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What we're reading this week: September 22, 2022
Almost one-third of American workers with a teaching degree were employed outside of the education field in 2020. —Washington Post Donda Academy, a K–12 private school founded by Kanye West and named in honor of his late mother, opens in California.
Podcast
Charter Schools
Education Gadfly Show #838: Was the charter sector too slow to reopen schools for in-person learning?
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Karega Rausch, Pr
Commentary
Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Industry-recognized credentials can be very transformational, depending on the local context
A new Fordham Institute report authored by University of Texas professor Matt Giani finds that industry-recognized credentials (IRCs) are “mostly not transformative” for the high school students who earn them. But the truth is that it’s all about the context.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Supporting student wellness through challenging academic learning
The pandemic accelerated a mental health crisis for children and teens that was already apparent prior to spring 2020. It is a serious issue, and schools have expanded mental health services to meet the needs of a greater number of struggling students. At the same time, as we commence a school year in which educators must continue the intensive work of repairing the pandemic’s academic damage, focusing on student emotional wellness does not require relinquishing academic learning.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Wanted: A Science of Reading Comprehension movement
Just in the nick of time for the last days of summer beach reading, there were a pair of big stories about reading instruction in TIME magazine and The New Yorker last month.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
A teacher’s-eye view of the culture of a “No Excuses” school
Whether or not the bipartisan education consensus is dead, one of its most visible and effective reforms lives on: so-called “No Excuses” model schools, institutions famous for their exacting behavioral and academic standards.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Multiple positive outcomes for CTE students
As money and attention focus on career and technical education (CTE) at ever greater levels, researchers can help gauge program effectiveness by digging into the data.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Four-day school weeks: Is the trade-off worth it?
Four-day school weeks saw a sharp increase in popularity between 1999 and 2019, then the pandemic added impetus to the already growing trend—with districts seeing shortened school weeks as a way to retain teachers and cut expenses.
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Commentary
What we're reading this week: September 15, 2022
"The State of the American Student," —CRPE The twists and turns of the Choose Your Own Adventure series encouraged children to experience books—and the world—through exploration and curiosity.
Podcast
Curriculum & Instruction
Education Gadfly Show #837: Re-stating education: Not as modest as it sounds!
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show Podcast, Elliot Regenstein joins
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
Rural gifted children are being neglected: An interview with Paula McGuire
Editor’s note: This is an edition of “Advance,” a newsletter from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute written by Brandon Wright, our Editorial Director, and published every other week. Its purpose is to monitor the progress of gifted education in America, including legal and legislative developments, policy and leadership changes, emerging research, grassroots efforts, and more.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Explaining NAEP math “haves”: Software and private tutoring?
Earlier this month, Michael Petrilli wrote about America’s top-quartile students making gains from 2009 to 2019 over their already high baseline—in math, reading, and science—and our lower-quartile kids declining from their already low baseline.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The case for specialized career and technical education
About three-quarters of students in the U.S. take at least one credit in high school linked to career and technical education (CTE). When high school students take multiple CTE credits, they are often encouraged to focus in a specialized career pathway, like business, health sciences, or hospitality and tourism.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Beware of whiplash from clashing achievement results
The last month has brought both bleak new NAEP results and a deeply researched piece on “a half-century of student progress nationwide.” The former abounds with gloom about the dire and declining state of U.S. educational achievement and widening gaps between groups. The latter is an upbeat rejoinder to the doomsayers and a well-documented celebration of half a century of gains and gap-narrowings. What’s going on here?
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
It’s far too early to declare victory over Covid-era learning loss
New findings released last week from the NAEP long-term trend assessment (LTT) suggest an alarming downswing among U.S. nine-year-olds in both math and reading between 2020 and 2022.
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Commentary
What we're reading this week: September 8, 2022
A new study suggests that there is no gap in access to effective teachers between high- and low-poverty schools. —Education Next Two decades of research have shown that private school voucher programs improve educational attainment but hurt academic achievement.
Podcast
Curriculum & Instruction
Education Gadfly Show #836: How should schools handle any Covid waves this school year?
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show Podcast, John Bailey, nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute,
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Tennessee trains thousands of secondary teachers in reading science
For all the welcome attention being paid to the Science of Reading, and literacy in general, there has been little focus in public policy on how to address the learning needs of secondary students who, for whatever combination of reasons, have failed to learn to read in elementary school.
Commentary
National Working Group on Advanced Education: Summary of second meeting
On June 29, 2022, members of the National Working Group on Advanced Education held their second meeting. Here we summarize the discussions, with particular focus on social and emotional support for high-achieving students, especially those from especially those from underserved backgrounds; support for educators of advanced students; the importance of high-quality instructional materials; and how best to use ability (or “achievement”) grouping. Read more.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
What’s the purpose of industry-recognized credentials?
A new Fordham Institute publication by Dr.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Educating young Americans for citizenship is our schools’ top job
In the realm of elementary and secondary education, we so often focus on one or two trees instead of the forest. We go off and argue about the best way to teach reading, about which books belong in the school library, about whether everyone should take “college prep” courses, about how to teach race or evolution or climate change or even algebra.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
What happens when school leaders are allowed to abandon “step and lane” pay scales
In 2013, the British government ended the use of “annual progression” pay scales for teachers. These were similar to U.S.-style “step and lane” models but were set at the national level across the pond.
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Commentary
What we're reading this week: September 1, 2022
To prevent Covid-era learning losses from becoming permanent, we need schools to retain and reward their most effective teachers while dismissing their least effective ones.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
What national test scores tell us about American education before the pandemic
NAGB officials recently reported on U.S. student achievement trends from 2009–19, and what they found was eye-opening. Whereas America’s higher achieving students held steady or even gained ground, our lowest performing kids saw test scores fall, at least in fourth and eighth grades and in reading and math. What might be causing these diverging trends?
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Advanced Education
Pre-pandemic, more U.S. students were excelling in math
Editor’s note: This is an edition of “Advance,” a newsletter from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute written by Brandon Wright, our Editorial Director, and published every other week. Its purpose is to monitor the progress of gifted education in America, including legal and legislative developments, policy and leadership changes, emerging research, grassroots efforts, and more.
Podcast
Charter Schools
Education Gadfly Show #835: The expanding partisan gap on K-12 education
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, David Houston, assistant professor at George