Commentary
Topics
Commentary
Seeking a culture of improvement
If this era is to become a Golden Age of Educational Practice, we need successful, evidence-based practices—to the extent that they actually exist—to spread far and wide.
Commentary
Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
Grade inflation is rampant, but accreditors can help
By Jeremy Noonan
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
Thinking about classroom practice: Five ideas for ed reformers
By Robert Pondiscio
Podcast
The Education Gadfly Show: The state of choice during National School Choice Week
On this week’s podcast, Mike Magee, CEO of Chiefs for Change, and Nina Rees, President and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, join Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss National School Choice Week and the many hopeful developments on the charter schools front nationwide. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines whether schools of choice (both traditional and charter) “skim” students they perceive to be easier to educate or avoid those perceived harder to educate.
Commentary
Commentary
Charter Schools, Private School Choice
What options do students have in areas where private school choice proposals were defeated?
The Education Gadfly
Commentary
Commentary
Commentary
Podcast
The Education Gadfly Show: School choice’s hopeful new year
On this week’s podcast, Lindsey Burke, a director at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to explain why school choice is poised to have a good 2019, despite its many headwinds. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the relationship between automatic-college-admission policies and the college preferences of low- and high-income students.
Commentary
Commentary
Commentary
ESSA seeks a well-rounded education. Louisiana seeks partners to explore new measures.
While the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) gave states the opportunity to broaden and deepen their visions of what makes for an excellent education, researchers and states have both struggled to design measures and systems that take meaningful steps in that direction. Most of us would agree that primary grade literacy, knowledge of U.S.
Commentary
Restorative justice isn't working, but that's not what the media is reporting
Last week, the first randomized control trial study of “restorative justice” in a major urban district, Pittsburgh Public Schools, was published by the RAND Corporation.
Commentary
Which candidate would you want your child's school named after?
“We ain't asking you to love us You may place yourself high above us Mr. President, have pity on the working man.” —Randy Newman, Mr. President (Have Pity on the Working Man)
Commentary
The room where it happens: Changing students’ college outcomes by changing their self-perception
Over the past thirty years, I’ve witnessed one education reform effort after another. We’ve had standards-testing-accountability, school choice in innumerable forms, curriculum reform, teacher reform, and much more. All have been worthwhile and should continue. However, while we persist on these paths, I suggest we also look at reforming where our students are educated in the first place.
Podcast
ESSA, Governance
The Education Gadfly Show: Federal education policy in 2019
On this week’s podcast, Andrew Ujifusa, an assistant editor for Education Week, and one-half of the Politics K–12 team, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to explain why we wonks shouldn’t completely ignore Washington in the coming year. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern counts down the five most influential education studies of 2018.
Commentary
Unsolicited advice for discipline reformers—from a wannabe
Just before Christmas (or about ten thousand news cycles ago) the Trump administration took the widely anticipated step of reversing the Obama administration’s much-debated guidance on school discipline, the essential goal of which was to pressure school districts to address the well-documented and longstanding r
Commentary
How to get schools to use practices that work
Before the holiday break, I wrote a series of posts discussing how we might turn the “End of Education Policy” (as I see it) into a Golden Age of Educational Practice. It’s time to pick up where I left off.
Commentary
Rekindling moral education: A worthy challenge for schools of choice
Late December brought not one but two excellent disquisitions on moral education, both the importance of rekindling an emphasis on it in American schools and some thoughtful advice as to how to go about it.
Commentary
The effects of Pittsburgh's new restorative justice program
“Restorative practices” are an increasingly popular alternative to suspensions. To examine the effectiveness such practices, researchers at the RAND Corporation studied Pittsburgh’s new restorative justice program. It’s the largest study of its kind, and the first randomized control trial of this disciplinary strategy—and unfortunately, the results are decidedly mixed.
Commentary
Commentary
Is 2019 the year education reformers fold or double down?
A month ago, a prominent philanthropist described today’s education reform climate to me as “The Empire Strikes Back.” I had to acknowledge that 2018 capped off an extraordinary run for opponents of education reform. If only the American public understood how high the stakes are as we enter 2019.
Commentary
Three men with a shot at being the next education governor
The ringing in of the new year brings a changing of the guard as twenty new governors take office. This new cohort could bring new opportunities for education reform, but there are indications that they may be less enthused than their predecessors were on the issue.
Commentary
Education choice in 2019 and beyond
The Fordham Institute’s analysis of “charter school deserts” helps answer a vital question: Where are neighborhoods in which low-income children lack access to schools of choice?
Commentary
Districts should start fresh on school discipline reform in the new year
For the new year to bring a new politics to America—one marked by a pragmatic search for solutions, with good ideas from left, right, and center—it’s going to have to come from the bottom up, far away from the Washington outrage machine. A good place to start would be the contentious challenge of school discipline.
Commentary
What to expect in Wisconsin with Governor (gulp!) Tony Evers
On January 7, 2019, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers, a Democrat, will take the oath of office as Wisconsin’s next governor. His narrow defeat of Republican Scott Walker represents the end of an era for education reform in the Badger State, which now faces a governor who is famously hostile to school choice.
Commentary
Deconstructing teacher turnover
During the news lull between Christmas and New Years, the Wall Street Journal published an alarmist piece about the high rate of teachers and other public educators quitting their jobs.
Commentary
Successfully supporting community college students in Ohio
In 2015, Ohio imported a successful program used to help community college students in the City University of New York (CUNY) system persist in school and complete a degree in three years or less.