Commentary
Topics
Commentary
What we're reading this week: August 4, 2022
Having friendships that cut across class lines can improve future earnings for poor children, but those relationships are rare. —New York Times Fewer young children live in cities, which could mean more enrollment declines for urban K–12 schools.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
An interview with Janet Kragen, who taught gifted education for four decades
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
The Education Gadfly Show #831 Resurfaced: Research Deep Dive: The impact of urban charter schools
Our host Mike Petrilli is on vacation this week, so we're republishing our most popular podcast episode for three years r
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
The problem with “differentiation”
Shouldn’t we all seek to individualize instructions to meet each child’s needs? Who could oppose “differentiation”? Well, I do.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Biden’s misguided guidance on discipline for students with disabilities
Last week, the Biden administration released new guidance for how schools should handle discipline for students with disabilities.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
When students feel unsafe, absenteeism grows
School shootings are profoundly tragic—scarring not only the families whose children become victims, but casting a shadow over the lives, mental health, and outcomes of the surviving students. But evidence is also clear that it’s not only horrific mass shootings that can lead a child to miss school. Any feeling of not being safe can prompt children and teenagers to stay home.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools
CREDO examines charter school performance in three cities
Are charter schools helping students succeed?
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: July 28, 2022
The publisher of Lucy Calkins’s troubled reading curriculum has halted the release of an updated version over concerns about conservative states’ new curriculum laws. —New York Times Children’s needs were sacrificed more than any other group’s during Covid-19 policymaking decisions.
Podcast
Curriculum & Instruction
Education Gadfly Show #830: When it comes to Covid learning loss, the bleeding has stopped
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show Podcast, Lindsay Dworkin and Karyn Lewis, senior vice preside
Commentary
Governance
Ed reformers should rally around the Romney family aid plan
A major, though largely unnoticed, development in America’s support for families with children is the recent release of the “Family Security Act 2.0” by Senator Mitt Romney, along with fellow Republicans Richard Burr and Steve Daines. It could and should serve as the starting point for bipartisan negotiations for a new federal investment in families that might stand the test of time.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The American family is still coming apart
In 2004, the late Sara McLanahan published a landmark article called “Diverging Destinies: How Children Are Faring Under the Second Demographic Transition.” The paper was the first scholarly attempt to propose that the decline of the two-parent family in the United States since the 1960’s was intensifying the already unequal l
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders
In a time of crisis, Catholic schools offered a choice, not an echo
“New data suggest that the damage from shutting down schools has been worse than almost anyone expected,” the Economist tweeted recently to promote a
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
The bravest man in education reform
A few years ago, when I was writing my book about Success Academy and school choice, I had a moment of self-doubt bordering on despair.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction
Chatbot nudges boost student outcomes
“Nudges” to induce specific actions take many forms in education.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: July 21, 2022
Post-pandemic confidence in public schools has plummeted, especially among Republicans. —Gallup Asian Americans’ academic success is not a problem. Are White parents pushing against standardized tests just anxious about their children getting out-competed?
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
Balancing equity and excellence in selective high schools
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
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
How do teachers spend their time?
One of my favorite quotations comes from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring. When Gandalf the wizard recounts the story of the ring and the havoc that it has brought to Middle-earth to the hero Frodo, Frodo says to him, “I wish it need not have happened in my time.” To which Gandalf replies, “So do I, and so do all who live to see such times.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
Gifted-student screenings often miss poor students who should qualify
High-achieving students from low-income backgrounds are half as likely to be placed in a gifted program as their more affluent peers, according to our new study.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
Can we revive standards-based reform?
Few people have done more to boost academic standards in U.S. schools than Michael Cohen and Laura Slover, coauthors of a new paper offering a bright vision for revitalizing them. But there are reasons to doubt the feasibility of its proposals.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
Relinquishment or instructional coherence: What’s the right goal for districts?
The “tripod” of standards, testing, and accountability has taken a real beating in recent years, following decades in which it was accepted dogma within reform circles.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
Stop neglecting gifted students’ social and emotional needs
Back in February, Bloomberg’s Adrian Wooldridge published a column claiming that “America is facing a great talent recession.” He noted that, “today, demand for top talent in the corporate world and elsewhere is exploding just at a time when the supply is t
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance
Beyond free tuition: How college promise scholarships are perceived by awardees
Dozens of states and cities provide “college promise” programs.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: July 14, 2022
Fifty years of data on gifted youth finds that, contrary to some assumptions, achieving success later in life doesn’t cause unhappiness.
Podcast
Advanced Education
The Education Gadfly Show #828: Arizona’s expanded ESA: The big enchilada of school choice
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Matt Beienburg, Director of Education Policy
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders
The swirling private-school universe
The universe of private elementary-secondary schooling in America today is diverse and confusing, with innumerable twists and turns in efforts to use public funds to help families access schools that suit them—including private schools of all colors and stripes. But the virtue of these institutions is that they’re different, which also means very different from each other. Which complicates the quest to deploy public dollars to assist families to choose them.
