Podcast
Advanced Education
#944: More equitable advanced education programs, with Brandon Wright
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Brandon Wright, Ford
Report
Advanced Education
Think Again: Are Education Programs for High Achievers Inherently Inequitable?
This brief challenges the notion that marginalized students of high ability are harmed by advanced education, with implications for better screening measures and expansion of programs.
Commentary
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
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.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction
Is it time for a second look at virtual education?
I confess I approach the question of virtual education with more than a little skepticism. Kids spend enough time staring at screens, and I’ve developed a reflexive distrust bordering on cynicism for all things ed tech, which has a reliable history of overpromising and underdelivering. And, of course, student outcomes from virtual schools have been awful.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Charter schools’ virtuous improvement cycle betters our K–12 system
“Charter school laws have been arguably the most influential school reform efforts of the past several decades,” write economists
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Student enrollment is dropping. The charter sector should keep growing anyway.
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.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice
Calling for a constitutional right to school choice in Colorado
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.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
7 thoughts about elite college students who can’t read books
Rose Horowitch’s article in The Atlantic is getting lots of buzz.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice
The “à la carte education” accountability conundrum
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).
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
3 ways to increase choice and decrease polarization in U.S. schools
Editor’s note: This was first published by The 74.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education
Broader access to advanced coursework: An interview with Jefferson Pestronk, Executive Director of Modern States
Modern States Education Alliance is a non-profit that makes college-level courses and college credit free to any learner anywhere, including high school students interested in advanced coursework. It offers thirty-two online courses free of charge at www.modernstates.org, including all the necessary textbooks and readings.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools
Charter schools outperform traditional public schools on average. Here's why.
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.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance
Does competition from charter schools help or hurt traditional public schools?
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?
Podcast
Charter Schools
#935: How the charter sector can thrive under Trump or Harris, with Starlee Coleman
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Starlee Coleman, newly named President and CEO of the Natio
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Inside the classical school renaissance: An interview with Dr. Kathleen O’Toole
Classical education is undergoing a renaissance. According to a recent analysis by Arcadia Education, the classical sector is growing by 5 percent annually with a total projected enrollment of 1.4 million students by 2035.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
I got caught teaching advanced students
“Come see me in the office.” Uh oh. I probably got caught teaching again.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
Threading the needle on selective enrollment public schools
A recent article in the Boston Globe dug into a controversy that is dogging Massachusetts’s highly-regarded system of regional career and technical education (CTE) high schools.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
Have bloated pandemic-era grades now stabilized?
School closures and remote learning led to widespread relaxation of student accountability at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Lax requirements to turn in work, fewer graded assignments, and—most perniciously—policies mandating “no zeros” or “no failing grades” were adopted (or accelerated) to lighten the load of young people whose worlds had been turned upside down.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
“Everything, everywhere, all at once” solutions to chronic absenteeism
Read the winning entry in Fordham’s 2024 Wonkathon, which asked contributors to answer this question: “How can policymakers and practitioners radically reduce chronic absenteeism—at least below pre-pandemic levels and preferably much further?”
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education
Are AP exams getting easier?
Three decades ago, the College Board “recentered” the SAT. Now it’s “recalibrating” Advanced Placement. Though both adjustments in these enormously influential testing programs can be justified by psychometricians, both are also probable examples of what the late Senator Daniel P.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
Civics for today
This essay focuses on A Republic, If We Can Teach It: Fixing America’s Civic Education Crisis, a new book by Jeffrey Sikkenga and Hoover research fellow (emeritus) David Davenport.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
How Kamala Harris can move to the center on education
It may be true that Kamala Harris is, at heart, your typical progressive Democrat from California. But she has an unusual opportunity to shed some of that political baggage. Indicating that she will be open to education reform is one of the best ways to do so.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
Advanced education programs are important to parents, poll finds
Academic advancement programs (especially those branded as “gifted and talented”) are often at the center of controversy about equity in education.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice
Vance vs. Pence: How Trump’s VP picks compare on education
On Monday, Donald Trump chose Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate, signaling a doubling down on his MAGA brand. As far as education is concerned, this means tapping into broad parental discontent over educational and education-related issues, many of which were turbocharged by the pandemic.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Five ways to ensure that charter schools have a political future
Perhaps no modern American education reform has enjoyed the success and staying power of charter schools. Three-plus decades after Minnesota passed the first charter law, 3.7 million students now attend charters, the majority of whom are children of color and come from low-income families.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
The Great Recalibration of AP exams
The Advanced Placement program is undergoing a radical transformation. Over the last three years, the College Board has “recalibrated” nine of its most popular AP Exams so that approximately 500,000 more AP Exams will earn a 3+ score this year than they would have without recalibration.
Commentary
School Finance, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance
Public funding for religious schools can help ease our culture wars
Knee-jerk reaction against public subsidies for religious education is unwise. That’s because allowing religious families to choose sectarian schools for their children could very well be a saving grace for our society. And you don’t have to be among the faithful to believe so.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Governance
Charter schools can’t afford to lose Republican support
Charter schools are in for a slog. It doesn’t matter who wins in November. Joe Biden is not a fan.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
The latest math fad is another excuse to teach nothing
Peter Liljedahl opens his wildly popular book on mathematics instruction, Building Thinking Classrooms, with a bold gambit.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction
Is classical education research-based?
Classical education has surged in popularity, with 264 new schools cropping up since 2019, a host
