Homegrown Common Core implementation: A good bet for Reno

The recently released Fordham report on the implementation of the Common Core State Standards includes the work of Washoe County, my district.

The de Blasio paradox: Private money and public schools

By now, education observers are aware of New York City mayor Bill de Blasio’s incursion on the Big Apple’s charter sector.

Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke!

Netflix Academy: The best streaming videos on birds

Note: This post is part of our series, "Netflix Academy: The best educational videos available for streaming." Be sure to check out our previous Netflix Academy posts on&n

One Million Lives, Year One

The National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) has emerged as one of the nation’s staunchest proponents of charter-school quality.

Education’s endless, erroneous either-ors

The K–12 education world brims with debates and dichotomies that get us into all manner of needless quarrels and cul-de-sacs, thus messing up every reform initiative and retarding progress.

The invaluableness of 'obscure' words and the SAT

“Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”

Brother, can you spare a scholarship?

The Obama administration’s 2015 K–12 budget request

The Obama administration has just released its 2015 budget proposal. Here are its most notable K-12 edu-features.

The Match Between Teaching and the Test

Discussions about current education-reform efforts are typically focused on three separate topics: the Common Core standards, the new tests, and the curriculum. The alignment among the three seems to receive little attention—though it is a critical matter, as the degree of alignment will determine the validity of student test scores.

A school choice proposal with legs…in New York State?

As legislative sessions across the country continue to wind down, it's worth keeping tabs on some of the big private-school-choice proposals still under consideration.

A brewing storm around third-grade reading

Ohio is facing a potential “storm” in relation to the reading success of its third grade students. It’s critical that parents, teachers, administrators, and policymakers stay calm and remind themselves how important reading is to a child's long-term success.

Vocation is back

There are strong calls for a Renaissance in vocational education in Ohio. Here's what we think.

Virtual Schools: Assessing Progress and Accountability

A brief look at how accountability options for virtual schools can be strengthened.

Do standards matter? A teacher’s perspective on the promise and potential of the Common Core

I started teaching seven years ago, and I have worked in four different schools in three different states. I’ve always sought schools and environments with higher standards for what students should know and be able to do, as well as higher expectations for what teachers can accomplish.

Missouri Charter Schools and Teacher Pension Plans: How Well Do Existing Pension Plans Serve Charter and Urban Teachers?

How well do existing pension plans serve charter and urban teachers? The unsurprising answer: not well. At all. Economist Cory Koedel and his colleagues study teacher-pension plans in Missouri, which has three teacher pension plans—Kansas City Public Schools (which covers 3 percent of Missouri teachers), the Public School Retirement System for the City of St.

Primary Sources

As the debate over education reforms like the Common Core rage across the country, policy makers, advocates, pundits, and wonks clamor to have their views heard. In the din, the voices of teachers—upon whose shoulders the success of education reform ultimately lies—are sometimes drowned out.

The false tradeoffs of test scores, creativity, and happiness

Rationalizing America’s lackluster academic performance is something of a cottage industry. One of the most popular ways people explain away our low test scores is to claim that they don’t matter much anyway. “Let others have the higher test scores.

When 1 + 1 = 0: Why the new Indiana draft standards don’t make the grade

On February 18, the Indiana Department of Education released the first public draft of a set of new K–12 expectations for English language arts and math.

Netflix Academy: The best streaming videos on reptiles

Note: This post is part of our series, "Netflix Academy: The best educational videos available for streaming." Be sure to check out our previous Netflix Academy posts on 

First Bell 2-26-14

A first look at today's most important education news

New from Fordham: Common Core in the Districts: An Early Look at Early Implementers

Common Core in the Districts: An Early Look at Early Implementers

The last year has found critics and advocates of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) duking it out in the political arena. That a common set of high expectations for K–12 students would catalyze such fierce fisticuffs reminds us of both the ugliness and beauty of democracy.

A chance for Mississippi to get out of the educational basement

Which state ranks last of the fifty in fourth-grade math on the NAEP, last in eighth-grade r

The imperfect "ObamaCore" analogy

The COMMENTARY blog is my absolute favorite, so I was more than a little crestfallen when I read Seth Mandel’s recent entry.