Displaying 601-630 of 1777 results
Commentary
8.11.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Education reform is alive and well, even if the Washington Consensus is dead for now

Michael J. Petrilli

The latest declaration of education reform’s demise comes from two of Mike’s favorite people: Checker Finn and Rick Hess. But what they actually describe is the end of the bipartisan ed reform coalition—what Mike and Rick used to call the “Washington Consensus.” Even with it gone for now, however, education reform continues apace—and continues to rack up victories for kids. And there are ways to rebuild the coalition.

Commentary
8.11.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The new education consensus is conservative, and that’s a good thing

Daniel Buck

In the latest issue of National Affairs, Chester Finn and Frederick Hess chronicle the splintering of the school reform movement that lasted from roughly 1983 until Trump’s presidency.

Commentary
8.11.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Do multi-tiered systems of support improve student behavior?

Julia Wolf

School systems across the country are training teachers in multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) to tackle issues like social emotional learning, mental health, and behavioral interventions.

Commentary
8.11.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

How states leaders can expand and support youth apprenticeships

Abigail Hamilton

The Covid-19 pandemic altered public confidence in education and left lasting shortages in the workforce. Youth unemployment rates are recovering, but young people are still in need of job opportunities that will create lasting wealth and opportunities for further education.

Commentary
8.4.2022
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Lax school discipline is bad for teachers

Jeremy Adams

Teachers’ authority in the classroom is being undermined by policies of “restorative justice”—a non-punitive approach to discipline. But the predictable albeit unintended consequence of these well-meaning policies is that disruptive students get away with previously unacceptable behavior. Outbursts of student vulgarity and incidence of violence have become normalized as something teachers and other students have to endure.

Commentary
8.4.2022
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

Gifted students need a “continuum of services” now more than ever

Dina Brulles

Teachers are now planning instruction for the new school year. But very quickly after their pupils arrive, many will realize that some students will not be adequately challenged by the grade-level curriculum typically assigned for the class. Some will already have mastered that material and are ready to move on.

Commentary
8.4.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Impacts of charter school growth on school and neighborhood diversity

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

Student demographics in traditional district schools largely reflect patterns of housing availability and affordability within neighborhoods. Much of that is due to strict attendance zoning.

Commentary
8.4.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

More evidence that making school easier does students no favors

Adam Tyner, Ph.D., Christian Eggers

It’s one of those zombie mantras that just won’t die: Letting students cut corners, giving them grades they haven’t earned, and generally lowering the bar is a nice thing to do for vulnerable kids—those living in poverty, often with turbulent home lives or mental health struggles to boot.

Commentary
8.3.2022
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

An interview with Janet Kragen, who taught gifted education for four decades

Brandon L. Wright

Editor’s note: This is an edition of “Advance,” a newsletter from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute written by Brandon Wright, our Editorial Director, and published every other week. Its purpose is to monitor the progress of gifted education in America, including legal and legislative developments, policy and leadership changes, emerging research, grassroots efforts, and more.

Commentary
7.28.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

The problem with “differentiation”

Daniel Buck

Shouldn’t we all seek to individualize instructions to meet each child’s needs? Who could oppose “differentiation”? Well, I do.

Commentary
7.28.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

When students feel unsafe, absenteeism grows

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D., Christian Eggers

School shootings are profoundly tragic—scarring not only the families whose children become victims, but casting a shadow over the lives, mental health, and outcomes of the surviving students. But evidence is also clear that it’s not only horrific mass shootings that can lead a child to miss school. Any feeling of not being safe can prompt children and teenagers to stay home.

Commentary
7.21.2022
Governance

Ed reformers should rally around the Romney family aid plan

Michael J. Petrilli

A major, though largely unnoticed, development in America’s support for families with children is the recent release of the “Family Security Act 2.0” by Senator Mitt Romney, along with fellow Republicans Richard Burr and Steve Daines. It could and should serve as the starting point for bipartisan negotiations for a new federal investment in families that might stand the test of time.

Commentary
7.21.2022
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The American family is still coming apart

Kay Hymowitz

In 2004, the late Sara McLanahan published a landmark article called “Diverging Destinies: How Children Are Faring Under the Second Demographic Transition.” The paper was the first scholarly attempt to propose that the decline of the two-parent family in the United States since the 1960’s was intensifying the already unequal l

Commentary
7.21.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders

In a time of crisis, Catholic schools offered a choice, not an echo

Kathleen Porter-Magee

“New data suggest that the damage from shutting down schools has been worse than almost anyone expected,” the Economist tweeted recently to promote a

Commentary
7.21.2022
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

The bravest man in education reform

Robert Pondiscio

A few years ago, when I was writing my book about Success Academy and school choice, I had a moment of self-doubt bordering on despair.

Commentary
7.21.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction

Chatbot nudges boost student outcomes

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

“Nudges” to induce specific actions take many forms in education.

Commentary
7.20.2022
Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

Balancing equity and excellence in selective high schools

Brandon L. Wright, Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, Evan Glazer

Editor’s note: This is an edition of “Advance,” a newsletter from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute written by Brandon Wright, our Editorial Director, and published every other week. Its purpose is to monitor the progress of gifted education in America, including legal and legislative developments, policy and leadership changes, emerging research, grassroots efforts, and more.

Commentary
7.15.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

How do teachers spend their time?

Mike McShane

One of my favorite quotations comes from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring. When Gandalf the wizard recounts the story of the ring and the havoc that it has brought to Middle-earth to the hero Frodo, Frodo says to him, “I wish it need not have happened in my time.” To which Gandalf replies, “So do I, and so do all who live to see such times.

Commentary
7.15.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

Gifted-student screenings often miss poor students who should qualify

Bich Thi Ngoc Tran, Jonathan Wai, Sarah McKenzie

High-achieving students from low-income backgrounds are half as likely to be placed in a gifted program as their more affluent peers, according to our new study.

Commentary
7.14.2022
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders

Can we revive standards-based reform?

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Few people have done more to boost academic standards in U.S. schools than Michael Cohen and Laura Slover, coauthors of a new paper offering a bright vision for revitalizing them. But there are reasons to doubt the feasibility of its proposals.

Commentary
7.14.2022
Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

Stop neglecting gifted students’ social and emotional needs

Susan Miller, Tom Coyne

Back in February, Bloomberg’s Adrian Wooldridge published a column claiming that “America is facing a great talent recession.” He noted that, “today, demand for top talent in the corporate world and elsewhere is exploding just at a time when the supply is t

Commentary
7.7.2022
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders

The swirling private-school universe

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

The universe of private elementary-secondary schooling in America today is diverse and confusing, with innumerable twists and turns in efforts to use public funds to help families access schools that suit them—including private schools of all colors and stripes. But the virtue of these institutions is that they’re different, which also means very different from each other. Which complicates the quest to deploy public dollars to assist families to choose them.

Commentary
7.7.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Teachers & School Leaders

On the persistence of the achievement gap

David Armor

I read Mike Petrilli’s very interesting article “How to narrow the excellence gap in early elementary school” in Fordham’s June 2 Education Gadfly Weekly.

Commentary
7.7.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Does keeping students with the same teacher for multiple years boost outcomes?

Nathaniel Grossman

The relationship between teacher and student has profound effects on learning. A new study explores whether schools can strengthen this relationship over time by keeping students with teachers for more than one year.

Commentary
7.6.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

Hope and progress for gifted education

Brandon L. Wright

This is the first edition of “Advance,” a new Fordham Institute newsletter that will monitor the progress of gifted education. Here, Wright recounts recent developments that reinforce two truths: Gifted education is a clear and substantial good, and it can be much better.