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Commentary

1.13.2022

Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Now is not the time for OCR to meddle in school disciplinary policy

Michael J. Petrilli

Any day now, Catherine Lhamon, the assistant U.S. secretary of education for civil rights, is expected to release new guidance for school districts that’ll reinstate an Obama-era policy limiting the use of suspensions and the like in the name of reducing racial disparities in “exclusionary discipline.” It couldn’t come at a worse time.

Commentary

1.13.2022

Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Mission, vision, and virtue

Jennifer Frey

Education in the classical sense is padeia: a holistic approach to student formation that is geared towards the cultivation of the student’s mind, imagination, perception, and emotions so that they become the type of person who can flourish and thrive inside the school community and well beyond.

Commentary

1.13.2022

Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Stop focusing on class size

Daniel Buck

The Nation ran quite a headline last month: “To Reduce Inequality in Our Education System, Reduce Class Sizes.” Surely we might expect substantive evidence to follow such a pronouncement, especially in the midst of a staffing shortage.

Commentary

1.13.2022

Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Not much to show nationally from a decade of teacher evaluation reforms

Victoria McDougald

Spurred in large part by an infusion of over $4 billion in federal Race to the Top funds, beginning in 2009, nearly all states and the District of Columbia implemented major reforms to their teacher evaluation systems.

Commentary

1.13.2022

Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Sharpening the picture of early pandemic schooling

Jeff Murray

While it’s no secret that pandemic-induced remote learning was a disaster for almost all students in 2020 and 2021, we must remind ourselves that in-person education models weren't so great

Commentary

1.7.2022

Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Why authorizers shouldn’t shy away from helping their charter schools improve

Alex Medler

A decade ago, most charter school authorizers agreed it was not their job to help struggling charter schools. But times have changed, and best practices in charter school authorizing are evolving.

Commentary

12.16.2021

Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Civility, democracy, and education

Jennifer Frey

Most of our founding fathers believed that a democracy is only as good as its citizens, since democracy only flourishes with citizens who are capable of governing themselves. But we have lost our understanding of the connection between virtue, self-government, and democracy. Indeed, few students today learn anything about virtue, let alone see any connection between it and the fate of our republic.

Commentary

12.16.2021

Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The long road to education recovery: Three ways for districts to redeem themselves

Dale Chu

This school year was supposed to be the one when things returned back to normal. If only that were true.

Commentary

12.16.2021

Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Online courses and college degree completion

Jeff Murray

Students’ inability to enroll in required courses—due to capacity or scheduling constraints—can stymie progress toward a college degree. New findings published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis suggest that online courses can help keep students on track to college graduation.

Commentary

12.16.2021

Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Boosting the effectiveness of STEM role models

Jeff Murray

Providing relatable role models for young people is a guiding principle by which STEM practitioners hope to motivate scientists of the future and diversify their ranks. Conscious of the importance of this endeavor, New York University researchers Jessica Gladstone and Andrei Cimpian examined the literature on role modeling to identify strategies for maximizing its motivational impact.

Commentary

12.14.2021

Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Build Back Better’s risks on early childhood education are manageable and outweighed by the benefits

Elliot Regenstein

The funding system for early childhood education envisioned in Build Back Better is far superior to the one we have now. But as always in public policy, the transition from one condition to another is fraught with risks.

Commentary

12.9.2021

Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The best and worst metro areas for school quality may surprise you

Michael J. Petrilli

Fordham newest study ranks schools in the nation’s 100 largest metro areas, with heavy focus on academic growth. Many of America’s “superstar cities” appear far less super when examined through this lens. Some have a right to brag—but others would be well advised to stop resting on their laurels and work harder to improve all students’ progress.

Commentary

12.9.2021

Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Education’s enduring love affair with “luxury beliefs”

Robert Pondiscio

The proof of a powerful idea is how well it sticks. Once you hear about it “you start to see it everywhere,” as Bari Weiss puts it. She was describing “luxury beliefs,” a phrase coined by Rob Henderson, an Air Force veteran and Ph.D.

Commentary

12.9.2021

Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Conservatives: Let’s focus on winning policy, not just winning politics

Karen Nussle

There’s been lots of jabber lately about what the upset win by Glenn Youngkin in the recent Virginia gubernatorial race means for education policy.

Commentary

12.9.2021

Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Proof that online credit recovery has been on the rise

Adam Tyner, Ph.D.

