Accountability & Testing

Displaying 211-240 of 501 results
Checker editorial 4-28-22 image
Commentary
4.28.2022
Accountability & Testing

The little-known test that matters the most

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

How do we know whether kids in Pennsylvania are better or worse readers at the end of middle school than their peers in Colorado? We wouldn’t know that or much else without a test that may have escaped your notice altogether, unless you’re some sort of education-obsessed policy maker or policy wonk like me. I’m talking about the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Checker editorial 4-28-22 image
MP AN blog 4-14-22 image
Commentary
4.14.2022
Accountability & Testing

A better way to measure student absenteeism

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

For many parents and teachers, the Covid experience has confirmed at least two pieces of common sense: It’s hard for kids to learn if they’re not in school, and those who are in school tend to learn more.

MP AN blog 4-14-22 image
Report
4.13.2022
Accountability & Testing

Imperfect Attendance: Toward a fairer measure of student absenteeism

Jing Liu, Ph.D.

The need to understand how schools can improve student attendance has never been greater. This study breaks new ground by examining high schools’ contributions to attendance—that is, their “attendance value-added.”

Commentary
4.7.2022
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Denver doesn’t spell doom for portfolio-style reform

Paul T. Hill

Last week, Chester Finn used a recent vote of Denver’s anti-reform school board to make three points: first, that the “portfolio” reform there—based on school autonomy, family choice, and chartering out schools where kids aren’t learning—is finished; second, that Denver’s reversal predicts doom elsewhere for complex reform initiatives meant to transform the ways whole public systems operate; an

Commentary
4.7.2022
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

More reform lessons from Denver

Susan Miller, Tom Coyne

After living through the transformation of K–12 education in Alberta, Canada, we moved from Calgary to Colorado in 2010. Since then, we have watched the Denver Public Schools story unfold from next door in Jefferson County.

Commentary
3.24.2022
Accountability & Testing, Governance

Lively days for NAEP

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Those who pay attention to the “Nation’s Report Card” tend to take it for granted. In truth, most people heed it not at all.

Commentary
3.18.2022
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Should we be worried about rising inflation?

Seth Gershenson, Ph.D.

Inflation is up, and no, I’m not talking about gas prices. I’m talking about some troubling trends observed among the 2019 graduating class of high school students in the recently released 2019 NAEP High School Transcript Study.

Commentary
3.17.2022
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education

San Francisco’s detracking experiment

Tom Loveless

Editor's note: This post was originally published on tomloveless.com.

Commentary
2.3.2022
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders

Did public education have it coming?

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

In many ways, the educational failures of the past several years—including those caused by the pandemic—were far worse than they needed to be because of long-standing characteristics of American public education. Namely, the tendency to place employees’ interests first, the disempowering of parents, and the failure to innovate.

Commentary
1.27.2022
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

A century of school reform, through the eyes of Larry Cuban

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Confessions of a School Reformer, a new book by emeritus Stanford education professor Larry Cuban, still going strong at eighty-eight, combines personal memoir with a history and analysis of U.S.

Commentary
1.20.2022
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

The case for starting NAEP in kindergarten

Michael J. Petrilli

Way back in the late 1960s, when federal officials and eminent psychologists were first designing the National Assessment of Educational Progress, they probably never contemplated testing students younger than nine. After all, the technology for mass testing at the time—bubble sheets and No.

Commentary
12.9.2021
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Education’s enduring love affair with “luxury beliefs”

Robert Pondiscio

The proof of a powerful idea is how well it sticks. Once you hear about it “you start to see it everywhere,” as Bari Weiss puts it. She was describing “luxury beliefs,” a phrase coined by Rob Henderson, an Air Force veteran and Ph.D.

Commentary
11.11.2021
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Would eliminating college admissions tests really make education more equitable?

Adam Tyner, Ph.D.

When the University of California began phasing-out college admissions test scores as part of a recent legal settlement, the rationale was “equity.” Lawyers for the students who brought the lawsuit said that “SAT and ACT scores are largely a proxy for a student’s socioeconomic background and race,” rather than measures of ac

Commentary
11.4.2021
Accountability & Testing, Private School Choice

The complexities of accountability and private school choice

Jessica Poiner

Among its many educational impacts, the pandemic has reenergized efforts to expand private school choice. States like Ohio, where it already existed, have expanded eligibility and increased funding.

Commentary
10.28.2021
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The case for K–2 testing

Dale Chu

Under federal law, states must assess students annually in reading and math in grades 3–8 and at least once during high school, as well as testing science once in elementary, middle, and high school.

Commentary
9.16.2021
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Blinding ourselves to America’s achievement woes

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Much as happened after A Nation at Risk, the U.S. finds itself facing a bleak education fate, even as many deny the problem. Back then, however, the denials came mostly from the education establishment, while governors, business leaders, and even U.S.

Commentary
9.2.2021
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

A better way to improve literacy among Black and Hispanic children

Ian Rowe

For 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.

Commentary
8.26.2021
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

More dumb things done in the name of educational “equity”

Dale Chu

Parents 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.

Commentary
8.12.2021
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Can changing our eduspeak help with post-pandemic schooling?

Dale Chu

The 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

Commentary
8.5.2021
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Busting the belief gap via regular student assessment

Jeff Murray

At 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.

Commentary
8.3.2021
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Remote instruction is to blame for plummeting test scores

Nat Malkus

Texas recently became the first state to release state test score data since the pandemic hit.

Commentary
7.29.2021
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance

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