Abandoning the Common Core is taking the easy way out

While the New York State United Teachers and the National Education Association have withdrawn

An important take on state takeovers

All eyes are on the “extraordinary authority districts” in Louisiana (the RSD), Tennessee, (the ASD), and Michigan (the EAA).

Does school board leadership matter?

Anyone concerned with improving the achievement, efficiency, operations, or other performance of school districts inevitably asks: Shouldn’t the board be responsible for doing this right? How much do school boards matter, anyway?

Beating the odds: Some school boards can do it

In an Education Week commentary essay about school boards in 2009, I wrote, “[M]y sense of things, after two stints on my local school board…is that school boards have been overtaken by the ‘educatocracy,’ by powerful trade unions, certified specia

Truth, not tracking

In a provocative piece in Slate recently, Fordham’s executive vice president Mike Petrilli asked why Euro-style tracking isn’t a better strategy for high-school students who are significantly below grade level.

Does School Board Leadership Matter?

School boards actually do matter

My doubts and disgruntlements with elected local school boards span three decades.

CTE: Opening doors for all students

Upon reading Michael J.

A concluded battle in the curriculum wars

In the Hoover Institution’s Defining Ideas journal, Tom Loveless has a brief, measured examination of today’s curriculum debates.

The New Opportunity to Lead: A vision for education in Massachusetts in the next 20 years

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A bad headline on ‘bad apples’

There’s a lot of talk about accountability in education today; schools are held accountable, teachers are increasingly held accountable. But what about education PR firms?

We all have a stake in ensuring the Common Core debate rests on facts

Yesterday, National Review Online posted an article entitled, “The Eleven Dumbest Common Core Problems.” This is the latest in a series of posts making their way around the internet aimed at demonstrating how the Common Core ELA and math standards are &

College isn't for everyone. Let's stop pretending it is.

By Michael J. Petrilli

There’s a new sheriff in town: Louisiana judges Common Core alignment

As followers of the Common Core debate know all too well, when it comes to the veracity of publishers’ claims of “Common Core alignment,” the most we supporters have been able to offer in the way of advice is: “buyer beware.”

Five takeaways from Race to the Top Year-Three reports

Today, the U.S Department of Education released Year-Three reports on the 12 states that won funding via Race to the Top’s first two competitions. Here are the five things that jumped out at me.

IES on SIG: Troubling foreshadowing

Late last year, the U.S. Department of Education’s independent research arm, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), released a preliminary but highly informative report on the School Improvement Grant program (SIG).

New Indiana standards mark a shift away from content

For many years, Indiana has been a leader in providing rigorous, content-rich K–12 expectations. But lately, the state seems to be taking worrying and entirely unnecessary steps backward.

Hope for Common Core implementation

The Fordham Institute’s new report Common Core in the Districts paints a vivid picture of four different school districts’ efforts to implement the Common Core State Standards.

The outer limits of school choice

When we talk about educational choice on these pages, we are mostly speaking of charters, vouchers, digital learning, and the like. But in Fordham’s home state of Ohio, educational choice encompasses several other options, of which many families regularly avail themselves. Two of those “outer-limits” options have been in the news recently.

Not a walk in the PARCC, but still the best path for Ohio

Two pieces of pending legislation promise to derail long-planned changes to K-12 testing in Ohio if passed; we take a look at the implications of holding the line vs breaking ranks.

E-schools drive Ohio’s charter-school growth

Online charter schools have been the primary driver of sector growth; with a number of implications

Does Pre-K Work? It Depends How Picky You Are

"Pre-K" vs. quality pre-K

Top recent edu-reads

Here are some of the best edu-reads I’ve come across recently.

Common Core 'spring training': Maintain realistic expectations

Everyone knows that the Common Core State Standards initiative has turned into a political football. But a more apt analogy might be baseball—spring training, to be exact. That’s because, for all the colorful commentary, the Common Core is still in the very earliest phases of implementation.

Standards, the free market, and education reform

Yesterday, Kathleen discussed the relationship between standards and choice, ultimately arguing that these two movements ought to operate as complements, rather than antagonists.

The Effect of Co-Locations on Student Achievement in NYC Public Schools

New York mayor Bill de Blasio has made clear his aversion toward charter schools, singling out in particular his predecessor’s policy of allowing charter schools to co-locate with the city’