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New York Governor Kathy Hochul
Commentary
5.14.2026
Governance, Private School Choice

Trump’s education tax credit is poorly designed, but blue states should opt into it anyway

Michael J. Petrilli

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has announced her intention to participate in the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit, joining Colorado Governor Jared Polis as the only Democrats thus far to do so. Should those who support school choice in all its varieties but aren’t crazy about the particulars of the federal initiative celebrate these decisions?

New York Governor Kathy Hochul
Adults and students in a school
Commentary
5.14.2026
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Five policies for school boards to improve discipline

Daniel Buck

One year, I decided to write down bullet-pointed notes on all the chaos, violence, and disorder that occurred in my school: Two students held a peer against a wall while a third pummeled them in the face and stomach; another student beat up a special needs child on the bus; a girl brought a hammer to school but it was confiscated before she could use it.

Adults and students in a school
School phone box
Commentary
5.14.2026
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Findings from the new phone ban study may not be so bleak after all

Meredith Coffey, Ph.D.

Over the six years I taught high school, I tried every response to student cellphone use that was available to me: one warning, three warnings, no warnings; reacting to the mere sight of a phone, looking the other way if the use wasn’t conspicuous; calling the front office, calling the counselor, revisiting “classroom norms,” emailing parents, buying

School phone box
Apprenticeship
Commentary
5.8.2026
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance

Unraveling the case for credentials in high school

Lindsey Phillips

Students can earn more than 1.8 million credentials in the United States today. We know education pays—particularly for those with a bachelor’s degree.

Apprenticeship
Teacher and a student reading
Commentary
5.7.2026
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance

The science and culture of reading instruction

Chad Aldeman

After decades of reading wars, policy stalemates, and children quietly falling behind, teachers across the country are embracing the science of reading. That finding comes from a new Fordham report, which also tells a harder story about what’s left to do.

Teacher and a student reading
Teacher and classroom full of students
Commentary
5.7.2026
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance

Pondiscio vs. Ryan on state-led curriculum reform

Michael J. Petrilli

Last week, I participated in a meeting with other policy wonks, debating (among other topics) whether all states should follow the lead of the Southern Surge rs and embrace a top-down approach to curriculum reform.

Teacher and classroom full of students
Students entering a school
Commentary
5.7.2026
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance

Boosting student access to better schools via quality-based reforms

Jeff Murray, Alicia Anderson

Wide-ranging education reforms in New York City Public Schools in the early 2000s under then-mayor Michael Bloomberg and schools chief Joel Klein ran the gamut from school closures and consolidations to revamping acad

Students entering a school
Student doing math
Commentary
5.7.2026
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction

Can literacy instruction make students better at math?

Jill Hoppe

Once you learn to drive a car, you’re better equipped to drive a truck. Knowing how to drive a car might also help you to develop better decision-making skills. That’s because of a phenomenon called “learning transfer”: the application of skills and concepts learned in one context to another.

Student doing math
students reading
Commentary
5.1.2026
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

The science of reading has won the argument. Has it won the classroom?

Robert Pondiscio

A few years ago, the “science of reading” was still treated in some quarters as a niche movement—something for literacy specialists, cranky traditionalists, and a handful of obsessives who spent too much time fighting the reading wars on the internet. No longer.

students reading
Parent with child
Commentary
5.1.2026
Curriculum & Instruction

Parents need to know what schools teach to make better education choices

Thibaut Delloue

Our schools have a curriculum problem. As states move toward education systems driven by parent choice, our lack of curricular coherence and transparency is increasingly impossible to ignore. For parents to choose, they must know what schools are teaching, yet most schools make this frustratingly difficult for families to discern.

Parent with child
Student taking test
Commentary
4.30.2026
Accountability & Testing, Personalized Learning

When helping hurts: Rethinking special education accommodations

Daniel Buck

We need to talk about accommodations. Like puppies or grandma’s cookies, they are treated as unmitigated goods—at least in my experience. Should we not support all students? Should we not provide differentiated instruction? Who in their right mind could oppose offering accommodations, leveling the playing field, and helping students with special needs?

Student taking test
Standardized test
Commentary
4.30.2026
Accountability & Testing, Teachers & School Leaders

Accommodations are a concern, but don’t blame parents

Miriam Kurtzig Freedman

When 20 percent of Harvard and Brown students and 38 percent of Stanford’s are eligible for accommodations even as just 3–4 percent of students in community colleges are, we have a crisis of trust in testing, fairness, and equity.

Standardized test
A teacher's desk
Commentary
4.30.2026
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

The “science of reading gap”

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D., Michael J. Petrilli

In recent years, states and districts have made a concerted effort to align early elementary school instruction with “the science of reading.” But how much progress has actually been made? To find out, Fordham researchers David Griffith and Brian Fitzpatrick analyzed results from a nationally representative survey of K–3 teachers that examined their knowledge of reading science and its relationship to the policies that shape instruction. One disturbing finding: Teachers in high-poverty schools appear less committed to the science of reading than their peers.

A teacher's desk
Apprenticeship
Commentary
4.27.2026
Career & Technical Education, Governance

Workforce Pell and the path from high school to work: Marking National Apprenticeship Week 2026

Bruno V. Manno

For all the talk about preparing students for college and career, American education still struggles with one of its most important jobs: helping young people make a confident first move into adult life. We ask students to make big decisions about college, work, and training, but give them weak maps for what comes next.

Apprenticeship
Tablets
Commentary
4.23.2026
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Beware the unintended consequences of school screen time limits

Meredith Coffey, Ph.D.

With school phone bans of various sorts now underway in 41 states and counting, debates on classroom screen time have shifted focus to the devices ostensibly being used for educational purposes: Chromebooks, iPads, and the like. In response to all the tech backlash, state policymakers are taking swift action, some of which is warranted, but much of which bears signs of legislative haste.

Tablets
Anxious person
Commentary
4.23.2026
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Why is Gen Z so anxious?

Jill Hoppe, Elainah Elkins

Editor’s note: This is the first in a three-part series written by Elainah Elkins and Jill Hoppe, born in 1999 and 2000, respectively. There is growing discourse surrounding Gen Z, but the voices of Gen Zers themselves are often missing from the conversation. This is their response.

Anxious person