Displaying 61-90 of 977 results
Teacher in a classroom
Commentary
10.18.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Implementing the science of reading: Insights from the field

Maggie Johnson

At Partnership Schools, we are excited that so many Ohioans are excited about the “science of reading.” In 2023 legislation that took effect this school year, Governor DeWine and the General Assembly have mandated that all reading curricula follow this approach—one we know well, since Partnership Schools have implemented it for over a

Teacher in a classroom
School report card
Commentary
10.17.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Grade inflation: Why it matters and how to stop it

Adam Tyner, Ph.D.

Grade inflation influences the environment in which teachers teach and students study, shaping their behavior and relationships. But utilizing external assessments, increasing transparency, and supporting reforms that preserve the rigor of grading standards can help fix the problem.

School report card
College graduate
Commentary
10.17.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The American dream is still in reach for young people

Ian Rowe

The American dream is still alive and can be achieved in just one generation, even among the most economically disadvantaged young people. That finding is among the most promising takeaways from new research produced by Harvard University’s Raj Chetty and his collaborators.

College graduate
Empty desk in a classroom
Commentary
10.10.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Student enrollment is dropping. The charter sector should keep growing anyway.

Michael J. Petrilli

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.

Empty desk in a classroom
Chicago school bus
Commentary
10.10.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Facilities, Governance

Wrong (and right) lessons from Chicago’s school closures

Vladimir Kogan

Chicago’s troubled school district has made national headlines recently—from the mass resignation of its appointed school board, which opposed the mayor’s efforts to borrow nearly $300 million at ruinous rates to give the teachers union a sweetheart contract, to the

Chicago school bus
Career-technical education classroom
Commentary
10.10.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction

Many CTE teachers are leaving the classroom. But is that necessarily a bad thing?

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D., Jeff Murray

The growing popularity of career and technical education (CTE) at the high school level creates an ongoing need for more teachers with industry experience to provide hands-on instruction in a diverse variety of fields.

Career-technical education classroom
Overwhelmed school teacher
Commentary
10.3.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The case against discipline reform

Daniel Buck

Rates of student misbehavior remain elevated compared to pre-Covid levels. Pandemic-era disruptions, broader societal disorder and crime rates, and social media are also plausible explanations. But so is “discipline reform,” a set of policies and practices that many schools embraced over the past decade. Its tenets: talk to those kids, pursue “restorative justice,” or ignore their poor behavior. But never impose a consequence.

Overwhelmed school teacher
Suburb
Commentary
10.3.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Facilities, School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Urban school drama has come to the leafy suburbs

Tim Daly

A 6,000 student Midwestern district recently adopted a budget that would result—if all goes according to plan—in a $13.2 million deficit, or more than $2,000 per student. This follows $10 million shortfalls in each of the previous two years. Cash is dwindling.

Suburb
Depressed adult
Commentary
10.3.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance

Schools are also a form of childcare. How important is that to parents’ mental health?

Heena Kuwayama

We tend to think of schools as simply the place where kids go to learn, but they aren’t only about education. They provide many essential services to students and families, including nutrition, healthcare—and even if simply as a byproduct of mandatory attendance for educational purposes, giving parents a place to send their children while they’re at work.

Depressed adult
Abandoned school playground
Commentary
9.26.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Facilities, Governance

With student enrollment plummeting, which schools should be considered candidates for closure?

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D., Michael J. Petrilli

Forcing students to switch schools can be traumatic and even harmful. Yet closing an underenrolled school can also be beneficial when displaced students land in better alternatives, and when it ensures that innumerable children in future generations are well-served. But how should policymakers identify which schools should be candidates for closure? Our latest study offers some answers.

Abandoned school playground
Food spread
Commentary
9.26.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice

The “à la carte education” accountability conundrum

Michael J. Petrilli, Devon Nir

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).

Food spread
Houston, Texas
Commentary
9.26.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The Texas-sized surge in uncertified teachers

Dale Chu

Houston’s local ABC news affiliate recently ran a report that the Houston Independent School District, Texas’s largest, has more than 2,000 uncertified teachers (out of a teaching force of approximately 10,000).

