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Displaying 31-60 of 444 results
Commentary
11.24.2020
Governance

How Biden, Pelosi, and McConnell could work together on education

Michael J. Petrilli

Now that the election is over—and yes, President Trump, it is over—all eyes are on the runoff elections in Georgia, given that they will determine control of the Senate for the first two years of the Biden administration. The conventional wisdom is that Republicans will win at least one of those seats, given that GOP turnout is usually higher in special elections.

Commentary
11.24.2020
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Will students recover their Covid-19 learning losses?

Tom Coyne

Here in Fordham’s pages, I’ve previously written about the challenge of Covid-19 learning losses at the macro level. In this article, I focus on the micro level.

Commentary
11.23.2020
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Testing, accountability, NAEP, and reading

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

For those of us who still believe that results-based school accountability is an essential part of the education renewal that America sorely needs, not many things are looking great this week.

Commentary
11.23.2020
Accountability & Testing

The grading lies we tell our students

Steven Birnholz, Eric Frey

Two years ago, Seth Gershenson and Fordham published Grade Inflation in High Schools, groundbreaking research examining the relationship between students’ Algebra I course grades and end-of-course (EOC) test results in North Carolina.

Commentary
11.20.2020
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Can we overcome challenges facing the expansion of classical schools?

Sheila Byrd Carmichael

Clare Basil recently shared some thoughtful observations about the growth of K–12 classical schools, schools that take “a unifying approach to intellectual and moral formation by developing the integrity of mind and heart”—a quote Basil borrows from the Institute for Classical Educat

Commentary
11.19.2020
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Memo to policymakers: Help teachers focus on reading

Robert Pondiscio

At the tail end of a recent symposium titled “Why children can’t read—and what we can do about it” hosted by American Enterprise Institute, Margaret Goldberg, a California first grade teacher and founder of the

Commentary
11.19.2020
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Reinventing ed reform with a focus on opportunity and social capital

Bruno V. Manno

Nothing better evokes education reform’s predicament today than what occurred in late July when the National Basketball Association restarted its 2020 season. Players were given the option of featuring on the back of their jerseys one of about thirty messages.

Commentary
11.19.2020
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Reducing grading bias against Black students

Adam Tyner, Ph.D.

A perennial complaint about holding students accountable through grades and test scores is that these mechanisms are biased against already disadva

Commentary
11.18.2020

What we're reading this week: November 19

The Education Gadfly

Research supports having classrooms keep only three feet of social distancing. In fact, more kids in school may prevent spread more than hybrid models. —Washington Post How will the forthcoming distribution of vaccines impact schooling?

Commentary
11.13.2020
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

When excellence isn’t on a school’s menu

Erika Sanzi

I knew something was wrong when, during what was supposed to be a full day of remote learning, my thirteen-year-old son announced at 9:30 a.m. that he was free until 11:27 a.m., and then plopped onto the couch and flipped on the television.

Commentary
11.12.2020

Leadership makes a difference: Lamar Alexander and K–12 education

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

When the 116th Congress adjourns, sometime before January 2021, Tennessee’s eighty-year-old senior senator, Lamar Alexander, will retire after three full terms. No one living today has had more far-reaching influence on American K–12 education. As we wish him many glorious years of retirement, we do well to recognize that his legacy will last even longer.

Commentary
11.12.2020
School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Democrats’ ed designs dealt setback in statehouses

Dale Chu

Control of state legislatures is particularly important in a census year, but it’s also an often-overlooked element in driving substantive education policy changes. National politics takes up all the oxygen, but it’s state legislators who make most of the big decisions about how a state’s public-education system operates, is funded, is held accountable (if at all), and much more.

Commentary
11.11.2020

What we're reading this week: November 12

The Education Gadfly

“The pandemic has caused deep, ‘horrifying’ learning losses for Dallas children, and underscored the disparities among Black students, according to new Dallas Independent School District results.” —Dallas Morning News Indianapoli

Commentary
11.11.2020
Governance

Suing for peace in the culture wars

Michael J. Petrilli

Despite the divisiveness of the past four years, we should give peace a chance and heed President-Elect Biden’s plain but true words: “It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again. And to make progress, we have to stop treating our opponents as our enemies. They are not our enemies, they are Americans.”

Commentary
11.9.2020
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Create more autonomous, accountable district schools. Here's how.

Tressa Pankovits, David Osborne

Education wasn’t explicitly on the national ballot in 2020, but education is always on the ballot, even when you don’t see it. Now that the election is behind us, education reformers can focus again on states and communities, where most of the important decisions about K–12 education get made.   

Commentary
11.5.2020
Governance

Finding inspiration in Idaho voters

Terry Ryan

Divisiveness, anger, frustration, mistrust, and threats. That is the narrative emerging around the 2020 presidential election. What I saw on election day as an Ada County poll worker in Boise, Idaho, couldn’t have been more different. The election I witnessed and served was distinctly positive and hopeful.

Commentary
11.5.2020
Governance

Cancel partisan politics to reopen our schools safely and sensibly

Victoria McDougald

As we conclude a particularly fraught and divisive presidential election, most Americans (and even those of us who live in D.C.) welcome a reprieve from the constant onslaught of negative political ads, contentious debates, and around-the-clock election coverage.

Commentary
11.5.2020
School Finance, Governance

Our aging population will end this golden era of school spending

Andrew J. Rotherham

Spend a few minutes on education Twitter or listening to the loudest special-interest voices, and you’d think the future of public education hinges on whether Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, and the president can agree to another stimulus deal. That’s just a short-term Washington game—that will likely soon have a new roster of players.

Commentary
11.5.2020
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Are schools essential or not?

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Are schools essential or aren’t they? Are teachers essential workers or aren’t they? How would Americans respond if large numbers of doctors, nurses, policemen, firemen, and postal workers simply opted to stay home—and their unions defended them? If you’re essential, you go to work.

Commentary
11.5.2020
Charter Schools, Private School Choice

For better or worse, religiously-affiliated charter schools are on their way

Michael J. Petrilli

A U.S. Supreme Court decision is introducing a new type of charter school that’s likely to cheer conservatives but alarm many progressives: the religiously-affiliated charter. Those of us in the charter movement need to figure out how to keep them from splitting the charter coalition.

Commentary
11.4.2020

What we're reading this week: November 5

The Education Gadfly

The winner of this election won’t resolve our nation’s deep-rooted social problems. For that, we need local, personal action. —Yuval Levin Parents are reconsidering schooling decisions as they weigh worsening Covid rates against the costs of isolation and disrupting routines for their children.

Commentary
10.29.2020
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

About those 12th grade NAEP scores: The cake was (mostly) baked years ago

Michael J. Petrilli

As we previously saw at the 4th grade and 8th grade levels, the just-released 2019 12 grade NAEP results were mostly flat or down. But we already knew from the 2015 results that this cohort of students entered high school performing below their older peers.