Displaying 91-120 of 1362 results
Working repairing a roof
Commentary
9.26.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Facilities, School Finance, Governance

Does spending on school facilities raise student test scores?

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

Schools across the country spend billions of dollars each year on the construction and renovation of their facilities—everything from roof repairs to new science labs and from classroom expansions to whole new buildings. How do these expenditures impact students and the taxpaying community around schools?

Working repairing a roof
Virginia welcome sign
Commentary
9.25.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance

Most schools in America are off track. Virginia is no different.

Michael J. Petrilli

Governor Glenn Youngkin is under fire again from Virginia’s education establishment, this time because a new school accountability system his administration is promoting refuses to put lipstick on a pig.

Virginia welcome sign
Students doing schoolwork on a computer at home
Commentary
9.20.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education

Broader access to advanced coursework: An interview with Jefferson Pestronk, Executive Director of Modern States

Brandon L. Wright

Modern States Education Alliance is a non-profit that makes college-level courses and college credit free to any learner anywhere, including high school students interested in advanced coursework. It offers thirty-two online courses free of charge at www.modernstates.org, including all the necessary textbooks and readings.

Students doing schoolwork on a computer at home
Kamala Harris
Commentary
9.19.2024
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

What Kamala Harris should do on education and training

Bruno V. Manno

Kamala Harris’s presidential acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention promised Americans “an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and the chance to succeed.” But working-class Americans are glum about their economic position today and what this promise means for them.

Kamala Harris
Empty classroom
Commentary
9.19.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance

Repeating history: Long-term economic impact of disrupted school years

Jeff Murray

As school systems around the world continue trying to recover from learning losses caused by the pandemic, a new paper out of Germany gives us some historic context on what to look for and what to be wary of.

Empty classroom
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
Kathleen Porter-Magee
Commentary
9.12.2024
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Exit Interview: Kathleen Porter-Magee, Superintendent of Partnership Schools

Robert Pondiscio

For ten years, veteran education reformer Kathleen Porter-Magee led Partnership Schools, an independent charter-like management organization that ran Catholic schools on behalf of the archdiocese of New York and, currently, Cleveland. She recently announced that she was stepping down. Here she discusses the lessons she learned.

Kathleen Porter-Magee
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.

Empty classroom
Commentary
8.20.2024
Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

I got caught teaching advanced students

Jason Gorgia

“Come see me in the office.” Uh oh. I probably got caught teaching again.

Empty classroom
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