Houston, Texas
Working repairing a roof
Commentary
9.26.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Facilities, School Finance, Governance

Does spending on school facilities raise student test scores?

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

Schools across the country spend billions of dollars each year on the construction and renovation of their facilities—everything from roof repairs to new science labs and from classroom expansions to whole new buildings. How do these expenditures impact students and the taxpaying community around schools?

Working repairing a roof
Virginia welcome sign
Commentary
9.25.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance

Most schools in America are off track. Virginia is no different.

Michael J. Petrilli

Governor Glenn Youngkin is under fire again from Virginia’s education establishment, this time because a new school accountability system his administration is promoting refuses to put lipstick on a pig.

Virginia welcome sign
Students doing schoolwork on a computer at home
Commentary
9.20.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education

Broader access to advanced coursework: An interview with Jefferson Pestronk, Executive Director of Modern States

Brandon L. Wright

Modern States Education Alliance is a non-profit that makes college-level courses and college credit free to any learner anywhere, including high school students interested in advanced coursework. It offers thirty-two online courses free of charge at www.modernstates.org, including all the necessary textbooks and readings.

Students doing schoolwork on a computer at home
Empty classroom
Commentary
9.19.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance

Repeating history: Long-term economic impact of disrupted school years

Jeff Murray

As school systems around the world continue trying to recover from learning losses caused by the pandemic, a new paper out of Germany gives us some historic context on what to look for and what to be wary of.

Empty classroom
Teacher in a classroom
Commentary
9.13.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

The value proposition of high-quality instructional materials is different than I thought it was

Emily Freitag

As another school year begins, I have been struck by the many different ways leaders and educators talk about instructional materials. At meet-the-teacher nights or staff meetings to explain the move to a new curriculum or in board meetings to explain plans for the year, educators often talk about the role the curriculum will play with bold claims. I have heard:

Teacher in a classroom
Cassette tape
Commentary
9.12.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance

When was American education’s best decade? And how can we tell?

Michael J. Petrilli

This summer, the Washington Post’s (fantastic) “Department of Data” columnist, Andrew Van Dam, ran a fun feature about “America’s best decade,” according to public opinion.

Cassette tape
Student reading
Commentary
9.12.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance

Impacts of a wide-ranging early literacy intervention in California

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

In February 2020, California settled a case which alleged that the state was violating the right to an education by sending kids to schools that didn’t teach them how to read.

Student reading
High school graduates
Commentary
9.5.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance

What’s the point of high school?

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Many states are struggling to revise their high-school graduation requirements, sometimes up, sometimes down. The most basic is the perennial issue of how hard should it be to earn a diploma. The next is how can high schools can possibly prepare thousands of dissimilar young people for the expectations and prerequisites of hundreds of differing post-graduation options?

High school graduates
Parent-teacher conference
Commentary
9.5.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

It’s time for tough love to address chronic absenteeism

David Griffith, Daniel Buck

Despite an unprecedented infusion of resources, the latest data show that American students are struggling to recover

Parent-teacher conference
School tutor
Commentary
9.5.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction

Tutoring outcomes in D.C. public schools, 2022–23

Jeff Murray

Since 2022, public schools in the District of Columbia have been working to mitigate Covid learning disruptions by establishing and ramping up high-impact tutoring (HIT) efforts.

School tutor
Indiana Statehouse
Commentary
8.30.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance

Why Indiana high school diploma changes may do more harm than good

Sophia Craiutu

Indiana’s new proposed legislation on altered diploma requirements redesigns the purpose of a high school education, which I believe will have negative consequences for students across the state, with regard to the diminishing skills of global-mindedness and perspectives.

Indiana Statehouse
School students raising hands
Commentary
8.29.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools

Charter schools outperform traditional public schools on average. Here's why.

Michael J. Petrilli, David Griffith

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.

School students raising hands
Students walking to school
Commentary
8.29.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance

Does competition from charter schools help or hurt traditional public schools?

David Griffith, Heena Kuwayama

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?

Students walking to school