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Serious portrait of a student in a classroom
Commentary
9.18.2025
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The Covid generation: Best readers ever in fourth grade, worst readers ever by twelfth

Michael J. Petrilli

There’s been a lot of smart analysis of the dismal NAEP results released last week. But here’s an alarming fact that you probably haven’t seen before: The cohort of students who scored at record-low levels in twelfth grade reading were part of the same generation of kids who scored at record-high levels in fourth grade. So what happened?

Serious portrait of a student in a classroom
Students in a classroom
Commentary
9.17.2025
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders

NAEP scores show top students are struggling, too

Brandon L. Wright

The latest twelfth-grade results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress are awful, as

Students in a classroom
Student using a computer in class
Commentary
9.11.2025
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Cellphone bans are not enough

Henry Seton

This fall, students are returning to school amidst tighter cellphone restrictions. From California to Florida, a rare consensus of politicians, educators, and parents is rising against the dangers that smartphones pose to student learning and well-being. But it is too early to celebrate. Simply banning cellphones without curtailing other devices is like locking the front door while leaving the back door open.

Student using a computer in class
Locked school
Commentary
9.11.2025
Teachers & School Leaders

What can schools really do about mass shootings?

Daniel Buck

By now, we’ve all heard the news from Minnesota: A lone gunman opened fire during morning mass at a Catholic elementary school, claiming innocent lives and traumatizing a whole community. As a former elementary school teacher and administrator, I can tell you that news of school shootings hits differently when you work in one.

Locked school
Sad student in gym class
Commentary
9.11.2025
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Yes, obesity is a problem, but the Presidential Fitness Test isn’t a solution

Jill Hoppe

I remember standing on my high school track, clutching my inhaler, knowing I was about to fail. Officially, the Obama administration had phased out the Presidential Fitness Test, but my district hadn’t gotten the memo. So, once a year, my Rhode Island classmates and I still lined up for the evaluation.

Sad student in gym class
Bored student in school
Commentary
9.4.2025
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The mixed blessing of new school measures

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

As we broaden the scope of what we judge schools for without radically expanding their footprint on the lives of children, are we not setting everyone up for failure? And will we not also—inevitably—slack off on the modest versions of results-driven accountability that we’re barely managing to hold onto today?

Bored student in school
Donald Trump
Commentary
9.4.2025
Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice

Will Donald Trump be remembered as an education president?

Dale Chu

Last month, Education Secretary Linda McMahon expressed hope that Donald Trump will be remembered as an “education president,” arguing that “sending education back to the states” warrants

Donald Trump
Student reading
Commentary
9.4.2025
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance

A new early literacy safety net in Massachusetts

Almudena Abeyta, Tracy Curley, Dianne Kelly, Ed Lambert, Vanessa Lipschitz

Much commentary has been offered on the literacy crisis plaguing the country. Massachusetts, often recognized as a leader in student achievement, has experienced the same challenge. Signs of the problem were clear in advance of the pandemic with NAEP fourth-grade reading proficiency rates falling from 50 percent to 45 percent between 2011 and 2019.

Student reading
Students reading in a classroom
Commentary
9.4.2025

A better start toward literacy

Alicia Anderson

Reading skills in the early grades can predict future academic success, and too many children begin formal schooling already behind. By fourth grade, only 33 percent of U.S.

Students reading in a classroom
Report card
Commentary
9.2.2025
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Two cheers for Thomas Taylor

Michael J. Petrilli

Given our moniker as “The Education Gadfly,” we at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute are not accustomed to lavishing praise on education leaders. That’s OK, considering how rarely they deserve it. But when someone in a position of authority demonstrates leadership, courage, and common sense, it’s important for us gadflies (and reformers) to say so.

Report card
Fordham Gadfly image
Commentary
8.31.2025

What we’re reading: August 31, 2025

The Education Gadfly

The post-Katrina “college for all” mindset raised college enrollment rates among New Orleans charter school students, but many dropped out before graduating.

