Want your kids to thrive in school? Call the pediatrician.
Tim DalyThe pandemic has provided a stream of unsettling headlines reminding us that our kids are not OK. They have grappled with surges in loneliness, anxiety, and depression.
2021 election recap: How four key school board races shook out
Dale ChuWhile the gubernatorial upset in Virginia drew the brightest spotlight, Tuesday’s election featured an unusual surge in the number of school board candidates vying for thousands of seats all over the country. Four races were especially noteworthy, both for the charged political rancor leading up to November 2, as well as the potentially broader implications from the results.
Reconnecting knowledge and virtue
Jennifer FreyEditor’s note: We're happy to introduce Jennifer Frey, who will be writing regularly for the Fordham Institute over the next year. She is an associate professor at the University of South Carolina, where she focuses on virtue ethics.
Lessons on protecting viewpoint diversity in classrooms
Robert Pondiscio, Tracey SchirraA story that became a flashpoint in national conversations around the effects of “CRT bans” is reaching its denouement: This past week, a hearing officer appointed to adjudicate the case ruled that the Sullivan County, Tennessee, school board was justified in
The complexities of accountability and private school choice
Jessica PoinerAmong its many educational impacts, the pandemic has reenergized efforts to expand private school choice. States like Ohio, where it already existed, have expanded eligibility and increased funding.
Not everyone’s on board with turning schooling into therapy
Robert PondiscioSchools have been concerned with character formation and values since Plato sat with students under an olive tree. Today’s “social and emotional learning” is consistent with this age-old impulse. But in its form and function it can represent something different—and more worrisome—than its progenitors, especially when employed without full discussion of its priorities and methods.
The case for K–2 testing
Dale ChuUnder federal law, states must assess students annually in reading and math in grades 3–8 and at least once during high school, as well as testing science once in elementary, middle, and high school.
The fault in our genes: Should education policies consider DNA?
Matthew LeveyKathryn Paige Harden is a behavioral genetics rock star at UT Austin. Unsurprisingly for a college professor in a liberal town, she identifies as progressive. The seeming contradiction between her research interests and her political views has drawn broad attention to her first book, The Genetic Lottery.
How reopening decisions affected public school disenrollment
Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.During the first full school year after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, enrollment in U.S. public schools fell by about 1.1 million students, or 2 percent of prior K–12 enrollment.
Students are interested in computer science, but many of them lack access
Jeff MurrayResults of a recent survey published by Amazon’s Future Engineer offshoot show several disconnects between the interests, experiences, and aspirations of U.S. students in regard to computer science.
Education Gadfly Show #793: How D.C. increased teacher diversity and quality
Declining NAEP scores are flashing red lights for the Covid generation
Michael J. PetrilliLast week brought the latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress’s Long Term Trend series, and they were sobering. Just before the pandemic kicked in, U.S. thirteen-year-olds saw statistically-significant declines in both math and reading—a first in the study’s nearly 50-year history. Black, Hispanic, and low-achieving students saw the largest declines. Here’s the case that the Great Recession was largely at fault.
5 lessons in education policy from newly-minted Nobel laureates
Adam Tyner, Ph.D.This week the Nobel committee announced that the 2021 Nobel Prize in economics would go to Joshua Angrist (MIT), David Card (UC Berkeley), and Guido Imbens (Stanford).
Reforming licensing policies will help alleviate teacher shortages
Shannon WhitworthWith the effects of the pandemic dragging on for another year, labor markets are acting strange and organizations are struggling to find qualified workers. Schools are no different. The teacher pipeline has slowed to a trickle as teacher preparation programs see fewer and fewer candidates. Teachers have been leaving the profession early.
Bill de Blasio is decimating gifted education in New York. Will Eric Adams save it?
Brandon L. WrightMayor de Blasio is axing New York City’s long-standing gifted education programs. He plans to replace them with something else, but his proposal is almost entirely wrong. Fortunately, Eric Adams, who’s almost certain to replace him in January, has a vision of gifted education that’s mostly right, and he’ll enter office in time to fix de Blasio’s blunders.
Seeking a constitutional shortcut to educational excellence
Dale ChuDo students have a right to a high-quality education? A proposed ballot initiative filed in California last Thursday says yes.
Sorry Edutopia, the research base on project-based learning remains weak
Daniel BuckAs one paper put it, there is a “paucity of robust research” on project-based learning. Yet in the ed-school world and in many journals and professional organizations, it’s often touted as a pedagogical gold standard.
What do parents value in a school? An education choice experiment
Jeff MurrayAs supporters celebrate and opponents dissect the Year of School Choice, a timely new report tries to make sense of the way parents value, assess, and act upon avail
How well do diverse-by-design charter schools work?
William RostThe persistence of racial segregation between and within school districts has motivated some in the school choice community to develop diverse-by-design charters (DBDCs), which are defined as schools without a 70 percent majority of students of any race or ethnicity, plus 30 to 70 percent low-income pupils.
How well are schools teaching disadvantaged students to read? In California, it depends where you live.
Todd CollinsHow do we know if a school district is doing one of its most basic jobs—teaching students to read? That’s one of the main questions the California Reading Coalition, which I helped organize earlier this year, set out to answer with the California Reading Report Card, released in September.
The college gender gap begins in kindergarten
Michael J. PetrilliA recent Wall Street Journal article set off a pundit-palooza on the topic of the female advantage in higher education, with many suggesting that young men have “given up on college.” But American students who are academically well-prepared for college continue to matriculate and graduate. It’s just that many more of them are female. The reason for that starts in kindergarten.
Critical race theory distracts from academic underachievement
Bob Woodson, Ian RoweWith a new school year underway, parents, teachers, and children anxiously return to classrooms amidst an ongoing coronavirus pandemic. But this year, school board members, teachers, academics, politicians, and parents continue to argue over critical race theory and how to enact its version of equity.
Do experts share responsibility for pitchfork-wielding mobs?
Adam Tyner, Ph.D.Angry citizens, enraged over everything from mask mandates to “critical race theory,” have been storming school board meetings, threatening members, and driving some to quit, reports a
There’s more to the education story than what’s in the news
Emily FreitagEducation news is pretty depressing these days. Last week’s feed included articles about cafeteria staffing shortages and supply chain concerns, reporting about declining enrollment, predictions about resignations due to vaccine mandates, findings on teacher stress, reporting about an uptick in student fights, and lots of documentation of demonization in adults’ battles over mask policy.
The impact of voucher programs: A deep dive into the research
Pedro EnamoradoLast month, my colleagues Mike Petrilli and David Griffith had a conversation with Patrick Wolf, a leading school choice scholar at the University of Arkansas, about the impact of voucher programs on the Education Gadfly Show podcast.
Inspire a reverence for liberty by teaching the full story of American slavery
Ian RoweOn September 12, 1962, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the request of the New York Civil War Commission at the Centennial Celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation.
We are squandering the talents of too many low-income high achievers
Aaron Churchill , Michael J. PetrilliFar too many high-achieving children are drifting through middle and high school. Despite their potential, they don’t end up taking AP exams, achieving high marks on their ACTs, or going to four-year colleges. This limits their ability to move up the social ladder, threatens U.S. economic competitiveness, and derails our aspirations for a more just society. We must stop buying into the false assumption that high-achieving kids will do fine on their own.
Use pandemic recovery funds to empower both schools and families
Bruno V. MannoCovid-19 school shock disrupted our way of doing education, unbundling the familiar division of responsibilities among home, school, and community organizations. Nearly every parent of school-age children had to create from scratch a home learning environment using online technology and rebundling school services to meet their needs.