Commentary
Commentary
Governance
What we're reading this week: April 28, 2022
Dropping SAT requirements inflated Ivy-league application numbers and made this year’s admissions cycle the most competitive on record.
Commentary
Commentary
Governance
How the Right can lose the education argument
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.
Commentary
Commentary
Governance
What we're reading this week: April 21, 2022
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.
Commentary
Charter Schools
Biden Administration fails to follow the science on charter schools
NOTE: This editorial is adapted from Michael J. Petrilli's public comment on the U.S. Department of Education's proposed Charter Schools Program regulations, available here.
Commentary
Commentary
Governance
What we're reading this week: April 14, 2022
“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.
Undefined
Governance
Education Gadfly Show #815: Paul Hill vs. Checker Finn: Does Denver prove that portfolio districts are doomed?
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast (listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify), Paul Hill
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Course choice: The ideal post-pandemic policy solution
Editor’s note: This was first published by the American Enterprise Institute.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Polish schools in plague and war: A dispatch from the education front lines
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
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Biden goes all in on the teachers unions’ agenda
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
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Denver doesn’t spell doom for portfolio-style reform
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
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
More reform lessons from Denver
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.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
How a summer job may help improve school outcomes
The influence of out-of-school activities such as sports and clubs on school outcomes has been an enduring
Commentary
Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The college readiness battle is won or lost in elementary school
Earlier this year, I took to the pages of Education Next to make the case for NAEP to test starting in kindergarten, stating that, “The rationale for testing academic skills in the early elementary grades is powerful.” Therefore, “Starting NAEP in 4th grade is much too late.” I was wrong, and I’m sorry. Kindergarten is much too late. We must begin a program of NAEP testing for newborns.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Denver’s cautionary tale for the “charter-lite” strategy
It’s no secret that Denver’s latest school board is wreaking havoc on the suite of bold education reforms that the Mile High City was known for over the past two decades.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Evaluating how well ELA curricula deliver content knowledge
What makes an effective English language arts curriculum? Is it the books and other readings that it includes? The skills that it imparts to students? Something else?
Commentary
Charter Schools, Governance
Biden administration’s proposed rules for Charter School Program empower districts at the expense of communities
The Biden administration is proposing an unprecedented rewrite of the bipartisan federal Charter Schools Program (CSP): new regulations that are unprecedented not just for the CSP but for all federal K–12 programs.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Why we should follow the science—to school
A new edited volume, “Follow the Science to School,” aims to identify what science tells us about evidence-based practices in elementary schools, and describes what they look like in the real world of classrooms. Following the science into its application in this way—and sharing how it works on the ground—enables us to suggest workable answers to key questions rather than challenging every teacher, school, or district, to figure out those answers on their own.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Governance
Lively days for NAEP
Those who pay attention to the “Nation’s Report Card” tend to take it for granted. In truth, most people heed it not at all.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Curriculum wars are inevitable and necessary
There is much to love in George Packer’s essay on the culture wars and education in The Atlantic. He castigates both sides of the partisan aisle for their follies: the left’s support for school closures “far longer than either the science or welfare of children justified” and the
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education
What hiring ads indicate about the skills that employers want in a college major
Not all college majors are created alike, but it turns out that employers want their new hires to exhibit many of same skills regardless of what they major in. A recent study examines online job ads as a proxy for what employers view as the skills inherent in various college majors.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning
Impacts of a forced break before college enrollment
The typical timeline for college-bound high school seniors is to start a few months after graduation—the first available opportunity. But is that unbroken path into college the right move for everyone? New research suggests that academic breaks after high school have both short- and long-term impacts on postsecondary enrollment and labor market outcomes.
Book
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction
Follow the Science to School: Evidence-based Practices for Elementary Education
Follow the Science to School: Evidence-based Practices for Elementary Education is published by John Catt Educational Press and is available for purchase from the John Catt Bookshop and Amazon.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Should we be worried about rising inflation?
Inflation is up, and no, I’m not talking about gas prices. I’m talking about some troubling trends observed among the 2019 graduating class of high school students in the recently released 2019 NAEP High School Transcript Study.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Governance
NAEP: Meeting today’s needs and building a national assessment for the future
Joint Statement from Peggy G. Carr, Ph.D., Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics and Lesley Muldoon, Executive Director of the National Assessment Governing Board
Commentary
Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Work instead of school: A better approach for our lowest-performing students?
High school-age Americans struggling mightily with academics aren’t well served by our current approach to secondary education. But there may be a better model that would give them a more worthwhile experience and lead to better long-term outcomes: Let them take jobs while still in high school—during the school day, during both their junior and senior years, full pay included, no strings attached.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Civic education and the battle for Ukraine
We’re all watching the news and hating what we’re seeing, the one big exception being the patriotic heroism of millions of Ukrainians (and the much smaller but still impressive collection of others who have been traveling to Ukraine to join the fight for freedom).
