Commentary
Commentary
Why Oklahoma should stay the course with the Common Core
As legislatures wind down their spring sessions nationwide, Oklahoma is one of the few remaining states with an ongoing, unresolved debate over the Common Core State Standards. Unfortunately, it appears that the Sooner State may follow Indiana’s route and repeal the standards.
Commentary
Charter Schools
Charter School Funding: Inequity Expands
Higher-quality products justify greater investments. Full stop. Unfortunately, when it comes to charter schools, states almost universally reject this logic.
Commentary
Common Core: Too little change, not too much
As anyone in education knows, the Common Core debate has become heavily politicized over the past year.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
Is differentiated instruction a hollow promise?
It looks to me as if one of the most acclaimed reforms of today’s education profession—not just in the U.S. but also all over the planet—is one of the least examined in terms of actual implementation and effectiveness.
Video
Fordham LIVE Recap: State Education Agencies: The Smaller the Better?
Michelle Gininger highlights a few moments from the Fordham LIVE discussion State Education Agencies: The Smaller the Better? Watch the full event.
Commentary
Michael Brickman and Joy Pullman take the Common Core debate to Fox News
Michael Brickman appeared on Fox News’ “Happening Now” to talk about standards and the Common Core with Joy Pullmann. Michael calls out anti–Common Core groups who offer false choices on standards vs.
Commentary
Great recent reform reads
Mike McShane and Andrew Kelly of AEI have written a terrific new study commissioned by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. Everyone interested in the changing ecosystem of K–12 schooling in urban America ought to give it a look.
Commentary
One state education agency takes an unprecedented and welcome stand for charter-school quality
In 2013, there were a shocking number of charter-school failures across Fordham’s home state of Ohio, including seventeen in Columbus alone—most of them first-year startups.
Commentary
All eyes on Indiana: More lessons to be learned
Indiana's departure from the Common Core was a bold step, but not the end of the story. We take a look at what Indiana's travails might mean for Ohio.
Commentary
Innovation Ohio’s faux charter-school research
The starting point for charter school improvements should be sound research.
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Charter Schools
An unprecedented and welcome step for ODE
Additional scrutiny reveals weakness in some sponsors' processes.
Commentary
Common Core: The day after
Like a dog that finally catches the bus he'd been chasing forever, what happens when opponents of the Common Core State Standards finally succeed in getting a state's policymakers to "repeal" the education initiative?
Commentary
Edujobs!
Spring has sprung, and that means lots of great edu-orgs are hiring. Here are some of the most interesting I’ve come across recently. Good luck!
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See Mike on C-SPAN talking CCSSI
Bright and early yesterday morning, Mike Petrilli joined Steven Scully at C-SPAN to talk Common Core. The good news? The conspiracy theorists weren’t watching—or maybe they had their calls screened out.
Commentary
Common Core promotes student success
As the drumbeat to roll back the Common Core State Standards gets louder, some people are starting to question the value and purpose of academic standards in the first place. Do states really need to set expectations for what all students should learn? Are state standardized tests necessary?
Commentary
The new SEA: At the helm, not the oar
When it comes to state education agencies (SEAs), ed-reformers have fallen into a sorry rut.
Commentary
Vision Meets Reality: The Common Core in Action
How is Common Core implementation faring, four years after these challenging standards were unveiled and embraced? Education Week attempts to answer this with an investigative report covering the key challenges that states and districts face: politics, assessments, teacher preparation, spending, curricula, accommodations, and tests for the severely disabled.
Commentary
New Report: The State Education Agency: At the Helm, Not the Oar
In recent years, policymakers and reform advocates have viewed State Education Agencies (SEAs) as the lead organizations for implementing sweeping reforms and initiatives in K–12 education—everything from Race to the Top grants and federal waivers to teacher-evaluation systems and online schools.
Video
Fordham LIVE: State Education Agencies: The Smaller the Better?
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.
Commentary
What high schools can do for ‘unprepared’ students
The Carnegie Corporation’s Michele Cahill and Leah Hamilton, veterans of Joel Klein’s Department of Education in New York City, responded to a challenge posed by Petrilli with a thoughtful alternative view.
Commentary
Charter Schools
Charter paean disguised as a donors’ guide
The Philanthropy Roundtable recently released an exceptional publication produced by an exceptional author.
Commentary
The Bay State, British blues, and Barber
Some music scholars believe that 50 years ago, the blues—the primordial indigenous American musical form—was on the brink of extinction. Its progenitors were fading away, mainstream America was uninterested, and the unsympathetic forces of musical evolution were marching on.
Commentary
Advanced Education
Why does America produce so few low-income high-achieving students?
We know from international data—PISA, TIMSS, and so on—that other countries produce more “high achievers” than we do (at least in relation to the
Commentary
‘College and career ready’ sounds great. But what about the kids who are neither?
Of all the responses to my “you’re-not-college-material” essay
Commentary
The end of test prep
More than one million students. Sixteen thousand schools. Nearly 10,000 test items. This spring is a critical milestone, as PARCC states make history by participating in field tests. More than the numbers, however, the successful field tests mark a huge shift in how we do testing in this country.
Report
Governance
The State Education Agency: At the Helm, Not the Oar
In recent years, policymakers and reform advocates have viewed State Education Agencies (SEAs) as the lead organizations for implementing sweeping reforms and initiatives in K–12 education—everything from Race to the Top grants and federal waivers to teacher-evaluation systems and online schools.
Commentary
Eye-opening snapshot of state-level reform activity
South Carolina has taken today’s testing drama to new heights. A few years back, the governor, chief, and state board chair all agreed to have the Palmetto State become a governing board member of the Smarter Balanced (SBAC) testing consortia. But as other states withdrew and new testing options emerged, the state legislature no longer saw participation in a consortium as necessary.
Commentary
The testing pendulum
The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act in 2002 was the apotheosis of the standards-assessments-accountability movement, which had been building for about two decades.
Commentary
Success for third-grade readers in Ohio requires all hands and all voices
A laudatory event takes a weird turn.