Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Teachers & School Leaders
3 ways charter schools can help fix U.S. learning loss
Editor’s note: This was first published by The 74.
Commentary
Private School Choice
School choice programs: Testing mandates are more common than you think
Opponents make lots of arguments against education savings accounts, tax-credit scholarship programs, and other forms of private school choice. But the complaint that schools aren’t required to test their students is generally false. We dig in and set the record straight
Commentary
Charter Schools, Governance
Why SCOTUS should—and will—approve faith-based charter schools
Editor’s note: This was first published on the author’s Substack, Governing Right
Commentary
Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice
The religious charter schools case is a bigger deal than you think
The Supreme Court agreed on Friday afternoon to hear a landmark religious charter schools case out of Oklahoma, and it’s a much bigger deal than you might imagine.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Four principles to re-energize the charter school movement
When I graduated from high school, the first charter schools in America were just opening their doors. But I have advocated for, worked with, and supported their right to serve families for more than twenty years now.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
New York is the supernova of education reform
“A supernova is what happens when a star has reached the end of its life and explodes in a brilliant burst of light. Supernovas can briefly outshine entire galaxies and radiate more energy than our sun will in its entire lifetime.” —Nancy Taylor Tillman, Space.com
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Private School Choice
Fault lines in the MAGA coalition and what they mean for education
President-elect Donald Trump is about to return to Washington with a ragtag coalition, united in their rejection of the status quo. Yet this shared opposition has also led to a rash of infighting over a range of policy issues.
Commentary
Governance, Private School Choice
Passing school choice legislation is likely the easiest part of creating new school choices for families and students
After more than a decade of trying to launch some form of education savings account/tax credit program for parent choice, it looks like Idaho’s legislature is likely to pass legislation this year to get it done.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
After a “lost decade,” let’s restore high expectations for students
There has been a fierce and counterproductive backlash to “no excuses” charter schools, stemming from the idea that student discipline and orderly classrooms are culturally insensitive, particularly when imposed on students of color. This critique drove the rise of social justice education with its focus on reducing racial harm while functionally neglecting academic instruction and enshrining low expectations.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice
So you want to make education great again? 3 executive orders for Trump on day 1.
The Founding Fathers never envisioned that executive orders would be a major policymaking tool, circumventing legislative and executive deliberations, political stalemates, and partisanship. But recent history has deemed them essential levers if there is to be urgent action on the most important matters of the day.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Governance
Why education reformers should respond to the election with critical self-reflection
Editor’s note: This was first published by CharterFolk.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Governance, Private School Choice
How to ensure accountability in private-school choice programs
Yes, choice itself is a form of accountability, but “customer satisfaction” isn’t enough when tax dollars are in play—even for private-school choice programs. The public has a right to know that participating students are gaining essential skills. To that end, this post discusses four tiers of escalating accountability and where state policy should land, depending on the amount of taxpayer dollars provided to individual schools, among other considerations.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice
Are the competitive effects of charter schools muted or magnified by private schools?
One of the most interesting and significant findings about charter schools in the last decade—outside of the fact that they tend to outperform traditional public schools (TPS)—is that growin
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, 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, 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
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, 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
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
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.
