A better way to improve literacy among Black and Hispanic children
Ian RoweFor the last half-century, if you read the mission statement of virtually any education reform organization, you will find earnest language about closing the racial or class achievement gaps. Unfortunately, not only have gaps failed to narrow during this multi-decade obsession, overall achievement levels have also remained mostly static.
NWEA measures the impact of the pandemic on student achievement and growth
Jessica PoinerResearchers at NWEA have been using data from their MAP Growth assessments to predict and analyze learning losses since the start of the pandemic.
A bright future for open enrollment
Matthew Ladner“Hi. Welcome to the future. San Dimas, California. 2688.” Rufus, played by George Carlin, thus opened the American film classic Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure by explaining that, in the distant future, everything is great. The water, air, and even the dirt is clean.
More dumb things done in the name of educational “equity”
Dale ChuParents across the country are up in arms over their school systems’ equity initiatives. To be clear, this is not “equity” as I came to define it when I started teaching nearly a quarter century ago.
A third disrupted year can only strain Americans’ ties to traditional public schools
Robert PondiscioIn the early days of the pandemic, I was dismissive of “new normal” talk about Covid’s long-term impact on schooling. There was good reason for skepticism.
The Education Gadfly Show #783: One teacher’s call for choice and content-rich curricula
Can changing our eduspeak help with post-pandemic schooling?
Dale ChuThe radio show Marketplace recently ran a piece asking, “Can changing home appraisal language help close the wealth gap?” The story examined structural racism in the housing market, specifically the wealth gap that persists as a result of Black and Hispanic families having t
“Public education sucks” is a weak argument for school choice
Robert PondiscioI’ve long believed the best argument for school choice is to turn up the lights on what is possible when there’s room for a wide variety of schools, curricula, and cultures. Call it the When Harry Met Sally model.
Busting the belief gap via regular student assessment
Jeff MurrayAt its simplest, the belief gap is the gulf between what students can accomplish and what others—particularly teachers—believe they can achieve. It is especially pernicious when beliefs around academic competency are fueled by extraneous information such as socioeconomic status, race, or gender.
The Education Gadfly Show #781: The House Democrats’ attack on charter schools
We’re moving toward a more student-focused, parent-directed, pluralistic K–12 system
Bruno V. Manno“Never in my lifetime have so many parents been so eager for so much education change.” So said longtime pollster Frank Luntz after surveying 1,000 public and private school parents on how the pandemic affected their view of schools.
Districts are failing special-needs students. School choice is helping.
Ginny GentlesPublic schools have long failed to serve adequately students with disabilities, but school closures, disastrous for the millions of children with special needs, may finally encourage a critical mass of parents to do something about it.
Remote instruction is to blame for plummeting test scores
Nat MalkusTexas recently became the first state to release state test score data since the pandemic hit.
Biden’s anticompetitive moves on charters and choice
Dale ChuEarlier this month, President Biden issued a sweeping executive order encouraging federal agencies to undertake a series of initiatives aimed at increasing competition in the U.S. economy. But there’s a mismatch between his approach to competition in the private sector and his support for monopoly when it comes to public education.
2.7 cheers for the NAEP Reading Framework
Chester E. Finn, Jr.Gadfly habitues have seen me grump, criticize, lament and recently brighten over the protract
How well do public schools in large cities overcome the effects of poverty and other barriers?
Jessica PoinerA recently released report by the Council of the Great City Schools seeks to determine whether urban public schools—including charters—are succeeding in their efforts to mitigate the effects of poverty and other educational barriers.
Scaling up the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program helped public schools improve
Jeff MurrayAs supporters of school choice celebrate a remarkable season of legislative wins across the country, they can also add some research-based evidence to their grounds for satisfaction.
An improved forecast for the NAEP reading assessment
Chester E. Finn, Jr.The prolonged fracas within and far beyond the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) concerning a new “framework” for NAEP’s future assessment of reading has been ominous on several fronts—as I haven’t hesi
Are Virginia’s elementary schools worsening achievement gaps?
William RostA new working paper from researchers out of the University of Virginia uses data from the state’s kindergarten literacy assessment, the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS), to examine how the subsequent achievement trajectories of kindergarteners who enter school with similar literacy levels differ by race and/or SES. The findings are worrying.
The Education Gadfly Show #777: O-H-I-O: School reform victories in the Buckeye State
Evaluating state intervention in low-performing districts 2011–2016
Jeff MurrayAcross America, states are constitutionally responsible for providing K–12 education, but in practice school districts are the primary structure by which education is delivered. The vast majority of such districts are run by locally elected school boards.
Zombie ideas in education
Bryan GoodwinEditor’s note: This was first published in Educational Leadership.
The Education Gadfly Show #772: What’s going to happen to the NAEP reading test?
A new look at the question of the effectiveness of school turnarounds
Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.Turnaround efforts for low performing schools have been the subject of research interest since their advent in the No Child Left Behind era.
The Education Gadfly Show #771: Same old, same old: How districts are spending federal relief dollars (so far)
We need to admit that school is alienating
Jeff McGuireEditor’s note: This was the second-place submission, out of twenty-five, in Fordham’s 2021 Wonkathon, in which we asked participants to answer the question, “How can schools best address students’ mental-health needs coming out of the
The effects of immigrant students on the educational performance of their U.S.-born peers
Jeff MurrayAccording to U.S. Census data, 23 percent of students in America’s K–12 schools were either first- or second-generation immigrant children in 2015. That was up from 11 percent in 1990 and 7 percent in 1980.
Improving assessments and accountability in the post-Covid era
Chester E. Finn, Jr.As U.S. schools reopen in the fall, a year and a half after nearly all of them closed due to the pandemic panic, what should be different? What needs to change if kids are actually to catch up? What’s important to retrieve from pre-Covid days? And what other changes, changes that should have been made pre-Covid, is there now a rare opportunity to initiate?