What we're reading this week: February 3, 2022
The Education GadflyEd reform must accept the fact that “there are some kids that are more academically talented than others.” —
Education Gadfly Show #805: High schools didn’t get the memo that college isn’t for everyone
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast (listen on
We all agree that college isn’t for everyone. We should start acting like it.
Michael J. PetrilliOne of the biggest shifts in education reform in recent years has been widening acknowledgment that the “college for all” mantra was misguided. Yet so far our commitment to “multiple pathways” to opportunity is almost all talk accompanied by very little action. High school course requirements and accountability systems continue to push almost all students into the college-prep track.
Charter school expansion narrows achievement gaps
Amber M. Northern, Ph.D., Michael J. PetrilliFordham’s new study, based on data from 400 metropolitan statistical areas and 534 micropolitan statistical areas, finds that an increase in total charter school enrollment share is associated with a significant narrowing of a metro area’s racial and socioeconomic math achievement gaps. With the country reeling from a pandemic that’s caused widespread learning loss, especially for disadvantaged students, getting more children into charter schools could help reverse those dire trends.
Americans have lost trust in public schools
Robert PondiscioEditor’s note: This essay was first published by The 74.
A century of school reform, through the eyes of Larry Cuban
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Confessions of a School Reformer, a new book by emeritus Stanford education professor Larry Cuban, still going strong at eighty-eight, combines personal memoir with a history and analysis of U.S.
Virtual schools should get more support and attention
Jeff MurrayA recent release from the Education Commission of the States reminds us that the term “virtual school” refers to several different types of educational options, and that the ecosystem—more important now than ever before—requires specific attention and support from policymakers.
What we're reading this week: January 27, 2022
The Education GadflyThis month’s sudden switch to remote learning is troubling news for kindergarteners.
Education Gadfly Show #804: How charter schools are closing achievement gaps in metro areas
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast (listen on
Still Rising: Charter School Enrollment and Student Achievement at the Metropolitan Level
David GriffithIn the wake of the biggest education crisis in living memory, the need for transformational change is palpable and urgent. This report asks: Can a rising tide of charter schools carry students in America's largest metro areas—including those in traditional public schools?
Some Republicans want Miguel Cardona gone. They might come to regret it.
Dale ChuA letter seeking federal law enforcement intervention into threats aimed at school board members has caused a hullabaloo one year into U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona’s otherwise unremarkable tenure. Though his role in soliciting the letter is unclear, some Congressional Republicans would love nothing more than to see him become the fall guy. They would do well to consider how their thirst for blood might cut both ways.
On teaching courage
Jennifer FreyIn recent days, American students have been learning about Martin Luther King Jr. and his leadership in the American civil rights movement.
The case for starting NAEP in kindergarten
Michael J. PetrilliWay back in the late 1960s, when federal officials and eminent psychologists were first designing the National Assessment of Educational Progress, they probably never contemplated testing students younger than nine. After all, the technology for mass testing at the time—bubble sheets and No.
Searching for the root of educational inequities in parent-child interactions
Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.Research (as well as common sense and folk wisdom) has shown that “parental investments” are critical
Classic texts’ continuing value in a more partisan world
Nathaniel Grossman“This is a book about my liberal education,” begins Roosevelt Montás’s book, Rescuing Socrates.
What we're reading this week: January 20, 2022
The Education GadflyPartisan overtones in the National School Boards Association’s letter to President Biden has led many members to withdraw or refuse to renew their membership.
Now is not the time for OCR to meddle in school disciplinary policy
Michael J. PetrilliAny day now, Catherine Lhamon, the assistant U.S. secretary of education for civil rights, is expected to release new guidance for school districts that’ll reinstate an Obama-era policy limiting the use of suspensions and the like in the name of reducing racial disparities in “exclusionary discipline.” It couldn’t come at a worse time.
Mission, vision, and virtue
Jennifer FreyEducation in the classical sense is padeia: a holistic approach to student formation that is geared towards the cultivation of the student’s mind, imagination, perception, and emotions so that they become the type of person who can flourish and thrive inside the school community and well beyond.
Stop focusing on class size
Daniel BuckThe Nation ran quite a headline last month: “To Reduce Inequality in Our Education System, Reduce Class Sizes.” Surely we might expect substantive evidence to follow such a pronouncement, especially in the midst of a staffing shortage.
Not much to show nationally from a decade of teacher evaluation reforms
Victoria McDougaldSpurred in large part by an infusion of over $4 billion in federal Race to the Top funds, beginning in 2009, nearly all states and the District of Columbia implemented major reforms to their teacher evaluation systems.
Sharpening the picture of early pandemic schooling
Jeff MurrayWhile it’s no secret that pandemic-induced remote learning was a disaster for almost all students in 2020 and 2021, we must remind ourselves that in-person education models weren't so great
What we're reading this week: January 13, 2022
The Education GadflyDemocrats are losing the Asian American vote, and their position on education is a key reason.
Why authorizers shouldn’t shy away from helping their charter schools improve
Alex MedlerA decade ago, most charter school authorizers agreed it was not their job to help struggling charter schools. But times have changed, and best practices in charter school authorizing are evolving.
Republicans and school boards
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Recent months have brought much hand-wringing and ink spilling over the possibility that hordes of Republicans are gearing up to plunge into local school board elections, this as part of their discovery that public education is rich with political opportunity (cue incoming Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin, his campaign advisors, and observant GOP strategists).