Richard Whitmire’s forthcoming book, On the Rocketship: How Top Charter Schools are Pushing the Envelope, is “the best account yet of what is happening with charters,” says the
Join Fordham's Mike Petrilli and AEI's Mike McShane for a livestream event on the future of Common Core.
The Fordham Institute's National Policy Director, Michael Brickman explains the benefits of course choice and the implications for students.
Michelle Gininger highlights a few moments from the Fordham LIVE discussion State Education Agencies: The Smaller the Better? Watch the full event.
In the era of Race to the Top, waivers, and waivers of waivers, the role of state education agencies (SEAs) has increased dramatically: taking on school turnarounds, teacher-evaluation systems, and now Common Core implementation.
A discussion on the merits and pitfalls of "controlled choice" Join the discussion on our website or on Twitter #ControlledChoice.
A discussion on the merits and pitfalls of "controlled choice" Join the discussion on our website or on Twitter #ControlledChoice.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 luminary on the importance of a sequential, content-rich curriculum.
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.
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.
Experts empty a barrel of Common Core myths and rumors. Gadfly Studios
Teacher preparation, evaluation, and the characteristics of effective teaching are at the center of contemporary education research and policymaking.
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.
Growing numbers of parents, educators, and school administrators are calling for a local "opt-out" from state tests and accountability systems. Is this opt-out a cop-out? Or would students benefit from a system that their own teachers and principals devised? Should all schools be offered an opt-out alternative, one in which they propose to be held accountable to a different set of measures? What about opt-outs for high-achieving schools or schools with good reason to be different? Would such a system move us toward or away from the goals of the Common Core? As for charter schools, must they continue to be tethered to uniform statewide accountability systems? Or should we rekindle the concept of customizing each school's charter and performance expectations?
Chester E. Finn, Jr. breaks down why Fordham does not support implementation of the NGSS.
Dara Zeehandelaar, author of The Big Squeeze: Retirement Costs and School District Budgets, explains teachers pensions and the difference between defined benefits and defined contribution plans that states offer teachers.
Thirty years ago, A Nation at Risk was released to a surprised country. Suddenly, Americans woke up to learn that SAT scores were plummeting and children were learning a lot less than before. This report became a turning point in modern U.S. education history and marked the beginning of a new focus on excellence, achievement, and results. Due in large part to this report, we now judge a school by whether its students are learning rather than how much money is going into it, what its programs look like, or its earnest intentions. Education reform today is serious about standards, quality, assessment, accountability and benchmarking—by school, district, state and nation. This is new since 1983 and it’s very important. Yet we still have many miles to traverse before we sleep. Our students still need to learn far more and our schools need to become far more effective. To recall the impact of A Nation at Risk these past three decades and to reflect on what lies ahead, watch this short retrospective developed by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the American Enterprise Institute: A Nation at Risk: Thirty Years Later.
Featuring (in order of appearance): Michael Petrilli - Executive Vice President, Thomas B. Fordham Institute Amber Winkler - Vice President for Research, Thomas B. Fordham Institute John Chubb - Interim CEO, Education Sector Anne L. Bryant - Executive Director, National School Boards Association Gene I. Maeroff - Founding Director, Hechinger Institute Mike Miles - Superintendent, Dallas ISD Christopher S. Barclay - President, Montgomery County Board of Education, Maryland Geoffrey Jones - founding principal, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology Chester E. Finn, Jr. - President, Thomas B. Fordham Institute Rick Hess - Resident Scholar and Director of Education Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute
In his State of the Union address, President Obama called for making preschool available to every child in America. But questions abound: Is universal preschool politically and fiscally feasible—or even educationally necessary? Should we be expending federal resources on universal pre-K or targeting true Kindergarten-readiness programs for the neediest kids? How robust is the evidence of lasting impacts? And what exactly is the president proposing?
Following the release of Fordham's report, School Choice Regulations: Red Tape or Red Herring?, Mike Petrilli and Adam Emerson sat down with John Kirtley of Step Up for Students to talk about when private schools choose to participate in choice programs. While Fordham found that Catholic schools were less likely to be deterred by accountability regulations, Kirtley took a slightly different tack. Watch to find out more!
