with the release of school ratings as required by ESSA. What’s needed isn’t to spin the wheel of education policy once again, but to show some patience and commitment—and finish what we started.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, ESSA, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
In math, grade-level tests are holding back low-achieving students
Imagine that you’re a sixth-grade math teacher. It’s the first day of school, and the vast majority of your students arrived multiple years behind where they should be. Your job is to teach them concepts such as understanding percentages and dividing fractions.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Advanced Education, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
Why has AP succeeded when so many other reforms have failed?
American K–12 education is awash in reforms, nostrums, interventions, silver bullets, pilot programs, snake oil peddlers, advocates, and crusaders, not to mention innumerable private foundations that occasionally emerge from their endless cycles of strategic planning to unload their latest brainstorms upon the land. Yet when subjected to close scrutiny, not much actually “works.” The six-decade old Advanced Placement program is a rare and welcome exception.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, ESSA, Governance
Why end-of-course exams are being replaced by the ACT and SAT, and how to reverse that
In the last month, two reports have renewed questions about the current direction of states’ high school assessments.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Governance
The “Upgrade Rule”: How schools and districts can make school closures work better for families
School closures hurt. While they are relatively uncommon nationwide, they are sometimes unavoidable—and they’re always painful, especially for the students and families who are displaced and who rarely see any educational benefit as a result.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
The GAS Factor: Lessons learned at Success Academy
Much of the initial response to Robert’s new book, "How The Other Half Learns," has focused on the winnowing effects of Success Academy’s enrollment process, which ensures that the children of only the most committed parents enroll and persist. But that’s just the start of the story. You have to look at what parent buy-in actually buys: a school culture that drives student achievement, and which can only be achieved when parents are active participants, not unwilling conscripts.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
The scourge of education malpractice
What if you were told that elementary schools in the United States are teaching children to be poor readers?
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
How personalized learning enthusiasts can ensure they aren’t lowering the bar for the kids who are behind
Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of posts looking at how two school networks—Rocketship Public Schools and Wildflower Schools—enable their students to master standards at their own pace. See the first post here.
Podcast
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The Education Gadfly Show: Parents’ role in school improvement
On this week’s podcast, Patrick Corvington, executive director of DC School Reform Now, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to offer advice on how parents can play a role in improving their kids’ schools. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the academic effects of early interventions for children born at a low birth-weight.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction
End-of-course exams should be a matter of course
A new study released by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute looks at end-of-course exams (EOCs) and their relationship with high school graduation rates and college entrance exam scores.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Governance
A new reality for charter schools in California
As part of a national war against school choice, the California teachers union is pouring more than a million dollars a month into anti-charter legislative efforts. Unfortunately, a new “compromise” bill crafted by Governor Gavin Newsom whose language was released this week indicates the union is about to get a big return on its investment. Caprice Young, a Fordham Institute trustee and a leading figure in the state’s charter sector, explains how this painful moment came about—and what it means for California charter schools going forward.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, ESSA, Curriculum & Instruction, Standards
End-of-course exams benefit students—and states
Very little previous research has looked at end-of-course exams. Our new study on their relationship to student outcomes helps remedy that. We learned much that’s worth knowing and sharing. Probably most important: EOCs, properly deployed, have positive academic benefits and do so without causing kids to drop out or graduation rates to falter.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, ESSA, Governance, Standards
The “left behind” kids made incredible progress from the late 1990s until the Great Recession. Here are key lessons for ed reform.
Editor’s note: This is the final post in a series looking at whether and how the nation’s schools have improved over the past quarter-century or so (see the others here,
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Standards
The proficiency bar is inching upward, yes, but…
A dozen long years ago, when people were just beginning to take serious stock of what good and not-so-good was emerging from 2002’s enactment of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), we at Fordham, in league with the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), issued a 200-plus page analysis of the “proficiency” standards that states had by then been required to set and test for.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Standards
Influences affecting the educational trajectory of students
A new study from Georgetown University reaffirmed an uncomfortable but familiar finding: Socioeconomic status has a significant effect on students’ long-term outcomes, regardless of their academic performance in kindergarten or the quality of the schools they attend in K–12.
Podcast
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction
The Education Gadfly Show: Boosting student outcomes with end-of-course exams
On this week’s podcast Mike Petrilli and David Griffith talk to Adam Tyner about the new Fordham report he co-authored with Matthew Larsen on end-of-course exams and student outcomes. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines efforts to improve the college application process.
Report
Accountability & Testing
End-of-Course Exams and Student Outcomes
Beginning in the late 1990s, many states took it upon themselves to institute end-of-course exams (EOCs) at the high school level, tests specifically designed to assess students’ mastery of the content that various subject-matter courses covered. But was this testing policy good for students? Find out in our new report.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Standards
NEW REPORT: End-of-Course Exams and Student Outcomes
This report provides a rich longitudinal look at state policies related to end-of-course exams over the past twenty years and the effects of administering EOCs in different subjects on high school graduation rates and college entrance exam scores.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Standards
The kids who had been “left behind” are doing much better today than 25 years ago. But what about everyone else?
The past quarter-century has included dramatic progress of America’s lowest-performing students, many of whom are also low-income and children of color. But how’s the vast middle class doing? It’s a mixed bag: They still don’t read very well, but their math skills have improved a bit and they are graduating from college in higher and higher numbers.
Podcast
Accountability & Testing
The Education Gadfly Show: The homecoming court edition
On this week’s podcast, Jeremy Tate, CEO of the Classic Learning Test, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss what classical learning is and why it’s important. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines whether popular children have an outsized influence on their peers.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Governance
The messy reality of school turnaround
Ten years ago, then U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan issued a clarion call to turn around 5,000 of the nation’s most distressed schools, serving nearly three million students. It was an audacious goal set by an audacious leader—the likes of which are in terribly short supply these days. A decade later, states have fallen far short of his challenge, and the sticky problem of failing schools refuses to go away. But experience has provided three lessons to those who would make these efforts.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
The new PDK poll: Gems amid the gravel
For more than half a century now, back-to-school time has brought another Phi Delta Kappan survey of “the public’s attitudes toward the public schools.” They invariably recycle some familiar questions (e.g., the grades you would give your child’s schools and the nation’s schools). Other topics, however, come and go.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Teachers & School Leaders
Teachers’ complicated attitudes about school discipline
I have been there; every teacher has. The clock is ticking, you've got just fifteen minutes left to wrap up the lesson, and the time is being chipped away by a student who is disrupting the classroom. How you respond to that situation involves the balance of dozens of different factors. It's complicated, and some of that complexity is captured in a new report out this week.
