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Displaying 301-330 of 468 results
Commentary
5.10.2021
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Supporting students with disabilities as we emerge from the pandemic

Editor’s note: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute recently launched “The Acceleration Imperative,” a crowd-sourced, evidence-based resource designed to aid instructional leaders’ efforts to address the enormous challenges faced by their students, families, teachers, and staff over the past year.

Commentary
5.10.2021
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Four ways schools can prioritize mental health as part of a safe reopening plan

Glenn Albright

Editor’s note: This essay is an entry in Fordham’s 2021 Wonkathon, which asked contributors to address a fundamental and challenging question: “How can schools best address students’ mental health needs coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic without shortchanging academic instruction?”

Commentary
5.10.2021
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Civics education—like barbecue—should not be one-recipe-fits-all

Chester E. Finn, Jr., Frederick M. Hess

There’s not a lot that right and left agree about right now, but one big thing is the sorry state of civil debate. Whether the fault lies with social media, institutional erosion, or something else, the result is the same: a nation of people who aren’t good at listening to ideas they don’t already hold, assessing them thoughtfully, and discussing them in respectful terms.

Commentary
5.7.2021
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Evidence-based ways to assess student progress

Editor’s note: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute recently launched “The Acceleration Imperative,” a crowd-sourced, evidence-based resource designed to aid instructional leaders’ efforts to address the enormous challenges faced by their students, families, teachers, and staff over the past year.

Commentary
5.7.2021
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

The power of words

Sally Bergquist

Editor’s note: This essay is an entry in Fordham’s 2021 Wonkathon, which asked contributors to address a fundamental and challenging question: “How can schools best address students’ mental health needs coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic without shortchanging academic instruction?”

Commentary
5.6.2021
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Four instructional strategies that can improve learning and are based on cognitive science

Editor’s note: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute recently launched “The Acceleration Imperative,” a crowd-sourced, evidence-based resource designed to aid instructional leaders’ efforts to address the enormous challenges faced by their students, families, teachers, and staff over the past year.

Commentary
5.6.2021
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Biden can’t seem to decide whether all young Americans need a postsecondary education. He’s not the only one who’s conflicted.

Michael J. Petrilli

Let’s stop denigrating the straight-into-the-workforce pathway for high school graduates. As we were reminded over the past year, so-called “low skill” jobs are critical to society. And they can be their own form of postsecondary education, as young people gain on-the-job skills that will lead to more opportunities and better wages going forward. Read more.

Commentary
5.6.2021
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Cancel culture versus parent choice

Terry Ryan

Can parent choice survive the cancel culture that is becoming ever more prevalent on both the political left and political right? What happens when the principles of diversity and choice in schools conflict with either the left’s or the right’s firm view of truth and falsehoods?

Commentary
5.6.2021
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

How schools can fund and implement strong mental health supports after the pandemic

Sarah Broome

Editor’s note: This essay is an entry in Fordham’s 2021 Wonkathon, which asked contributors to address a fundamental and challenging question: “How can schools best address students’ mental health needs coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic without shortchanging academic instruction?”

Commentary
5.6.2021
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Inaugural PISA data on students’ growth mindset and teaching practices

Jeff Murray

Since 1997, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) has tested students around the globe every three years to determine the educational status of fifteen-year-old students in dozens of countries and economic regions that are part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Commentary
5.6.2021

What we're reading this week: May 6, 2021

The Education Gadfly

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last week in a First Amendment case about whether schools can police student’s off-campus speech.

Commentary
5.3.2021
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Developing students’ social and emotional skills may be more important now than ever

Editor’s note: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute recently launched “The Acceleration Imperative,” a crowd-sourced, evidence-based resource designed to aid instructional leaders’ efforts to address the enormous challenges faced by their students, families, teachers, and staff over the past year.

Commentary
5.3.2021
Accountability & Testing, Governance

Don’t let them make you do it, Haley!

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

You wouldn’t expect a conservative Republican like former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour to turn into a facsimile of Chairman Xi as muzzler of dissent and monitor of communications, but something of the sort has reared its head at the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), which Barbour chairs. (He’s a DeVos appointee, and last I looked, those terms run a year at a time.

Commentary
4.29.2021
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

I believe “antiracism” is misguided. Can I still teach Black children?

Robert Pondiscio

Is a professed commitment to the tenets of “antiracism,” as defined by Ibram Kendi, now non-negotiable in the teaching profession? Are those of us who hold different views and ideals about student expectations, pedagogical practice, and school culture no longer welcome to lead classrooms with Black and Brown children? Read more.

Commentary
4.29.2021
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Three things to watch for in schools’ post-Covid recovery

Dale Chu

Despite the progress schools and districts have made on returning fully to in-person instruction, some of the habits and apprehensions they’ve developed over the last thirteen months could impede their upcoming education recovery efforts.

Commentary
4.29.2021
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

How to pump the Acceleration Imperative up to full speed

Kalman R. Hettleman

Think of Michael Petrilli’s bold ideas and the Acceleration Imperative as newly designed Ford(ham) vehicles for K–12 recovery from the pandemic. Happily, there is much to admire in the showroom.

Commentary
4.29.2021
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance

How parents determine childcare quality

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

Numerous studies have found that the quality of child care is too low and that we need to do more to

Commentary
4.29.2021
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The bias toward complexity when humans attempt to solve problems

Jeff Murray

Problem solving involves a complex set of mental steps, even when it happens quickly. A group of researchers from the University of Virginia sought to test one specific aspect of the process—the types of solutions people consider—and uncovered what could be an important human attribute, with significant implications for public policy.

Commentary
4.28.2021

Remembering Bob Slavin

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Bob Slavin was a force of nature, a world-famous education researcher who was also far more than that.

Commentary
4.28.2021
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

How to adopt and implement a high-quality elementary mathematics curriculum

Editor’s note: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute recently launched “The Acceleration Imperative,” a crowd-sourced, evidence-based resource designed to aid instructional leaders’ efforts to address the enormous challenges faced by their students, families, teachers, and staff over the past year.

Commentary
4.22.2021
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Testing, SpaceX, and the quest for consensus

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

A suite of technologies that are already widely used in some private-sector testing can and should be embraced by state and national assessments, as well as the private tests that aren’t yet making maximum use of them. Read more.