Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: March 7, 2024
Due to demographic changes and the democratization of expertise, AI could help rebuild the middle class, not destroy their jobs. —David Autor, Noēma School choice stands to benefit, not harm, rural communities.
Podcast
Governance
#910: Reforming Houston ISD, with Mike Miles
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Mike Miles, the superintendent of Houston ISD, joins Mike and David to discuss the reforms he’s impl
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The way we set grade-level norms on tests masks pandemic learning loss
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.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
The hazards of “equity grading”
The push for more “equitable” grading policies has exacerbated grade inflation while yielding little evidence of greater learning. Some aspects of traditional grading can indeed perpetuate inequities, but top-down policies that make grading more lenient are not the answer, especially as schools grapple with the academic and behavioral challenges of the post-pandemic era.
Commentary
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Getting education (almost) right
Rick Hess and Mike McShane have provided the education world with a thoughtful, accessible, perceptive, and—in its way—persuasive book on improving education. Though sub-titled (and marketed as) “a conservative vision,” it’s both more and less than that.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Study outlier teachers to solve the homework gap
My friend Michael Petrilli just wrote a great essay about the “homework gap.” He sets aside the upper-class question (stressed out kids with too much of it) and steers readers to the gap (some kids do what’s assigned, some kids copy and cheat, and some kids skip it).
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
ESSER funds are ending. What does this mean for pandemic learning loss?
Districts have used almost $190 billion in ESSER funds to help students recover from pandemic learning loss by implementing a wide variety of initiatives, including
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: February 29, 2024
Approximately half of college graduates work jobs that don’t use the skills and knowledge from their degree. —Wall Street Journal A recent Supreme Court action allows schools to consider socioeconomic status, but not race, in admissions decisions.
Podcast
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction
#909: Rethinking “equitable” grading, with Adam Tyner and Meredith Coffey
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Adam Tyner and Meredith Coffey, the national research director and a se
Report
Think Again: Does "equitable" grading benefit students?
This policy brief challenges four key ideas that underpin “equity”-motivated trends in grading reforms.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Doing educational equity right: The homework gap
If we care about doing educational equity right, we need to call the bluff of those who want to lower expectations for students’ effort “because equity.” Those so-called advocates need to do some of their own homework—and penance—as well.
Commentary
Governance
Horace Mann’s solution to political turmoil in education
Fights over books, an exodus from public schools, politically obsessed adolescents, the need for civics education—Horace Mann predicted it all back in 1848. Thankfully, this education luminary also provided wisdom and insight in the common school era for how we can turn down the culture war heat in modern times.
Commentary
Governance
Education reform is a bipartisan endeavor
In their FUSION essay “The Past and Future of Education Reform,” drawing heavily on their worthy
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Gag order? Or gag reflex?: State laws on teacher speech
A new report from PEN America claims that 1.3 million teachers, roughly a third of full-time classroom staff in the United States, are now forced to work under “educational gag orders.” PEN tallies forty pieces of legislation restricting teacher speech across twenty-two states as of November 1, 2023.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: February 22, 2024
Seemingly positive daily attendance data can mask the realities of chronic absenteeism.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
Why schools are failing to narrow excellence gaps in math
Marginalized students have long lacked access to advanced education programs in the U.S., compared to more advantaged peers, and have been under-identified and therefore underserved when such programs exist.
Podcast
School Finance
#908: The looming expiration of Covid relief funds, with Chad Aldis
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Chad Aldis, Fordham’s Vice President of Ohio Policy, joins Mike and David t
Event
Charter Schools
NACSA's Third Thursdays // New School Applications: Do Authorizer Evaluations Predict the Success of New Charter Schools?
NACSA is honored to feature the report from the Thomas B.
Commentary
School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
On teacher housing, is the juice worth the squeeze?
In recent months, housing programs for school teachers have begun to receive high-profile attention. And with good reason: As costs of living have risen, teacher salaries have not kept pace, thereby decreasing some educators’ ability to live near their workplaces. But are such policies actually a good thing? In short: We really don’t know.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Governance
Idaho’s charter school law rewrite: Better, not perfect
Idaho’s public charter school law turned twenty-five last year. Over that quarter century, the statute has grown warts. It’s also too complicated, burdened by vestigial code and rules, and confusing to schools, authorizers,[1] and state education agencies alike.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: February 15, 2024
Forty-four percent of Gen Z men say they had no romantic relationships as teenagers, compared to 32 percent of Millennial men, 23 percent of Gen X men, and 20 percent of Boomer men.
Podcast
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
#907: How to do tutoring right, with Alan Safran
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Alan Safran, the CEO and co-founder of Saga Education, joins Mike and David to discuss best prac
Commentary
Personalized Learning
It’s time to launch a national initiative to create the new American high school
This essay first appeared in an slightly different form as part of the Center on Reinventing Public Education’s 2023 State of the American Student report.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Doing educational equity right: School closures
Shuttering under-enrolled schools is usually seen as a bad thing—for students and for neighborhoods. But that need not be the case. An equitable approach to school closures would commit to placing affected students in higher-performing schools.
Commentary
Standards
A reboot of the Institute of Education Sciences? Time will tell.
It’s been more than two decades since Congress passed and President Bush (43) signed the Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA), giving birth to the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) as we know it.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Yes, read old books
My students caught me smelling an old book once. While they were silently reading one day, I noticed a tattered book on the shelf. So what did I do? Following deep instincts, I pulled it down, cracked the spine, and breathed deeply. “Mr. Buck, what are you DOING?!” I turned around to find the whole class staring at me.
