Many states across the nation are well underway with the challenging work of implementing the Common Core State Standards. But what does a thoughtful transition from existing to new standards look like? And what are the implications for accountability systems in the interim?
We all know that there are other countries that are beating our pants academically. But why is that so? And what can we do to learn from, mimic, and catch up to them?
Checker Finn, chagrined at the lack of attention to gifted education in the U.S., has decided to study what other nations do.
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“Fewer, clearer, higher”: These were the words that guided the crafting of the Common Core State Standards.
For a decade, the nonprofit Institute for Innovation in Public Choice (IIPSC) has helped the cities of New York, Boston, Denver, and New Orleans bring order to the Wild West of school choice, using the one-two punch of economic theory and custom software.
I’m halfway through an ambitious research project, in which I examine how other countries educate their high-ability kids in the hope that we might pick up tips that would prove useful in improving the woeful state of “gifted education” in the U.S.
Poland’s gains in mathematics and science on the 2012 PISA assessments made big news in the United States. The impressive achievements by fifteen-year-old Polish youngsters contrast starkly with the scores of American youngsters. U.S.
America’s approach to the education of children with disabilities is antiquated, costly, and ineffective. “Special education” as we know it is broken—and repainting the surface won’t repair it. It cries out for a radical overhaul.
A House committee hearing on the Common Core lasts until 1:00 in the morning.
The performance of Fordham-sponsored schools for the 2012-13 school year.
Welcome to the new Common Core kerfuffle.
The Tennessee Charter School Center (TCSC) is out with a terrific new report on Nashville’s schools landscape.
The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice recently released a study that seeks to better understand the decision-making processes of parents who send their children to private schools.
For those of you following the interesting and ever-changing world of educator evaluations, a few recent happenings may be worth a look.
Do highly-motivated parents guarantee a seat in a good school?
Jay Greene wants school-choice supporters to relax the testing mandates in the newest and largest voucher programs in the nation.
School districts face an enormous financial burden when it comes to educating our highest-need students. Financing the Education of High-Need Students focuses on three specific challenges that are often encountered when districts—especially small ones—grapple with the costs of serving their highest-need special-education students.
It seems the largest battle in education policy today centers on the question of whether or not the Obama administration cheerleading for the Common Core State Standards, a state-led initiative, represents an existential threat to federalism.
There is no doubt in my mind that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan cares deeply about disadvantaged kids. He deserves our admiration and respect for bringing a renewed sense of urgency to addressing America’s persistently failing schools.
Last month, USA Today reported that officials in the Brevard County Schools had broken Florida state law—on purpose. Their offense? Placing more kids in classrooms than Florida’s Class Size Reduction statute allows.
For decades, lowering class size has been touted as a strategy for improving student learning, despite loads of research asserting that it is not an effective solution.
What if I told you there were millions of American boys and girls living in communities where half of students are low-income, just one in five adults has earned a bachelor’s degree, and only 27 percent of high school graduates go on to college?
Recently, 2013 NAEP results were made public, and, as is typical for such bi-annual releases, there was lots of excitement, somberness, and everything in between.
Fordham released a paper by Michael Hansen projecting the impact on student learning if excellent eighth-grade teachers—those in the top 25 percent—were responsible for six or twelve more students per class.
