Displaying 1-30 of 92 results
Report
12.28.2011
Accountability & Testing

The Accountability Plateau

Mark Schneider

After more than ten years under NCLB, that law’s legacy continues to be fiercely contested. This analysis of NAEP scores—focusing on Texas and on the entire nation—by former NCES commissioner Mark Schneider finds that solid gains in math achievement coincided with the advent of "consequential accountability," first in the trailblazing Lone Star State and a few other pioneer states, then across the land with the implementation of NCLB. But Schneider warns that the recent plateau in Texas math scores may foreshadow a coming stagnation in the country’s performance. Has the testing-and-accountability movement as we know it run out of steam? How else might we rekindle our nation’s education progress?

Commentary
12.22.2011
Curriculum & Instruction

The Mad, Mad World of Textbook Adoption

Statewide textbook adoption distorts the market, entices extremist groups to hijack the curriculum, enriches the textbook cartel, and papers the land with mediocre instructional materials that cannot fulfill their important education mission.

Report
12.9.2011
Governance

Rethinking Education Governance for the Twenty-First Century

School reforms abound today, yet even the boldest and most imaginative among them have produced—at best—marginal gains in student achievement. What America needs in the twenty-first century is a far more profound version of education reform. Instead of shoveling yet more policies, programs, and practices into our current system, we must deepen our understanding of the obstacles to reform that are posed by existing structures, governance arrangements, and power relationships. Yet few education reformers—or public officials—have been willing to delve into this touchy territory.

Commentary
11.10.2011
Curriculum & Instruction

Why track on the sports field, but not in the classroom?

Tyson Eberhardt

The performance of America's top students was a hot topic on Wisconsin's WSAU radio this morning, as Mike appeared to discuss the findings of Fordham's recent High Flyers study.?

Commentary
11.1.2011
Curriculum & Instruction

NAEP 2011: The Reading First effect?

Michael J. Petrilli

Last night was fun for the kids, but today is every education wonk's favorite holiday: NAEP release day! Kevin Carey is already out with some savvy analysis; let me add some thoughts on the trends in reading.

Report
10.21.2011
Governance

Now What? Imperatives and Options for Common Core Implementation and Governance

Chester E. Finn, Jr., Michael J. Petrilli

This Fordham Institute publication—co-authored by President Chester E. Finn Jr. and VP Michael J. Petrilli—pushes folks to think about what comes next in the journey to common education standards and tests. Most states have adopted the Common Core English language arts and math standards, and most are also working on common assessments. But...now what? The standards won't implement themselves, but unless they are adopted in the classroom, nothing much will change. What implementation tasks are most urgent? What should be done across state lines? What should be left to individual states, districts, and private markets? Perhaps most perplexing, who will govern and own these standards and tests ten or twenty years from now?

Report
10.21.2011
Governance

Cracks in the Ivory Tower? The Views of Education Professors Circa 2010

Steve Farkas, Ann Duffett

This national survey of education school professors finds that, even as the U.S. grows more practical and demanding when it comes to K-12 education, most of the professoriate simply isn't there. They see themselves more as philosophers and agents of social change, not as master craftsmen sharing tradecraft. They also resist some promising reforms such as tying teacher pay to student test scores. Still, education professors are reform-minded in some areas, including tougher policies for awarding tenure to teachers and financial incentives for those who teach in tough neighborhoods. Read on to find out more.

Report
10.21.2011
Governance

America's Private Public Schools

Michael J. Petrilli, Janie Scull

More than 1.7 million American children attend what we've dubbed "private public schools"—public schools that serve virtually no poor students. In some metropolitan areas, as many as one in six public-school students—and one in four white youngsters—attends such schools, of which the U.S. has about 2,800.

Commentary
10.21.2011
Curriculum & Instruction

Wrapping up "The Other Achievement Gap"

[pullquote]"I got to tell you, the only viable political strategy for getting broad-based support of school reform on that premise is to get those middle-class parents drunk.? -AEI's Rick Hess[/pullquote]We wrap up coverage of Monday's panel discussion, ?The Other Achievement Gap,?

