Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: November 10, 2022
The cracks in affirmative action have grown into fissures as immigration and demographic shifts change the country’s make-up.
Podcast
Curriculum & Instruction
Education Gadfly Show #845: Why schools are wasting millions of dollars on ineffective online tutoring
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Bart Epstein, the president and CEO of
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
The future of exam schools
Editor’s note: This essay was part of an edition of “Advance,” a newsletter from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute that is 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
Wonkathon 2022: We must reinvent high schools, but state policies stand in the way. How do we remove them?
This year’s Wonkathon is over, and the results are in! 2022’s Wisest Wonk: Keri Ingraham, for “Teacher certification and uniform salary schedules hinder CTE staffing.” Second place:
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
High expectations in the classroom: When the unlikely becomes the possible
For any teacher, administrator, or policymaker who wants to make strong choices that are likely to benefit their students’ outcomes, Seth Gershenson’s recently-published Fordham Institute report on “the power of expectations in district and
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Governors should stop spinning NAEP results and start proposing solutions
“In light of this barometer of our kids’ success, there’s no time to waste to catch our kids up. We must continue to pour on the gas in our efforts,” Arizona Governor Doug Ducey said last Tuesday in response to the NAEP results.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Lowering expectations for students isn’t the answer to pandemic learning loss
Fordham’s new study, “The Power of Expectations in District and Charter Schools,” seeks to examine the role that high expectations should play in our nation’s academic recovery and supply deeper understanding of whether and how such expectations operate in the traditional public, charter, and private school sectors. It finds, among other things, that teacher expectations have a positive impact on long-run outcomes and that expectations tend to be higher in charter schools.
Commentary
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Holistic admissions: The good, the bad, the ugly
As the Supreme Court weighs the future of race-sensitive affirmative action in admitting students to selective colleges, all manner of ideas are popping up for how to achieve “diversity” in the entering class without explicitly counting by race.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance
How federal charter school grants help marginalized students
It makes good sense for the federal government to provide grants to high-quality public charter schools seeking to open or expand. That’s the gist of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released last month.
Commentary
Cheers and Jeers: November 3, 2022
A partnership of several research organizations has announced a $31 million initiative to study the effectiveness of thirty-one tutoring programs across the nation.
Commentary
What we're reading this week: November 3, 2022
Several studies show a strong connection between school closures, remote learning, and learning loss, making clear that shutting down schools was a failed policy.
Report
Charter Schools
The Power of Expectations in District and Charter Schools
This study examines the role that high expectations should play in our nation’s academic recovery and how they operate in the traditional public, charter, and private school sectors.
Podcast
Curriculum & Instruction
Education Gadfly Show #844: An ode to overly-optimistic teachers, with Seth Gershenson
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Mike Petrilli and David Griffith are joined by Seth Gers
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Charter schools complicate the narrative on Covid shutdowns and learning loss
This week’s news of sharp declines on the National Assessment of Educational Progress gave partisans yet another chance to relitigate the debate over keeping schools closed for in-person learning for much or all of the 2020–21 school year. We conservatives are eager to identify the teachers unions as the primary culprits, and we’re not wrong. But there is one complication we should acknowledge: the curious case of urban charter schools.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Treating my NAEP hangover
Monday was insane, with everyone and his grandmother (and her pet dog) attempting to make insightful, quotable comments on the avalanche of new data from the Nation’s Report Card. Some of it was indeed insightful, but much was simply self-promoting, as were many attempts to position oneself in advance as an expert to be taken seriously.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
Determining the factors that lead to kindergarten ability group placement
Ability grouping—arranging students in a classroom into smaller learning groups based on their aptitude in a given subject—is a common practice among teachers as early as kindergarten.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: October 27, 2022
“I thought at least 50 percent credit for no work was okay.
Podcast
Accountability & Testing
Education Gadfly Show #843: Halloween a week early with NAEP results in
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Checker Finn joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
High-achieving middle schoolers have suffered devastating math losses, finds NAEP
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, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Could NAEP affect midterm elections? And other questions about next week’s release.
The 2022 results from the “main” National Assessment of Educational Progress will be released October 24. They’ll include fourth- and eighth-grade scores at the national level, as well as state by state and for two-dozen large urban districts. Especially after the Covid shut-downs, it’s a big freakin’ deal. Here are three major storylines to look forward to.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Must we battle over civics education?
In a way, the battles we’ve seen in recent years over what to teach schoolkids in civics class resemble the war in Ukraine: They’re wholly unnecessary—and may be entirely the work of aggressors.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
How one company made billions on a flawed approach to reading instruction
Few reporters in education journalism have had greater impact in recent years than Emily Hanford.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Governance
Will pandemic learning loss cost $700 billion to fix?
A new study released this month by Kenneth Shores and Matthew Steinberg tackles the question of whether federal pandemic relief for public schools was provided in the right way and in the right amount.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: October 20, 2022
“Young children were massively overlooked for special education.
Podcast
Evidence-Based Learning
Education Gadfly Show #842: Industry-recognized credentials aren’t living up to their potential
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Quentin Suffren, Senior Advisor of Innovation Policy for ExcelinEd,
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Jubilee for character education
Even educators who recognize the value of character are often deeply skeptical that educators can teach virtue as a matter of practice because—apart from religious contexts--they have never seen it done successfully. For this reason, it is important that we draw attention to successful, non-partisan, secular models of exemplary character education. We find such a model in the UK’s Jubilee Center for Character and Virtues.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders
Cultural sensitivity for me but not for thee
Imagine a close-knit community whose members take care of and look out for one another; enjoy strong, tight-knit families with many children, close social ties, and a deep sense of purpose and belonging; and seem mostly exempt from crime, suicide, substance abuse, and other such problems. Are the habits and institutions by which this community prepares its members for adult life successful?
