Commentary
Topics
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
The recovery plans we need and how to develop them
A few months ago I shared some reflections from Race to the Top and implications for this moment. As I am now supporting a number of state and district planning processes, the macro lessons hold true but I am struck by the degree of difficulty of the present task:
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
President Biden’s $220,000,000,000 “American Family Plan” should also pivot home
Sitting on a Boston city bus, I watched a mother with a young child. For the twenty-five-minute ride, they didn’t speak a word. No “Look at that little girl on the bicycle” or “We’re having pizza for dinner!” When you’re with a young child for that long, do you talk to her?
Event
Curriculum & Instruction
Seeking a Truce in the Civics & History Wars: Is 'Educating for American Democracy' the Answer?
Like the cicadas now infesting the mid-Atlantic, debates over how to present American history and civics to our children come around with striking regularity. In the early 1990s, the focus was on proposed national standards for U.S. history, which the Senate eventually condemned with a vote of 99–1. A few years ago, the dust-up was over the Advanced Placement U.S. History course.
Commentary
Wonkathon 2021: Addressing students’ mental health needs coming out of the pandemic
This year’s Wonkathon is over, and the results are in! 2021’s Wisest Wonk:
Commentary
Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Charter schools at 30: Looking back, looking ahead
Today, forty-four states—plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam—have public charter school laws on their statute books, laws that have led to more than 7,500 schools employing 200,000-plus teachers and serving 3.3 million students.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Tennessee’s excellent plan to address unfinished learning
Nearly three months have passed since the third round of ESSER funding was signed into law as part of the American Rescue Plan (ARP). These dollars can be used for almost anything under the education sun, and most of them will flow directly to districts, but the limited set aside for states merits attention if only for the staggering scale of Uncle Sam’s total outlay.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Zombie ideas in education
Editor’s note: This was first published in Educational Leadership.
Podcast
Accountability & Testing
The Education Gadfly Show #772: What’s going to happen to the NAEP reading test?
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: June 3, 2021
A RAND report finds that fully remote students were more likely to fail courses and be absent than peers who attended in person, among other adverse effects. —Education Week Forbidding remote learning: Why some schools won’t offer a virtual option this fall.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Fast break: Instilling emotional safety and engaged learning in high schools
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
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
A student-centric school design must be the rule if we are to build sustainable support for children, families, and educators
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
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Partnering with culturally-specific community organizations to provide consistent, expansive, and adaptive mental health services
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
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
SEL for all begins with SEL for educators
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
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The common ground on race and education that’s hiding in plain sight
In the latest skirmishes in education’s never-ending culture wars—the tussles over critical race theory, “anti-racist” education, and diversity, equity, and inclusion in the classroom—common ground is there to be found. Here, for example, are five promising and praiseworthy practices that most of us could get behind, regardless of our politics or our views on other issues, while doing a lot of good for millions of kids.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
To address mental health, think systemically about social, emotional, and academic learning
Editor’s note: This was the third-place submission, out of twenty-five, in Fordham’s 2021 Wonkathon, in which we asked participants to answer the question, “How can sc
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
A new look at the question of the effectiveness of school turnarounds
Turnaround efforts for low performing schools have been the subject of research interest since their advent in the No Child Left Behind era.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
How remote instruction affected learning at the college level
Stories of successful remote teaching and learning experiences during the pandemic are heartening. But more and better data around those successes are required.
Podcast
School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The Education Gadfly Show #771: Same old, same old: How districts are spending federal relief dollars (so far)
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: May 27, 2021
Schools are struggling to entice students to return to classrooms and build trust with parents from low-income families.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
We need to admit that school is alienating
Editor’s note: This was the second-place submission, out of twenty-five, in Fordham’s 2021 Wonkathon, in which we asked participants to answer the question, “How can schools best address students’ mental-health needs coming out of the
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Choosing “all of the above” serves all
How can schools best address students’ mental health needs coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic without shortchanging academic instruction? Question #1: Schools can best address the needs of whole learners coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic by:
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Relationships are where learning happens
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
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
Lessons learned from 10 years of pioneering blended learning
In 1908, the Ford Motor Company unveiled the Model T and introduced a reliable, affordable automobile for the middle class. While revolutionary, the Model T also took twelve hours and 7,882 tasks to assemble 1,481 parts, and increased production time meant increased costs. In 1913, Ford introduced an assembly line and cut production to ninety-three minutes.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Reimagining teacher teams to address students’ mental health
Editor’s note: This was the first-place submission, out of twenty-five, in Fordham’s 2021 Wonkathon, in which we asked participants to answer the question, “How can schools best address students’ mental-health needs coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic without shortchanging academic instruction?”
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
How schools can establish a culture and instructional strategies that benefit all students
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
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
As schools commence plans to address unfinished learning, here’s how to sequence implementation
Helping students recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the other crises of the past year is likely the greatest challenge that most of today’s educators will ever face. It will take extensive time, skill, and collaboration between leaders, teachers, staff, and families. And it will look different from community to community—and even from school to school.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The primacy of trust: How to create an environment that promotes social emotional learning and academic success
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?”
