Displaying 271-300 of 1115 results
Commentary
3.16.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

How teachers affect students’ perceptions of school climate

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

Once inside, it doesn’t take long to soak up the climate of a school. A simple walk down the hallway can give you clues. Is it clean? Are the bulletin boards up to date? Can you hear the energetic buzz of learning versus the cacophony of bad behavior? Do students and teachers greet you with a smile or a cold shoulder?

Commentary
3.9.2023
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

To improve student outcomes, ask teachers to do fewer things better

Robert Pondiscio, Jessica Schurz

We are seeking to raise and enhance the capacities of teachers while, at the same time, placing ever greater burdens on them. But the inconvenient fact is that the nation needs nearly 4 million people to teach its children, and any number that large means the men and women who staff our schools and teach our children will be, by definition, ordinary people.

Commentary
3.9.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

“District innovation”: Not an oxymoron?

Jeff Murray

The latest report from UVA’s Partnership for Leaders in Education is breathlessly upbeat about the opportunities for radical, disruptive changes in K–12 education.

Commentary
3.7.2023
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

“Because equity” is not a good reason to lower standards

Michael J. Petrilli

Noble is the desire to bend our system toward the needs of our most disadvantaged students—students who are disproportionately poor, Black, and Brown. But there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about this. Leveling up is the right way. Leveling down is the wrong way. Expanding access and opportunity is the right way. Lowering standards is the wrong way. Guess which way is gaining steam?

Commentary
3.2.2023
School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

We’d be paying teachers far more if we’d chosen quality over quantity

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Almost everyone wants to raise teacher pay. The push comes in various forms and from various places—mostly recently a proposal by Congressional liberals to create a $60,000 floor under teacher salaries. Yet we’d have far more generous teacher pay today if we hadn’t opted to hire more teachers and support staff over the years rather than raising salaries.

Commentary
3.2.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

No, Professor Boaler, we should not stop talking about learning loss

Nathaniel Grossman

Recently, Jo Boaler—a Stanford professor and one of the country’s foremost scholars of mathematics—took to the Hechinger Report to write about pandemic learning loss

Commentary
2.24.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The Mississippi reading model continues to shine

Todd Collins

Mississippi’s model for improving early literacy has been a standout since 2019, based on its nation-leading achievement growth on the fourth grade NAEP reading test.

Commentary
2.23.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

The effects of an affordable middle school math intervention

Jeanette Luna

Recent national test data paint an alarming picture of middle school math achievement post-Covid, with eighth grade math scores on the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) having the largest decrease of any other subject or grade.

Commentary
2.22.2023
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

How one school district is balancing excellence and equity—and another isn’t

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
2.17.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Preparing young people for success at work is about knowledge and relationships

Bruno V. Manno

What does it mean to “prepare young people for adult work,” an oft-used saying to describe one of schooling’s primary goals? Though it surely means that we prepare them to earn a living and move up the income ladder, work is more than a financial way to provide for ourselves and those we love.

Commentary
2.16.2023
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The policies promoting school shootings

Max Eden

The school shooting in Newport News, Virginia, involving a six-year-old who shot his teacher, fell from the headlines before we could learn our lesson from it.

Commentary
2.16.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The sad state of the teaching profession

Nathaniel Grossman

“Go to law school.” This was the advice that my mother—who had spent her entire career as a high school English teacher—gave me upon my college graduation. She also advised me on which career to avoid: teaching. My mother was adamant that I not follow her footsteps into the classroom.

Commentary
2.9.2023
School Finance, Curriculum & Instruction, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders

Give parents wide latitude on ESA uses—and give teachers their own accounts, too

Mike Goldstein

Recent news stories have pushed the narrative that parents are using education savings accounts to buy items of questionable educational value and relevance, including chicken coops, trampolines, and tickets to SeaWorld. But perhaps ESAs’ permissiveness is a feature, not a bug—and perhaps officials would be wise to go one step further and give teachers their own accounts.

Commentary
2.9.2023
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Soft-on-consequences discipline is terrible for teachers

Daniel Buck

I’ve lost count of the number of teachers I know who have either left their school or entirely abandoned education because of student behavior. A student physically threatened a friend, and the administration provided no consequence. This friend quit soon thereafter. Another started a family and just couldn’t remain emotionally present as a father while dealing with chaos at work all day.

Commentary
2.9.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Re-evaluating the cost of test-based retention policies

Jeff Murray

What does it cost to retain a less-than-proficient student and provide him or her with remediation and additional support?

Commentary
2.7.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

Racial and ethnic gaps in advanced STEM achievement: 3 takeaways from recent research

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
2.6.2023
School Finance, Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders

Parent navigators are worth the investment for school choice supporters

Travis Pillow

From 2015 to 2018, the start of spring meant I could expect to hear from parents across Florida. At the time, I worked for Step Up Students, the Florida-based organization that administers the nation’s largest education scholarship (i.e., voucher) program. My job was not in customer service. I was the editor of a blog focused on school choice issues.

Commentary
2.2.2023
School Finance, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders

How much education is a public responsibility?

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

So many of our debates about paying for higher education hinge on conflicting views of what’s the taxpayer’s responsibility and what’s the recipient’s. These days, that’s also true of pre-schooling and it also arises, albeit in different form, when we fight over vouchers, tax credits, ESAs and such. Is it society’s responsibility to pay for private schooling or is it the family’s?

Commentary
1.31.2023
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Toward a broader conception of student success—and a broader conception of accountability

Gene Pinkard

I have held firm to this belief since my early days of teaching: Getting students to proficiency and above in reading and math is a commitment to social justice and democracy. Education can empower students to change the world, especially when it counters cycles of poverty.

Commentary
1.26.2023
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Dr. King and the liberal arts

Jennifer Frey

Last week, as we celebrated the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we recalled his civil rights activism as an admirable example of creating what John Lewis called “good trouble.” Dr. King is an American icon precisely because he possessed the wisdom and courage to hold America up to her own high standards: that all men are created equal and must be treated equally before the law.