Education Gadfly Show #824: Dana Suskind on supporting low-income parents in their children’s early years
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Dr.
Here’s why all students need agency rather than equity
Ian RoweAs a charter school leader in the South Bronx for the past decade, Rowe has seen what happens when resources are forcibly removed from the “privileged” and given to the “unprivileged” in the pursuit of “equity” over “equality”—with little regard for students’ uniqueness, humanity, or agency. Better is to teach disadvantaged children to defy, rather than confirm, diminished expectations.
The coming “second wave” of learning loss in 2023 and 2024
Mike GoldsteinCovid “learning loss” has two causes: the loss of in-person instruction in the spring of 2020 and the reliance on remote learning thereafter (which Tom Kane and colleagues quantify in an article in The Atlantic
“Expert” idiocy on teaching kids to read
Robert PondiscioEvery teacher of struggling readers has experienced the moment when a student says, “I read it, but I didn’t get it.” It can be a bewildering experience. Why don’t they get it?
Do gifted and talented programs contribute to racial imbalances in elementary school?
Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.The clatter that rose in late 2021 over New York City’s plan to phase out its gifted and talented (G/T) programs had much to do with the presumed negative effects of such programs on racial sorting.
How much do teachers matter in the early grades?
William RostA recent CALDER study examines the effects that earlier-grade teachers have on students’ eighth-grade math outcomes by analyzing Washington State administrative data.
What we're reading this week: June 9, 2022
The Education Gadfly“Pandemic babies are behind after years of stress, isolation affected brain development.”—USA Today This insightful project surveys a parent focus group on American history, and how they want their kids to learn about race and gender in
Education Gadfly Show #823: How detrimental was remote learning?
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Tom Kane, Harvard economist and director of its Center for Education Policy Research, explains
How to respond sensibly to the Uvalde shooting
Dale ChuAwful tragedies like the shooting in Uvalde notwithstanding, firearms will remain ubiquitous. The question is whether policymakers can bring measured thinking and nuance to bear in solving the thorny problem of gun violence in schools. This is particularly challenging in a media climate that hypes and distorts the prevalence of what happened in last week, even as schools continue to deal with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
How to narrow the excellence gap in early elementary school
Michael J. PetrilliIn recent weeks, I’ve dug into the “excellence gap“—the sharp divides along lines of race
Natalie Wexler goes astray on the NAEP reading test
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Natalie Wexler has done much (along with the likes of Jeanne Chall, Don Hirsch, Dan Willingham, Kate Walsh, and Robert Pondiscio) to establish the fact that there’s science behind the act of reading and the related proposition that real reading (not just “decoding”) is no isolated skill but, rather, a complicated process of making sense of what one reads on the page in the context of what one a
How does a child’s religious background affect her choices about higher education?
Nathaniel Grossman“From Bat Mitzvah to the Bar: Religious Habitus, Self-Concept, and Women’s Educational Outcomes,” a new study by Ilana Horwitz et al., analyzes the college-going rates of women raised by Jewish versus non-Jewish parents.
What we're reading this week: June 2, 2022
The Education GadflyFears that private-school-choice programs will spark a public-school exodus are not supported by the data.
Education Gadfly Show #822: Checker Finn: Why we need—and need to improve—NAEP
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Checker Finn, the Fordham Institute’s president emeritus and a distinguished seni
The core conflict of interest in public education
Don ParkerIn my work on the teaching staff of a master’s level class in public policy, I am regularly dismayed by how often our students propose only governmental solutions to public problems.
Exit interview: NCTQ’s Kate Walsh
Robert PondiscioFew people in education reform have had greater impact than Kate Walsh, who recently handed over the reins of the National Council on Teacher Quality, which she led for twenty years. No one has done more to make raising the level of teacher preparation a focus of reform efforts. Here, Robert Pondiscio talks to her about her past, the present, and her views on what’s to come.
The excellence gap opens early
Michael J. PetrilliLast week, I provided sobering evidence of the “excellence gap” among twelfth grade students—the sharp divides along lines of race and class in achievement at the highest levels.
Can states clean up their teacher pension messes?
Aaron ChurchillMany state teacher pension systems are woefully underfunded, impose significant costs on teachers and schools, and shortchange tho
Getting to work: The effect of school-year employment on student outcomes
Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.Calls are rising for America’s aging high-school model to modernize, in part by accommodating work experience through hands-on internships or actual employment for students.
Will every high schooler soon have a 4.0?
Adam Tyner, Ph.D.Scholars and testing companies have been following grade inflation for decades. The first ACT study on the topic dates to the mid-1990s, while researchers have used SAT data to study grade inflation since the 1970s.
What we're reading this week: May 26, 2022
The Education Gadfly“Paul Vallas: [Chicago Public Schools] has failed the city’s youths, and violence has resulted.
Education Gadfly Show #821: Sec. Aimee Rogstad Guidera on the state of education in Virginia
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Rogstad Guidera discusses
The excellence gap and underrepresentation at America’s most selective universities
Michael J. PetrilliAmerica’s education system suffers from a variety of “excellence gaps”—sharp disparities in performance by race and class at the highest levels of academic achievement. These gaps explain why college administrators turn to various forms of affirmative action in order to create freshmen classes that more closely represent the nation’s diversity—actions that may soon be declared unconstitutional. But when do these gaps start?
“What do you mean, ‘proficient’?” The saga of NAEP achievement levels
Chester E. Finn, Jr.As I write this, representative samples of fourth and eighth graders are taking National Assessment of Educational Progress tests in math and English.
Evidence, struggling math students, and California’s 2022 math framework
Tom LovelessThe proposed California Mathematics Framework generated a storm of controversy when the first draft was released in early 2021. Critics objected to the document’s condemnation of tracking and negative portrayal of acceleration for high-achieving students.
What does teacher certification contribute to outcomes for students with disabilities?
Jeff MurrayReams of research have reported contradictory outcomes for students with disabilities (SWDs) who are taught in general education classrooms alongside their non-disabled peers versus learning in settings with only SWDs. A new report focuses on teacher certification as a possible mechanism to explain the variations in outcomes.