Next Generation Science Standards Revisited
Can you spell “C” as in “chemistry”?
Can you spell “C” as in “chemistry”?
Triangulating a trifecta of survey results
Among the shortcomings of the NGSS is its acute dearth of math content, even in situations where math is essential to the study and proper understanding of the science that students are being asked to master. Also problematic is the alignment of NGSS math with the Common Core State Standards for mathematics. Appendix L of the NGSS seeks to explain the alignment and apply math more thoroughly to NGSS science. This commentary by Johns Hopkins mathematician appraises that appendix. Download Commentary on Appendix L: Alignment of the Next Generation Science Standards with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics to read the appraisal.
With states weighing whether to adopt the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), a new analysis from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute compares the existing science standards of thirty-eight states with the NGSS and with exemplary standards from three other states. (The thirty-eight are those states with standards that are either “clearly inferior” to the NGSS or “too close to call,” based on our Final Evaluation of the Next Generation Science Standards and The State of Science Standards 2012.)
Andy Smarick interviews Neerav Kingsland, CEO of New Schools for New Orleans
Andy Smarick interviews Derrell Bradford, executive director of Better Education for Kids
One of three technical reports on retirement costs and school-district budgets.
...And only a few shameless Fordham plugs
Four years after the first report’s release, CREDO is out with an update
The second half of Andy's compilation of must-read recent publications
Andy Smarick interviews Mashea Ashton, CEO of the Newark Charter School Fund
In the final evaluation of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), the Thomas B. Fordham Institute grants the standards a C grade. The NGSS grade is superior to grades we granted to the science standards of sixteen states and the PISA framework in the State of State Science Standards 2012 but inferior to those of twelve states and the District of Columbia, as well as the NAEP and TIMSS frameworks.
Andy Smarick's latest interview is with Robin Lake, director of the Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE)
When it comes to pension reform in the education realm, it’s hard to stay positive. Here, we’re saddled with a bona fide fiscal calamity (up to a trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities by some counts), and no consensus about how to rectify the situation. No matter how one slices and dices this problem, somebody ends up paying in ways they won’t like and perhaps shouldn’t have to bear. All we can say is that some options are less bad than others.
Observe what a low achievement bar these kinds of comparisons generally set
In favor of good old-fashioned school choice
Neerav Kingsland of New Schools for New Orleans outlines the basics of Relinquishment
Andy Smarick's picks of the week
Smith's new brief tells the story of the still-young Achievement School District in Tennessee
There's public, and then there's “public.”
As the challenges of education governance loom ever larger and the dysfunction and incapacity of the traditional K-12 system reveal themselves as major roadblocks to urgently-needed reforms across that system, many have asked, “What’s the alternative?”
Sage advice and news tidbits from Andy Smarick
Andy's picks, from Kansas City to CALDER
A new book from Sir Michael Barber, noted British education reformer, describes an effort to improve education in rural Pakistan
A collection of news and announcements
When charter schools first emerged more than two decades ago, they presented an innovation in public school governance. No longer would school districts enjoy the “exclusive franchise” to own and operate public schools, as chartering pioneer and advocate Ted Kolderie explained. Charters wouldn’t gain all of the independence of private schools—they would still report to a publicly accountable body, or authorizer—but they would be largely freed from the micromanagement of school boards, district bureaucracies, and union contracts. Autonomy, in exchange for accountability, would reign supreme.
Andy Smarick's pick of the news