Report
10.20.2011
School Finance, Governance

Halting a Runaway Train: Reforming Teacher Pensions for the 21st Century

Mike Lafferty

When it comes to public-sector pensions, writes lead author Mike Lafferty in this report, "A major public-policy (and public-finance) problem has been defined and measured, debated and deliberated, but not yet solved. Except where it has been." As recounted in "Halting a Runaway Train: Reforming Teacher Pensions for the 21st Century," these exceptions turn out to be revealing—and encouraging. As leaders around the country struggle to overhaul America's controversial and precarious public-sector pensions, this study draws on examples from diverse fields to provide a primer on successful pension reform. Download to find valuable lessons for policymakers, workers, and taxpayers looking for timely solutions to a dire problem.

Commentary
10.11.2011
Curriculum & Instruction

A progressive school finds some accountability religion

Peter Meyer

I was prepared for a rant against all things reform when I started reading the New York Times Q & A interview with Maria Velez-Clarke, the principal of the Children's Workshop School in Manhattan's East Village, about the school's C-grade from the City.?

Commentary
10.5.2011
Curriculum & Instruction

High Flyers in the news and on the air

Differentiation, tracking, and the needs of high-achievers are hot topics these days, thanks in part to Fordham's recent study Do High Flyers Maintain Their Altitude? Performance Trends of Top Students.

Commentary
9.29.2011
Curriculum & Instruction

The dark side of censorhip: bad books

Peter Meyer

As a journalist for the better part of 30 years (not counting the samizdat paper I wrote and published (on my dad's mimeograph machine) in my high school seminary), I worship our first amendment.?

Commentary
9.25.2011
Curriculum & Instruction

Learn early, learn often: School counts

Peter Meyer

You can read Sam Wang and Sandra Aaamodt's ?Delay Kindergarten at Your Child's Peril? essay in today's New York Times for what the two neuroscientists have to say about the development of young brains ?

Commentary
9.23.2011
Curriculum & Instruction

Academic growth of high achievers

Janie Scull

Fordham's new report released on Tuesday, Do High Flyers Maintain Their Altitude?

Commentary
9.22.2011
Curriculum & Instruction

Fallen high flyers don't fall far

Janie Scull

Yesterday, we looked at the first finding of Fordham's new groundbreaking study, Do High Flyers Maintain Their Altitude?

Commentary
9.20.2011
Curriculum & Instruction

Do high flyers maintain their altitude?

Janie Scull

If America is to remain internationally competitive, we need to maximize the potential of our top students. Over the last decade, however, federal and state education-accountability systems?particularly in the wake of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001?have placed primary emphasis on moving low-performing students toward proficiency.

Commentary
9.20.2011
Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education

Distressing but not surprising

We asked a few experts to weigh in on our new study, "Do High Flyers Maintain Their Performance: Performance Trends of Top Students," as part of an online forum we'll be hosting on Flypaper over the next couple days.

Commentary
9.19.2011
Curriculum & Instruction

Teachers Breaking Out of the Box

Peter Meyer

I gave up bashing teachers years ago, when I realized that, as with soldiers in the trenches, they had their hands full just staying alive.

Commentary
9.8.2011
Curriculum & Instruction

Teaching about 9/11 in 2011

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

This week, teachers across the land are greeting students, assigning seats, issuing textbooks, struggling to remember everyone's name?and doing their best to teach one of the most challenging lessons of the year: the events of September 11, 2001, why they happened, why they matter, and why we are commemorating them.

Report
9.7.2011
Curriculum & Instruction

Teaching about 9/11 in 2011: What Our Children Need to Know

Richard Rodriguez, Andrew J. Rotherham, William Damon, William Galston, Victor Davis Hanson, Katherine Kersten, Lucien Ellington, Craig Kennedy, Walter Russell Mead

Any number of organizations are offering advice about what to teach schoolchildren about the events of September 11, 2001, yet (unlike that day's murderous pilots) most sorely miss the mark. Fordham's publication, "Teaching about 9/11 in 2011: What Our Children Need to Know," highlights the danger of slighting history and patriotism in the rush to teach children about tolerance and multiculturalism. It combines ten short essays by distinguished educators, scholars, and public officials from our 2003 report, "Terrorists, Despots, and Democracy: What Our Children Need to Know," essays that feel more timely than ever, and includes a new introduction by Chester E. Finn, Jr. reflecting on how the lessons of these essays apply today.