Accountability & Testing

Displaying 91-120 of 504 results
David Brooks
Commentary
11.21.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

David Brooks vs. meritocracy

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Ah, David Brooks. Ordinarily, I’d start a piece in which I plan to (partially) disagree with him by stating that he’s a very smart guy—but what I’m going to push back at this time is his much-disseminated contention that America needs to rethink what “smart” means. Even though his own qualities would likely still qualify under his new formulation, I ought not take chances.

David Brooks
Catholic school
Commentary
11.7.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Governance, Private School Choice

How to ensure accountability in private-school choice programs

Michael J. Petrilli, Devon Nir

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.

Catholic school
Empty classroom
Commentary
11.1.2024
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

We’re living through an education depression

Tim Daly

In 1990, 48 percent of our nation’s eighth graders had very weak math skills. How did we know? They scored in the lowest performance category, Below Basic, on the national test given to a sample of American students every two years.[1]

Empty classroom
Students raising their hands in a school classroom
Commentary
10.24.2024
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

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

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.

Students raising their hands in a school classroom
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
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
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
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, Ph.D., Daniel Buck

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

Parent-teacher conference
MCAS SR image
Commentary
8.27.2024
Accountability & Testing

A timely evaluation of Massachusetts’s test-based graduation requirements

Jeff Murray

In 2003, as part of a broader education reform package, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts began requiring high school students to pass Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exams in math, English language arts, and science in order to earn a diploma.

MCAS SR image
School exterior
Commentary
8.22.2024
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The complicated interplay between race, poverty, and schooling

Michael J. Petrilli

Fordham’s new study by Paul L. Morgan and Eric Hengyu Hu, "Explaining Achievement Gaps: The Role of Socioeconomic Factors," raises as many questions as it answers. Among them: How can we explain the different patterns for the Black-White achievement gap for reading, on the one hand, and math and science, on the other? Why does SES explain so much more of the Hispanic-White gap than the Black-White gap? And what’s the role of family structure in explaining the Black-White and Hispanic-White gaps?

School exterior
Standardized test in school
Commentary
8.1.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The case for standardized testing

Victoria McDougald

By now, we’re well familiar with critiques of standardized testing opponents: tests rob schools of critical instructional time, encourage teaching to the test, place undue pressure on students and educators to perform, are educationally irrelevant, only provide a snapshot of student achievement at a specific moment in time, and are largely driven by family income levels, parents’ education, and

Standardized test in school
Students in a school computer lab
Commentary
7.25.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance

Is “credit recovery” as bad as they say?

Adam Tyner, Ph.D.

For several years now, critics have been blaring klaxons about the questionable quality and increasing

Students in a school computer lab
School student taking a standardized test with a scantron form
Commentary
7.22.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Do testing and accountability improve student learning?

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

In a word, yes! It’s never enough, and there’s no resting on laurels, but we have solid evidence over thirty years in America and beyond that students learn more when they—and their schools—are held to account for what and how well they’re learning.

School student taking a standardized test with a scantron form
High school students taking a test
Commentary
7.11.2024
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

The Great Recalibration of AP exams

John Moscatiello

The Advanced Placement program is undergoing a radical transformation. Over the last three years, the College Board has “recalibrated” nine of its most popular AP Exams so that approximately 500,000 more AP Exams will earn a 3+ score this year than they would have without recalibration.

High school students taking a test
Kamala Harris
Commentary
6.28.2024
Accountability & Testing, School Finance

The Democratic replacement candidates on education

Daniel Buck

Watching the debate last night, all I could think about was my time spent on the playground with my toddler. Her wobbly legs ever close to tumbling down the ladder and causing me constant low-grade anxiety. I felt the same watching Biden fumble through answers, stare into space, and exhibit all the hallmarks of an aging man in cognitive decline.

Kamala Harris
Dart board bullseye
Commentary
6.6.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance

Finding the sweet spot on accountability

Dale Chu

For thirty years, most education reformers have hung their hats on test-based accountability. Let's kick the tail of traditional public schools on standardized tests, as the thinking goes, and much else will take care of itself.

Dart board bullseye
Teacher in a classroom
Commentary
6.6.2024
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Further adventures in teacher-evaluation reform

Charles Barone

In April, Tim Daly penned an incisive three-part series on the trials and tribulations of teacher evaluation reforms.

Teacher in a classroom
Happy school teacher
Commentary
5.17.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Actually, teacher evaluation reform was good—when it happened.

Kevin Huffman

Tim Daly, a friend with whom I usually and enthusiastically agree, recently published a three-part series autopsying the teacher-evaluation reforms of the 2010’s.

Happy school teacher
Students in a classroom
Commentary
5.16.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance

In search of “just right” school ratings: Goldilocks and the three metrics

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

In an effort to avoid prescriptive top-down mandates, the school accountability provisions in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) allow states flexibility in determining what measures they’ll use to assess school quality, how much “weight” they carry, and over what time periods they’re calculated.

Students in a classroom
Upset school teacher
Commentary
5.9.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Let’s talk about bad teachers

Michael J. Petrilli

The issue of bad teachers is the proverbial Gordian Knot, and pulling on a single thread won’t untie it. If we want to get serious about ridding our schools of bad teachers, we must attack many difficult issues all at once—including low teacher pay, collective bargaining agreements, pension systems, and teacher evaluations. Alternatively, we might just focus on weeding out ineffective rookies.

Upset school teacher
Upset school teacher
Commentary
5.3.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Where teacher evaluation went wrong

Tim Daly

Editor’s note: This is the third and final part in a series on teacher evaluation reform.

Upset school teacher
Teacher in a classroom
Commentary
4.25.2024
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Teacher evaluation reform was very successful—on paper

Tim Daly

Editor’s note: This is the second part in a series on teacher evaluation reform. Part one recalled how teacher evaluation became a thing.

Teacher in a classroom
Bored teen student at home doing homework
Commentary
4.9.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

Lengthy school closures were especially hard on high achievers

Brandon L. Wright

To gauge the magnitude of global learning loss during the pandemic, a team at the World Bank examined data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) from 2018–2022, which tests fifteen-year-olds in math, reading, and science.

Bored teen student at home doing homework