Displaying 1-30 of 188 results
Catholic school
Commentary
11.7.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Governance, Private School Choice

How to ensure accountability in private-school choice programs

Michael J. Petrilli, Devon Nir

Yes, choice itself is a form of accountability, but “customer satisfaction” isn’t enough when tax dollars are in play—even for private-school choice programs. The public has a right to know that participating students are gaining essential skills. To that end, this post discusses four tiers of escalating accountability and where state policy should land, depending on the amount of taxpayer dollars provided to individual schools, among other considerations.

Catholic school
Students in a classroom
Commentary
11.7.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

Advanced education provides benefits that differentiated instruction can’t

Brandon L. Wright

Editor’s note: This is an adapted excerpt from the author’s recent Fordham Institute report, “Think Again: Are Education Programs for High Achievers Inherently Inequitable?”

Students in a classroom
Empty classroom
Commentary
11.1.2024
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

We’re living through an education depression

Tim Daly

In 1990, 48 percent of our nation’s eighth graders had very weak math skills. How did we know? They scored in the lowest performance category, Below Basic, on the national test given to a sample of American students every two years.[1]

Empty classroom
Kamala Harris
Commentary
10.31.2024
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

A Republican education secretary for Kamala Harris’s cabinet?

Dale Chu

It is rare, but not unheard of, for presidents to ask members of the opposing party to serve in their cabinets. If she wins, Vice President Harris has pledged to make the symbolic gesture, historically used at key moments to project unity and bipartisanship. There’s a compelling argument to be made that the post of Education Secretary would be a worthy target for such an act. Here Chu discusses seven candidates for the role.

Kamala Harris
Voting location sign
Commentary
10.31.2024
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

20 questions for school board candidates

Michael J. Petrilli

Election Day is almost here, and the presidential contest is not the only one that matters.

Voting location sign
Preschool classroom
Commentary
10.31.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance

The return on investment of pre-kindergarten programming: Evidence from Connecticut

Jeff Murray

The academic impacts of pre-kindergarten programming for children are a matter of unsettled science, with some research finding a positive impact, some a negative, and much showing the fade out of all impacts by third grade or soon thereafter.

Preschool classroom
Students raising their hands in a school classroom
Commentary
10.24.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Once a hedgehog, now a fox: Ten lessons from six decades in the struggle to improve schools

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

The Greek poet Archilochus wrote that “the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” Finn’s experience has made him more like the fox: as keen as ever to overhaul and revitalize American education, but having come to “knows many things” about that enterprise, is more a wary realist regarding its difficulty.

Students raising their hands in a school classroom
College graduate
Commentary
10.17.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The American dream is still in reach for young people

Ian Rowe

The American dream is still alive and can be achieved in just one generation, even among the most economically disadvantaged young people. That finding is among the most promising takeaways from new research produced by Harvard University’s Raj Chetty and his collaborators.

College graduate
Chalkboard with dollar signs and question marks
Commentary
10.11.2024
School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Districts spent $190 billion in federal pandemic funds. Did it work?

Chad Aldeman

Editor’s note: This was first published by The 74. Say your boss gives you an unexpected bonus at work. Would you save the money, make those home upgrades you’ve been putting off or splurge on a nice vacation?

Chalkboard with dollar signs and question marks
Empty desk in a classroom
Commentary
10.10.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Student enrollment is dropping. The charter sector should keep growing anyway.

Michael J. Petrilli

The macro trend that will have the greatest impact on the American education system over the next decade or two is our declining birth rate and the resulting enrollment crisis facing many public schools. We have too many schools for too few kids and, as a result, thousands of schools are going to need to close. But what we don’t have are enough excellent schools, and therefore the charter sector should keep growing anyway.

Empty desk in a classroom
Colorado State Capitol
Commentary
10.10.2024
Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice

Calling for a constitutional right to school choice in Colorado

Dale Chu

As the clock winds down towards Election Day, Colorado voters—myself included—face an important decision beyond the presidential contest: whether to amend the state constitution to enshrine a “right to school choice.” To be clear, the Centennial State has a long and proud record on the issue.

Colorado State Capitol
Chicago school bus
Commentary
10.10.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Facilities, Governance

Wrong (and right) lessons from Chicago’s school closures

Vladimir Kogan

Chicago’s troubled school district has made national headlines recently—from the mass resignation of its appointed school board, which opposed the mayor’s efforts to borrow nearly $300 million at ruinous rates to give the teachers union a sweetheart contract, to the

Chicago school bus
Overwhelmed school teacher
Commentary
10.3.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The case against discipline reform

Daniel Buck

Rates of student misbehavior remain elevated compared to pre-Covid levels. Pandemic-era disruptions, broader societal disorder and crime rates, and social media are also plausible explanations. But so is “discipline reform,” a set of policies and practices that many schools embraced over the past decade. Its tenets: talk to those kids, pursue “restorative justice,” or ignore their poor behavior. But never impose a consequence.

Overwhelmed school teacher
Suburb
Commentary
10.3.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Facilities, School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Urban school drama has come to the leafy suburbs

Tim Daly

A 6,000 student Midwestern district recently adopted a budget that would result—if all goes according to plan—in a $13.2 million deficit, or more than $2,000 per student. This follows $10 million shortfalls in each of the previous two years. Cash is dwindling.

Suburb
Depressed adult
Commentary
10.3.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance

Schools are also a form of childcare. How important is that to parents’ mental health?

Heena Kuwayama

We tend to think of schools as simply the place where kids go to learn, but they aren’t only about education. They provide many essential services to students and families, including nutrition, healthcare—and even if simply as a byproduct of mandatory attendance for educational purposes, giving parents a place to send their children while they’re at work.

Depressed adult
Students entering a school
Commentary
9.27.2024
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Do parents want a longer school year? Evidence from New York City.

Alina Adams

Eschewing the traditional September start to the new school year (or, at most, mid-August), some Richmond, Virginia, public schools kicked off the 2024–25 academic calendar on July 22.

Students entering a school
Abandoned school playground
Commentary
9.26.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Facilities, Governance

With student enrollment plummeting, which schools should be considered candidates for closure?

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D., Michael J. Petrilli

Forcing students to switch schools can be traumatic and even harmful. Yet closing an underenrolled school can also be beneficial when displaced students land in better alternatives, and when it ensures that innumerable children in future generations are well-served. But how should policymakers identify which schools should be candidates for closure? Our latest study offers some answers.

Abandoned school playground
Food spread
Commentary
9.26.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice

The “à la carte education” accountability conundrum

Michael J. Petrilli, Devon Nir

Of the school choice options available to many U.S. families today, few embody the spirit of “power to the parents” quite like education savings accounts (ESAs).

Food spread
Houston, Texas
Commentary
9.26.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The Texas-sized surge in uncertified teachers

Dale Chu

Houston’s local ABC news affiliate recently ran a report that the Houston Independent School District, Texas’s largest, has more than 2,000 uncertified teachers (out of a teaching force of approximately 10,000).

Houston, Texas
Working repairing a roof
Commentary
9.26.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Facilities, School Finance, Governance

Does spending on school facilities raise student test scores?

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

Schools across the country spend billions of dollars each year on the construction and renovation of their facilities—everything from roof repairs to new science labs and from classroom expansions to whole new buildings. How do these expenditures impact students and the taxpaying community around schools?

Working repairing a roof
Virginia welcome sign
Commentary
9.25.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance

Most schools in America are off track. Virginia is no different.

Michael J. Petrilli

Governor Glenn Youngkin is under fire again from Virginia’s education establishment, this time because a new school accountability system his administration is promoting refuses to put lipstick on a pig.

Virginia welcome sign