Commentary
Accountability & Testing
Standardized tests remain the best way to fairly and equitably assess students
Educational testing is under attack.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning
Texas’s shale boom boosted local tax bases. Here’s how it affected schools.
New and fascinating research uses a creative study design and a unique data set to address whether a thriving local economy leads to better student outcomes. Specifically, it examines how the Texas boom in shale oil and gas drilling, which brought with it large and localized effects on wages and the tax base, impacted district schools.
Policy Brief
Accountability & Testing
Fewer Children Left Behind: Lessons From the Dramatic Achievement Gains of the 1990s and 2000s
In this new monograph, Fewer Children Left Behind, Michael J. Petrilli, the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, examines whether America’s schools have improved over the past quarter-century of reform.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Everything we know about teacher effectiveness
On Wednesday, we sat down with Dan Goldhaber, director of the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER), on our Education Gadfly Show podcast for thirty minutes of engaging discussion.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Chad Aldeman: A review of Robert Pondiscio’s “How the Other Half Learns”
Robert Pondiscio won’t like my review of his new book, How the Other Half Learns.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
AP: Great for gifted high schoolers
When considering the available options for gifted high-school kids, the Advanced Placement (AP) program may not be the first thing that comes to mind. That’s too bad because AP might be America’s most effective large-scale “gifted and talented” program at the high school level.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
Does access to advanced high school math and science courses boost college STEM outcomes?
A new report published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis investigates how access to advanced high school math and science courses affects postsecondary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) enrollment and degree attainment, and how this relationship between the two differs by race and gender.
Podcast
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
The Education Gadfly Show: Research Deep Dive: Everything we know about effective teachers
On this week’s podcast, Dan Goldhaber, the director of CALDER, joins Mike Petrilli, David Griffith, and Amber Northern to discuss what rigorous research says about identifying, developing, and retaining effective teachers.
Event
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance
A Moonshot for Kids
What would happen if we invested $1 billion or more in bold education R & D initiatives designed to generate fresh, evidence-backed solutions to some of education’s toughest challenges? On November 5, at 4:00 p.m. ET, online and in Washington, D.C., the Center for American Progress and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute held a a “Shark-Tank” style competition. Ten early-round finalists presented their “billion-dollar Moonshot ideas” to a panel of tough judges, all for a chance to win $10,000 and have their idea propelled to widespread attention and potential major investment.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Personalized Learning, Standards
Access, equity, and quality in dual enrollment
Programs that allow high school students the opportunity to earn college credit while still in high school are growing fast. In addition to familiar options like Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate, dual enrollment, concurrent enrollment, and early college high school—otherwise known as college in high school programs–are increasingly popular models in states.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Personalized Learning
Advanced coursework gets a needed boost
Last week in Austin, at the annual “summit” sponsored by the PIE (“Policy Innovators in Education”) Network, prizes were conferred on a handful of state-based education-reform groups that had accomplished remarkable feats in the previous year, this despite the reform-averse mood that chills much of the nation.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The metric that matters most: Ask kids, “Are you in?”
Editor’s note: At last week’s PIE Network Summit in Austin, Texas, Fordham senior fellow Robert Pondiscio was asked to participate in a panel discussion on “What is the purpose of education?” His answer to the question consisted of the following remarks.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, ESSA, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
A new era of accountability in education has barely just begun
Most states have spent the past decade overhauling their standards, tests, and accountability systems, and finally committing real resources to capacity-building, especially in the form of curriculum implementation. These pieces have only begun to come together in the last year or two, culminating with the release of school ratings as required by ESSA. What’s needed isn’t to spin the wheel of education policy once again, but to show some patience and commitment—and finish what we started.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
How to improve literacy after elementary school
It’s a bit of an education cliché to say “every teacher is a literacy teacher.” Since background knowledge is a fundamental building block of language proficiency, it’s technically true: A teacher in any subject can’t help but be a literacy teacher, even if the effects are diffuse.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Do flipped classrooms boost student outcomes?
