Commentary
Topics
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Facilities, School Finance, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Missouri narrowed its charter school funding gap. But it didn’t close it.
For those of us who have long pushed for charter schools to receive fair funding, progress has been slow, uneven, and hard-won. That’s why we at the Thomas B.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The Classic Learning Test has become a graduation loophole in Florida
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has called the CLT the nation’s new “gold standard.” USA Today’s blockbuster investigation, published today, suggests a more accurate label would be “boondoggle.” In Florida, the state that has done more than any other to
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Has the pendulum swung too far away from college for all?
College is on my mind because of two recent tidbits.
Podcast
Can a funding surge close the charter school gap? | Episode 1030 of The Education Gadfly Show
Andrew Camp and Collin Hitt join Mike Petrilli and David Gr
Report
Charter Schools
Moving Target: The Success and Failure of Missouri’s Charter School Funding Surge
In 2022, the state of Missouri made a concerted effort to eliminate its charter school funding gap. But how much progress has it actually made? And what have charters done with the additional funds?
Commentary
No, small families aren’t a tragedy
In the education policy world, much is being made of declining U.S. birthrates, and for good reason.
Commentary
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School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
5 trends shaping America’s trillion-dollar school system
Editor’s note: This was first published by The 74.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The Trump team gives Head Start the DOGE treatment
The past two weeks have seen a growing ruckus over big changes in the Head Start regs that are reportedly nearing completion by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The reading crisis is changing the conversation
During my years at TIME magazine, the newsroom had a rule of thumb: If something happens once, it’s news. Twice is a coincidence. Three times? That’s a trend.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
Against the Pinterest classroom
We’ve all visited those classrooms. They look like 30-gallon bags full of confetti, crepe paper, and Elmer’s glue exploded in the center. The bulletin boards are a mess of student work and neon posters, arts and crafts projects dangle from the ceiling, and groups of desks are buried in tassels and decorations. Must a classroom be a confusing and unrelenting assault on the senses?
Commentary
State solutions to school discipline
Editor’s note: This was first published by the American Enterprise Institute. Introduction
Podcast
Governance
Reviving federal ed reform, starting with literacy | Episode 1029 of The Education Gadfly Show
Congressman Josh Harder joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss his push to
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
Don’t give up on foreign language education
In a recent edition of his SCHOOLED newsletter, Mike Petrilli called on U.S. high schools to stop pretending to teach foreign languages. Who decides whether they are taught at all?
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Across the states: Reactions to Fordham’s updated teachers union strength rankings
In the years since Fordham’s landmark 2012 study on teachers union strength, the education and policymaking landscapes have changed dramatically.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
New NAEP data show boys have made a historic comeback in reading. Is it too good to be true?
New federal test score data from the long-term trend (LTT) report reveal a remarkable finding: For the first time in the 50 years of the assessment, nine-year-old boys are now scoring equally with girls in reading.
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Teachers & School Leaders
Hey, Claude, should I go to college?
One of the more promising developments of recent decades in education has been the pendulum swing away from the “college for a
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
How has teachers union strength changed? Diving deeper into "A Crowded Table"
A Crowded Table: Teacher Union Strength in 2026 shows what we have all seen transpire over the last several years, as the Janus decision, the post-Covid rise of right-wing parent advocacy grou
Commentary
Governance
Congress learned the wrong lessons from No Child Left Behind
For a law that has been off the books for more than a decade, No Child Left Behind is receiving an unusual amount of<
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Should you redshirt your kindergartner?
Across the U.S., nearly every state uses a child’s fifth birthday to determine when they can enter the public school system as kindergartners. If your child’s birthday falls just after the cut-off, those few extra days can mean an entire extra year at home or paying for preschool.
Podcast
Teachers & School Leaders
Transforming school systems | Episode 1028 of The Education Gadfly Show
Mike Miles, superintendent of Houston Independent School District, joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith t
Commentary
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Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Career & Technical Education, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance
Good programs aren’t enough: States need a work-based learning strategy
In Philadelphia, a young person leaving Launchpad Philly’s post-high school graduate training track is on pace to earn nearly $30,000 within nine months and $50,000 within one year. That far outpaces the roughly $12,500 a young Philadelphian with only a high school diploma typically earns.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Governance
Accountability is not just about improving instruction. It aims to shift local politics, too.
A few weeks ago, my colleague Robert Pondiscio argued convincingly that the accountability policies of the No Child Left Behind era did not work as effectively as they could have because schools did not know how to respond to the pressure they felt to improve instructional practice and deliver str
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
“Saving” the humanities
The current issue of The Atlantic proclaims the demise of reading—the act at the heart of the humanities.
