Commentary
Charter Schools
School choice, student mobility, and school quality in New Orleans
By Robert Pondiscio
Commentary
ESSA
Is there actually a national teacher shortage?
The whole point of the Every Student Succeeds Act was to revert financial and regulatory authority back to states after No Child Left Behind’s era of federal supremacy.
Commentary
Undefined
The LEMONADE edition
On this week’s podcast, Mike Petrilli and Robert Pondiscio celebrate Prince’s little-known legacy in the world of education, assess education policies that hold parents accountable, and question the alleged diversity of the opt-out movement. During the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the causes and effects of test score manipulation in New York State.
Commentary
Charter Schools
Using Google Maps to get charter students to school
Outliers make for great stories and headlines, but they don’t do much for policy discussions—particularly school choice policy. Recently, there has been a flurry of headlines citing tales of “extreme sacrifice” by Detroit students in their efforts to commute great distances to the schools of their choice.
Commentary
A policymaker's guide to improving school leadership
Whether the goal is to enhance instruction, create a culture of excellence, or broaden educational options for parents, it’s nearly impossible to improve schools without strong leaders. This is hardly news; for decades, unambiguous evidence has proven the importance of effective principals.
Commentary
Five bad reasons to preserve the school leadership status quo
School leadership is one of the keys to making our schools stronger and giving every student the educational opportunities that prepare him to succeed. That’s why the Thomas B.
New Media
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
A Policymaker's Guide to Improving School Leadership
Whether the goal is to enhance instruction, create a culture of excellence, or broaden education options for parents, it’s nearly impossible to improve schools without strong leaders. This is hardly news; much evidence has indicated the importance of effective principals for decades.
Commentary
Charter Schools
The untold story of Prince's impact on a Minnesota charter school
In the wake of Prince’s untimely death on Thursday, the world marks the passing of a multi-talented performer and musical polymath.
Commentary
Charter Schools
Pope Francis is right: The poor have a right to school choice
Pope Francis is exhorting church leaders across the globe to join the school choice movement.
Commentary
Advanced Education
No child is just born gifted: Creating and developing unlimited potential
Observing what a young person is capable of is always exciting. Many of the limits we thought children had do not seem to be as absolute as we once believed. The more we study children, the more we discover that our beliefs are limited, not the abilities of kids.Are children born gifted?
Commentary
Getting serious about college and career readiness
With the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act, our country is entering a new chapter in education reform.
Commentary
Implementation of K–12 State Standards for Mathematics and English Language Arts and Literacy
A new study from RAND uses information from teacher polling to examine state implementation of the Common Core State Standards. The data are drawn from two nationally representative surveys of U.S. educators (both K–12 math and ELA teachers) administered in summer and fall 2015.
Commentary
Commentary
Charter Schools
School finance needs love too
The cause of school choice took a major step forward in Florida last week when Governor Rick Scott signed a bill codifying open enrollment and increasing funding for charter schools.
Commentary
Undefined
The royal edition
On this week's podcast, Alyssa Schwenk and Robert Pondiscio discuss the Vergara defeat, Education Secretary John King's call for a "well-rounded" American education, and Hillary Clinton's stance on standardized testing. In the Research Minute, Amber Northern explains recent teacher implementation efforts of new K-12 standards for mathematics and English language arts.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
The next steps for career preparation
Are we ready to expand career and technical education offerings as the next frontier in education policy?
Commentary
Advanced Education
San Antonio's plan to serve high-achievers
Over the past year, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute has published numerous articles (including a book) explaining how schools across the country are overlooking high-achieving poor students.
Commentary
Arne Duncan, Lamar Alexander, and the rule of law
Over the weekend, I attended a performance of the Tony-winning show All the Way, whose title political junkies (or readers of a certain age) will know refers to Lyndon Johnson and his 1964 presidential campaign.
Commentary
Testing technology gone wrong
Ah, spring. The much-anticipated return of baseball, blooming flowers, chirping birds, and…standardized tests.Annual testing is now well underway in schools across the nation, and several states have already experienced major technological complications, frustrating educators and students alike and fueling increasingly vocal testing opponents.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Charter Schools
Policy change is not the only path to school reform
By Michael J. Petrilli
Commentary
Charter Schools
Mayor’s well-meaning initiatives won’t solve Dayton’s education woes
Bolder action is required
Commentary
AP and college credit opportunities in Ohio’s urban high schools: Are advanced students being shortchanged?
We look at urban high school performance in Ohio in terms of Advanced Placement and dual enrollment
Commentary
Expanding CTE: Dual enrollment and regional centers are worthy of support too
By Dara Zeehandelaar, Ph.D.
Video
Today’s CTE: A Dead-End Track, or a Path to the Middle Class?
*Click here to download the presentation slides*
Commentary
Relax, Democrats: Hillary Clinton still supports testing
The Democratic primary contest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders has been a fractious one, dividing party loyalists on issues like health care, foreign intervention, financial reform, and corporate influence on politics.
Commentary
CTE and Big Data: Why education needs more of both
By Shaun M. Dougherty Recently, there has been increased interest in career and technical education as a mechanism to create pathways to college and employment. This increased interest has occurred despite the fact that, aside from two studies on career academies, there is relatively little high-quality evidence about whether and how CTE provides educational and work-related benefits to students. In my new report with the Fordham Institute, Career and Technical Education in High School: Does It Improve Student Outcomes?, we capitalized on the willingness of state agencies to partner with us and share data as a way to answer these questions. Our ability to produce answers is related to the rich datasets from Arkansas that enabled us to translate this data and available computing power into actionable policy findings.
Commentary
Illinois is failing its gifted students
In the midst of Illinois's historic budget stalemate, funding for education and much else remains in dispute. Gov. Bruce Rauner and the legislature haven't been able to agree on major priorities, even as Chicago schools go broke and the Chicago Teachers Union looks more likely to strike every day.
Commentary
ESSA
ESSA oversight hearing: Full transcript
On Tuesday, April 12, 2016, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held a full committee hearing titled “ESSA Implementation in States and School Districts: Perspectives from the U.S. Secretary of Education,” the first of a series of oversight hearings on the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
