Podcast
Personalized Learning
#870: The Great School Rethink, with Rick Hess
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Rick Hess of the American Enterprise
Commentary
Charter Schools, Governance
The 10 biggest charter school wins in the past year
It being National Charter Schools Week, I thought I would look at the progress that we have made since last year’s celebration.
Event
Charter Schools
Webinar: Charter Schools and English Learners
Join us to discuss the implications of Fordham's recently published report Charter Schools and English Learners in the Lone Star State.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance
Do charter schools improve outcomes for English learners?
The number of English learners in charter schools has increased markedly in recent years, but our knowledge of how well charters serve these students hasn’t kept pace with that growth. That’s why we conducted our new study, "Charter Schools and English Learners in the Lone Star State." It finds, among other things, that compared to their traditional public school peers, English learners in Texas charters are more likely to graduate high school and enroll in college. They also earn more money in the post-college years.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders
An evolving landscape calls for a “both/and” approach to school choice and charter schools
This year’s state legislative sessions, now coming to a close, have yielded a blizzard of high-profile victories on school choice, from the enactment of universal education savings accounts (ESA) programs, to the expansion of private school choice policies to serve many more families, to fairer funding for charter schools.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance
3 reasons why religious charter schools should give us pause
When it comes to K–12 education policy, the post-Covid period has become, more than almost anything else, the era of school choice. This success has opened new avenues for its growth and confronted choice supporters—particularly Catholic school supporters—with an important decision.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning
Are video games a valid extracurricular activity or a time sink?
While life is more normal now than it was two years ago, pandemic lockdowns and school building closures that once kept young people inside and online have likely altered behavior for the foreseeable future.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: May 11, 2023
High-dosage tutoring is the most effective way to combat learning loss, and schools have the ESSER funds to pay for it. —Washington Post “Serious research on poverty must contend with basic facts.
Podcast
Charter Schools
#869: Strong long-term outcomes for English learners in Texas charter schools, with Deven Carlson
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast,
Report
Charter Schools
Charter Schools and English Learners in the Lone Star State
This study uses nearly two decades of student-level data to explore how charter school enrollment is related to Texas English learners’ achievement, attainment, and earnings.
Commentary
Remembering Mike Smith
Marshall S. (“Mike”) Smith passed away the other day at eighty-five after a long battle with cancer. He was a wonderful human being and deeply influential education thinker and leader, who will be much missed.
Commentary
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
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
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
History and civics scores still falling, reports NAEP
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
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
How lax grading policies make classrooms chaotic
Since the return to in-person learning, schools have seen a surge in student misbehavior of many kinds, ranging from minor
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Putting the Core Knowledge study into perspective
A recent study finding dramatic boosts in reading achievement from a knowledge-building curriculum has come in for criticism, some of it well-taken. But the study should be seen as just one more piece of evidence casting serious doubt on standard literacy instruction.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Look beyond test scores to gauge the impact of teacher performance pay
Most American public school teachers are paid according to a fixed salary schedule that determines their income based only on their years of education and classroom experience.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: May 4, 2023
American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten has politicized her union and inserted herself into America’s culture wars.
Podcast
Governance
#868: Virginia’s new history and social science standards, with Andy Rotherham
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Bellwether co-founder and Virginia Board of Education member
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Standards
“A Nation at Risk” still has a message for today, forty years later
This April marks forty years since the National Commission on Excellence in Education issued its blockbuster report “A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform.” The commission, which worked for eighteen months, was created in August 1981 by U.S. Secretary of Education Terrel Bell early in his tenure with President Ronald Reagan’s administration.
Commentary
In defense of education culture wars
The culture war matters, it’s popular, and it’s inevitable, argues Buck. In fact, it matters a lot—as much if not more than the technocratic squabbles over testing metrics, data analysis, teacher accountability, charter policies, or pay scales. These policies adjust the dials and doohickies on the ship of state. The culture war is the rudder that determines its direction.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance
Stiff headwinds for civic education
Note: On April 13, AEI’s Robert Pondiscio spoke at Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance’s Colloquium Series, responding to Dr. Danielle S.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Advanced Education
Should selective high school admissions be decided by a one-shot test?
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
Evidence-Based Learning
The problematic variation in socioeconomic status measures
Countless studies on education incorporate measures of socioeconomic status (SES). But this metric is, perhaps surprisingly, rather ill-defined and has incorporated many varying components since its inception in the early twentieth century.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: April 27, 2023
“Altering how teachers are evaluated and paid remains a powerful lever for improving student outcomes.” —Martin R.
Podcast
Evidence-Based Learning
#867: How Core Knowledge schools boost students’ reading comprehension, with Robert Pondiscio
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, American Enterprise Institute senior fellow
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
“A Nation at Risk” warned of “a rising tide of mediocrity.” Forty years later, little has changed.
The National Commission on Excellence in Education’s release of a report titled “A Nation at Risk” in 1983 was a pivotal point in the history of American education.
Commentary
School Finance, Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice
I’m pro–public education. That’s why I want universal education savings accounts to succeed.
There are many reasons to be skeptical of the universal ESA programs that are sweeping the nation, but they are worth rooting for anyway because they’ll likely lead traditional public schools to improve.