Fordham Gadfly image
Fordham Gadfly image
Commentary
8.31.2025

Cheers and Jeers: August 31, 2025

The Education Gadfly

Cheers The Institute for Education Sciences must fundamentally transform its approach to education R&D. —Mark Schneider, American Enterprise Institute Jeers

Fordham Gadfly image
New Orleans skyline
Commentary
8.29.2025
Accountability & Testing, School Finance, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Education reform in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

Kamren Herring

Nearly twenty years ago, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. Among other sweeping institutional changes, the unprecedented school reforms enacted in the immediate aftermath have left long-lasting effects on the city’s K–12 public education system. But are New Orleans schools still operating in the way that reformers intended?

New Orleans skyline
High school football practice
Commentary
8.29.2025
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Coaches and teachers both understand: Effort is king

Michael J. Petrilli

My son came home from football practice the other night and showed me the “key performance indicators” from his position coach. This season, a missed tackle results in a “fine” of twenty burpees; a dropped interception is followed by twenty push-ups; and a missed assignment will be punished with fifty squat jumps.

High school football practice
Teacher in a classroom
Commentary
8.28.2025
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Teachers & School Leaders

More research on teacher salary freezes, please

Meredith Coffey, Ph.D.

Teacher salary freezes haven’t gotten much attention in either the mainstream media or in education research. Rigorous studies explore the effects of teacher performance pay, teacher benefits, and much else, but Coffey couldn’t find a single study of pay freezes. Are they pushing teachers out of the profession?

Teacher in a classroom
Indiana Statehouse
Commentary
8.28.2025
Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice

Indiana just removed one of the major barriers to starting a new school

Mike McShane

With eighteen words tucked into a 37-page education bill, the Indiana state legislature took a major step towards easing the lives of educational entrepreneurs. Those words? “A public school, charter school, or nonpublic school shall be considered a permitted use in all zoning districts.”

Indiana Statehouse
Students entering a school
Commentary
8.28.2025
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Private School Choice

The factors influencing private school choice enrollment

Jeff Murray

As private school choice policies have proliferated and matured across the country, researchers have looked at the policy side of the process, as well as

Students entering a school
Fordham Gadfly image
Commentary
8.24.2025

What we’re reading: August 24, 2025

The Education Gadfly

A journalist’s deep and nuanced look at microschooling and Arizona’s ESA program, where he concludes that “public education does not have to die when we admit that one size does not fit all.” —Chandler Fritz, Harper's Magazine Navigating enrollmen

Fordham Gadfly image
Sailboats near lighthouse
Commentary
8.22.2025
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools

Charter school regulation means keeping the destination in sight

Thibaut Delloue

Michael Petrilli recently made a sensible case for charter school regulation—not for its own sake, but because charter authorizers should concern themselves with how our public schools are being run.

Sailboats near lighthouse
Teacher grading a school assignment
Commentary
8.21.2025
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Teachers don’t like “equitable” grading practices

Michael J. Petrilli

Teachers hate it when the powers that be take a sledgehammer to their few sources of leverage over student motivation and effort. Nor do they like giving students grades they don’t deserve. How did we get here?

Teacher grading a school assignment
Teacher in an unruly classroom
Commentary
8.21.2025
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

How administrators can support classroom discipline

Daniel Buck

When still a teacher, I considered my building principal a consequence vending machine. When all else failed, press H5 for an in-school suspension. Having been on both sides now, I realize that the role of the administrator in maintaining school order is far more consequential.

Teacher in an unruly classroom
Slow road sign
Commentary
8.21.2025
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The limit on classical education’s growth

Robert Pondiscio, Annika Hernandez

Classical education has become one of the brightest spots in the K–12 landscape. Once a niche movement, it now encompasses more than 1,500 public, private, and charter schools serving nearly 700,000 students.

Slow road sign
Electrician apprenticeship
Commentary
8.21.2025
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Teachers & School Leaders

Tracing the CTE teacher pipeline from industry to classroom

Jill Hoppe

Student participation in career and technical education (CTE) has grown significantly in recent years, backed by bipartisan support and

Electrician apprenticeship
Oklahoma town
Commentary
8.18.2025
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Standards

Welcome to Lake Wobegon, Oklahoma

Michael J. Petrilli

First a bit of history: Before he got canceled during the #Me-Too Movement, Garrison Keillor headlined a very popular public radio variety show called “A Prairie Home Companion.” Most weeks, he regaled listeners with stories from the fictional Lake Wobegon, Minnesota; I remember lis

Oklahoma town