Displaying 151-180 of 2044 results
Line graph pointing down
Commentary
4.11.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

Doing educational equity wrong

Michael J. Petrilli

For the past several months, Petrilli been pumping out posts about “doing educational equity right.” This series concludes with a twist by looking at three ways that schools are doing educational equity wrong: by engaging in the soft bigotry of low expectations, tying teachers’ hands without good reason, and acting like equity isn’t just an important thing, but the only thing.

Line graph pointing down
Bored teen student at home doing homework
Commentary
4.9.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

Lengthy school closures were especially hard on high achievers

Brandon L. Wright

To gauge the magnitude of global learning loss during the pandemic, a team at the World Bank examined data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) from 2018–2022, which tests fifteen-year-olds in math, reading, and science.

Bored teen student at home doing homework
Hammer piggy bank
Commentary
4.4.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice

School choice need not mean an expensive windfall for the rich

Michael J. Petrilli

The school choice movement continues to rack up dramatic wins nationwide. This growth in “educational freedom,” as many advocates now call it, is a fantastic development. But under the surface of these victories, an important debate is brewing: how to balance the drive for maximum choice with other values, including fiscal responsibility and fairness.

Hammer piggy bank
Overwhelmed school teacher
Commentary
4.4.2024
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

We’ve made teaching impossible or: What I learned talking to 200 teachers

Daniel Buck

Last week, I did something unorthodox. I asked teachers to message me directly via X (formerly known as Twitter) to vent their frustrations. Within hours, I received almost 200 messages expressing not only frustration, but also hope, humor, fatalism, and quite a bit of hesitancy to converse with a complete stranger on the internet.

Overwhelmed school teacher
House Chamber US Capitol
Commentary
4.4.2024
Governance

Cross-partisanship vs. bipartisanship in education

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

In last week’s Gadfly, Karen Nussle and Lorén Cox penned a thoughtful piece on “cross-partisanship,” a concept they explore at greater length in a very nice paper for the Aspen

House Chamber US Capitol
Happy school teacher
Commentary
4.4.2024
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Can an upfront cash incentive improve teacher recruitment and retention?

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

A recent study in the Economics of Education Review Journal looks at one promising effort to recruit and retain teachers: providing upfront grants and loans to financially-strapped potential teachers to encourage them to become and remain educators.

Happy school teacher
Handshake
Commentary
3.28.2024
Governance

Education may now be a “cross-partisan” endeavor

Karen Nussle, Lorén Cox

In a recent Aspen Institute paper, the authors introduce the notion of “cross-partisanship”—two or more sides agreeing on the same policy outcome for disparate reasons—as a modern alternative to bipartisanship, wherein both sides concede something. They argue that adopting this new approach in education policy may be imperative for success—not just for legislative wins, but for the long-term well-being and prosperity of our children and communities.

Handshake
School closed sign
Commentary
3.28.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education

How the pandemic affected global education: Insights from PISA

Harry Anthony Patrinos

The closure of schools in response to the seismic disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic has left an indelible mark on education worldwide. As nations grappled with closures lasting varying lengths of time, the implications for student learning became increasingly evident.

School closed sign
Colorado State Capitol
Commentary
3.21.2024
Charter Schools, Governance

Colorado charters on the back foot

Dale Chu

The hits just keep on coming: Earlier this month, a motley crew of former Colorado lawmakers helped spur the introduction of a grotesque piece of legislation aimed squarely at dismantling the state’s

Colorado State Capitol
Teacher and unhappy student
Commentary
3.21.2024
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Quit asking teachers to play therapist

Daniel Buck

When the TV salesman pitches a beauty product to eliminate wrinkles or a politician promises no new taxes, most of us raise a skeptical eyebrow. If only we afforded that same skepticism to education fads.

Teacher and unhappy student
Child doing homework
Commentary
3.21.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

How an online tool affected math performance during pandemic closures

Jeff Murray

For many students and teachers, the pivot from in-person to remote learning in March 2020 was a sudden lurch from the known to the unknown. Writ large, research shows the academic impact of that move was devastating. But details matter—and so do exceptions.

Child doing homework
Classroom empty teacher desk
Commentary
3.15.2024
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Why are teachers missing so much school?

Tim Daly

Editor’s note: This was first published on the author’s Substack, The Education Daly.

Classroom empty teacher desk
Students in a classroom
Commentary
3.14.2024
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders

The “no excuses” model is due for a renaissance

Robert Pondiscio

Many of the conditions that led to the prominence of “no-excuses” charter schools a quarter-century ago have returned. For students, teachers, and parents who have never lost their appetite for safe and orderly schools, it can’t come soon enough.

Students in a classroom
Student doing math in a classroom
Commentary
3.14.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

We know more about improving math outcomes than policy debates suggest

Emily Freitag

I recently watched a seventh-grade math lesson that did a better job than I ever did as a teacher asking kids relatable theoretical probability questions. How would you represent the probability of a six-foot-tall seventh grader? How would you represent the probability of getting a test in school in any given week? Making sense of where students were coming from was a fascinating puzzle.

Student doing math in a classroom
Student report card
Commentary
3.7.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Doing educational equity right: Grading

Michael J. Petrilli

The way we grade student work is flawed—in some ways inequitable—and is in need of reform. But like so many things in American education, the push for “equitable grading” has often been implemented piecemeal, bringing along with it all manner of unintended consequences, the most important of which is lowered standards.

Student report card
Students raising their hands in a school classroom
Commentary
3.7.2024
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance

The research is clear: Charter schools work

Daniel Buck

Late last year, researchers Sarah Cohodes and Susha Roy partnered with the MIT Department of Economics to release a paper summarizing the results of lottery-based charter studies. The topline conclusion is straightforward and promising:

Students raising their hands in a school classroom
Jeb Bush
Commentary
3.7.2024
Governance

What if Jeb Bush had won?

Dale Chu

Neither of the major parties’ presumptive presidential nominees has anything serious in the offing to help American students get back on track.

Jeb Bush
Standardized test in school
Commentary
3.1.2024
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The way we set grade-level norms on tests masks pandemic learning loss

Woody Paik

There are, generally speaking, two ways to report students’ performance on tests. One is normative, and it compares a student’s performance to his peers. The second is criterion, and it compares a student’s performance to learning standards, indicating grade-level proficiency and is independent of peers’ test performance.

Standardized test in school