Displaying 901-930 of 1440 results
Commentary
10.9.2019
Curriculum & Instruction

Does access to advanced high school math and science courses boost college STEM outcomes?

Tran Le

A new report published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis investigates how access to advanced high school math and science courses affects postsecondary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) enrollment and degree attainment, and how this relationship between the two differs by race and gender.

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
10.8.2019
Curriculum & Instruction, Personalized Learning, Standards

Access, equity, and quality in dual enrollment

Lexi Barrett, Ryan Reyna

Programs that allow high school students the opportunity to earn college credit while still in high school are growing fast. In addition to familiar options like Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate, dual enrollment, concurrent enrollment, and early college high school—otherwise known as college in high school programs–are increasingly popular models in states.

Commentary
10.2.2019
Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Personalized Learning

Advanced coursework gets a needed boost

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

Last week in Austin, at the annual “summit” sponsored by the PIE (“Policy Innovators in Education”) Network, prizes were conferred on a handful of state-based education-reform groups that had accomplished remarkable feats in the previous year, this despite the reform-averse mood that chills much of the nation.

Commentary
10.2.2019
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The metric that matters most: Ask kids, “Are you in?”

Robert Pondiscio

Editor’s note: At last week’s PIE Network Summit in Austin, Texas, Fordham senior fellow Robert Pondiscio was asked to participate in a panel discussion on “What is the purpose of education?” His answer to the question consisted of the following remarks.

Commentary
9.25.2019
Accountability & Testing, ESSA, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

A new era of accountability in education has barely just begun

Michael J. Petrilli

Most states have spent the past decade overhauling their standards, tests, and accountability systems, and finally committing real resources to capacity-building, especially in the form of curriculum implementation. These pieces have only begun to come together in the last year or two, culminating with the release of school ratings as required by ESSA. What’s needed isn’t to spin the wheel of education policy once again, but to show some patience and commitment—and finish what we started.

Commentary
9.25.2019
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

How to improve literacy after elementary school

Robert Pondiscio

It’s a bit of an education cliché to say “every teacher is a literacy teacher.” Since background knowledge is a fundamental building block of language proficiency, it’s technically true: A teacher in any subject can’t help but be a literacy teacher, even if the effects are diffuse.

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
9.24.2019
Accountability & Testing, ESSA, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Personalized Learning, Teachers & School Leaders

In math, grade-level tests are holding back low-achieving students

Joel Rose

Imagine that you’re a sixth-grade math teacher. It’s the first day of school, and the vast majority of your students arrived multiple years behind where they should be. Your job is to teach them concepts such as understanding percentages and dividing fractions.

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.

Getty Images/dcdebs
Podcast
9.18.2019
Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education

The Education Gadfly Show: All about AP

  On this week’s podcast, Mike Petrilli talks with Checker Finn and Andrew Scanlan about their new book on the past, present, and future of Advanced Placement.

Getty Images/dcdebs
Commentary
9.18.2019
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

How charter school attendance affects students’ special-needs status

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

Charters schools are often criticized for not enrolling enough or not adequately serving special student populations, particularly students with special needs. A new study by Tufts University’s Elizabeth Setren evaluates this claim with a unique dataset in Boston.

Commentary
9.18.2019
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Teachers’ views on learning strategies and research

Tran Le

A new report by Ulrich Boser and The Learning Agency investigates what K–12 educators know—or mistakenly believe—about effective learning strategies and where they obtain information about learning research.

Book
9.17.2019
Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education

Learning in the Fast Lane: The Past, Present, and Future of Advanced Placement

Chester E. Finn, Jr., Andrew Scanlan

Termed by the Washington Post’s Jay Mathews “the most comprehensive book on Advanced Placement, the most powerful educational tool in the country,” this book traces AP’s history from its mid-twentieth-century origins as a niche benefit for privileged students to its contemporary role as a vital springboard to college for high school students nationwide, including hundreds of thousands of poor and minority youngsters. It's a must-read for anyone with a stake in American K–12 education.

Commentary
9.11.2019
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Standards, Teachers & School Leaders

The GAS Factor: Lessons learned at Success Academy

Robert Pondiscio

Much of the initial response to Robert’s new book, "How The Other Half Learns," has focused on the winnowing effects of Success Academy’s enrollment process, which ensures that the children of only the most committed parents enroll and persist. But that’s just the start of the story. You have to look at what parent buy-in actually buys: a school culture that drives student achievement, and which can only be achieved when parents are active participants, not unwilling conscripts.

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
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction

End-of-course exams should be a matter of course

Dale Chu

A new study released by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute looks at end-of-course exams (EOCs) and their relationship with high school graduation rates and college entrance exam scores.

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
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Standards

Influences affecting the educational trajectory of students

Jeff Murray

A new study from Georgetown University reaffirmed an uncomfortable but familiar finding: Socioeconomic status has a significant effect on students’ long-term outcomes, regardless of their academic performance in kindergarten or the quality of the schools they attend in K–12.

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
8.27.2019
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Standards

NEW REPORT: End-of-Course Exams and Student Outcomes

Adam Tyner, Ph.D., Matthew Larsen

This report provides a rich longitudinal look at state policies related to end-of-course exams over the past twenty years and the effects of administering EOCs in different subjects on high school graduation rates and college entrance exam scores.

Commentary
8.21.2019
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Standards

The kids who had been “left behind” are doing much better today than 25 years ago. But what about everyone else?

Michael J. Petrilli

The past quarter-century has included dramatic progress of America’s lowest-performing students, many of whom are also low-income and children of color. But how’s the vast middle class doing? It’s a mixed bag: They still don’t read very well, but their math skills have improved a bit and they are graduating from college in higher and higher numbers.