Displaying 31-60 of 507 results
Students in a classroom
Commentary
5.16.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance

In search of “just right” school ratings: Goldilocks and the three metrics

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

In an effort to avoid prescriptive top-down mandates, the school accountability provisions in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) allow states flexibility in determining what measures they’ll use to assess school quality, how much “weight” they carry, and over what time periods they’re calculated.

Students in a classroom
Upset school teacher
Commentary
5.9.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Let’s talk about bad teachers

Michael J. Petrilli

The issue of bad teachers is the proverbial Gordian Knot, and pulling on a single thread won’t untie it. If we want to get serious about ridding our schools of bad teachers, we must attack many difficult issues all at once—including low teacher pay, collective bargaining agreements, pension systems, and teacher evaluations. Alternatively, we might just focus on weeding out ineffective rookies.

Upset school teacher
Upset school teacher
Commentary
5.3.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Where teacher evaluation went wrong

Tim Daly

Editor’s note: This is the third and final part in a series on teacher evaluation reform.

Upset school teacher
Teacher in a classroom
Commentary
4.25.2024
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Teacher evaluation reform was very successful—on paper

Tim Daly

Editor’s note: This is the second part in a series on teacher evaluation reform. Part one recalled how teacher evaluation became a thing.

Teacher in a classroom
Bored teen student at home doing homework
Commentary
4.9.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

Lengthy school closures were especially hard on high achievers

Brandon L. Wright

To 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.

Bored teen student at home doing homework
Hammer piggy bank
Commentary
4.4.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice

School choice need not mean an expensive windfall for the rich

Michael J. Petrilli

The 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.

Hammer piggy bank
Test scantron
Commentary
4.4.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning

What TIMSS and PISA have in common

Jeff Murray

The 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.

Test scantron
School closed sign
Commentary
3.28.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education

How the pandemic affected global education: Insights from PISA

Harry Anthony Patrinos

The closure of schools in response to the seismic disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic has left an indelible mark on education worldwide. As nations grappled with closures lasting varying lengths of time, the implications for student learning became increasingly evident.

School closed sign
Students in a classroom
Commentary
3.14.2024
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders

The “no excuses” model is due for a renaissance

Robert Pondiscio

Many of the conditions that led to the prominence of “no-excuses” charter schools a quarter-century ago have returned. For students, teachers, and parents who have never lost their appetite for safe and orderly schools, it can’t come soon enough.

Students in a classroom
Standardized test in school
Commentary
3.1.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The way we set grade-level norms on tests masks pandemic learning loss

Woody Paik

There are, generally speaking, two ways to report students’ performance on tests. One is normative, and it compares a student’s performance to his peers. The second is criterion, and it compares a student’s performance to learning standards, indicating grade-level proficiency and is independent of peers’ test performance.

Standardized test in school
an 2-8-24 SR image
Commentary
2.8.2024
Private School Choice

Have students who left public schools during the pandemic returned?

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

Examination of Covid-era impacts on students, families, and schools continues apace. Getting a full picture of the fallout, who was affected, and how helps education leaders better direct their resources to serve impacted students.

an 2-8-24 SR image
Commentary
2.1.2024
Accountability & Testing, Governance

Colorado’s accountability fiasco

Dale Chu

Last year, Colorado’s legislature established an “Accountability, Accreditation, Student Performance, and Resource Inequity Task Force”—a twenty-six-member behemoth charged with, among other things, making recommendations on the future of the state’s K–12 asses

Commentary
1.31.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

Gifted under-identification: How to improve diverse student access to gifted programming

Jonathan Klingeman, Ed.D.

As the population of English learners (ELs) in grades K–12 grows, so do the challenges school districts face in identifying gifted students and putting in place appropriate enrichment and acceleration opportunities for them.

Commentary
1.4.2024
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

When school becomes optional

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

“Truancy” may no longer be the right word for it, maybe not even “absenteeism,” for both imply being missing from a place where one is supposed to be. “Truancy,” with its overtone of misbehavior and illegality, suggests willfulness, i.e., that one is intentionally missing, while “absenteeism” is a more neutral term with no suggestion of motive.

Commentary
12.8.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

4 takeaways from the PISA results

Daniel Buck

The results from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) are in—an international standardized test of fifteen-year-olds and the first look at how countries compare post-pandemic—and the picture they paint of American education is disheartening. Here are four trends that you need to know: 1. U.S. math scores collapsed and reading stagnated.

Commentary
11.30.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

State licensure tests and science of reading instruction

Jeff Murray

Recent legislative efforts across the country have strengthened efforts to align reading instruction with the science of reading. These laws typically require teachers to use methods and materials aligned to the solid evidence base on how children best learn to read.

Podcast
11.29.2023
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction

#897: Addressing grade inflation, with Tim Daly

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Tim Daly, the CEO of Ed Navigator, joins Mike to discuss the causes and harms of grade inflation—

Commentary
11.20.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

9 thoughts on the Advanced Placement takedown in the Times

Michael J. Petrilli

Over the weekend, the New York Times published a hard-hitting 2,300-word expose by Dana Goldstein and colleagues asking “Why is the College Board pushing to expand Advanced Placement?” Its primary answer: to rake in tens of millions of dollars a year and to support CEO David Coleman’s exorbitant sal

Commentary
11.20.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Teachers & School Leaders

Grade inflation is locking in learning loss, part 2: Solutions

Tim Daly

In my previous post, we defined grade inflation and reviewed (lots of) new evidence suggesting that it is a barrier to pandemic recovery—especially for less privileged students. Today, we will identify solutions.

Commentary
11.16.2023
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Private School Choice

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear might be a moderate Democrat, but he’s no education reformer

Daniel Buck

After handily defeating his Republican rival for the governorship of red-hued Kentucky, Democrat Andy Beshear is having a moment as a center-left moderate who could run for president in 2028. But we education reformers should curb our enthusiasm because Beshear’s stances are alien to ours.

ddms image
Commentary
11.16.2023
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Liberty and civic education

David Davenport, Mark C. Schug

Editor’s note: This was first published by The Liberty Fund.

ddms image
Commentary
11.2.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance

A new paper fails to prove that accountability impedes innovation in charter schools

David Griffith

Welcome to the latest installment of the Regulation Wars, a long-running family quarrel that centers on the perceived tensions between two of the charter school movement’s founding principles: innovation and execution (or, if you prefer, autonomy and accountability).