Displaying 691-720 of 1105 results
Commentary
4.29.2021
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The bias toward complexity when humans attempt to solve problems

Jeff Murray

Problem solving involves a complex set of mental steps, even when it happens quickly. A group of researchers from the University of Virginia sought to test one specific aspect of the process—the types of solutions people consider—and uncovered what could be an important human attribute, with significant implications for public policy.

Commentary
4.28.2021
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

How to adopt and implement a high-quality elementary mathematics curriculum

CAO Central

Editor’s note: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute recently launched “The Acceleration Imperative,” a crowd-sourced, evidence-based resource designed to aid instructional leaders’ efforts to address the enormous challenges faced by their students, families, teachers, and staff over the past year.

Commentary
4.22.2021
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Testing, SpaceX, and the quest for consensus

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

A suite of technologies that are already widely used in some private-sector testing can and should be embraced by state and national assessments, as well as the private tests that aren’t yet making maximum use of them. Read more.

Commentary
4.22.2021
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Six principles for high-quality, effective writing instruction for all students

CAO Central

Editor’s note: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute recently launched “The Acceleration Imperative,” a crowd-sourced, evidence-based resource designed to aid instructional leaders’ efforts to address the enormous challenges faced by their students, families, teachers, and staff over the past year.

Commentary
4.19.2021
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Three important considerations for selecting and implementing an elementary ELA curriculum

CAO Central

Editor’s note: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute recently launched “The Acceleration Imperative,” an open-source, evidence-based resource designed to aid instructional leaders’ efforts to address the enormous challenges faced by their students, families, teachers, and staff over the past year.

Commentary
4.15.2021
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

High-quality, knowledge-rich curriculum is essential

CAO Central

Editor’s note: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute recently launched “The Acceleration Imperative,” an open-source, evidence-based resource designed to aid instructional leaders’ efforts to address the enormous challenges faced by their students, families, teachers, and staff over the past year.

Commentary
4.15.2021
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

An ode to elementary schools

Michael J. Petrilli

If I had to name the most important institution in American life, and the one with the most potential for changing the course of our country, it would be the humble elementary school. Especially the 20,000 or so high-poverty elementary schools in the nation’s cities and inner-ring suburbs, educating millions of kids growing up in poor or working-class families.

Commentary
4.15.2021
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Can teaching be improved by law?

Robert Pondiscio

If there’s one lesson education policymakers might have learned in the last twenty-five years, it’s that it’s not hard to make schools and districts do something, but it’s extremely hard to make them do it well.

Commentary
4.15.2021
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Uncle Sam goes soft on state tests

Dale Chu

Things are getting messy in the world of assessment.

Commentary
4.15.2021
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Mentors’ effect on middle school attendance

Melissa Gutwein

More than a year into the Covid-19 pandemic, lost instructional time is top of mind for anyone connected to education.

Commentary
4.12.2021
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

A different K–12 world: Teens and parents on Covid-19 shock and schools

Bruno V. Manno

In the song “Ballad of a Thin Man,” Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan penned an iconic refrain that asks: “But something is happening/And ya’ don’t know what it is/Do you, Mister Jones?” That refrain seems an apt way to describe what K–12 education stakeholders are sensing as they reel in response to Covid-19 shock.

Commentary
4.9.2021
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

How schools can return from the pandemic with strong mental health supports in place

Sarah Broome

This fall, most students will be returning to full-time, in-person instruction after one of the most disrupted years of their lives. All students will be coming back with varying degrees of adverse experiences. Some may have lost loved ones, had a parent lose their job, seen a parent go through illness, or even been sick themselves.

Commentary
4.9.2021
Teachers & School Leaders

Family engagement is critical to student success—especially now

CAO Central

Editor’s note: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute recently launched “The Acceleration Imperative,” an open-source, evidence-based resource designed to aid instructional leaders’ efforts to address the enormous challenges faced by their students, families, teachers, and staff over the past year.

Commentary
4.8.2021
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

High-quality curriculum doesn't teach itself

Robert Pondiscio

A new initiative is reviewing and rating major providers of teacher training with the ambition of becoming the EdReports of professional learning. Rivet Education’s “Professional Learning Partner Guide” is the product of two veterans of Louisiana’s celebrated effort to place high quality curriculum at the center of school improvement efforts.

Commentary
4.8.2021
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Children learn best when they feel safe and valued

CAO Central

Editor’s note: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute recently launched “The Acceleration Imperative,” an open-source, evidence-based resource designed to aid instructional leaders’ efforts to address the enormous challenges faced by their students, families, teachers, and staff over the past year.

Commentary
4.8.2021
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Proceed with caution: School reopening and Covid case rate data

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

School reopenings in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic are an ongoing, imperfect work in progress, and the science that school leaders and parents are being encouraged to follow is evolving.

Commentary
4.6.2021
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

For maximum impact, align professional learning with high-quality instructional materials

CAO Central

Editor’s note: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute recently launched “The Acceleration Imperative,” an open-source, evidence-based resource designed to aid instructional leaders’ efforts to address the enormous challenges faced by their students, families, teachers, and staff over the past year.

Commentary
4.2.2021
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Lessons from Race to the Top

Emily Freitag

I have been thinking a lot about the early years of Race to the Top recently. I moved to Nashville in 2011 to work at the Tennessee Department of Education. Tennessee had won one of the first two Race to the Top grants with bipartisan legislation and an ambitious plan, and the state had $500 million to invest in innovative support to advance student learning.

Commentary
4.2.2021
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

High expectations drive student success

CAO Central

Editor’s note: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute recently launched “The Acceleration Imperative,” an open-source, evidence-based resource designed to aid instructional leaders’ efforts to address the enormous challenges faced by their students, families, teachers, and staff over the past year.

Commentary
4.1.2021
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Drawing a line in the sand on state testing

Dale Chu

The Biden team has issued its first responses to state requests to waive federal testing requirements because of the pandemic. Dale Chu reads the tea leaves, and concludes that the new Administration is trying to eat its cake and have it too.

Commentary
4.1.2021
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

The sorry history of “what works” in school

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

My friend and colleague Mike Petrilli is understandably proud of Fordham’s spanking new Acceleration Imperative: A Plan to Address Elementary Students’ Unfinished Learning in the Wake of Covid-19.

Commentary
4.1.2021
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

How to instill positive school culture

CAO Central

Editor’s note: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute recently launched “The Acceleration Imperative,” an open-source, evidence-based resource designed to aid instructional leaders’ efforts to address the enormous challenges faced by their students, families, teachers, and staff over the past year.

Commentary
3.26.2021
Curriculum & Instruction, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders

How any school can personalize learning, part II

Beth Rabbitt

In part I of this two-part series, I wrote about three of the most common practices teachers implement in elementary schools that successfully personalize learning: giving each child a learning plan, organizing instruction around class-level and individual mastery, and using grouping an

Commentary
3.26.2021
School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Best- and worst-case scenarios for how school stimulus dollars will be spent

Chad Aldeman

In the last year, Congress has now invested nearly $200 billion to support K–12 education. It’s an unprecedented federal infusion of money, but will it lead to an unprecedented recovery effort? It’s worth taking a moment to pause and consider the range of possibilities. Best case