Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Measuring the long game in education
Editor’s note: This was first published by Forbes.
Governance
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
If we can’t get rid of bad teachers, then what?
In his recent column “Let’s Talk About Bad Teachers,” Michael Petrilli fearlessly seized the third rail of U.S. K–12 education.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
One new idea, and two old ones, for moving beyond age-based grouping of students
A child’s age is only a crude proxy for their academic readiness, yet it’s the primary means by which we group children in school. More age variety in classrooms could allow for greater academic consistency; grade retention and grade acceleration could help us get there. So too could a new idea from Petrilli: transitional kindergarten–5.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance
Finding the sweet spot on accountability
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.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Further adventures in teacher-evaluation reform
In April, Tim Daly penned an incisive three-part series on the trials and tribulations of teacher evaluation reforms.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
What makes Britain’s most successful school tick: An interview with Headmistress Katharine Birbalsingh
In 2010, Katharine Birbalsingh gave a speech at Britain’s Conservative Party conference, after which the school where she was employed asked her not to return. She eventually established her own school, which now regularly boasts the highest growth scores of any K–12 educational institution in England. Buck recently spoke with her about her school's success.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Governance
Blaming charters for segregation is dumb
Editor’s note: This was first published on the author’s Substack, “citizen stewart,” which covers race, education, and democracy.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Actually, teacher evaluation reform was good—when it happened.
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.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
We need more automatic enrollment for advanced courses
According to national data, children from low-income families and students of color do not have the same access to advanced courses as their more advantaged peers.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Charter schools cultivate knowledge, nurture social capital, and build civil society
As we observe another National Charter School Week, one fact is clear: Families are voting with their feet for charter schools.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Taking curriculum implementation seriously
I’ve made no secret of my fervent belief that curriculum is the overlooked lever in education reform. Replacing the slapdash, incoherent, and under-nourishing mélange of materials to which the typical U.S.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance
In search of “just right” school ratings: Goldilocks and the three metrics
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.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Let’s talk about bad teachers
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.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The evidence for phone bans mounts
It seems every day that yet another story hits the headlines about a school banning phones. Of course, the large majority of schools had nominal prohibitions previously, but they left enforcement up to teachers, which meant most students still slipped them out during class, at lunch, and in the halls.
Commentary
Governance
Will Trump choose an ed reformer as VP?
November’s all-but-settled presidential rematch bears many of the trappings of 2020, except that Donald Trump will pick a new running mate. Who will it be?
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Where teacher evaluation went wrong
Editor’s note: This is the third and final part in a series on teacher evaluation reform.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education
Schools are largely neglecting advanced learners before high school
Fordham is among a wee group of reformers that’s paid attention to advanced education over the last twenty-five years. This disregard has resulted, among other problems, in a lack of informative research for the field. Our latest report addresses one of many unknowns: whether districts across the nation have adopted policies and programs to identify, support, and cultivate the talents of all students capable of tackling advanced-level work.
Commentary
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
A new lost generation: Disengaged, aimless, and adrift
More than a quarter of America’s school-aged children were absent from school 10 percent or more of the time last year. There’s no shortage of explanations on offer for this surge in “chronic absenteeism,” mostly blaming the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath: lockdowns; lowered expectation; health and hardship; bullying and school safety issues.
Commentary
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
LIFO policies harm teacher diversity, teacher quality, and student learning
It may seem tone-deaf to focus on layoffs when the news is fraught with reports of teacher shortages, but much as pandemic recovery funds helped drive these shortages by opening new positions to staff, so too will the end of those funds bring about a painful wave of
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
When it comes to charter schools, slow and steady wins the race
Editor’s note: This was first published by EdNC.org. North Carolina’s charter school movement is at a crossroads.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Time for a ceasefire in the civics wars
The conflict over civics education is unnecessary, driven more by cultural combatants and politicians than by vast divides among parents and citizens regarding what schools should teach and children should learn. If those who inflame these debates would hold their fire, we could build on a latent accord among the clients of civics education.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance
The history of ed reform shows that progress is possible
When my daughters were preteens, they came home from school one day alarmed. During a lesson on climate change, the teacher or some part of the lesson, it was never quite clear, had basically stated that, absent radical attention to warming, there would be little hope for survivability on earth after 2030. This was during peak Greta Thunberg–mania.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Teacher evaluation reform was very successful—on paper
Editor’s note: This is the second part in a series on teacher evaluation reform. Part one recalled how teacher evaluation became a thing.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Next, curtail the Chromebooks
Phone bans are the hottest education policy since banning critical race theory. Districts across the country are strictly limiting their use, locking them in Yondr bags, or confiscating and sealing them away before the first bell. The next step in making classrooms conducive to teaching and learning: limiting the laptops.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Are America’s schools ready for World War III?
Noah Smith, writing in his Substack newsletter last week, argues that Americans are imprudently burying their heads in the sand at the increasing prospect of a global Sino-American clash.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
High-dosage tutoring can help remediate learning loss, but funding is running out
Across the country, schools are working to help students recover from pandemic learning losses.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Early childhood education matters. Is “transitional kindergarten” a feasible option?
High-quality early childhood education (ECE) offers a promising means of boosting both achievement and equity, yet districts and states across the nation face educator
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
How did teacher evaluation become a thing?
Editor’s note: This was first published on the author’s Substack, The Education Daly. Are teachers interchangeable parts?
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
Doing educational equity wrong
For the past several months, Petrilli been pumping out posts about “doing educational equity right.” This series concludes with a twist by looking at three ways that schools are doing educational equity wrong: by engaging in the soft bigotry of low expectations, tying teachers’ hands without good reason, and acting like equity isn’t just an important thing, but the only thing.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The “case for curriculum” is about reducing teachers’ workload
Last weekend, I gave a talk at the U.S.