Flipped classroom in K–12 and higher education have been popular for years.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, ESSA, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
In math, grade-level tests are holding back low-achieving students
Imagine that you’re a sixth-grade math teacher. It’s the first day of school, and the vast majority of your students arrived multiple years behind where they should be. Your job is to teach them concepts such as understanding percentages and dividing fractions.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Advanced Education, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
Why has AP succeeded when so many other reforms have failed?
American K–12 education is awash in reforms, nostrums, interventions, silver bullets, pilot programs, snake oil peddlers, advocates, and crusaders, not to mention innumerable private foundations that occasionally emerge from their endless cycles of strategic planning to unload their latest brainstorms upon the land. Yet when subjected to close scrutiny, not much actually “works.” The six-decade old Advanced Placement program is a rare and welcome exception.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
Low public support for ability grouping is an opportunity for personalized pacing
The latest Education Next poll asked respondents whether they support ability grouping, whereby students take classes with peers at similar academic achievement levels, and for middle school the majority’s answer was no.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
How two personalized learning models accelerate the progress of their high-achieving students
Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of posts looking at how two school networks—Rocketship Public Schools and Wildflower Schools—enable their students to meet standards at their own pace.
Podcast
Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education
The Education Gadfly Show: All about AP
On this week’s podcast, Mike Petrilli talks with Checker Finn and Andrew Scanlan about their new book on the past, present, and future of Advanced Placement.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
How charter school attendance affects students’ special-needs status
Charters schools are often criticized for not enrolling enough or not adequately serving special student populations, particularly students with special needs. A new study by Tufts University’s Elizabeth Setren evaluates this claim with a unique dataset in Boston.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Teachers’ views on learning strategies and research
A new report by Ulrich Boser and The Learning Agency investigates what K–12 educators know—or mistakenly believe—about effective learning strategies and where they obtain information about learning research.
Book
Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education
Learning in the Fast Lane: The Past, Present, and Future of Advanced Placement
Termed by the Washington Post’s Jay Mathews “the most comprehensive book on Advanced Placement, the most powerful educational tool in the country,” this book traces AP’s history from its mid-twentieth-century origins as a niche benefit for privileged students to its contemporary role as a vital springboard to college for high school students nationwide, including hundreds of thousands of poor and minority youngsters. It's a must-read for anyone with a stake in American K–12 education.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, ESSA, Governance
Why end-of-course exams are being replaced by the ACT and SAT, and how to reverse that
In the last month, two reports have renewed questions about the current direction of states’ high school assessments.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Governance
The “Upgrade Rule”: How schools and districts can make school closures work better for families
School closures hurt. While they are relatively uncommon nationwide, they are sometimes unavoidable—and they’re always painful, especially for the students and families who are displaced and who rarely see any educational benefit as a result.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
The GAS Factor: Lessons learned at Success Academy
Much of the initial response to Robert’s new book, "How The Other Half Learns," has focused on the winnowing effects of Success Academy’s enrollment process, which ensures that the children of only the most committed parents enroll and persist. But that’s just the start of the story. You have to look at what parent buy-in actually buys: a school culture that drives student achievement, and which can only be achieved when parents are active participants, not unwilling conscripts.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
The scourge of education malpractice
What if you were told that elementary schools in the United States are teaching children to be poor readers?
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
How personalized learning enthusiasts can ensure they aren’t lowering the bar for the kids who are behind
Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of posts looking at how two school networks—Rocketship Public Schools and Wildflower Schools—enable their students to master standards at their own pace. See the first post here.
Podcast
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The Education Gadfly Show: Parents’ role in school improvement
On this week’s podcast, Patrick Corvington, executive director of DC School Reform Now, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to offer advice on how parents can play a role in improving their kids’ schools. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the academic effects of early interventions for children born at a low birth-weight.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction
End-of-course exams should be a matter of course
A new study released by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute looks at end-of-course exams (EOCs) and their relationship with high school graduation rates and college entrance exam scores.
