Displaying 121-150 of 1392 results
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
Teacher talking to a student
Commentary
8.29.2024
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Tough love should be the theme of 2024–25

Michael J. Petrilli

Society as a whole has largely bounced back from the dark days of the pandemic, but life inside our schools is arguably worse than ever. Attendance is dismal. Cheating is pervasive. Cell phones are everywhere. Disorder abounds. And for all these reasons and more, kids are learning less than they were back before the plague struck. The right way to respond is to embrace tough love. That means, first and foremost, again holding students accountable for their behavior.

Teacher talking to a student
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
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
Dr. Kathleen O’Toole
Commentary
8.22.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Inside the classical school renaissance: An interview with Dr. Kathleen O’Toole

Daniel Buck

Classical education is undergoing a renaissance. According to a recent analysis by Arcadia Education, the classical sector is growing by 5 percent annually with a total projected enrollment of 1.4 million students by 2035.

Dr. Kathleen O’Toole
Frustrated school teacher
Commentary
8.22.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

How have teacher working conditions changed since the pandemic?

Heena Kuwayama

As a teacher both during and immediately after the pandemic, I was constantly on the receiving end of some version of: “You must be so relieved that the pandemic is over.” My response was always: “Actually, it has only gotten worse.” And it’s not just me.

Frustrated school teacher
Report
8.21.2024
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Explaining Achievement Gaps: The Role of Socioeconomic Factors

Eric Hengyu Hu, Ph.D., Paul L. Morgan, Ph.D.

Racial achievement gaps in schools are well documented and remain a significant cause of concern in education. Troubling too is that the role of socioeconomic disparities in mediating these gaps remains unresolved.

School library
Commentary
8.15.2024
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

They’re still not book bans

Daniel Buck

Just when I thought that book ban debates were so last year—gone the way of critical race theory or the Common Core, subsumed by the latest controversy over Title IX or Project 2025—it seems those grouchy conservatives are at it again.

School library
School robotics class
Commentary
8.15.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

Threading the needle on selective enrollment public schools

Michael J. Petrilli

A recent article in the Boston Globe dug into a controversy that is dogging Massachusetts’s highly-regarded system of regional career and technical education (CTE) high schools.

School robotics class
Teacher talking to a student
Commentary
8.6.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Teachers & School Leaders

Is racial mismatch in the classroom fixable?

Zia George

Despite the growing diversity of American students, the teaching workforce remains disproportionately White. A recent study uses twelve years of administrative data from Maryland to examine the factors contributing to the state's chronic shortage of Black teachers.

Teacher talking to a student
Closed school
Commentary
8.1.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Facilities, Governance

Stop playing the race card on school closures

Vladimir Kogan

Everyone who cares about racial justice should be focused on doing what’s best for students and their learning—not on school buildings or the employment impact of closing some of them.

Closed school
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