Podcast
Governance
#855: How states are fighting credential inflation, with Rick Hess
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Rick Hess of
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Toward a broader conception of student success—and a broader conception of accountability
I have held firm to this belief since my early days of teaching: Getting students to proficiency and above in reading and math is a commitment to social justice and democracy. Education can empower students to change the world, especially when it counters cycles of poverty.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Governance
Interpreting the Covid impact on achievement
The release of “The Nation’s Report Card” on October 24, 2022, created shock waves though out the country’s education and policy establishments.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Standards
Fordham is proud of our (limited) role in Virginia’s effort to improve its civics and U.S. history standards
We were glad to function in that capacity for Virginia as we’ve done for many other states over the years. But it’s also been implied by some that we tried to inject the draft standards with conservative bias, even to “whitewash” history, and that is completely false.
Commentary
School Finance, Governance, Private School Choice
Public dollars, private schools
For the vast majority of America’s children, going to school has changed little from their parents’ generation, even their grandparents’: Where you live is where you learn, in a school run by your local public school district.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance
Getting ready for future employment opportunity: Evidence from Pittsburgh
Reversing decades of economic struggle in America’s former manufacturing centers is a high priority for leaders in cities and regions across the nation. Many would like to see technology-focused industries lead such a resurgence, but do they have enough qualified workers? And if not, how can they increase those numbers?
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Impact of community schools on attendance and achievement
Many experts have lauded community schools as a means of mitigating the impact of pandemic-era c
Podcast
Governance
Education Gadfly Show #854: How districts should prepare for the coming school closures, with Tim Daly
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast,
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, High Achievers, Teachers & School Leaders
Driving equity in gifted policies: Insights from Harlem Academy in New York City
Editor’s note: This essay was part of an edition of “Advance,” a newsletter from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute that is 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
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The true enemy of equity
Advocates have turned “equity” into a trigger word by pitting the concept against “excellence.” But that line of argument is not only politically unpopular, it’s wrong. In fact, excellence is not the enemy of equity, but the antidote to inequity.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance
“Curriculum transparency” is harder to achieve than lawmakers assume
House Republicans this week introduced a curriculum transparency bill aimed at ensuring parents know what their kids are learning in school, particularly when that includes “divisive concepts” like critical race theory, which has been banned from classrooms or restricted i
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice
Rural school choice is more common than you think
A common observation made by critics of school choice is that it has little to offer families in rural communities where the population isn’t large enough to support multiple schools, and where transportation is already burdensome. I’ve made the point myself, and I’m a school choice proponent.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
One teacher’s response to the reading wars
Sold a Story, the podcast series from American Public Media, is essential listening for parents and teachers. Through six episodes, host Emily Hanford documents how schools failed to adequately teach reading to students over the past thirty years.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The impact of regulatory flexibility on the teacher workforce in Massachusetts charter schools
One hallmark of charter schools—distinct from their traditional district peers—is flexibility in their HR practices.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Facilities, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
We need to prepare now for the school closures that are coming
School closures are awful. I won’t argue otherwise.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Charter school teacher turnover and retention
As one article at National Affairs put it, the cries about a nation-wide teacher shortage are “heavy on anecdote and speculation” but rather light on data.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, High Achievers, Teachers & School Leaders
The typical gifted program is likely to become even less equitable
By now the unfinished learning that resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic is old news.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Would capturing student growth in grades K–2 lead to different school ratings?
In the wake of dismal NAEP reading scores released earlier this year,
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
Friendships between rich and poor promote upward mobility: School career pathways program help do this
Economic connectedness is among the strongest predictors of upward income mobility—stronger than measures like school quality, job availability, family structure, or a community’s racial makeup.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Times change, principles endure: Bill Bennett’s "Book of Virtues" at 30
It’s poignant to read the mainstream media fanfare and reviews that greeted William J.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Private School Choice
Voucher lotteries and college enrollment outcomes
Authorized by Congress in 2004, the Washington, D.C., Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) is one of the longest-standing voucher programs in the nation. It is also the only federally-funded one. While its fortunes have changed as congressional and executive branch leadership has switched parties over the years, the program has endured.
Podcast
Governance
Education Gadfly Show #849: The success of Denver’s “portfolio”-style school reform, with Parker Baxter
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Mike Petrilli and David Griffith talk
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The strongest argument for charter schools is the truth
In a new NEPC policy memo, Duke public policy professor Helen Ladd argues that charter schools “disrupt” what she claims are the four core goals of American education policy: “establishing coherent systems of schools,” “appropriate accountability for the use of public funds,” “limiting racial segregation and isolation,” and “attending to child poverty and disadvantage.” Griffith disputes all four counts.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Institutionalism, not policy, is the biggest barrier to reinventing high schools
Editor’s note: This essay is an entry in Fordham’s 2022 Wonkathon, which asked contributors to address a fundamental and challenging question: “How can states remove policies barriers that are keeping educators from reinventing high schools?”
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Families are shrinking high schools with or without help from policymakers
Editor’s note: This essay is an entry in Fordham’s 2022 Wonkathon, which asked contributors to address a fundamental and challenging question: “How can states remove policies barriers that are keeping educators from reinventing high schools?”
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance
Is military enlistment a pathway to upward mobility?
Of the three main postsecondary pathways for American high school graduates—college enrollment, job employment, and military enlistment—the last is arguably least studied in terms of outcomes for those who follow it. A team of analysts led by West Point’s Kyle Greenberg helps fill the void with newly-published research drawing on thirty years of data.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
How some states are fixing problems with early childhood education
A FutureEd report released earlier this year analyzes the problems facing early childhood education offerings across the country and how some states have tackled them.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, High Achievers, Teachers & School Leaders
The case for gifted education
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
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Career & Technical Education, Governance
The good and bad news about declining U.S. poverty rates
Recent news articles have heralded a long-term decline in the U.S.
Commentary
Governance
How conservatives can lead on K–12
The right is well-positioned to lead on education. The left’s intimate ties with unions, public bureaucracies, and higher education have turned it into the apologist and paymaster for the education establishment. The right, meanwhile, is free to reimagine institutions and arrangements in ways the left is not. Moreover, as the left has found itself defending woke excesses, conservatives are put in a position to defend broadly shared values.
