Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Schools aren’t up to the task of teaching students about the Israel-Hamas War
Campus radicalism is easy to spot—and condemn.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
Grading standards and student effort: Short-run versus long-run effects
A simple observation: In the U.S., high school graduation rates have increased while other measures of academic achievement—from college entrance exam scores to high school
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
How Washington State passed a universal-screening law: An interview with Austina De Bonte
Washington schools must now screen every elementary student for advanced education services, thanks to a law
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Smartphones and social media are leading to depression and anxiety for our students. Are they depressing test scores, too?
Smartphones and social media are likely at least partly to blame for the teenage mental health epidemic that started around 2013. Is it possible that phones and social media might also be behind the plateauing and decline of student achievement that we’ve seen in America, also starting around 2013?
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Bias in AI is a real problem
Hysteria over students cheating via ChatGPT and other generative AI applications is so last year. This season’s hyperventilation-initiator is the potential for bias in AI. And well, there’s actually a lot to be worried about.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
What the Defense Department can teach us about schooling
The New York Times recently covered the extraordinary academic achievement of Department of Defense schools, noting several factors that contribute to their success. But one important contributor—common values—was not mentioned.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
Shake it up or mess it up: The impact of principal transitions on school quality in New York City
Data indicate that, nationwide, roughly 20 percent of schools change principals in any given year, and that urban schools see a larger share of such changes.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
Addressing excellence gaps in a diverse high school
This summer the National Working Group on Advanced Education reported what many educators in the United States already know and experience: that the United States has been wasting an enormous amount of human potential and that man
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Replacing the Carnegie Unit will spark a battle royale
One of the most important efforts in American education today is the project to displace the Carnegie Unit as the fundamental unit of measurement in high schools.
Commentary
School Finance, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Why education technologies disappoint
The claims from the field of education technology—“ed tech” to insiders—could hardly be more grandiose.
Podcast
Teachers & School Leaders
#892: A solution to teacher shortages, with Kirsten Baesler
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Kirsten Baesler, the superintendent of North Dakota, joins Mike to discuss her stat
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Wonkathon 2023: How can we harness the power but mitigate the risks of artificial intelligence in our schools?
As in years past, we’ll encourage our audience to vote for the “wisest wonk.” If you’re keen to jump in—and we hope you are—please let us know and indicate when we can expect your draft. We will publish submissions on a rolling basis, so send yours as soon as practical but no later than Monday, November 6. Aim for 800 to 1200 words.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Retaining struggling readers in third grade sounds good—but it’s too little, too late, too often
Educators have long debated whether to retain students who do not meet grade level standards.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Don’t mess with Texas school reform
Texas legislators returned to Austin earlier this week to try once again to enact a statewide school-choice program in the form of edu
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
There’s no Republican or Democrat way to teach reading
There are forty-four phonemes that make up every word in the English language. Some of these small units of sound occur more frequently than others, but none can be dispensed with entirely when teaching children to sound out words and read with fluency—not even the phoneme /d/ as in “Democrat” or /r/ as in “Republican.”
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
How good are teachers at spotting advanced students?
Many school districts use teacher rating scales to identify students for advanced (i.e., gifted) programming, such as supplementary instruction and separate classes or schools.
Commentary
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
AI is a serious threat to student privacy
The bulk of commentary and school district policy relating to AI and education focuses almost exclusively on questions regarding cheating and whether it still makes sense to teach kids to write. But there are other risks of the tech and thorny questions looming on the horizon that are worryingly overlooked. Student privacy is perhaps chief among them.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Can a licensure test accurately assess CTE teacher competency?
There is plentiful research suggesting that, among in-school factors, teachers consistently matter the most when it comes to student testing outcomes.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The pipeline from postsecondary education into the manufacturing industry
Data show that America’s current manufacturing workforce is aging and retiring as the sector is expanding exponentially and its
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
ChatGPT hasn’t killed the academic essay
An academic essay is an end in itself. It teaches, among other things, control of language, how to organize thoughts and structure them such that a reader can easily follow them, how to state an argument clearly upfront, how to hook a reader’s interest, and how to conclude in a concise, powerful way. AI will not change this.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Parents and schools need a reset
Tensions between parents and educators are at an all-time high. Differences in opinion about education are not new, and they certainly do not have to lead to a corrosion of trust. Yet that is exactly what has happened, and both groups shoulder blame—as does the media.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders
Students’ ignorance of U.S. history and civics remains a national embarrassment
A new study from a pair of Penn State University researchers finds that passing the U.S. Citizenship Test as a high school graduation requirement does nothing to improve youth voter turnout. Within the last decade, more than a third of U.S.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The ups and downs of Dallas’s pay-for-performance roller coaster
History and research make clear that, often, the
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Chronic absenteeism has become a crisis, part 3: Solutions
Part one of this series explored many possible explanations for the rise in absenteeism. They come in all shapes and sizes, some more plausible than others. Part two unpacks how this issue plays out in cities and suburbs—and what stands out most is how kids are missing school everywhere. This final post offers five solutions.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Public charter schools and the Chipotlification of education
Before Chipotle ushered in the phenomenon of being able to “have it your way,” the customization of a fast casual meal was relegated to condiments, not the entire entree.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
In the wake of the pandemic, time is of the essence for high school students
A new report released last week by the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) explores the pandemic’s impact on America’s oldest students—those in high school and the 13.5 million who recently graduated.
Podcast
Evidence-Based Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
#888: Building bridges in education reform, with Frances Messano
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Frances Messano, the CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund, joins Mike to discuss the
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
Excellence gaps: New resources and a personal history
The Fordham Institute’s new report, Excellence Gaps by Race and Socioeconomic Status, authored by Meredith Coffey and Adam Tyner, is a significant addition to our growing knowledge about excellence gaps.
Commentary
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Create a more flexible work week for teachers
Last month, I met a newly certified kindergarten teacher. Twenty-two years old, she was thrilled to be starting her first full-time teaching job. Passionate about her budding career, she shared detailed, insightful responses to my questions about teaching young children. She was also happily enrolled in a part-time master’s degree program in education policy.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Back to the future: Houston takes a page from ed reform’s recent past
When Texas education commissioner Mike Morath named Mike Miles as the superintendent of Houston ISD back in June, it represented a throwback of sorts to a more muscular period of school and district accountability.
