Governance

Displaying 601-630 of 1416 results
Commentary
7.13.2023
School Finance, Governance

Low- and high-income schools now receive equal funding

Adam Tyner, Ph.D.

State-level school finance reforms and, to a lesser extent, increases in federal funding for schools have worked: America’s shamefully persistent inequities in school funding are finally a thing of the past. School funding is now generally progressive, meaning that students from poor families typically attend better-funded schools than students from wealthier families in the same state.

Golf ball in sand trap
Commentary
7.13.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The accountability conundrum

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Editor's note: Read more about this topic in Finn's essay in National Affairs, "The Accountability Challenge."

Golf ball in sand trap
Commentary
7.13.2023
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Stop calling them book bans

Daniel Buck

You may have heard that conservative parent groups are banning books. From the Pulitzer-prize winning graphic novel Maus, to seemingly anything that addresses LGBT themes, such groups are challenging their inclusion in libraries and on curricula.

Commentary
7.6.2023
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Advanced Education

Who loses when we abolish entrance exams

Daniel Buck

In the wake of last week’s affirmative action decision, most analysts expect the recent enthusiasm for test-optional admissions policies to continue—if for no other reason than to make schools’ racial gerrymandering less transparent. Yet the students who will lose most in the process are the very students that these measures ostensibly seek to help: high performing, underprivileged students.

Commentary
7.6.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders

Giving marginalized students better access to customized learning opportunities

Katrina Boone

Recent policy innovations such as education savings accounts, microgrants, and tax credits address some of the financial barriers that prevent families from accessing flexible education opportunities.

Commentary
6.29.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders

Why conservatives should embrace open enrollment

Aaron Garth Smith, Jude Schwalbach

America’s school choice moment has finally arrived, but the vast majority of students nationwide still attend traditional public schools—and will for the foreseeable future. Conservatives would be wise to support policies that give families choices within the public education system. Cross-district open enrollment does precisely that, and it has strong bipartisan support.

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Commentary
6.29.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Three terrifying findings in the latest NAEP results

Vladimir Kogan

Parents and policymakers inured to years of depressing headlines about learning disruptions in the wake of the pandemic might be tempted to shrug at the latest federal test data on the achievement of thirteen-year-olds as more of the same.

1
Commentary
6.27.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

More NAEP losses for high achievers—and how to reverse them

Brandon L. Wright

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
6.22.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance

Do tests predict later success?

Dan Goldhaber, Michael DeArmond

Standardized tests and test-based accountability have come under serious criticism in recent years. One of the most important questions is whether improving student learning, as measured by test scores, helps improve students’ opportunities later in life. It’s a tough issue to study, but the weight of the evidence says: yes.

Commentary
6.22.2023
Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice

School choice battles continue across the country

Terry Ryan

While national school-choice advocates crow about recent legislative victories in states like Iowa, Utah, South Carolina, and West Virginia, setbacks and struggles simmer in Illinois, Montana, and Idaho.

Commentary
6.22.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

New York City’s selective high schools work

Wai Wah Chin

This month, New York City students received their offers to the city’s eight specialized high schools. As has been the case in recent years, Asian students form over half of the admittees, followed by White, Hispanic, and Black students.

Commentary
6.22.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance

More evidence that all charter schools shouldn’t be lumped together

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

It should be common knowledge by now that all charter schools—like all district schools and, for that matter, all private schools—are not created equal. Nor do they produce equal outcomes.

Commentary
6.14.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

How school systems can balance equity and excellence in their advanced education initiatives

Michael J. Petrilli

One of the most important efforts in America today is making sure we have as large and diverse a group of academic high achievers as possible in order to meet tomorrow’s challenges. A new report released this week—Building a Wider, More Diverse Pipeline of Advanced Learners—offers three-dozen recommendations to education leaders and policymakers at all levels on how to accomplish this.

Commentary
6.8.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Classical charter school enrollment skyrockets in Texas

Cassidy Syftestad, Albert Cheng

Recent shifts in enrollment patterns across Texas school sectors have gone in one direction—out of traditional public schools. Within those shifts, a disproportionately large swath of students has left for classical charter schools. These trends reflect a wider renaissance of classical schooling across the United States.

Commentary
6.6.2023
Charter Schools, Governance

Catch up on the religious charter schools debate

The Education Gadfly

In a 3-2 decision yesterday, an Oklahoma state board defied the attorney general and approved the nation’s first religious charter school. Those of us at Fordham have been following the debate closely. These blog posts and podcasts will help you get up to speed:

Commentary
6.1.2023
Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice

School choice proponents must wrestle with its shortcomings

Daniel Buck

Thomas Sowell famously quipped that “there are no solutions, only tradeoffs.” Even seemingly beneficial policies have repercussions. Reduce the prison population and crime increases. Close schools to prevent the spread of Covid and standardized test scores plummet. What’s more, even historic, society-altering changes come with side effects.

Commentary
5.25.2023
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

School systems’ essential quest for coherence

Emily Freitag

Every leader of a state or school system gets asked the question, “How do all of the things we are doing fit together?” It’s a question about “coherence”—the Holy Grail of education, says Freitag. And for the last two years, she has worked with leaders of four offices in one state with the goal of finding more of it. Here’s what she learned.

Commentary
5.25.2023
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance

The CLT is a growing, classical alternative to the ACT and SAT: An interview with its co-founder

Daniel Buck

Last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation that allowed high schoolers to use the Classic Learning Test (CLT)—a classical alternative to the SAT and ACT—to qualify for the state’s Bright Futures scholarship. Already accepted at over 200 colleges, this legislation is the CLT’s biggest boost yet.

Commentary
5.25.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Another nail in the “money doesn’t matter” coffin

Adam Tyner, Ph.D.

In recent years, the debate on the impact of financial resources in education has been petering out. Studies showing that more money for schools has had a discernable effect on student academic outcomes, particularly for students from lower-income families, keep accumulating.

Commentary
5.25.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Dire straits: Taking stock of and addressing pandemic-related learning loss

Victoria McDougald

As the school year winds down, and with the World Health Organization officially declaring the emergency phase of the Covid-19 pandemic over earlier this month, many students, parents, a

Commentary
5.18.2023
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance

Getting reading legislation right

Dale Chu

Indiana’s Republican governor just signed into law a bill that mandates, among other

Commentary
5.11.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance

Do charter schools improve outcomes for English learners?

David Griffith, Ph.D., Michael J. Petrilli

The number of English learners in charter schools has increased markedly in recent years, but our knowledge of how well charters serve these students hasn’t kept pace with that growth. That’s why we conducted our new study, "Charter Schools and English Learners in the Lone Star State." It finds, among other things, that compared to their traditional public school peers, English learners in Texas charters are more likely to graduate high school and enroll in college. They also earn more money in the post-college years.

Commentary
5.11.2023
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders

An evolving landscape calls for a “both/and” approach to school choice and charter schools

Frederick M. Hess

This year’s state legislative sessions, now coming to a close, have yielded a blizzard of high-profile victories on school choice, from the enactment of universal education savings accounts (ESA) programs, to the expansion of private school choice policies to serve many more families, to fairer funding for charter schools.