Displaying 241-270 of 1771 results
Commentary
9.21.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Chronic absenteeism has become a crisis, part 3: Solutions

Tim Daly

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
9.21.2023
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Public charter schools and the Chipotlification of education

Christy Wolfe

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
9.21.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Teachers & School Leaders

In the wake of the pandemic, time is of the essence for high school students

Victoria McDougald

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.

Commentary
9.18.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

Excellence gaps: New resources and a personal history

Jonathan Plucker

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
9.14.2023
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Back to the future: Houston takes a page from ed reform’s recent past

Dale Chu

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.

Commentary
9.14.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance

Test-based retention, student achievement, and sibling spillover effects

Jeff Murray

Most public policy efforts are very specific about the individuals or groups intended to benefit from their implementation, and evaluations of such policies generally stick to impacts on the target population. However, education policies aimed at helping certain K–12 students can also have wider implications for other students.

Commentary
9.7.2023
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

America’s recent education declines in international context

Michael J. Petrilli

America’s recent achievement declines are far from unique. Consider, for example, Chile, whose academic progress, as measured by international assessments, also stalled out in the early to mid-2010s, just like ours did. And which is also facing a teenage mental health crisis, much like we are, as well as rising violence and disorder in and around their campuses. Are these worldwide phenomena?

Commentary
9.7.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Grade inflation is not a victimless crime

Frederick M. Hess

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

Commentary
8.31.2023
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education

The essential state role in educating advanced learners

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Getting advanced learners (a.k.a. “gifted” students) the education they need, and ensuring that this works equitably for youngsters from every sort of background, is substantially the responsibility of state leaders.

Commentary
8.31.2023
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Texas’s controversial takeover of Houston’s schools

Daniel Buck

If you believe the media, it seems a dark lord has come to cut down the educational Eden that is the Houston Independent School District. He’s closing libraries to open detention centers.

Commentary
8.31.2023
Evidence-Based Learning

Searching for mobility in K–12 achievement

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

Many Americans believe that the foremost mission of public education is to provide a pathway to success for every student, even in the face of considerable life obstacles. Yet persistent achievement gaps along dimensions of race, income, family education level, and other factors call this earnest expectation into question.

Commentary
8.30.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Advanced Education

America’s highest-achieving students are disproportionately Asian. Let’s not be afraid to investigate why.

Michael J. Petrilli, Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

Fordham’s latest study finds that fewer Black and Hispanic students from the highest-SES group are achieving at NAEP’s Advanced level than we would expect, given their socioeconomic status. That disparity clearly commands our attention. But so do the findings on Asian American high achievers—who deserve our attention for a different reason.

Commentary
8.24.2023
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

How districts are gaming graduation rates by letting students cheat

Jeremy Noonan

For at least a decade, schools have been using online credit-recovery (OCR) courses to award bogus credits that satisfy graduation requirements, and thus inflating graduation rates.

Commentary
8.24.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Seven ways state leaders can rigorously implement the science of reading

Aaron Churchill

Ohio recently passed a historic state budget that includes, among other components, ambitious literacy reforms that require schools to follow the science of reading—an instructional approach that emphasizes phonics for building foundational lit

Commentary
8.24.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction

Long term outcomes of a home- and community-based literacy program

Jeff Murray

Future Forward began in Milwaukee in 2005 as SPARK—a small-scale, local effort to combine family engagement with intensive tutoring to help low-income elementary-age students improve their literacy skills. It has since expanded significantly, rebranded, and moved under the aegis of national nonprofit Education Analytics, Inc.

Commentary
8.17.2023
Curriculum & Instruction

Why AI hasn’t made coding skills obsolete

Adam Tyner, Ph.D.

Many states now require high school students to learn coding before they can graduate, and a host of organizations encourage students to build coding skills. Is this all a waste of time and energy now that chatbots can code? In a word, no.

Commentary
8.17.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Stop using learning stations

Daniel Buck

Can we stop with the learning stations already? My teacher prep endorsed them. My first instructional coach trained me in them. Every school that I’ve ever worked at has incorporated them. Look them up on Teachers Pay Teachers and you’ll find scores of activities for various literacy stations, each one promising that they are proven effective.

Podcast
8.15.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Private School Choice

#883: The student behavior crisis, with Daniel Buck

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Daniel Buck, Fordham’s editorial and policy associate, joins Mike and David to discuss the be

Commentary
8.10.2023
Curriculum & Instruction

Hard lessons from a veteran homeschooler

Larissa Phillips

In the last three years, the families of 1.8 million children switched to homeschooling, bringing the nationwide total to 4.3 million in 2022. But glib calls for parents to join those ranks gloss over some persistent challenges inherent in homeschooling. Phillips discovered these challenges firsthand when her family moved to rural upstate New York and began homeschooling their kids.

Commentary
8.10.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Mike Schmoker’s achievable vision for education reform

Daniel Buck

I must admit, I’d become something of an education fatalist. I know the research about direct instruction. I know the power of a knowledge-rich, well-sequenced curriculum and the promise of school choice. I know that individual schools and even whole charter systems can achieve amazing results. But I always wonder: Is it all for naught?

Commentary
8.10.2023
Curriculum & Instruction

Learning by going: Springfield, Illinois

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

After a millennium or so in the world of ed policy, I nearly always think of education as stuff schools do that produces results on various metrics that (one hopes) enables education leaders and policymakers to make better decisions about what schools should do tomorrow.

Commentary
8.3.2023
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Standards

Virginia leads the way on conservative education reform

Daniel Buck

Not since former Governor Scott Walker bludgeoned the unions in my home state of Wisconsin has there been such national outrage over state-level education policies. Historically, state-scale education has been a secondary affair, rarely topping the list of people’s substantive or political priorities, and most decisions have been left to local decision-making.