Displaying 1-8 of 8 results
Commentary
4.27.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Advanced Education

Should selective high school admissions be decided by a one-shot test?

Adam Tyner, Ph.D.

How to select students for advanced or elite academic programs has long been controversial. Critics of “holistic” admissions policies argue they often turn to mush—or inject bias into the process. At the other extreme, a few programs use nothing more than a single assessment to determine placement.

Commentary
4.19.2023
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

California must better support its advanced learners

Victoria McDougald

When my son entered kindergarten at our local public school last fall, I never expected I’d have to become an ambassador and advocate for giftedness and gifted education. He has always been an eager, rapid learner—intensely curious and a social butterfly—so we expected his first year of elementary school to be one of mostly excitement, fun and joy.

Commentary
4.13.2023
Accountability & Testing, Career & Technical Education, Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice, Standards

Lessons for ed reform from the Tennessee Three

Dale Chu

When Tennessee House Republicans expelled, albeit briefly, two young, Black Democratic lawmakers late last week, it raised a number of unsettling questions—not only about the contours of our politics, but also about the future of educat

Commentary
4.13.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders

The extended case for faith-based charter schools

Andy Smarick

A little-noticed event in late 2022 destabilized a pillar of contemporary American K–12 education, namely that all schools considered part of the public system must be secular.

Commentary
4.6.2023
Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders

Can we have both school choice and shared institutions?

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

If we put all our education hopes in markets, self-interest, competition, and “invisible hands,” will that contribute to the other fissiparous forces that are weakening the valuable shared assets we inherited from earlier generations? Recent surveys certainly suggest that mounting public support for school choice is coinciding with diminishing confidence in shared institutions and public values of all kinds, including patriotism itself.

Commentary
4.5.2023
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

The wonderful but weighty challenges of parenting a gifted child

Victoria McDougald

Until my oldest child entered elementary school last fall, I was blissfully ignorant about giftedness and the extent to which it colors and affects a young child’s educational experience. My husband and I have always been amazed at our son’s busy brain and body, as well as exhausted by his limitless energy, boundless curiosity, and never-ending questions.