Displaying 91-120 of 552 results
Commentary
7.13.2023
School Finance, Governance

Low- and high-income schools now receive equal funding

Adam Tyner, Ph.D.

State-level school finance reforms and, to a lesser extent, increases in federal funding for schools have worked: America’s shamefully persistent inequities in school funding are finally a thing of the past. School funding is now generally progressive, meaning that students from poor families typically attend better-funded schools than students from wealthier families in the same state.

Golf ball in sand trap
Commentary
7.13.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The accountability conundrum

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Editor's note: Read more about this topic in Finn's essay in National Affairs, "The Accountability Challenge."

Golf ball in sand trap
Commentary
7.13.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction

Can great high schools really make a difference for low-income students?

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

How well do our public high schools prepare students—especially low-income students—for future success? A working paper from analysts at Brown and Harvard addresses that question, focusing on a number of consequential middle- and longer-term outcomes.

Report
7.11.2023
School Finance

Think Again: Is education funding in America still unequal?

Adam Tyner, Ph.D.

This brief challenges the notion that economically disadvantaged students receive less funding than other students, with implications for equalizing classroom resources and optimizing other social policies.

Commentary
7.6.2023
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Advanced Education

Who loses when we abolish entrance exams

Daniel Buck

In the wake of last week’s affirmative action decision, most analysts expect the recent enthusiasm for test-optional admissions policies to continue—if for no other reason than to make schools’ racial gerrymandering less transparent. Yet the students who will lose most in the process are the very students that these measures ostensibly seek to help: high performing, underprivileged students.

Commentary
6.29.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Three terrifying findings in the latest NAEP results

Vladimir Kogan

Parents and policymakers inured to years of depressing headlines about learning disruptions in the wake of the pandemic might be tempted to shrug at the latest federal test data on the achievement of thirteen-year-olds as more of the same.

Commentary
6.27.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

More NAEP losses for high achievers—and how to reverse them

Brandon L. Wright

Editor’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.

Commentary
6.22.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance

Do tests predict later success?

Dan Goldhaber, Michael DeArmond

Standardized tests and test-based accountability have come under serious criticism in recent years. One of the most important questions is whether improving student learning, as measured by test scores, helps improve students’ opportunities later in life. It’s a tough issue to study, but the weight of the evidence says: yes.

Commentary
6.22.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

New York City’s selective high schools work

Wai Wah Chin

This month, New York City students received their offers to the city’s eight specialized high schools. As has been the case in recent years, Asian students form over half of the admittees, followed by White, Hispanic, and Black students.

Commentary
5.25.2023
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance

The CLT is a growing, classical alternative to the ACT and SAT: An interview with its co-founder

Daniel Buck

Last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation that allowed high schoolers to use the Classic Learning Test (CLT)—a classical alternative to the SAT and ACT—to qualify for the state’s Bright Futures scholarship. Already accepted at over 200 colleges, this legislation is the CLT’s biggest boost yet.

Commentary
5.25.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Another nail in the “money doesn’t matter” coffin

Adam Tyner, Ph.D.

In recent years, the debate on the impact of financial resources in education has been petering out. Studies showing that more money for schools has had a discernable effect on student academic outcomes, particularly for students from lower-income families, keep accumulating.

Commentary
5.25.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Dire straits: Taking stock of and addressing pandemic-related learning loss

Victoria McDougald

As the school year winds down, and with the World Health Organization officially declaring the emergency phase of the Covid-19 pandemic over earlier this month, many students, parents, a

Commentary
5.5.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

High-achieving middle schoolers fare poorly in U.S. history and civics, finds NAEP, but that’s nothing new

Brandon L. Wright

Editor’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.

Commentary
5.4.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders

History and civics scores still falling, reports NAEP

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Aaargh. Here we go again. The new National Assessment civics and history results are as deplorable as they were predictable. Whether they’ll also serve as the action-forcer that we need is far from certain.

Commentary
4.27.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Advanced Education

Should selective high school admissions be decided by a one-shot test?

Adam Tyner, Ph.D.

How to select students for advanced or elite academic programs has long been controversial. Critics of “holistic” admissions policies argue they often turn to mush—or inject bias into the process. At the other extreme, a few programs use nothing more than a single assessment to determine placement.

Commentary
4.13.2023
Accountability & Testing, Career & Technical Education, Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice, Standards

Lessons for ed reform from the Tennessee Three

Dale Chu

When Tennessee House Republicans expelled, albeit briefly, two young, Black Democratic lawmakers late last week, it raised a number of unsettling questions—not only about the contours of our politics, but also about the future of educat

Commentary
4.6.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance

More accurate identification of low-performing schools through math

Jeff Murray

As school accountability systems reset following pandemic disruptions, an opportunity arises to improve their accuracy and make sure the intended responses to data resulting from them are properly tuned. A new study from the U.S.

Commentary
3.23.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Charter Schools, Governance

Charter schools make district schools more efficient

David Griffith

Districts that lose students to charter schools can and ultimately will adjust their behavior. And indeed, recent research implies that, while charters marginally reduce districts’ total revenues per pupil, they also make them more efficient. The challenge for policymakers is managing whatever transition costs may be associated with moving to a more choice-based system in a way that is fair to students and taxpayers.

Commentary
3.17.2023
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Keep the tests, but reform the test prep

Emily Freitag

When I started Instruction Partners and began working deeply and regularly with multiple school systems, I was surprised by some patterns. The same motivational quotes were in almost every school hallway. Many teachers' lounges had the same air freshener. There was a similar tension between certain departments in almost every district.

Commentary
3.2.2023
School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

We’d be paying teachers far more if we’d chosen quality over quantity

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Almost everyone wants to raise teacher pay. The push comes in various forms and from various places—mostly recently a proposal by Congressional liberals to create a $60,000 floor under teacher salaries. Yet we’d have far more generous teacher pay today if we hadn’t opted to hire more teachers and support staff over the years rather than raising salaries.

Commentary
3.2.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

No, Professor Boaler, we should not stop talking about learning loss

Nathaniel Grossman

Recently, Jo Boaler—a Stanford professor and one of the country’s foremost scholars of mathematics—took to the Hechinger Report to write about pandemic learning loss