America's Best (and Worst) Cities for School Choice
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.
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.
Whether you think the end game of the current “mixed economy” of district and charter schools should be an all-charter system (as in New Orleans) or a dual model (as in Washington D.C.), for the foreseeable future most cities are likely to continue with a blend of these two sectors. So we wanted to know: Can they peacefully co-exist? Can they do better than that?
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the average American lived to be about 50 years old.
Questions of education governance are often considered moot by policymakers, who typically assume that the governance challenges plaguing their local schools are both universal and inevitable. Given the ubiquity of everything from local school boards to state superintendents, this seems to be a logical assumption.
School districts across the land are contending with rising education costs and constrained revenues. Yet state policies for assisting school districts in financial trouble are uneven and complex. Interventions are often haphazard, occur arbitrarily, and routinely place politics over sound economics.
In Pre-K and Charter Schools: Where State Policies Create Barriers to Collaboration, authors Sara Mead and Ashley LiBetti Mitchel examine thirty-six jurisdictions that have both charter schools and state-funded pre-K programs to determine where charters can provide state-funded pre-K.
In Redefining the School District in America, Nelson Smith reexamines existing recovery school districts (RSDs)—entities in Louisiana, Tennessee, and Michigan charged with running and turning around their state’s worst schools—and assembles the most comprehensive catalog of similar initiatives underway and under consideration elsewhere.
Since we at Fordham began reviewing state academic standards in 1997, we have understood—and made clear—that standards alone are insufficient to drive improvements in student achievement.
The need for standards-aligned curricula is the most cited Common Core challenge for states, districts, and schools. Yet five years into that implementation, teachers still report scrambling to find high-quality instructional materials. Despite publishers’ claims, there is a dearth of programs that are truly aligned to the demands of the Common Core for content and rigor.
Promising early signs that the standards are working. Jane Song
What is the critical mass of opt-outs and to what might it lead?
Misunderstanding Common Core’s aspirational nature. Michael J. Petrilli
An open letter to the candidates. Tim Shanahan
The myriad challenges facing school principals in the United States have been well documented, including limited opportunities for distributed leadership, inadequate training, and a lackluster pipeline for new leaders. Recently, the Fordham Institute teamed up with the London-based Education Foundation to seek a better understanding of England’s recent efforts to revamp school leadership.
A great resource fact-checks textbooks’ “Common Core-aligned” claims. Victoria Sears
A new video series shows what it looks like when your kid meets Common Core benchmarks. Robert Pondiscio
Just when you thought we’d run out of things to blame on the standards. Kathleen Porter-Magee
This post has been updated with the full text of "No time to lose on early reading"
I’d like to see Bobby Jindal use a teleprompter the next time he attacks Common Core. I’d like to be reassured he knows how to read.
A sobering new report says our most educated generation still can’t compete. Robert Pondiscio
Gadfly editorial by Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Amber M. Northern
Higher standards are no excuse to ditch gifted services. Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.
This post originally appeared in a slightly different form at Psychology Today.
The pros and cons of college courses in high school. Michael Brickman
We at Fordham are big fans of Jason Riley, a Wall Street Journal columnist who just joined the team at the Manhattan Institute.
Some progressive parents will never embrace Common Core. And that’s OK. Michael J. Petrilli
There’s no such thing as too much, too soon in reading. Robert Pondiscio
Revisiting the Common Core debate in Ohio
Some queries for 2016 presidential contenders. Michael J. Petrilli
Editor's note: This post was originally published in a slightly different form on the Daily Caller.