Does School Board Leadership Matter?
Arnold F. Shober, Michael T. HartneyAre the nation’s 90,000-plus school board members critical players in enhancing student learning? Are they part of the problem? Are they harmless bystanders? Among the takeaways are the following:
Encouraging integrated schools in the District of Columbia?
A discussion on the merits and pitfalls of "controlled choice" Join the discussion on our website or on Twitter #ControlledChoice.
Encouraging integrated schools in the District of Columbia?
A discussion on the merits and pitfalls of "controlled choice" Join the discussion on our website or on Twitter #ControlledChoice.
Common Core in the Districts: An Overview
Preparation is key to any successful team’s run to the playoffs and a World Series championship. Spring training gets players in game shape. Teams play exhibition games, trying out prospects and going through different scenarios to be as prepared as possible before the season gets underway.
Private Schools, Public Vouchers - Policy Leaders Panel
State-funded voucher programs have stoked political controversy, culture clashes, and pitched court battles. In Ohio, vouchers (aka "scholarships") enable students without access to a good public school--or limited means--to attend a private school.
Private Schools, Public Vouchers - Policy Leaders Panel
State-funded voucher programs have stoked political controversy, culture clashes, and pitched court battles. In Ohio, vouchers (aka "scholarships") enable students without access to a good public school--or limited means--to attend a private school.
Private Schools, Public Vouchers - School Leaders Panel
State-funded voucher programs have stoked political controversy, culture clashes, and pitched court battles. In Ohio, vouchers (aka "scholarships") enable students without access to a good public school--or limited means--to attend a private school.
Private schools and public vouchers: Policy leaders panel
Good things happen in private schools that take voucher students.
Common Core in the Districts: An Early Look at Early Implementers
by Katie Cristol and Brinton S. Ramsey Foreword by Amber M. Northern and Michael J. Petrilli
Expanding Access to Great Teachers
The success of classrooms—and students—starts with a great educator. But since not all educators are equally effective, is there a way to ensure that more students have access to the best in the field—especially our most disadvantaged students? As the U.S.
A tribute to the work of E. D. Hirsch, Jr.
A luminary on the importance of a sequential, content-rich curriculum.
Knowledge at the Core: Don Hirsch, Core Knowledge, and the Future of the Common Core
Children cannot be truly literate without knowing about history, science, art, music, literature, civics, geography, and more. Indeed, they cannot satisfactorily comprehend what they read unless they possess the background knowledge that makes such comprehension possible.
Public accountability & private-school choice
Adam EmersonThe Fordham Institute supports school choice, done right. That means designing voucher and tax-credit policies that provide an array of high-quality education options for kids that are also accountable to parents and taxpayers.
Creating Sustainable Teacher Career Trajectories: A 21st Century Imperative
The greatest challenge to staffing the nation's classrooms with the most motivated, highly qualified teachers is making teaching an attractive profession with career opportunities for those who seek those challenges.
Financing the Education of High-Need Students
Matt Richmond, Daniela FairchildSchool districts face an enormous financial burden when it comes to educating our highest-need students. Financing the Education of High-Need Students focuses on three specific challenges that are often encountered when districts—especially small ones—grapple with the costs of serving their highest-need special-education students.
Traversing the Teacher-Evaluation Terrain
Join the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, National Council on Teacher Quality, and School Improvement Network for a double feature on the latest teacher-evaluation research and a lively discussion about the best way forward on teacher-evaluation reform.
Right-sizing the Classroom: Making the Most of Great Teachers
Michael HansenIn the overwhelming majority of American classrooms, pupils are divided roughly equally among teachers of the same grade in the same school. Parceling them out uniformly is viewed as fair to teachers—and doing otherwise might be seen as unfair. Parents might wonder, too.
Common Core & Curriculum Controversies
Experts empty a barrel of Common Core myths and rumors. Gadfly Studios
Common Core in the Schools: A First Look at Reading Assignments
Tim Shanahan, Ann DuffettIn Common Core in the Schools: A First Look at Reading Assignments, researchers analyze what texts English teachers assign their students and the instructional techniques they used in the classroom.
Re-Imagining Teaching: Five Structures to Transform the Profession
Teacher preparation, evaluation, and the characteristics of effective teaching are at the center of contemporary education research and policymaking.
Ohio Pension Reform in Cleveland: New Teachers Beware
Robert M. Costrell, Larry MaloneyAt first glance, the recent teacher-retirement reforms in Ohio seem to bring good fiscal news to school systems in the Buckeye State. Thanks to Senate Bills 341 and 342—and a series of cutbacks on retiree healthcare—the Cleveland Metropolitan School District is projected to spend less on retirement costs in 2020 than it does today. But these reforms come at a big price.
What (ed-reformer) parents want
What (ed-reformer) parents want. Read What Parents Want: Education Preferences and Trade-offs and take the quiz to see if you fall into one of our parent categories.
What Parents Want: Education Preferences and Trade-offs
Dara Zeehandelaar Shaw, Ph.D., Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.This groundbreaking study finds that nearly all parents seek schools with a solid core curriculum in reading and math, an emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, and the development in students of good study habits, strong critical thinking skills, and excellent verbal and written communication skills.
Embracing the Common Core - Panel Discussion
Panelists Include: Stan Heffner - Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction Michael Cohen - President of Achieve, Inc. Steve Dackin, superintendent of Reynoldsburg City Schools Eric Gordon, CEO of Cleveland Metropolitan Schools Debe Terhar, president of the State Board of Education Deb Tully, director of professionals issues for the Ohio Federation of Teachers Moderated by Chester E. Finn Jr., President, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Embracing the Common Core - Q&A
Panelists Include: Stan Heffner - Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction Michael Cohen - President of Achieve, Inc. Steve Dackin, superintendent of Reynoldsburg City Schools Eric Gordon, CEO of Cleveland Metropolitan Schools Debe Terhar, president of the State Board of Education Deb Tully, director of professionals issues for the Ohio Federation of Teachers Moderated by Chester E. Finn Jr., President, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Driving Quality: Can charter incubators solve the problem of too many mediocre charter schools?
Recorded December 7, 2011 Communities across the country are struggling to meet parental demand for high quality school options, including high-performing charter schools. Yet, with hundreds of new charter schools opening every year, not nearly enough of them offer the quality education that parents crave and kids deserve. Indeed, far too many fail to deliver education any better than the troubled neighborhood schools that they are meant as alternatives to. But a new model for charter school growth has taken root in several cities and it appears to be boosting quality as well as quantity. Charter "incubators" are accelerating the launch and development of top-flight charter schools in communities that need them most. Incubators offer the promise of not only more school choice but schools that reliably deliver academic results. Join us at the Fordham Institute to hear from leaders that are running some of the best of these new organizations. Co-sponsored by the Cities for Education Entrepreneurship Trust (CEE-Trust), this discussion will analyze the key findings from a new policy brief by Public Impact, and provide lessons on how federal, state and local policymakers can help launch new quality charter schools while encouraging the culling of weak ones.