Podcast
Governance
Commentary
Governance
How Biden, Pelosi, and McConnell could work together on education
Now that the election is over—and yes, President Trump, it is over—all eyes are on the runoff elections in Georgia, given that they will determine control of the Senate for the first two years of the Biden administration. The conventional wisdom is that Republicans will win at least one of those seats, given that GOP turnout is usually higher in special elections.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Will students recover their Covid-19 learning losses?
Here in Fordham’s pages, I’ve previously written about the challenge of Covid-19 learning losses at the macro level. In this article, I focus on the micro level.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Testing, accountability, NAEP, and reading
For those of us who still believe that results-based school accountability is an essential part of the education renewal that America sorely needs, not many things are looking great this week.
Commentary
Governance
The case for Sonja Santelises as the twelfth U.S. Secretary of Education
When it comes to education and the incoming Biden administration, all eyes are on who is put forward, likely before the year is out, as the next secretary of education.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Memo to policymakers: Help teachers focus on reading
At the tail end of a recent symposium titled “Why children can’t read—and what we can do about it” hosted by American Enterprise Institute, Margaret Goldberg, a California first grade teacher and founder of the
Commentary
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Reinventing ed reform with a focus on opportunity and social capital
Nothing better evokes education reform’s predicament today than what occurred in late July when the National Basketball Association restarted its 2020 season. Players were given the option of featuring on the back of their jerseys one of about thirty messages.
Commentary
Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
The racial-justice war on merit-based schools is an injustice against excellence, critics say
At a virtual town hall in Brooklyn about how the pandemic will change admissions to high-performing selective schools, New York City officials got a lecture on systemic racism.
Commentary
School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Democrats’ ed designs dealt setback in statehouses
Control of state legislatures is particularly important in a census year, but it’s also an often-overlooked element in driving substantive education policy changes. National politics takes up all the oxygen, but it’s state legislators who make most of the big decisions about how a state’s public-education system operates, is funded, is held accountable (if at all), and much more.
Commentary
Governance
Suing for peace in the culture wars
Despite the divisiveness of the past four years, we should give peace a chance and heed President-Elect Biden’s plain but true words: “It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again. And to make progress, we have to stop treating our opponents as our enemies. They are not our enemies, they are Americans.”
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Create more autonomous, accountable district schools. Here's how.
Education wasn’t explicitly on the national ballot in 2020, but education is always on the ballot, even when you don’t see it. Now that the election is behind us, education reformers can focus again on states and communities, where most of the important decisions about K–12 education get made.
Commentary
Governance
Finding inspiration in Idaho voters
Divisiveness, anger, frustration, mistrust, and threats. That is the narrative emerging around the 2020 presidential election. What I saw on election day as an Ada County poll worker in Boise, Idaho, couldn’t have been more different. The election I witnessed and served was distinctly positive and hopeful.
Podcast
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Governance
The Education Gadfly Show: What the election means for education reform
Commentary
Governance
Cancel partisan politics to reopen our schools safely and sensibly
As we conclude a particularly fraught and divisive presidential election, most Americans (and even those of us who live in D.C.) welcome a reprieve from the constant onslaught of negative political ads, contentious debates, and around-the-clock election coverage.
Commentary
School Finance, Governance
Our aging population will end this golden era of school spending
Spend a few minutes on education Twitter or listening to the loudest special-interest voices, and you’d think the future of public education hinges on whether Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, and the president can agree to another stimulus deal. That’s just a short-term Washington game—that will likely soon have a new roster of players.
Commentary
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Are schools essential or not?
Are schools essential or aren’t they? Are teachers essential workers or aren’t they? How would Americans respond if large numbers of doctors, nurses, policemen, firemen, and postal workers simply opted to stay home—and their unions defended them? If you’re essential, you go to work.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
About those 12th grade NAEP scores: The cake was (mostly) baked years ago
As we previously saw at the 4th grade and 8th grade levels, the just-released 2019 12 grade NAEP results were mostly flat or down. But we already knew from the 2015 results that this cohort of students entered high school performing below their older peers.
Commentary
Governance
Three gubernatorial contests with important ed implications
As the clock winds down on the 2020 presidential campaign, what seems certain is that the path forward on education reform will not be through whoever wins the White House.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Don’t place all the blame on our high schools—or Trump—if the 12th-grade test scores disappoint this week
On Wednesday, the government will release the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress scores for twelfth grade students.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Governance
How charter supporters can win over Joe Biden
On paper, it seems like Joe Biden would champion the cause of expanding high-quality charter schools, given his identity as a longtime centrist Democrat. Yet he doesn't. Thankfully for charter supporters, there pragmatic ways to bring him around, should he win the election next month
Commentary
School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Strategies to help schools navigate the Covid-19 cash crunch
In education, one of the more bizarre debates of the past quarter century has been over whether more money improves students’ outcomes. It’s tough to think of anywhere else in American life where we’d even have that discussion.
Commentary
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Creating autonomous schools in traditional districts
The Progressive Policy Institute’s indefatigable David Osborne, a long-time student of and advocate for quality charter schools, now joined by Tressa Pankovits, has penned a valu
Podcast
Governance, Advanced Education
The Education Gadfly Show: The loathsome war on exam schools
On this week’s podcast, Fordham’s Checker Finn joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the growing, misguided war on selective-admissions
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Partisanship and American education
What are we teaching the children about our country? The short answer: not much.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The case for urban charter schools
Contrary to much public rhetoric, the evidence for expanding charter schools in urban areas is stronger than ever. To be sure, the research is less positive for charters operating outside of the nation’s urban centers. And multiple studies suggest that internet-based schools and charters that serve mostly middle-class students, perform worse than their district counterparts, at least on traditional test-score-based measures. But charters needn’t work everywhere to be of service to society.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Charter schooling on the ropes?
The negative partisanship animating this year’s presidential contest notwithstanding, charter school advocates will have their hands full no matter who prevails.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Ohio’s charter school turnaround
For a number of years, Ohio’s charter school sector has been more of a punchline than an exemplar in national debates about charters. The criticisms, though sometimes exaggerated, were not entirely unwarranted.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Denver school board champions Black excellence, except in charter schools
The Denver school board spent forty-five minutes Monday getting an update on its Black Excellence Resolution and worthy efforts being made at district and school levels to address systemic racism and implicit bias.
Commentary
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
School leaders must spend money more efficiently. Here are four places to start.
There used to be two sureties when it came to American K–12 education: Kids would attend school, and school leaders would demand more money.
Commentary
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Forecasting the long-run costs of coronavirus
Modeling the effects of a global pandemic while it’s ongoing seems like a prime example of “inexact science.” It’s also sure to depress. But it’s happening.
