Some immodest advice to the Ohio graduation requirements work group
NOTE: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute occasionally publishes guest commentaries on its blogs. The views expressed by guest authors do not necessarily reflect those of Fordham.
NOTE: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute occasionally publishes guest commentaries on its blogs. The views expressed by guest authors do not necessarily reflect those of Fordham.
Countless studies have demonstrated that teacher quality is the most important school-based determinant of student learning, and that removing ineffective teachers from the classroom could greatly benefit students.
On this week’s podcast, Checker Finn, Robert Pondiscio, and Alyssa Schwenk discuss America’s performance on two recent international assessments, TIMSS and PISA. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines a U.S. Department of Education guide on how to teach writing.
Eleven weeks ago, in High Stakes for High Achievers: State Accountability in the Age of ESSA, the Fordham Institute reported that current K–8 accountability systems in most states give teachers scant reason to attend to the learning of high-achieving youngsters.
By Andrew Scanlan
By Victoria Sears
On this week’s podcast, Mike Petrilli, Alyssa Schwenk, and Robert Pondiscio discuss states’ neglect of high achievers and how ESSA might prompt them to do better. During the research minute, Amber Northern reports on the good news about narrowing socioeconomic gaps in kindergarten readiness.
No Child Left Behind meant well, but it had a pernicious flaw: It created strong incentives for schools to focus all their energy on helping low-performing students get over a modest “proficiency” bar. Meanwhile, it ignored the educational needs of high achievers, who were likely to pass state reading and math tests regardless of what happened in the classroom.
By Chester E. Finn, Jr.
After almost eighteen years in the field of education, I have become convinced of the need to transform the way our children learn so that they can confront the unknowable challenges of the twenty-first century.
This Fordham study, conducted by learning technology researcher June Ahn from NYU, dives into one of the most promising—and contentious—issues in education today: virtual schools. What type of students choose them? Which online courses do students take? Do virtual schools lead to improved outcomes for kids?
By Frank C. Worrell and Rena F. Subotnik
By Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.
Darius Brown’s educational biography,
By Robert Pondiscio
In Common Core Math in the K-8 Classroom: Results from a National Teacher Survey, Jennifer Bay Williams, Ann Duffett, and David Griffith take a close look at how educators are implementing the Common Core math standards in classrooms across the nation.
If there were just one thing I could say to fans of open educational resources (OER) and personalized learning, it would be this: “Atomized units of knowledge don’t build anything.” That quote comes from an education reformer who used to teach in a high-powered classical school.
By Michael J. Petrilli
By Darien Wynn
Harriet Tubman will grace the front of our $20 bill—a long-overdue tribute to a woman who lived up to the best of American values. But do most Americans know who she was?
By Robert Pondiscio
Are we ready to expand career and technical education offerings as the next frontier in education policy?
By Michael J. Petrilli
Credit recovery is education’s Faustian pact. We remain not very good at raising most students to respectable standards. But neither can we refuse to graduate boxcar numbers of kids who don’t measure up.
On this week’s podcast, Mike Petrilli and Alyssa Schwenk refute the idea that CTE is at odds with college, critique draft ESSA regulations’ neglect of high-achievers, and discuss a New York City lawsuit alleging the city’s schools are unsafe. During the Research Minute, Amber Northern explains charter high schools’ effects on long-term attainment and earnings.
Princeton University announced last week that it would preserve the name of Woodrow Wilson on several buildings and programs, though it had plenty of reasons to do otherwise.