The Acceleration Imperative: A Plan to Address Elementary Students’ Unfinished Learning in the Wake of Covid-19
In school districts and charter school networks nationwide, instructional leaders are developing plans to address the enormous challenges faced by their students, families, teachers, and staff over the past year. To help kick-start their planning process, we are proud to present The Acceleration Imperative, an open-source, evidence-based document created with input from dozens of current and former chief academic officers, scholars, and others with deep expertise and experience in high-performing, high-poverty elementary schools.
How any school can personalize learning, part I
Beth RabbittIn a previous Flypaper post, Mike Petrilli described the challenge of personalizing instruction for our youngest learners as the “Mount Everest” of education.
School choice proves no match for wokeness
Robert PondiscioSchool choice proponents argue that when parents vote with their feet—and dollars—schools listen. But choice is no match for the pandemic of wokeness that has seized K–12 education. The most advantaged, privileged, and powerful parents in America have been cowed into submissive silence when elite schools of choice adopt neoracist practices masquerading as “anti-racism.”
Beware the calls for post-Covid innovation
Dale ChuNow that Uncle Sam’s check is in the mail, one of the biggest hopes for schools is that they will be able to leverage the massive infusion of cash to be more creative, imaginative, and innovative.
How elementary schools can address unfinished learning through personalization
Michael J. PetrilliEditor’s note: This is the fifth and final installment in a series of posts about envelope-pushing strategies that schools might embrace to address students’ learning loss in the wake of the pandemic.
Addressing learning loss in one easy lesson
Robert PondiscioOne of the best-selling education books of the Covid era is one you’ve probably never read and maybe never even heard of. Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons was written nearly forty years ago by Siegfried Engelmann, who passed away in 2019.
The narrow path to do it right: Lessons from vaccine making for high-dosage tutoring
Mike Goldstein, Bowen PaulleHigh-dosage tutoring is receiving a lot of buzz as a promising tool to address learning loss in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. But unlike vaccines, successful tutoring programs are challenging to scale with fidelity. In this paper, long-time educators Michael Goldstein and Bowen Paulle explain how leaders can smartly scale promising tutoring programs that can boost student outcomes.
Personalized learning for the wee ones in the wake of the pandemic, Part I
Michael J. PetrilliEditor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of posts about envelope-pushing strategies that schools might embrace to address students’ learning loss in the wake of the pandemic.
Cautious hope for a new history-and-civics roadmap
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Bullish but far from sanguine is how I view the ambitious history-and-civics “roadmap” unveiled
Jay Mathews’s admirable optimism about American education
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Yes, I blurbed it—and I like it. Yes, a visitor to our home, a worldly and skeptical sort, hefted it and looked at the title and asked me “Isn’t that awfully thick for a book about optimism regarding American public education?”
Is hybrid learning killing teaching?
Robert PondiscioA lot of us have been confused, angry, and frustrated by the reluctance of some teachers, and particularly their unions, to resume in-person instruction.
Assessing the value of community college credentials
Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.The return on investment for four-year college degrees is fairly well-established in terms of graduates’ employment and
What happens to English learners’ academic achievement when they’re reclassified as English proficient?
Melissa GutweinAs English learners approach language proficiency, does it matter whether they continue to receive English language instruction? A recent paper published in Economics of Education Review seeks to answer this question for English learners in Minnesota.
Are classroom instructional materials meeting the needs of English learners?
Julie FitzBack in May 2020, The U.S. Department of Education had to issue guidance clarifying that, yes, schools and districts were still required to provide language instruction services for English learners (EL) during remote learning.
Literacy is equity
Robert PondiscioAny discussion about “equity” in education that is not first and foremost a discussion about literacy is unserious.
How much does student motivation affect student outcomes?
Adam Tyner, Ph.D.Why do some students succeed and others lag behind? This is, of course, a central question in education policy.
What drives racial gaps in special education identification?
Melissa GutweinRecent work published in the Journal of Labor Economics examines how school segregation may be related to racial gaps in special education identification.
How ya gonna keep ‘em back in that old school?
Chester E. Finn, Jr.If the pandemic vanished tomorrow and all U.S. schools instantly reopened in exactly the same fashion as they were operating last February, how many parents would be satisfied to return their daughters and sons to the same old familiar classrooms, teachers, schedules and curricula? A lot fewer than the same old schools and those who run and teach in them are expecting back!
How anger over Covid closures can fuel the school choice movement
Robert PondiscioThe father testifying before Virginia’s Loudon County school board
The negative effects of student absenteeism: From bad to worse in a pandemic
Victoria McDougaldPredicting the effects of pandemic-related disruption on students’ education is a vital but fraught pursuit.
Rick Hess and Ian Rowe discuss 1776 Unites and efforts to promote a vision of a unified America
Frederick M. Hess, Ian RoweEditor’s note: This interview was first published by Rick Hess on his blog with Education Week, Rick Hess Straight Up.
Unexpected innovation: Charter schools and novice teacher development
Bill WaychunasLet’s start with a little game. Trust me, it will be helpful if you play along… Grab a piece of paper and a writing utensil. Complete the following sentence: First-year or early-career teachers typically struggle most with… (Try to come up with a few answers.)
What to do about the Covid kindergarten cohort?
Michael J. PetrilliEditor’s note: This is the third in a series of posts about envelope-pushing strategies that schools might embrace to address students’ learning loss in the wake of the pandemic.
Career and technical education and the soft bigotry of low expectations
Tamar JacobyBeware the “soft bigotry of low expectations.” President George W. Bush’s trenchant warning resonated across the political spectrum when he voiced it to the NAACP in 2000, and it has more or less driven federal education policy ever since. For many, educators and noneducators alike, it remains a touchstone of how to think about racial equity.
The unexamined cost of teachers’ time spent choosing instructional materials
Robert PondiscioDespite the burgeoning interest in “high-quality instructional materials” (HQIM) and energetic efforts in recent years to incentivize their use, “evidence is mixed on how much teachers actually use the materials that districts or schools adopt,” note the authors of a new research report from the RAND Corporation.
3 ways instructional materials help to address unfinished learning in math
Tim TruittA few months ago, I wrote an article about Covid-19 learning loss and t
Advice to the Biden administration on improving special education. More money isn’t enough—or most important.
Nathan LevensonAmong the many reasons equity advocates are celebrating new leadership in Washington is the hope that President Biden and Secretary of Education-designate Cardona will do more to help students with disabilities. These kids struggled mightily in school before the pandemic, and no group of students has suffered more from remote and hybrid learning.
What the Capitol riot means for civics education
Dale ChuStill reeling from the assault on the Capitol and the subsequent impeachment effort against Former President Trump, the education sphere’s attention has understandably returned to the need to resuscitate the teaching of civics and history. If schools did a better job of grounding our students in the principles of a free society and a basic understanding of U.S.