On the Road to Better Accessibility, Autonomy, and Accountability: State Policy Analysis 2015
Rankings against policy recommendations
Rankings against policy recommendations
Here at Fordham, you can usually find us gleefully dinging New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on his education policies. When he was first pushing his universal pre-K initiative a few years back, we argued that he should have tailored the program more narrowly to the kids who needed it most.
On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of visiting Success Academy Harlem 1 and hearing from Eva Moskowitz and the SA staff about their model. I’m not going to venture into the thorny stuff about SA here. What I will say is that their results on state tests are clearly impressive, and I doubt that they’re fully (or even largely) explained by the practices that cause controversy.
It’s difficult to get your arms around the idea of suspending a three- or four-year-old from preschool. For most of us (if we’re even able to remember back that far), pre-K discipline basically meant quiet time in the corner, miserably sulking while our friends laughed and colored.
Value-added does not need replacing
Upon the release of our first comprehensive Yearbook that included state grades in 2009, the he
Attending a religious school might reduce bigotry. Kevin Mahnken
More myth-busting evidence about serving kids with special needs. Jamie Davies O'Leary
Individual authority has decreased slightly, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Robert Pondiscio
The creation of Brooklyn Ascend charter school, textbooks in Texas, and substitute teachers in impoverished schools.
For school choice advocates, victory is inevitable. David Griffith
Interstate test comparability, teacher absenteeism in high-poverty schools, special education in charter schools, and school choice in thirty American cities.
As states have implemented college and career readiness standards, it has sometimes been assumed that most of the work and attention has occurred at the elementary grades. In truth, many states have been working for some time to ensure that grade twelve prepares all students for post-secondary success.
More than twelve million American students exercise some form of school choice by going to a charter, magnet, or private school——instead of attending a traditional public school.
There’s something about the sight of an abandoned school that tears at your heart.
The dominant narrative about the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is that it shifts authority over schools back to state governments. But this belies a key feature of the legislation.
We’ve seen a lot of hand wringing over math achievement in this country. Our students continue to underperform against their peers in other countries, lighting a fire under educators and politicians to push new STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) programming in schools. While these panicked efforts have admirable intentions, they are mostly barking up the wrong tree.
How do charters stack up next to district schools?
How new and innovative financing structures might fix the private school supply chain. Damien Schuster
Parental involvement can be counterproductive when it’s coupled with unrealistic expectations. Jeff Murray
It can be self-fulfilling, regardless of actual ability levels. Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.
Youngsters interview their elders, a new teacher prep program opens in Cambridge, and a governor launches a laudable workforce-skills initiative.
Undoing damage inflicted by the blunt axe of test-driven accountability. Robert Pondiscio
The MCAS/PARCC hybrid assessment, Governor Baker’s new workforce skills initiative, Harvard’s new teacher training program, and the state of K-12 computer science education.
The diagnosis is mixed, but the prognosis is hardly dire. Michael J. Petrilli
Earlier this year, when it looked like ESEA finally had a chance of being reauthorized, I came up with a graphic for assessing the accountability provisions of the various proposals.
In refusing to reconsider its September ruling that public charter schools are unconstitutional and not entitled to receive public funds, the Washington State Supreme Court is bringing the state one step closer to shutting the door on promising educational opportunities for disadvantaged Washington students.
If every school in America was pretty good—if not better—our education policy debates would largely evaporate. Politicians would feel comfortable leaving educators alone to do their thing. And they would empower parents with the ability to choose the good (or great) school that best fit their values and their children’s needs.