Topics

Displaying 121-150 of 411 results
Kathleen Porter-Magee
Commentary
9.12.2024
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Exit Interview: Kathleen Porter-Magee, Superintendent of Partnership Schools

Robert Pondiscio

For ten years, veteran education reformer Kathleen Porter-Magee led Partnership Schools, an independent charter-like management organization that ran Catholic schools on behalf of the archdiocese of New York and, currently, Cleveland. She recently announced that she was stepping down. Here she discusses the lessons she learned.

Kathleen Porter-Magee
Building pillars
Commentary
9.12.2024
Curriculum & Instruction

Philanthropy wrestles with civics education

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

I’m a huge fan of the Daniels Fund under the leadership of Hanna Skandera, the more so since the national part of their giving has grasped the nettle of civics education. And we at Fordham were longtime members of the Philanthropy Roundtable.

Building pillars
Cassette tape
Commentary
9.12.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance

When was American education’s best decade? And how can we tell?

Michael J. Petrilli

This summer, the Washington Post’s (fantastic) “Department of Data” columnist, Andrew Van Dam, ran a fun feature about “America’s best decade,” according to public opinion.

Cassette tape
Student reading
Commentary
9.12.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance

Impacts of a wide-ranging early literacy intervention in California

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

In February 2020, California settled a case which alleged that the state was violating the right to an education by sending kids to schools that didn’t teach them how to read.

Student reading
Fordham Gadfly image
Commentary
9.12.2024

What we're reading this week: September 12, 2024

The Education Gadfly

A new study asks: if schools want to maximize student achievement, should they hire more staff or raise salaries for the teachers that they already employ? —Paul E.

Fordham Gadfly image
event information
Event
9.9.2024

Webinar: Teaching Students What it Means to be an American

American democracy faces unprecedented challenges from both ends of the political spectrum. On the right, actions to undermine the peaceful transfer of power and suggestions to suspend the Constitution pose severe risks. Meanwhile, on the left, cultural forces on campuses are creating an environment where progressive students increasingly find it acceptable to block opposing views.

event information
High school graduates
Commentary
9.5.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance

What’s the point of high school?

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Many states are struggling to revise their high-school graduation requirements, sometimes up, sometimes down. The most basic is the perennial issue of how hard should it be to earn a diploma. The next is how can high schools can possibly prepare thousands of dissimilar young people for the expectations and prerequisites of hundreds of differing post-graduation options?

High school graduates
Parent-teacher conference
Commentary
9.5.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

It’s time for tough love to address chronic absenteeism

David Griffith, Ph.D., Daniel Buck

Despite an unprecedented infusion of resources, the latest data show that American students are struggling to recover

Parent-teacher conference
School tutor
Commentary
9.5.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction

Tutoring outcomes in D.C. public schools, 2022–23

Jeff Murray

Since 2022, public schools in the District of Columbia have been working to mitigate Covid learning disruptions by establishing and ramping up high-impact tutoring (HIT) efforts.

School tutor
Fordham Gadfly image
Commentary
9.5.2024

What we're reading this week: September 5, 2024

The Education Gadfly

Investing more in apprenticeships could make a huge difference in launching the careers of young people across the country. —Heather Long, The Washington Post The closure of several Rochester public schools shook the community to its core.

Fordham Gadfly image
Indiana Statehouse
Commentary
8.30.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance

Why Indiana high school diploma changes may do more harm than good

Sophia Craiutu

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.

Indiana Statehouse
School students raising hands
Commentary
8.29.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools

Charter schools outperform traditional public schools on average. Here's why.

Michael J. Petrilli, David Griffith, Ph.D.

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.

School students raising hands
Teacher talking to a student
Commentary
8.29.2024
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Tough love should be the theme of 2024–25

Michael J. Petrilli

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.

Teacher talking to a student
Students walking to school
Commentary
8.29.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance

Does competition from charter schools help or hurt traditional public schools?

David Griffith, Ph.D., Heena Kuwayama

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?

Students walking to school
Fordham Gadfly image
Commentary
8.29.2024

What we're reading this week: August 29, 2024

The Education Gadfly

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.

Fordham Gadfly image
MCAS SR image
Commentary
8.27.2024
Accountability & Testing

A timely evaluation of Massachusetts’s test-based graduation requirements

Jeff Murray

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.

MCAS SR image
School exterior
Commentary
8.22.2024
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The complicated interplay between race, poverty, and schooling

Michael J. Petrilli

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?

School exterior