Commentary
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Commentary
What we're reading this week: October 5, 2023
Research remains inconclusive about the effects of exclusionary practices like suspensions on a disciplined child’s peers.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education
One cheer for New York City’s efforts on advanced education
When former mayor Bill de Blasio promised to dismantle New York City’s gifted education programs, then-candidate Eric Adams laudably promised to save, reform and expand them. Since taking the helm, howev
Report
A Generation at Risk: A Call to Action
The signatories of A Generation at Risk—a diverse group of leaders from left, right, and center—seek bold action to quickly and dramatically improve the learning opportunities for today’s students, while we simultaneously begin putting in place the building blocks of a more responsive system that will help future generations of students address the challenges of the world to come.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education
Finding “lost Einsteins” means fixing K–5 science, especially in rural schools
This nation’s economic security will be won or lost based on the ability of elementary schools to energize science education.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
ChatGPT hasn’t killed the academic essay
An academic essay is an end in itself. It teaches, among other things, control of language, how to organize thoughts and structure them such that a reader can easily follow them, how to state an argument clearly upfront, how to hook a reader’s interest, and how to conclude in a concise, powerful way. AI will not change this.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Parents and schools need a reset
Tensions between parents and educators are at an all-time high. Differences in opinion about education are not new, and they certainly do not have to lead to a corrosion of trust. Yet that is exactly what has happened, and both groups shoulder blame—as does the media.
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Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
Students’ ignorance of U.S. history and civics remains a national embarrassment
A new study from a pair of Penn State University researchers finds that passing the U.S. Citizenship Test as a high school graduation requirement does nothing to improve youth voter turnout. Within the last decade, more than a third of U.S.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The ups and downs of Dallas’s pay-for-performance roller coaster
History and research make clear that, often, the
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance
Later-life impacts of school accountability
There is no shortage of research into the impacts of school and district accountability systems on education-related student outcomes.
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Commentary
What we're reading this week: September 28, 2023
Harvard economist Roland Fryer and venture capitalist Bill Helman launched a firm to invest in profitable, socially conscious businesses.
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Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Chronic absenteeism has become a crisis, part 3: Solutions
Part one of this series explored many possible explanations for the rise in absenteeism. They come in all shapes and sizes, some more plausible than others. Part two unpacks how this issue plays out in cities and suburbs—and what stands out most is how kids are missing school everywhere. This final post offers five solutions.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Public charter schools and the Chipotlification of education
Before Chipotle ushered in the phenomenon of being able to “have it your way,” the customization of a fast casual meal was relegated to condiments, not the entire entree.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
In the wake of the pandemic, time is of the essence for high school students
A new report released last week by the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) explores the pandemic’s impact on America’s oldest students—those in high school and the 13.5 million who recently graduated.
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Commentary
What we're reading this week: September 21, 2023
The pandemic set Americans back not just in education, but in crime and mortality rates as well. —David Wallace Wells Schools spend billions of dollars on training on topics such as DEI and culturally-relevant pedagogy, but have no insight into whether or not it works.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
Excellence gaps: New resources and a personal history
The Fordham Institute’s new report, Excellence Gaps by Race and Socioeconomic Status, authored by Meredith Coffey and Adam Tyner, is a significant addition to our growing knowledge about excellence gaps.
Commentary
Governance
A bridge back to bipartisan education reform
The Building Bridges Initiative has released an important new Call to Action, "A Generation at Risk." The Initiative is a partnership of Democrats for Education Reform and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. We launched it eighteen months ago with the hope of bringing reformers together across left, right, and center. Our top goal was essential if modest: to rebuild relationships that had been frayed by the polarization of recent years. Our second was come to an agreement on a new reform agenda. We accomplished both.
Commentary
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Create a more flexible work week for teachers
Last month, I met a newly certified kindergarten teacher. Twenty-two years old, she was thrilled to be starting her first full-time teaching job. Passionate about her budding career, she shared detailed, insightful responses to my questions about teaching young children. She was also happily enrolled in a part-time master’s degree program in education policy.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Back to the future: Houston takes a page from ed reform’s recent past
When Texas education commissioner Mike Morath named Mike Miles as the superintendent of Houston ISD back in June, it represented a throwback of sorts to a more muscular period of school and district accountability.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance
Test-based retention, student achievement, and sibling spillover effects
Most public policy efforts are very specific about the individuals or groups intended to benefit from their implementation, and evaluations of such policies generally stick to impacts on the target population. However, education policies aimed at helping certain K–12 students can also have wider implications for other students.
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Commentary
What we're reading this week: September 14, 2023
Young men continue to benefit from affirmative action as the number of women at most colleges continues to surge. —New York Times Public trust in universities has plummeted in the last decade, and enrollment numbers have followed; rising costs and wokeness are to blame.
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Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Chronic absenteeism has become a crisis, part 2: Cities and suburbs
Editor’s note: This is part two of a three-part series. Part one examined possible causes. This was first published on the author’s Substack, The Education Daly.
Commentary
Governance
Why serve on the National Assessment Governing Board?
You may already know that back-to-school time means that nominations and applications are being accepted to join the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) a year from now. Here’s why you—and topnotch colleagues and friends—should take this seriously.
Event
Race, class, and excellence gaps: How to bridge persistent divides in advanced education
Join us to discuss Fordham’s recently published report Excellence Gaps by Race and Socioeconomic Status.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
America’s recent education declines in international context
America’s recent achievement declines are far from unique. Consider, for example, Chile, whose academic progress, as measured by international assessments, also stalled out in the early to mid-2010s, just like ours did. And which is also facing a teenage mental health crisis, much like we are, as well as rising violence and disorder in and around their campuses. Are these worldwide phenomena?
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Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Grade inflation is not a victimless crime
Editor’s note: This was first published by Forbes.
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Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Chronic absenteeism has become a crisis, part 1: Possible causes
Editor’s note: This was first published on the author’s Substack, The Education Daly.