Recent years have seen a move to eliminate homework and relax grading standards, and struggles by teachers and students to do their work during the pandemic have accelerated this trend. Some educators and commentators, however, fret that these new practices amount to lowering standards.

Report

12.8.2021

Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

America’s Best and Worst Metro Areas for School Quality

Thomas B. Fordham Institute

"America’s Best and Worst Metro Areas for School Quality" is the first analysis to use nationally comparative data to evaluate the effectiveness of large and mid-size metro areas on school quality. Use our interactive data tool to see how your metro area stacks up.

Commentary

12.3.2021

Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

In defense of suspensions

Daniel Buck

A student was arrested after an attempted stabbing at Montgomery Blair High School.

Commentary

12.3.2021

Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Education is progressive. Schools are conservative.

Robert Pondiscio

Editor’s note: This was first published by Newsweek.

Commentary

12.2.2021

Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

Attacking gifted education is bad policy and bad politics

Brandon L. Wright

Education for high achievers has come under siege in blue cities and states as the national focus has shifted to racial equity in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder. But such attacks, even when well-intentioned, are misguided. They target a problem’s symptom rather than its cause, and in doing so, harm students and defy parents.

Commentary

12.2.2021

Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Teaching gratitude beyond Thanksgiving

Jennifer Frey

Once a year, parents of young children can look forward to their kids coming home from school with turkeys drawn by hand and heartwarming lists of what they are grateful for, with loving parents and helpful teachers usually at the top of the list. This happens just before families pack up and travel to be together and give thanks for all the blessings of the year.

Commentary

12.2.2021

Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

The centrality of instructional materials: My experience with Doug Lemov’s Reading Reconsidered Curriculum

Daniel Buck

I’m a rather dreadful cook. Nonetheless, in the summer, with easy access to farm-fresh vegetables and the internet’s profusion of recipes, my wan table occasionally turns into something resembling a feast. And this phenomenon works in reverse.

Commentary

12.2.2021

Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Redesigning early college credit to reach underserved students

Jeff Murray

In 2012, Tennessee lawmakers created the Statewide Dual-Credit program (SDC) to help more students earn college credit while completing high school.

Commentary

12.2.2021

Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The state of computer science education

Jessica Poiner

In early November, the Code.org Advocacy Coalition, the Computer Science Teachers Association, and the Expanding Computing Education Pathways Alliance teamed up to release the 2021 State of Computer Science Education.

Commentary

11.23.2021

Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Stop pestering education leaders to “follow the evidence.” Instead, host forecasting tournaments.

Mike Goldstein

Education leaders—principals, superintendents, state chiefs, philanthropy heads—make lots of decisions, and we exhort them to “use evidence” when they do. But we should stop doing that for at least four reasons.

Commentary

11.18.2021

Teachers & School Leaders

Teacher mental health days demonstrate districts’ priorities—and it’s not the students

Dale Chu

America’s children are way behind because of the pandemic. And knowing this, parents and guardians have been justifiably expecting schools to rise to the occasion this fall. Instead, districts across the country have been shuttering this month following a wave of unexpected staff shortages. This is unequivocally a bad thing, but one that may have a silver lining: It helps increase momentum for school choice.

Commentary

11.18.2021

Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

What is virtue and why does it matter?

Jennifer Frey

Contemporary education has become too technocratic and divorced from virtue. This is a disservice to students because it robs them of what a classical education provides: the tools students need to succeed, not just academically and professionally, but in the deep and abiding sense of being able to flourish as free and good human beings.

Commentary

11.18.2021

School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

In almost every state, funding gaps between rich and poor schools have been closed

Adam Tyner, Ph.D.

The conventional wisdom is that American students from poor families are mostly stuck in sorely underfunded public schools while more affluent families have access to well-resourced ones. For decades, this was largely true.

Commentary

11.12.2021

Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Communicating the “learning” in social-emotional learning

Sheldon Berman, Linda Darling-Hammond

Editor’s post: This post was originally published on November 8, 2021, by the Learning Policy Institute as part of its “Educating the Whole Child“ blog series.

Commentary

11.12.2021

Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The fall of the yellow-school-bus system requires swift modernization

Matthew Ladner

“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.” —Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

Commentary

11.12.2021

Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Effectively implementing social-emotional learning means getting the terminology right

William Rost, Jeremy Smith

Two charter networks, Uplift Education and Distinctive Schools, have provided models for supporting social-emotional learning (SEL) that other schools should emulate.