GUEST COMMENTARY: Is a 10th grade education too high a bar for an Ohio diploma?
By Tom Gunlock
By Tom Gunlock
On this week's podcast, special guest Eric Eagon, a senior director at the PIE Network, joins Mike Petrilli and Alyssa Schwenk to discuss why policymakers ought to pay more attention to teachers and administrators. During the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines the peer effects of computer-assisted learning.
If you want a good cry mixed in with some inspiration, watch noted human rights lawyer and activist Bryan Stevenson give a searing account of bias against the poor and young men of color in a TED Talk about an Injustice.
On this week's podcast, Checker Finn, Alyssa Schwenk, and Brandon Wright discuss the ongoing debate about whether school accountability is best done via the parent marketplace or state assessments. During the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines whether struggling students are more likely to leave charter schools than traditional public schools.
NOTE: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute occasionally publishes guest commentaries on its blogs. The views expressed by guest authors do not necessarily reflect those of Fordham.
A new teacher’s pension is supposed to be a perk. The truth is that for the majority of the nation’s new teachers, what they can anticipate in retirement benefits will be worth less than what they contributed to the system while they were in the classroom, even if they stay for decades.
Countless studies have demonstrated that teacher quality is the most important school-based determinant of student learning, and that removing ineffective teachers from the classroom could greatly benefit students.
On this week’s podcast, Checker Finn, Robert Pondiscio, and Alyssa Schwenk discuss America’s performance on two recent international assessments, TIMSS and PISA. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines a U.S. Department of Education guide on how to teach writing.
Eleven weeks ago, in High Stakes for High Achievers: State Accountability in the Age of ESSA, the Fordham Institute reported that current K–8 accountability systems in most states give teachers scant reason to attend to the learning of high-achieving youngsters.
As students and teachers settle back into school routines, thousands of high schoolers are getting their first taste of classes that are supposed to prepare them for college. Some of them are sitting in Advanced Placement courses, while others have enrolled in district-designed advanced courses.
On this week’s podcast, Mike Petrilli, Alyssa Schwenk, and Robert Pondiscio discuss states’ neglect of high achievers and how ESSA might prompt them to do better. During the research minute, Amber Northern reports on the good news about narrowing socioeconomic gaps in kindergarten readiness.
By Yasmine Rana
No Child Left Behind meant well, but it had a pernicious flaw: It created strong incentives for schools to focus all their energy on helping low-performing students get over a modest “proficiency” bar. Meanwhile, it ignored the educational needs of high achievers, who were likely to pass state reading and math tests regardless of what happened in the classroom.
By Brandon L. Wright
The games of the thirty-first Olympiad are over. Maybe now I will be able to catch up on my sleep! For two weeks I stayed up way too late, spellbound by the competition between the world’s greatest athletes. I loved the world records, the close finishes, the upsets, the rivalries, and the camaraderie. I loved the emotion.
Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose. — Bill GatesHow do you define success? Is it the accomplishment of one’s goals? Is it the attainment of wealth, position, honors? Is it happiness? Is it all of these, selected from a number of definitions on Wikipedia?
By Chester E. Finn, Jr.
Editor's note: This blog was first published as a letter to the editor in the Washington Post on August 7, 2016.
Earlier this year, in his final State of the Union address, President Barak Obama asked, “How do we give everyone a fair shot at opportunity in this new economy?” Education is a powerful tool to help do that.
We hear parents, teachers, and students use the word hope every day. But what exactly does it mean? When we read or hear the word, we might think of a positive outlook or desire, yet its true definition is nebulous. It implies that something will automatically or magically occur without effort.
Ensuring that highly able learners are recognized through systematic programming is of the highest importance.
The San Francisco 49ers are taking science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education to new heights for children throughout Silicon Valley.
Darius Brown’s educational biography,
Scott J. Peters
In Common Core Math in the K-8 Classroom: Results from a National Teacher Survey, Jennifer Bay Williams, Ann Duffett, and David Griffith take a close look at how educators are implementing the Common Core math standards in classrooms across the nation.
Elite public academies like Boston Latin, Stuyvesant High School, and San Francisco’s Lowell High School have long been acclaimed for the top-flight academics they offer to applicants who pass their rigorous entrance exams.
Earlier this month, the Department of Education released new data exposing the uneven suspension rates and limited learning opportunities faced by students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
During my first year at the University of South Carolina, I often purchased a morning cup of coffee in the university’s student union. Early one morning, I spotted a young man dressed in a business suit and bow tie carrying on an animated conversation with a group of undergraduates.