Displaying 511-540 of 1261 results
Commentary
5.19.2022
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The excellence gap and underrepresentation at America’s most selective universities

Michael J. Petrilli

America’s education system suffers from a variety of “excellence gaps”—sharp disparities in performance by race and class at the highest levels of academic achievement. These gaps explain why college administrators turn to various forms of affirmative action in order to create freshmen classes that more closely represent the nation’s diversity—actions that may soon be declared unconstitutional. But when do these gaps start?

Commentary
5.19.2022
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders

Evidence, struggling math students, and California’s 2022 math framework

Tom Loveless

The proposed California Mathematics Framework generated a storm of controversy when the first draft was released in early 2021. Critics objected to the document’s condemnation of tracking and negative portrayal of acceleration for high-achieving students.

Commentary
5.19.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

What does teacher certification contribute to outcomes for students with disabilities?

Jeff Murray

Reams of research have reported contradictory outcomes for students with disabilities (SWDs) who are taught in general education classrooms alongside their non-disabled peers versus learning in settings with only SWDs. A new report focuses on teacher certification as a possible mechanism to explain the variations in outcomes.

Commentary
5.19.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

More data on the impact of remote and hybrid learning during the pandemic

Julia Wolf

Throughout the pandemic, we encountered much speculation about the impact that remote learning would have on student performance. The expected learning loss was a concern not just of American parents and educators, but of citizens all around the world.

Commentary
5.12.2022
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Assessing the Nation’s Report Card: Challenges and choices for NAEP

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

NAEP is by far the country’s most important source of information on student achievement, achievement gaps and so much more, even though it’s invisible to most Americans. Yet NAEP is far from perfect—and could do so much more than it does. It’s time to wrestle with its challenges, shortcomings, and possible future scenarios.

Commentary
5.11.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The case for charter schools is stronger than ever

The Education Gadfly

Just over thirty years ago, the first public charter school law was passed in Minnesota. One year later, City Academy Charter School opened its doors in St. Paul. The charter sector now boasts more than 7,700 schools serving over 3.4 million students nationwide.

Commentary
5.5.2022
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

No, social and emotional learning is not a “Trojan horse” for CRT

Robert Pondiscio

Last week came news that more than 40 percent of math textbooks submitted for review in Florida were deemed incompatible with state standards or contained “prohibited topics” including reference

Julia Wolf SR 4-28-22 image
Commentary
4.28.2022
Governance

How student outcomes were impacted by the desegregation of schools

Julia Wolf

The Supreme Court decision that overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine in Brown v. Board of Education had a great impact on schools across much of the United States. Even though not every school received the same integration orders, and some did not receive any at all, the desegregation of schools had significant effects on Black students’ outcomes.

Julia Wolf SR 4-28-22 image
Gadfly Guy
Commentary
4.28.2022
Governance

What we're reading this week: April 28, 2022

The Education Gadfly

Dropping SAT requirements inflated Ivy-league application numbers and made this year’s admissions cycle the most competitive on record.

Gadfly Guy
Daniel Buck editorial 4-21-22 image
Commentary
4.21.2022
Governance

How the Right can lose the education argument

Daniel Buck

It’s now fashionable in some circles of the Right to call any teacher who supports sex education a “groomer,” lumping them into the category of pedophile. Christina Pushaw, press secretary to Florida governor Ron Desantis, referred to that state’s new legislation as an “anti-grooming” bill.

Daniel Buck editorial 4-21-22 image
Gadfly Guy
Commentary
4.21.2022
Governance

What we're reading this week: April 21, 2022

The Education Gadfly

Parent Nation, by Dana Suskind, describes how we can build social and policy structures that help parents from all income backgrounds with their youngest children.

Gadfly Guy
Gadfly Guy
Commentary
4.14.2022
Governance

What we're reading this week: April 14, 2022

The Education Gadfly

“Is political engagement contributing to the teen mental health crisis?” —Kristen Soltis Anderson Tennessee’s year-old law on teaching race and gender has led to only one complaint, leaving both sides feeling vindicated.

Gadfly Guy
Commentary
4.7.2022
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Polish schools in plague and war: A dispatch from the education front lines

Terry Ryan

Covid-19 and the miseries it caused families, children, and educators around the world over the last two years seems finally to be ebbing. But in Poland where I am writing this, the plague has been followed by a brutal and senseless war in neighboring Ukraine.

Commentary
4.7.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Biden goes all in on the teachers unions’ agenda

Dale Chu

With Democrats facing trouble in the midterm elections, the Biden administration has inexplicably decided to try to stave off disaster by doubling down on the teachers unions’ hoary anti-reform agenda. One example is its not-so-sneak attack on charter schools in the form of execrable regulations that could bring charter growth to a standstill. But it’s not the only one.

Commentary
4.7.2022
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Denver doesn’t spell doom for portfolio-style reform

Paul T. Hill

Last week, Chester Finn used a recent vote of Denver’s anti-reform school board to make three points: first, that the “portfolio” reform there—based on school autonomy, family choice, and chartering out schools where kids aren’t learning—is finished; second, that Denver’s reversal predicts doom elsewhere for complex reform initiatives meant to transform the ways whole public systems operate; an

Commentary
4.7.2022
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

More reform lessons from Denver

Susan Miller, Tom Coyne

After living through the transformation of K–12 education in Alberta, Canada, we moved from Calgary to Colorado in 2010. Since then, we have watched the Denver Public Schools story unfold from next door in Jefferson County.