Commentary
What we're reading this week: September 12, 2024
A new study asks: if schools want to maximize student achievement, should they hire more staff or raise salaries for the teachers that they already employ? —Paul E.
Event
Webinar: Teaching Students What it Means to be an American
American democracy faces unprecedented challenges from both ends of the political spectrum. On the right, actions to undermine the peaceful transfer of power and suggestions to suspend the Constitution pose severe risks. Meanwhile, on the left, cultural forces on campuses are creating an environment where progressive students increasingly find it acceptable to block opposing views.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance
What’s the point of high school?
Many states are struggling to revise their high-school graduation requirements, sometimes up, sometimes down. The most basic is the perennial issue of how hard should it be to earn a diploma. The next is how can high schools can possibly prepare thousands of dissimilar young people for the expectations and prerequisites of hundreds of differing post-graduation options?
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
It’s time for tough love to address chronic absenteeism
Despite an unprecedented infusion of resources, the latest data show that American students are struggling to recover
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance
The vibes for career-tech programs are great. But they’re too rare.
Education loomed small at both political conventions this summer—a shame considering what dire condition it’s in.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction
Tutoring outcomes in D.C. public schools, 2022–23
Since 2022, public schools in the District of Columbia have been working to mitigate Covid learning disruptions by establishing and ramping up high-impact tutoring (HIT) efforts.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: September 5, 2024
Investing more in apprenticeships could make a huge difference in launching the careers of young people across the country. —Heather Long, The Washington Post The closure of several Rochester public schools shook the community to its core.
Commentary
Governance
Republicans’ missing policy issue: Education
Editor’s note: This was first published by the Manhattan Institute.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance
Why Indiana high school diploma changes may do more harm than good
Indiana’s new proposed legislation on altered diploma requirements redesigns the purpose of a high school education, which I believe will have negative consequences for students across the state, with regard to the diminishing skills of global-mindedness and perspectives.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools
Charter schools outperform traditional public schools on average. Here's why.
High-quality studies find that charter schools boost achievement by more than their traditional-public-school counterparts—an advantage that is particularly large for students of color in disadvantaged urban communities, and one that has only grown larger as the charter sector has expanded and matured.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Tough love should be the theme of 2024–25
Society as a whole has largely bounced back from the dark days of the pandemic, but life inside our schools is arguably worse than ever. Attendance is dismal. Cheating is pervasive. Cell phones are everywhere. Disorder abounds. And for all these reasons and more, kids are learning less than they were back before the plague struck. The right way to respond is to embrace tough love. That means, first and foremost, again holding students accountable for their behavior.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance
Does competition from charter schools help or hurt traditional public schools?
It’s widely acknowledged that a bit of healthy competition is a good thing in most contexts. Among other things, it pushes businesses to create better products and athletes and musicians to train longer and harder. But what about in education?
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
Should schools adopt equitable grading practices? A teacher voices his concerns.
Over the past six months, I’ve had an extended conversation about “equitable grading” with Joe Feldman, the author of Grading for Equity (see here,
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
Evidence that middle school principals influence long-term student outcomes
For years, researchers have pointed to the quality of educators as the key to school performance.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Teachers & School Leaders
Are racially isolated Black teachers more likely to leave their jobs?
The demographic makeup of America’s K–12 students is steadily changing, with schools nationwide welcoming increasingly diverse cohorts of young learners.
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Commentary
What we're reading this week: August 29, 2024
A Walton/Gallup survey finds that half of all Gen Z teens do not plan to attend college—but schools are not doing enough to engage and challenge students pursuing non-college pathways.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing
A timely evaluation of Massachusetts’s test-based graduation requirements
In 2003, as part of a broader education reform package, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts began requiring high school students to pass Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exams in math, English language arts, and science in order to earn a diploma.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Why some teachers might be afraid of cellphone bans in the classroom
When it comes to the current storm of concern over student cellphones in schools, the conventional wisdom is that it’s educators on one side versus p
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The complicated interplay between race, poverty, and schooling
Fordham’s new study by Paul L. Morgan and Eric Hengyu Hu, "Explaining Achievement Gaps: The Role of Socioeconomic Factors," raises as many questions as it answers. Among them: How can we explain the different patterns for the Black-White achievement gap for reading, on the one hand, and math and science, on the other? Why does SES explain so much more of the Hispanic-White gap than the Black-White gap? And what’s the role of family structure in explaining the Black-White and Hispanic-White gaps?
Commentary
Governance
Will next month’s Harris-Trump debate even mention education?
During the fateful presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, there was nary a mention of education. No questions on the topic from the moderators.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Inside the classical school renaissance: An interview with Dr. Kathleen O’Toole
Classical education is undergoing a renaissance. According to a recent analysis by Arcadia Education, the classical sector is growing by 5 percent annually with a total projected enrollment of 1.4 million students by 2035.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
How have teacher working conditions changed since the pandemic?
As a teacher both during and immediately after the pandemic, I was constantly on the receiving end of some version of: “You must be so relieved that the pandemic is over.” My response was always: “Actually, it has only gotten worse.” And it’s not just me.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning
RoadMAP to success: Using state assessment data to predict postsecondary success
A recent CALDER study by Darrin DeChane, Takkako Nomi, and Michael Podgursky utilizes test data from Missouri’s state assessment, known as MAP, to assess how well these test scores predict
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Commentary
What we're reading this week: August 22, 2024
A new analysis of six decades of yearbook pictures shows that students who have more freedom to be creative with their style in high school might also be more inventive later in life.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
I got caught teaching advanced students
“Come see me in the office.” Uh oh. I probably got caught teaching again.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
Bring back "Liberty’s Kids"
As the United States heads toward the semiquincentennial (!) of the Declaration of Independence, as we near an election that’s uncommonly consequential (!), and as many worthy groups strive to rekindle civics in American schools and colleges, it’s time to revisit and revive the superb animated video series named Liberty’s Kids
Commentary
Dear Admissions Committee: Please reject my college application
The conventions of college admission essays demand tales of unparalleled grit and overcoming adversity. Yet for many seventeen-year-olds, their time on Earth has been marked by only by an unbroken series of mundane and typical experiences. What to do?
