Commentary
Disappointment and hope: K–12’s biggest stories from 2023
This year marked the fortieth anniversary of “A Nation at Risk,” the seminal report that did so much to reshape America’s modern education landscape.
Topics
Commentary
The best and worst of education reform in 2023
Every week in the Education Gadfly, we flag a handful of news items for our “Cheers and Jeers” section. Here are the ten most fantastic or horrendous developments of the year that was, presented in chronological order. Best
Commentary
Commentary
15 of the best opinion pieces on education reform that we read in 2023
Every week in the Education Gadfly, we flag a handful of articles in our “What We’re Reading” section. Mostly these are opinion pieces, usually from leading newspapers and magazines, or occasionally high-profile Substacks. Here’s our list of our favorites for the year, presented in chronological order.
Commentary
Fordham’s top 5 podcasts of 2023
The venerable hosts of the Education Gadfly show have been winging it for seventeen years.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: December 21, 2023
A new Rand Corporation survey finds that roughly three in ten teachers thinks that their school’s curriculum is too difficult for students. —Education Week
Commentary
Advanced Education
How an early college program in Arizona’s poorest city changes lives: An interview with Homero Chavez
Since the Spring of 2022, I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with Homero Chavez as part of the National Working Group on Advanced Education.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
3 lessons in transformational leadership
Earlier this year, Jill Kafka, the tireless Executive Director of Partnership Schools, announced that she is stepping down after twenty-seven years of dedicated service.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction
What do parents need to know about the science of reading?
The welcome rise of the science of reading has been a sober reckoning for teachers and administrators. It also raises uncomfortable questions, seldom asked: How much faith should parents have that their child’s school and teachers understand good literacy instruction? And how much do parents need to know to advocate for their children and raise strong readers?
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
In defense of the traditional classroom
Many futuristic reformers love to hate the classroom.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: December 14, 2023
Peer effects and social pressure are major factors in the success of high-performing schools like Stuyvesant High School in New York City.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
4 takeaways from the PISA results
The results from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) are in—an international standardized test of fifteen-year-olds and the first look at how countries compare post-pandemic—and the picture they paint of American education is disheartening. Here are four trends that you need to know: 1. U.S. math scores collapsed and reading stagnated.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Should schools ban cellphones?
Editor’s note: This was first published on the author’s Substack, The Education Daly. They’re coming for the kids’ phones. Who is “they”?
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance
Which large school districts provide fertile terrain for charter growth?
Despite the amount of attention that school choice receives in the media and among policy wonks, politicians, and adult interest groups, the extent of actual competition in major school districts is not well understood. We were curious: Which education markets in America are the most competitive? And which markets have education reformers and choice-encouragers neglected or failed to penetrate?
Commentary
Governance
What would another Trump term mean for education?
Nothing about Donald Trump is predictable except unpredictability, so it may be folly to speculate on what his return to the Oval Office would mean for American education. It also needs to be said up front that, faced with all the challenges and risks of another Trump term, K–12 education policy will not likely be the top concern on many minds.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
U.S. education needs to leap ahead. R & D moonshots will pave the way forward.
Education in the United States needs to improve and evolve. Too many learners get lost in the current system. Even more are underserved or under-resourced.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction
Does career and technical education still limit students’ academic opportunity?
Once a de facto means of maintaining within-school segregation, career and technical education (CTE) has, in recent years, experienced a favorable shift in public perception.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: December 7, 2023
“Fueled by worries over the pandemic, equity and learning loss, Republicans and Democrats are rewriting decades’ worth of strict standardized testing and graduation requirements.” —Politico American math scores
Report
Charter Schools
The Education Competition Index: Quantifying competitive pressure in America’s 125 largest school districts
Exposing traditional school districts to greater competition is a central goal of education reform in the United States. Yet because of the complexity of reform efforts, quantifying "competition" is challenging.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education
Who’s got talent for identifying diverse talent?
Talented and gifted school programs have a well-earned reputation for lacking student diversity.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance
From the statehouse to the classroom: The effects of early literacy policies on student achievement
The science of reading is thankfully supplanting dubious methods of teaching young children to read, as
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
State licensure tests and science of reading instruction
Recent legislative efforts across the country have strengthened efforts to align reading instruction with the science of reading. These laws typically require teachers to use methods and materials aligned to the solid evidence base on how children best learn to read.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: November 30, 2023
After two decades, private school choice policies in D.C. remain controversial, and both the continuation and benefits of it in D.C. are unclear.
Commentary
Governance
Vibes and narratives are no way to go through education policy
Editor's note: This was first published on Eduwonk, the author's blog.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
High-quality instructional materials change instructional leaders’ job
Five years ago, my team and I set out to understand what goes into effective implementation of high-quality instructional materials. We interviewed leaders and teachers from seventy schools that had moved to higher-quality materials in the last three years. We asked about what went well and what was hard.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
9 thoughts on the Advanced Placement takedown in the Times
Over the weekend, the New York Times published a hard-hitting 2,300-word expose by Dana Goldstein and colleagues asking “Why is the College Board pushing to expand Advanced Placement?” Its primary answer: to rake in tens of millions of dollars a year and to support CEO David Coleman’s exorbitant sal
