Charter School Deserts: High-Poverty Neighborhoods with Limited Educational Options
Andrew Saultz, Queenstar Mensa-Bonsu, Christopher Yaluma, James Hodges2016–17 was one of the slowest-growth years for charter schools in recent memory. Nobody knows exactly why, but one hypothesis is saturation: With charters having achieved market share of over 20 percent in more than three dozen cities, perhaps school supply is starting to meet parental demand, making new charters less necessary and harder to launch.
Is There a Gifted Gap? Gifted Education in High-Poverty Schools
Christopher Yaluma, Adam Tyner, Ph.D.Schools have long failed to cultivate the innate talents of many of their young people, particularly high-ability girls and boys from disadvantaged and minority backgrounds. This failure harms the economy, widens income gaps, arrests upward mobility, and exacerbates civic decay and political division.
The Academic and Behavioral Consequences of Discipline Policy Reform
Matthew P. Steinberg, Johanna LacoeOne important question about school discipline is whether it helps or harms those being disciplined. But a second, equally important question is whether a push to reduce the number of suspensions is harmful to the rule-abiding majority.
Rating the Ratings: An Analysis of the 51 ESSA Accountability Plans
Brandon L. Wright, Michael J. PetrilliThe Every Student Succeeds Act grants states more authority over their accountability systems than did No Child Left Behind, but have they seized the opportunity to develop school ratings that are clearer and fairer than those in the past?
The contradiction and The Alternative
Jeff MurrayThree years into his first gig as a recruiter/trainer at a job skills program in San Francisco, Mauricio Lim Miller recognized a striking contradiction that changed the trajectory of his life and work.
Hard lessons from Ohio’s innovation fund
Aaron ChurchillNOTES: John Mullaney is the Executive Director of the Nord Family Foundation. Both authors were part of the Straight A Fund advisory board in FY 14-15.This piece originally appeared in a slightly different form in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Wages, Employment, and STEM Education in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia
Aaron ChurchillA new report from the RAND Corporation examines trends across 27 counties in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia where fracking is a booming business. Nine of these counties are in Eastern Ohio, including Mahoning, Stark, Belmont, and several others.
Leveraging ESSA to Support Quality-School Growth
Nelson Smith, Brandon L. WrightUnder the Every Student Succeeds Act, the federal School Improvement Grants program is gone, but the goal of school improvement remains. States must now use seven percent of their Title I allocation for these efforts, but are no longer constrained by a prescribed menu of intervention options.
Undue Process: Why Bad Teachers in Twenty-Five Diverse Districts Rarely Get Fired
Victoria McDougald, David GriffithCountless 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.
High Stakes for High Schoolers: State Accountability in the Age of ESSA (Part II)
Michael J. Petrilli, David Griffith, Brandon L. WrightEleven 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.
Charter School Boards in the Nation's Capital
Juliet Squire, Allison Crean DavisTens of thousands of individuals across the United States volunteer their time, energy, and expertise as members of charter school boards. Yet as the charter sector has grown, we’ve learned remarkably little about these individuals who make key operational decisions about their schools and have legal and moral responsibilities for the education of children in their communities.
Do high school courses prepare kids for college?
Jessica PoinerAs 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.
Addressing the learning needs of students performing above grade level
Yasmine RanaBy Yasmine Rana
High Stakes for High Achievers: State Accountability in the Age of ESSA (Part I)
Michael J. Petrilli, David Griffith, Brandon L. Wright, Audrey KimNo 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.
Bad policies harm bright kids in Baltimore County
Brandon L. WrightBy Brandon L. Wright
Reflections on gifted education from the Olympics: What we can learn
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.
How do we define success for gifted students?
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?
Athletes aren’t America's only Olympic stars
Chester E. Finn, Jr.By Chester E. Finn, Jr.
Schools should support gifted students, not work against them
Editor's note: This blog was first published as a letter to the editor in the Washington Post on August 7, 2016.
Change the narrow focus on grade-level proficiency
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.
Hope is more than just wishful thinking
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.
Gifted education standards to guide teaching and deepen student learning
Ensuring that highly able learners are recognized through systematic programming is of the highest importance.
An unconventional approach: The San Francisco 49ers use football to inspire STEM learning
The San Francisco 49ers are taking science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education to new heights for children throughout Silicon Valley.
Little California love for charters
Kevin MahnkenDarius Brown’s educational biography,
Balancing excellence and equity: The twenty-first-century struggle of gifted education
Scott J. Peters
Charter accountability works in Ohio
Kevin MahnkenElite 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.
Locked out of learning
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.