Commentary
School Finance, Governance, Private School Choice
On ESAs’ popularity and coming challenges: A letter to Checker Finn
Dear Checker,
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Is transporting students for intradistrict open enrollment worth the cost?
In an effort to expand educational opportunity, several large urban school districts—including Boston, Chicago, New York City,
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
The effects of an affordable middle school math intervention
Recent national test data paint an alarming picture of middle school math achievement post-Covid, with eighth grade math scores on the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) having the largest decrease of any other subject or grade.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
How one school district is balancing excellence and equity—and another isn’t
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
It’s time to revisit conventional wisdom in education: Introducing our Think Again Series
Much of the conventional wisdom in education policy is sacrosanct, circulated so long that it is no longer up for debate. From firm beliefs about school funding to assumptions about what drives unequal educational outcomes, our field is rife with outdated ideas long overdue for updates.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Preparing young people for success at work is about knowledge and relationships
What does it mean to “prepare young people for adult work,” an oft-used saying to describe one of schooling’s primary goals? Though it surely means that we prepare them to earn a living and move up the income ladder, work is more than a financial way to provide for ourselves and those we love.
Commentary
School Finance, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Private School Choice
Why I’m wary of universal education savings accounts
In the fast-moving, highly energized world of school choice and parent-empowerment advocacy, education savings accounts are the hottest thing since vouchers, maybe even hotter. Ten states already have them in some form, and a dozen more legislatures are weighing bills to create them. But Finn is wary, particularly of the free-swinging, almost-anything-goes version known as “universal” ESAs.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The GOP’s dubious “protect the children” platform for 2024
Ready or not, the 2024 race for president is already in full swing. Like bad plastic surgery, this ordeal will be ugly and expensive.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The sad state of the teaching profession
“Go to law school.” This was the advice that my mother—who had spent her entire career as a high school English teacher—gave me upon my college graduation. She also advised me on which career to avoid: teaching. My mother was adamant that I not follow her footsteps into the classroom.
Podcast
Evidence-Based Learning
#857: The states leading the way in literacy, with Kymyona Burk and Tom Greene
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Kymyon
Commentary
School Finance, Curriculum & Instruction, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders
Give parents wide latitude on ESA uses—and give teachers their own accounts, too
Recent news stories have pushed the narrative that parents are using education savings accounts to buy items of questionable educational value and relevance, including chicken coops, trampolines, and tickets to SeaWorld. But perhaps ESAs’ permissiveness is a feature, not a bug—and perhaps officials would be wise to go one step further and give teachers their own accounts.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Soft-on-consequences discipline is terrible for teachers
I’ve lost count of the number of teachers I know who have either left their school or entirely abandoned education because of student behavior. A student physically threatened a friend, and the administration provided no consequence. This friend quit soon thereafter. Another started a family and just couldn’t remain emotionally present as a father while dealing with chaos at work all day.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Private School Choice
An examination of cream-skimming and pushout data among voucher students
Several studies show that a combination of market pressures
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Re-evaluating the cost of test-based retention policies
What does it cost to retain a less-than-proficient student and provide him or her with remediation and additional support?
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
Racial and ethnic gaps in advanced STEM achievement: 3 takeaways from recent research
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
School Finance, Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders
Parent navigators are worth the investment for school choice supporters
From 2015 to 2018, the start of spring meant I could expect to hear from parents across Florida. At the time, I worked for Step Up Students, the Florida-based organization that administers the nation’s largest education scholarship (i.e., voucher) program. My job was not in customer service. I was the editor of a blog focused on school choice issues.
Commentary
School Finance, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders
How much education is a public responsibility?
So many of our debates about paying for higher education hinge on conflicting views of what’s the taxpayer’s responsibility and what’s the recipient’s. These days, that’s also true of pre-schooling and it also arises, albeit in different form, when we fight over vouchers, tax credits, ESAs and such. Is it society’s responsibility to pay for private schooling or is it the family’s?
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Teachers & School Leaders
Schools have been adding teachers and student support staff, even as they serve fewer students
Editor’s note: This was first published by The 74.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Americans are embracing non-college pathways to upward mobility
The pandemic changed what the American public wants from K–12 education.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Toward a broader conception of student success—and a broader conception of accountability
I have held firm to this belief since my early days of teaching: Getting students to proficiency and above in reading and math is a commitment to social justice and democracy. Education can empower students to change the world, especially when it counters cycles of poverty.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Governance
Interpreting the Covid impact on achievement
The release of “The Nation’s Report Card” on October 24, 2022, created shock waves though out the country’s education and policy establishments.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Standards
Fordham is proud of our (limited) role in Virginia’s effort to improve its civics and U.S. history standards
We were glad to function in that capacity for Virginia as we’ve done for many other states over the years. But it’s also been implied by some that we tried to inject the draft standards with conservative bias, even to “whitewash” history, and that is completely false.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Dr. King and the liberal arts
Last week, as we celebrated the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we recalled his civil rights activism as an admirable example of creating what John Lewis called “good trouble.” Dr. King is an American icon precisely because he possessed the wisdom and courage to hold America up to her own high standards: that all men are created equal and must be treated equally before the law.
Commentary
School Finance, Governance, Private School Choice
Public dollars, private schools
For the vast majority of America’s children, going to school has changed little from their parents’ generation, even their grandparents’: Where you live is where you learn, in a school run by your local public school district.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance
Getting ready for future employment opportunity: Evidence from Pittsburgh
Reversing decades of economic struggle in America’s former manufacturing centers is a high priority for leaders in cities and regions across the nation. Many would like to see technology-focused industries lead such a resurgence, but do they have enough qualified workers? And if not, how can they increase those numbers?
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Impact of community schools on attendance and achievement
Many experts have lauded community schools as a means of mitigating the impact of pandemic-era c
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
Driving equity in gifted policies: Insights from Harlem Academy in New York City
Editor’s note: This essay was part of an edition of “Advance,” a newsletter from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute that is 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
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The true enemy of equity
Advocates have turned “equity” into a trigger word by pitting the concept against “excellence.” But that line of argument is not only politically unpopular, it’s wrong. In fact, excellence is not the enemy of equity, but the antidote to inequity.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance
“Curriculum transparency” is harder to achieve than lawmakers assume
House Republicans this week introduced a curriculum transparency bill aimed at ensuring parents know what their kids are learning in school, particularly when that includes “divisive concepts” like critical race theory, which has been banned from classrooms or restricted i
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
National Working Group on Advanced Education: Summary of third meeting
Editor’s note: On November 17, 2022, seventeen members of the National Working Group on Advanced Education met for its third meeting in Indianapolis.
