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Displaying 211-240 of 421 results
Commentary
7.10.2019

Little rhyme or reason in special needs designations for students

Jeff Murray

A designation of special needs for a K–12 student can generate a sigh of relief from some parents and a howl of outrage from others. Such a designation can also be the basis of a successful outcome for some students and the beginning of a long struggle for others to attain proper supports.

Commentary
7.9.2019

Beyond special education as we know it

Pay attention! The times they are a ‘changing as we move beyond special education as we’ve known it for forty-plus years. In his courageous, thought-provoking piece, Kalman R.

Commentary
7.1.2019

Charter schools and teacher diversity

A new study of North Carolina public schools finds that black students in charter schools are more likely to have black teachers than their regular public school counterparts, and that the positive

Commentary
7.1.2019

Sounding the alarm for boys in our schools

Erika Sanzi

Legendary actress Meryl Streep recently garnered a considerable amount of media attention during a Vanity Fair panel about the second season of HBO’s series “Big Little Lies.” Much to the surprise of many, Streep was highly critical of the phrase “toxic masculinity,” asserting tha

Commentary
6.26.2019

Child poverty is down sharply since the start of the ed reform era

Michael J. Petrilli

U.S. student outcomes improved significantly from the late 1990s until the onset of the Great Recession, especially in math, but also in reading, science, writing, U.S. history, and civics. Gains were greatest for lowest-achieving students, students of color, and at the fourth and eighth grade levels. But it's possible that a certain change outside of school explains at least some of these gains: the vastly improving condition of the nation’s poorest families.

Commentary
6.26.2019

Four tips for SEL advocates

Alexandria Myrick

Social and emotional learning (SEL), which focuses on teaching children soft skills like self-awareness, self-discipline, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making, has gained popularity, with advocates pushing for curriculum changes in schools.

Podcast
6.26.2019

The Education Gadfly Show: Research, practice, and the feds

On this week’s podcast, Elizabeth Albro, Commissioner of the IES National Center for Education Research, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss ways to increase the effect of evidence on classroom practice. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines how charter schools in North Carolina affect long-term outcomes.

Commentary
6.25.2019

Why Alberta is a model for education reform

Alberta, Canada, is a fascinating model for educational improvement. Like the United States, the province jettisoned intellectual content in the early twentieth century, local property values drove school funding, and “public schooling” was narrowly defined.

Commentary
6.21.2019

The Lone Ranger and summer learning loss

When I was five years old and living in Decatur, IL, we were reached by a signal from a St. Louis television station, KPLR. If memory serves, color test bars gave way to programming at 6:00am each morning.

Commentary
6.19.2019

Student outcomes have improved in more than just reading and math

Michael J. Petrilli

There’s little doubt that math and reading outcomes strengthened dramatically for the lowest-performing students and for children of color from the mid-1990s until the onset of the Great Recession. But could these gains be seen in writing, science, and other areas, too? To answer that, this post looks at results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. It finds, among other things, that at least at the fourth and eighth grade levels, progress in student achievement went well beyond reading and math.

Commentary
6.19.2019

The power of positive deviance

Robert Pondiscio

I’m a fan and faithful listener of EconTalk, a podcast hosted by Russ Roberts of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

Commentary
6.19.2019

Understanding race-match effects

A cottage industry of studies shows the critical relationship between having a same-race teacher and a host of short- and long- term educational outcomes, including test scores, expectations,

Commentary
6.19.2019

How school quality differs within districts

Kara Long

School quality can vary drastically within districts, so district-wide averages of ratings often leave out important information. This can cause problems for stakeholders, such as parents who use these data to choose communities in which to live. But just as individual school grades vary, the range of good versus bad schools may be substantially larger in some districts than in others.

Commentary
6.14.2019

Start students on the path to high-return degrees earlier

Career technical education (CTE) programs at community colleges are a promising way to prepare the workforce for jobs in growing occupations. But the programs with the best outcomes for students often have limited capacity or very low completion rates. One solution: Start students on a path towards high-returns fields early, through efforts such as high school CTE programs.

Commentary
6.12.2019

The effects of school discipline on families of color

Robert Pondiscio

A trio of researchers, Joanne W. Golann and Anna Lisa Weiss of Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College; and Mira Debs of Yale, set out to explore “what discipline means to Black and Latinx families” at two commonly available school choice options: a so-called “no excuses” charter school, and a pair of public Montessori magnet schools. This is a rich vein of ore to mine.