Evidence-Based Learning

Displaying 811-833 of 833 results
Commentary
10.16.2019
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Don’t oversell SEL

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Social and emotional learning could do much good if deployed in pursuit of academic learning, but it runs multiple risks of going off the rails when its boosters ignore its limitations. It’s in this context that a recent brief by the NewSchools Venture Fund lands. There’s considerable wisdom in it, but leaders and policymakers should be careful what they do with the SEL measures for which it advocates. They should not, for example, incorporate them into accountability systems. Nor should they get so preoccupied with them that they neglect English, math, science, and history, or forget how much those matter in the real world.

Commentary
10.16.2019
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning

Texas’s shale boom boosted local tax bases. Here’s how it affected schools.

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

New and fascinating research uses a creative study design and a unique data set to address whether a thriving local economy leads to better student outcomes. Specifically, it examines how the Texas boom in shale oil and gas drilling, which brought with it large and localized effects on wages and the tax base, impacted district schools.

Commentary
10.9.2019
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance

When it comes to charter schools, it’s Democrats who are in denial

David Griffith, Ph.D.

Dozens of studies have found black and brown students in urban charter schools make substantially more academic progress than otherwise similar students in traditional public schools; literature suggests achievement in district-run schools increases in response to competition from charters; and Fordham’s new study confirms the logical implication of those two strands: an increase in the percentage of students in a community who enroll in charter schools leads to systemic gains.

Commentary
10.9.2019
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

No witch left behind

Dale Chu

Pop quiz: When was the first law providing for public education in America enacted? It’s true that the Bay State passed the first universal education law in 1852, but the very first law put down its roots two centuries earlier, also in what became Massachusetts.

Event
10.9.2019
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance

A Moonshot for Kids

What would happen if we invested $1 billion or more in bold education R & D initiatives designed to generate fresh, evidence-backed solutions to some of education’s toughest challenges? On November 5, at 4:00 p.m. ET, online and in Washington, D.C., the Center for American Progress and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute held a a “Shark-Tank” style competition. Ten early-round finalists presented their “billion-dollar Moonshot ideas” to a panel of tough judges, all for a chance to win $10,000 and have their idea propelled to widespread attention and potential major investment.

Commentary
10.2.2019
Evidence-Based Learning, Teachers & School Leaders

Closing the teacher quality gap

Pedro Enamorado

It’s long been surmised that the socioeconomic achievement gap is caused by—or at least, in part, persists because of—a teacher quality gap. Low-performing, high-poverty schools have significant issues that lead many educators to leave, whether to a different, less challenging position, or out of the profession entirely, contributing to measurable differences in teacher quality.

Commentary
9.25.2019
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Do flipped classrooms boost student outcomes?

Adam Tyner, Ph.D.

Flipped classroom in K–12 and higher education have been popular for years.

Commentary
9.18.2019
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Advanced Education, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders

Why has AP succeeded when so many other reforms have failed?

Chester E. Finn, Jr., Andrew Scanlan

American K–12 education is awash in reforms, nostrums, interventions, silver bullets, pilot programs, snake oil peddlers, advocates, and crusaders, not to mention innumerable private foundations that occasionally emerge from their endless cycles of strategic planning to unload their latest brainstorms upon the land. Yet when subjected to close scrutiny, not much actually “works.” The six-decade old Advanced Placement program is a rare and welcome exception.

Commentary
9.18.2019
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders

Low public support for ability grouping is an opportunity for personalized pacing

Brandon L. Wright

The latest Education Next poll asked respondents whether they support ability grouping, whereby students take classes with peers at similar academic achievement levels, and for middle school the majority’s answer was no.

Commentary
9.18.2019
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders

How two personalized learning models accelerate the progress of their high-achieving students

Michael J. Petrilli

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of posts looking at how two school networks—Rocketship Public Schools and Wildflower Schools—enable their students to meet standards at their own pace.

Commentary
9.11.2019
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders

The scourge of education malpractice

Dale Chu

What if you were told that elementary schools in the United States are teaching children to be poor readers?

Commentary
9.11.2019
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders

How personalized learning enthusiasts can ensure they aren’t lowering the bar for the kids who are behind

Michael J. Petrilli

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of posts looking at how two school networks—Rocketship Public Schools and Wildflower Schools—enable their students to master standards at their own pace. See the first post here.

Commentary
9.6.2019
Evidence-Based Learning

Fixing education research in the United States

Marc Tucker

This essay, which first appeared on Marc’s blog at the National Center on Education and the Economy, illumines the problems addressed by The Moonshot for Kids project, a joint initiative of the Fordham Institute and the Center for America

Commentary
9.4.2019
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders

In most elementary classrooms, kids are all over the map academically. Here’s how two schools cope.

Michael J. Petrilli

Almost a decade ago, I wrote that “the greatest challenge facing America’s schools today [is] the enormous variation in the academic level of students coming into any given classroom.” Unlike plenty of what I’ve said over the years, this one has stood the test of time.

Commentary
9.4.2019
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders

Effective social studies interventions for students with emotional and behavioral disorders

Pedro Enamorado

Teaching students to engage with history and civics is important in a democratic society. The critical thinking and communication skills taught in social studies classes are all the more essential to students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD) because they equip them to overcome difficulties interacting with and relating to peers.

Commentary
8.28.2019
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, ESSA, Curriculum & Instruction, Standards

End-of-course exams benefit students—and states

Chester E. Finn, Jr., Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

Very little previous research has looked at end-of-course exams. Our new study on their relationship to student outcomes helps remedy that. We learned much that’s worth knowing and sharing. Probably most important: EOCs, properly deployed, have positive academic benefits and do so without causing kids to drop out or graduation rates to falter.

Commentary
8.28.2019
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders

Can educational data mining predict student performance and enhance personalized learning?

Olivia Piontek

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are ubiquitous, playing a role in everything from Netflix and Instagram algorithms to transportation and healthcare delivery. But it’s also increasingly being used to improve educational pedagogy and delivery through a process called educational data mining (EDM).

Podcast
8.28.2019
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction

The Education Gadfly Show: Boosting student outcomes with end-of-course exams

On this week’s podcast Mike Petrilli and David Griffith talk to Adam Tyner about the new Fordham report he co-authored with Matthew Larsen on end-of-course exams and student outcomes. On the Research Minute, Amber Northern examines efforts to improve the college application process.

Commentary
8.7.2019
Evidence-Based Learning

Education research: Does the United States have the right model?

Marc Tucker

This essay, which first appeared on Marc’s blog at the National Center on Education and the Economy, illumines the problems addressed by The Moonshot for Kids project, a joint initiative of the Fordham Institute and the Center for American

Report
3.14.2019
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Toward a Golden Age of Educational Practice

Michael J. Petrilli

In recent years, we have reached a homeostasis in education policy, characterized by clearer and fairer but lighter-touch accountability systems and the incremental growth of school choice options for families—but little appetite for big and bold new initiatives.

Report
1.29.2007
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction

Whole-Language High Jinks

Louisa Moats

If you thought whole-language reading instruction had been relegated to the scrap heap of history, think again. Many such programs (proven to be ineffective) are still around, but they're hiding behind phrases like 'balanced literacy' in order to win contracts from school districts and avoid public scrutiny. Louisa Moats calls them out in Fordham's new report, Whole-Language High Jinks.