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Displaying 181-210 of 444 results
Smaller class size blog image
Commentary
7.15.2020
Curriculum & Instruction

The upcoming experiment with class size reduction

Dale Chu

With all of the sniping back and forth about if or how schools will reopen this fall, the outlook for the coming school year is looking rather grim. Many school districts find themselves in a political pressure cooker, full of tensions about to bubble over as the resumption of school draws nearer. Educators remain caught in the tug of war between economists and epidemiologists.

Smaller class size blog image
Thomas Sowell blog image
Commentary
7.15.2020
Charter Schools

Listening to our elders: The timeless wisdom of Thomas Sowell

Robert Pondiscio

There is a reason we’re told to respect our elders. It’s bracing and edifying to listen to voices of wisdom and experience. Those whose time grows short are compelled to speak clearly and directly. Thomas Sowell is one such voice.

Thomas Sowell blog image
teacher and principal survey SR image
Commentary
7.15.2020
Teachers & School Leaders

Teacher and principals’ views from the Covid battle zone

Jeff Murray

The coronavirus pandemic has upended many facets of K–12 education but not the regular surveys of public school teachers and principals conducted several times annually for the RAND Corporation’s American Educator Panels.

teacher and principal survey SR image
Commentary
7.14.2020
Accountability & Testing

Dueling Florida standards reviews

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

Last month, Fordham released a detailed review of Florida’s latest K–12 academic standards for English language arts (ELA) and mathematics.

Commentary
7.13.2020
Curriculum & Instruction, Personalized Learning

Response to “Let’s rebuild special education when schools reopen”

Alice Parker, Christopher T. Cross

The Fordham Institute recently published an article called “Let’s rebuild special education when schools reopen,” by Anne Delfosse and Miriam Kurtzig Freedman. Reading it prompted both of us to offer our own thoughts, drawn from experience.

Commentary
7.8.2020
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Pity the history teachers

Michael J. Petrilli

As the start of the school year rushes toward us, teachers across America are girding themselves for their new role as “essential workers” during a persistent pandemic. But one group of teachers has it particularly rough: U.S. history instructors, who must also perform their duties during a full-scale culture war over how to tell the American story, especially on the central issue of race. As tempting as it may be, they shouldn’t sidestep controversies or smooth the edges with bland, antiseptic readings. This would lead only to bored, disengaged students, and contribute to our woeful knowledge of our nation’s history.

Commentary
7.8.2020
Charter Schools, Governance

Is it finally, at long last, time for religious charter schools?

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Seventeen long years ago, I urged the creation of “religious charter schools,” either encouraging their start from scratch or—more realistically—allowing extant Catholic and other faith-based schools to convert to charter status

Commentary
7.8.2020
Teachers & School Leaders

Schools’ role in detecting child maltreatment

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

Early reporting of suspected maltreatment is one key to mitigating the damage that abuse can inflict on a child. Yet with millions of school age children having their classroom time shortchanged due to the coronavirus, a primary source of detection for maltreatment has been cut off—teachers.

Commentary
7.6.2020
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

What are we going to do about school?

Jonathan V. Last

Editor’s note: This post was first sent as an email in The Bulwark’s newsletter “The Triad: Three things to read, from JVL.” 1. School?

Commentary
7.1.2020
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Why grades matter

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Pass-fail ratings in schools are widespread this pandemic-stricken spring. But when “passing” denotes anything that’s not “failing,” what signifies excellence? What distinguishes a first-rate research paper or book review or math proof from one that’s barely serviceable? Where’s the recognition for a student whose class participation is well-prepared, attentive, thoughtful and articulate versus the pupil who yawns, smirks, whispers, peeks at his phone and responds to direct questions with surly, one-word answers? Grades surround us and we depend on them in one realm of our lives after another.

Commentary
7.1.2020
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

A snapshot of substitute teaching in the U.S.

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

Illness. Family emergencies. In-service training requirements. On average, classroom teachers in the U.S.

Commentary
7.1.2020
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Anti-bullying laws work for female students

Tran Le

In the past twenty years, every state and the District of Columbia has passed state-level anti-bullying laws (ABLs), requiring school districts to develop policies that define bullying, encourage students to report victimization, and punish offenders.

Commentary
6.29.2020
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The worst is yet to come

Robert Pondiscio

We’ve reached the mop-up phase at the end of the fractured school year, the worst that most of us have ever seen. The consensus view, unsurprisingly, has been that the past few months have been a disaster. School districts were caught flat-footed and unprepared for the pandemic.

Commentary
6.26.2020
Evidence-Based Learning

David Brooks, please don’t give up on education

Michael J. Petrilli

David Brooks has long been a stalwart supporter of education reform, both the choice-and-charters flavor and the testing-and-accountability variety.

Commentary
6.24.2020
Governance

Empty pedestals and diminished history

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

A legitimate grievance against Confederate monuments has degraded into something deeply troubling. Statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and the like are now getting removed, toppled, or vandalized. It’s a threat to our history based on disapproval of some actions and practices of past individuals, never mind how central—even heroic—their roles were to the history that we want our kids to learn more about. Few young Americans are learning American history as it is. We shouldn’t want them to learn even less.

Commentary
6.24.2020
Evidence-Based Learning, Advanced Education

Do programs for advanced learners work?

Jonathan Plucker

As I noted in a recent post, attitudes toward advanced education are cyclical. From gifted education to talent development programs, from honors classes to AP, we have experienced a largely positive stretch of media attention and state-level policy gains.

Commentary
6.24.2020
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Curriculum in a pandemic: Four lessons learned

Lynne Munson

Great Minds creates curricula in math, English language arts, and science for grades PK–12. I’m its founder and CEO, and when Covid-19 hit, we were ill-prepared for digital distance learning, like most everyone else.

Commentary
6.24.2020
Charter Schools

Tom Sowell defends charter schools

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

The publication date for this admirable book is Tom Sowell’s ninetieth birthday (June 30, 2020), and I doubt that’s entirely coincidental. Though Jason Riley reported three years ago that Sowell was “putting down his pen,” that obviously didn’t happen. And we’re better off as a result.

Commentary
6.23.2020
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Make high school matter again

Ed Jones

At least we have stopped pretending that we’re making high school more modern.

Commentary
6.17.2020
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

How fundamental change happens in America

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

America faces three urgent challenges right now: beating Covid-19, reforming law enforcement in the wake of the George Floyd's killing, and rebooting K-12 education. Each creates the opportunity for major, lasting change. Yet that won’t happen without successful models to view, sustained leadership with a modicum of centrism or bipartisanship, and—toughest of all—cultural shifts that demand and entrench those changes.

Commentary
6.17.2020
Governance

Four VP long shots and their views on ed reform

Dale Chu

Last month, I examined nine of the top candidates for Democratic VP nominee and their views on education. The upshot was that there wasn’t much to get enthused about.