Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: July 22, 2021
Prof. Samuel Goldman’s column presented two options for conservatives who want to defeat critical race theory. But here’s a better way to advance their vision for academia.
Commentary
Governance, Standards
How not to write state standards for civics and U.S. history
As discussed in Fordham’s new report, many states aren’t making the grade when it comes to their civics and U.S. history standards, which are often vague to the point of being meaningless.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Schools face a double whammy this fall: illiteracy and illiberalism
We’re not even midway through the summer and the start of the new academic year is in some cases just weeks away.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
Preparing students of all races to achieve greatness
When looking for models of ambitious inspiration, Americans often hearken back to President John F. Kennedy’s “moonshot” address at Rice University on September 12, 1962:
Commentary
Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders
Scaling up the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program helped public schools improve
As supporters of school choice celebrate a remarkable season of legislative wins across the country, they can also add some research-based evidence to their grounds for satisfaction.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: July 15, 2021
A mother shares her insights: “What I’ve learned about raising children who are young, gifted and Black.” —Washington Post We need strong leadership, like that provided by Ohio Governor DeWine and Baltimore Superintendent Sonja Santileses, to help district and school leaders focus on reopening a
Podcast
Commentary
Charter Schools, Governance
Three hypotheses to explain this year’s big wins on school choice
Despite much anti-choice talk in national politics and some Congressional pushback, 2021 has seen an impressive string of victories for school choice at the state level, which is where it matters most. Was it the pandemic? Has the salience of the anti-school choice argument weakened over the past year? Or does Donald Trump deserve a lot of the credit? Read more.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
Strong standards are vital for making history and civics central in K–12 education
Gone are the days when we could all agree with Ben Franklin’s sunny admonition: “Indeed the general tendency of reading good history must be, to fix in the minds of youth deep impressions of the beauty and usefulness of virtue of all kinds.” Instead, we must cope with political polarization, schools preoccupied with the achievement gap, students who learn from social media, and adults who are t
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance
An improved forecast for the NAEP reading assessment
The prolonged fracas within and far beyond the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) concerning a new “framework” for NAEP’s future assessment of reading has been ominous on several fronts—as I haven’t hesi
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
No, school choice is not the answer to critical race theory
Why fight over critical race theory when we can choose? You teach oppression studies; I’ll teach American exceptionalism. It’s a simple and obvious solution. But it’s also a naïve and unsatisfying one. School choice may “solve” the CRT problem for an individual family, but it can’t address the clear interest that every American holds in the education of the next generation.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
We have spelling bees. Why aren’t there reading bees?
Today, the Scripps National Spelling Bee finals
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Texting parents helps improve student literacy. But how much is too much?
Text-message nudges have been a viable tool in early-childhood literacy in recent years, with parents or guardians receiving occasional missives to encourage specific literacy activities with their children.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Are Virginia’s elementary schools worsening achievement gaps?
A new working paper from researchers out of the University of Virginia uses data from the state’s kindergarten literacy assessment, the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS), to examine how the subsequent achievement trajectories of kindergarteners who enter school with similar literacy levels differ by race and/or SES. The findings are worrying.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: July 8, 2021
Education policy is a leading issue for Boston’s mayoral race, especially policies for exam schools and the method for selecting school board members.
Podcast
Accountability & Testing, ESSA, Governance, Private School Choice
The Education Gadfly Show #777: O-H-I-O: School reform victories in the Buckeye State
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
What parents and teachers think about critical race theory
A new Heritage Foundation survey of more than 2,000 parents and teachers shows significant divides about teaching critical race theory. But there largely is consensus that civics content should focus on the duties of citizenship, not CRT.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
5 things I’ve learned from teaching U.S. history to high schoolers
I’ve taught U.S. history to high schoolers for almost twenty years, during which time I’ve worked in multiple states with students of varying personal and cultural backgrounds. Below are the five things that I think I’ve learned. 1) Our students need more exposure to U.S. history.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
We need better civics education, but it won’t happen anytime soon
Fordham’s new report found that twenty states have “inadequate” civics and U.S. history standards that need a complete overhaul. An additional fifteen states were deemed to have “mediocre” standards that require substantial revisions. This fits the lackluster showing of U.S. students on the NAEP exams in these subjects, and suggests that some schools barely teach this content at all. Unfortunately, the obstacles in the way of improving this sad state run up and down the line.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
How to strengthen U.S. history and civics standards
For our constitutional democracy to survive, much rests on our ability to resolve “…differences even as we respect them,” which is The State of State Standards for Civics and History in 2021 report’s definition of the social purpose of civic education.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Dan Willingham’s "Why Don’t Students Like School" stands the test of time. That was the point.
My 2009 copy of Why Don’t Students Like School by Dan Willingham is among the most dog-eared and annotated books I own. Along with E.D. Hirsch’s The Knowledge Deficit (2006) and Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion (2010), I’m hard-pressed to think of another book in the last twenty years that had a greater impact on my teaching, thinking, or writing about education.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
How gender gaps in math and literacy change as students age
While women have largely erased, and in some areas even reversed, the historic gender gap in educational attainment, some career outcomes can still skew along gender lines.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: July 1, 2021
Falling birth rates are forcing the closure of schools that served communities for generations, such as in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Podcast
Curriculum & Instruction, Standards
The Education Gadfly Show #776: Can curriculum reform succeed where the rest of standards-based reform failed?
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
Proof that it’s possible to approach civics and U.S. history in a balanced way
Is America a racist country? Or the greatest nation on earth? Or both or neither or some of each?
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
Teaching U.S. history and civics in America’s pluralistic society
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s review of state standards for U.S. history and civics comes at a critical moment in American civic life.
