Commentary
Governance
Republicans’ missing policy issue: Education
Editor’s note: This was first published by the Manhattan Institute.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance
Why Indiana high school diploma changes may do more harm than good
Indiana’s new proposed legislation on altered diploma requirements redesigns the purpose of a high school education, which I believe will have negative consequences for students across the state, with regard to the diminishing skills of global-mindedness and perspectives.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools
Charter schools outperform traditional public schools on average. Here's why.
High-quality studies find that charter schools boost achievement by more than their traditional-public-school counterparts—an advantage that is particularly large for students of color in disadvantaged urban communities, and one that has only grown larger as the charter sector has expanded and matured.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Tough love should be the theme of 2024–25
Society as a whole has largely bounced back from the dark days of the pandemic, but life inside our schools is arguably worse than ever. Attendance is dismal. Cheating is pervasive. Cell phones are everywhere. Disorder abounds. And for all these reasons and more, kids are learning less than they were back before the plague struck. The right way to respond is to embrace tough love. That means, first and foremost, again holding students accountable for their behavior.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance
Does competition from charter schools help or hurt traditional public schools?
It’s widely acknowledged that a bit of healthy competition is a good thing in most contexts. Among other things, it pushes businesses to create better products and athletes and musicians to train longer and harder. But what about in education?
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
Should schools adopt equitable grading practices? A teacher voices his concerns.
Over the past six months, I’ve had an extended conversation about “equitable grading” with Joe Feldman, the author of Grading for Equity (see here,
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
Evidence that middle school principals influence long-term student outcomes
For years, researchers have pointed to the quality of educators as the key to school performance.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
Are racially isolated Black teachers more likely to leave their jobs?
The demographic makeup of America’s K–12 students is steadily changing, with schools nationwide welcoming increasingly diverse cohorts of young learners.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: August 29, 2024
A Walton/Gallup survey finds that half of all Gen Z teens do not plan to attend college—but schools are not doing enough to engage and challenge students pursuing non-college pathways.
Podcast
Charter Schools
#935: How the charter sector can thrive under Trump or Harris, with Starlee Coleman
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Starlee Coleman, newly named President and CEO of the Natio
Commentary
Accountability & Testing
A timely evaluation of Massachusetts’s test-based graduation requirements
In 2003, as part of a broader education reform package, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts began requiring high school students to pass Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exams in math, English language arts, and science in order to earn a diploma.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Why some teachers might be afraid of cellphone bans in the classroom
When it comes to the current storm of concern over student cellphones in schools, the conventional wisdom is that it’s educators on one side versus p
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The complicated interplay between race, poverty, and schooling
Fordham’s new study by Paul L. Morgan and Eric Hengyu Hu, "Explaining Achievement Gaps: The Role of Socioeconomic Factors," raises as many questions as it answers. Among them: How can we explain the different patterns for the Black-White achievement gap for reading, on the one hand, and math and science, on the other? Why does SES explain so much more of the Hispanic-White gap than the Black-White gap? And what’s the role of family structure in explaining the Black-White and Hispanic-White gaps?
Commentary
Governance
Will next month’s Harris-Trump debate even mention education?
During the fateful presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, there was nary a mention of education. No questions on the topic from the moderators.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Inside the classical school renaissance: An interview with Dr. Kathleen O’Toole
Classical education is undergoing a renaissance. According to a recent analysis by Arcadia Education, the classical sector is growing by 5 percent annually with a total projected enrollment of 1.4 million students by 2035.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
How have teacher working conditions changed since the pandemic?
As a teacher both during and immediately after the pandemic, I was constantly on the receiving end of some version of: “You must be so relieved that the pandemic is over.” My response was always: “Actually, it has only gotten worse.” And it’s not just me.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning
RoadMAP to success: Using state assessment data to predict postsecondary success
A recent CALDER study by Darrin DeChane, Takkako Nomi, and Michael Podgursky utilizes test data from Missouri’s state assessment, known as MAP, to assess how well these test scores predict
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: August 22, 2024
A new analysis of six decades of yearbook pictures shows that students who have more freedom to be creative with their style in high school might also be more inventive later in life.
Report
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Explaining Achievement Gaps: The Role of Socioeconomic Factors
Racial achievement gaps in schools are well documented and remain a significant cause of concern in education. Troubling too is that the role of socioeconomic disparities in mediating these gaps remains unresolved.
Podcast
#934: Reducing chronic absenteeism: Building trust versus getting tough, with Kelly James
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Kelly James, a partner at Education First Consulting a
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
I got caught teaching advanced students
“Come see me in the office.” Uh oh. I probably got caught teaching again.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
Bring back "Liberty’s Kids"
As the United States heads toward the semiquincentennial (!) of the Declaration of Independence, as we near an election that’s uncommonly consequential (!), and as many worthy groups strive to rekindle civics in American schools and colleges, it’s time to revisit and revive the superb animated video series named Liberty’s Kids
Commentary
Dear Admissions Committee: Please reject my college application
The conventions of college admission essays demand tales of unparalleled grit and overcoming adversity. Yet for many seventeen-year-olds, their time on Earth has been marked by only by an unbroken series of mundane and typical experiences. What to do?
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
They’re still not book bans
Just when I thought that book ban debates were so last year—gone the way of critical race theory or the Common Core, subsumed by the latest controversy over Title IX or Project 2025—it seems those grouchy conservatives are at it again.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
Threading the needle on selective enrollment public schools
A recent article in the Boston Globe dug into a controversy that is dogging Massachusetts’s highly-regarded system of regional career and technical education (CTE) high schools.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: August 15, 2024
“Shifting NYC school demographics: There are nearly as many Asian American as Black students.” —Chalkbeat Free meals for all children, longer-than-average Covid closures, and a focus on gender and racial equality: Did Tim Walz
Podcast
#933: The nuts and bolts of banning cellphones in schools, with Othiniel Mahone
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Othiniel Mahone, th