Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: October 27, 2022
“I thought at least 50 percent credit for no work was okay.
Podcast
Accountability & Testing
Education Gadfly Show #843: Halloween a week early with NAEP results in
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Checker Finn joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
High-achieving middle schoolers have suffered devastating math losses, finds NAEP
Editor’s note: This is an edition of “Advance,” a newsletter from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute written by Brandon Wright, our Editorial Director, and published every other week. Its purpose is to monitor the progress of gifted education in America, including legal and legislative developments, policy and leadership changes, emerging research, grassroots efforts, and more.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Could NAEP affect midterm elections? And other questions about next week’s release.
The 2022 results from the “main” National Assessment of Educational Progress will be released October 24. They’ll include fourth- and eighth-grade scores at the national level, as well as state by state and for two-dozen large urban districts. Especially after the Covid shut-downs, it’s a big freakin’ deal. Here are three major storylines to look forward to.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Must we battle over civics education?
In a way, the battles we’ve seen in recent years over what to teach schoolkids in civics class resemble the war in Ukraine: They’re wholly unnecessary—and may be entirely the work of aggressors.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
How one company made billions on a flawed approach to reading instruction
Few reporters in education journalism have had greater impact in recent years than Emily Hanford.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Governance
Will pandemic learning loss cost $700 billion to fix?
A new study released this month by Kenneth Shores and Matthew Steinberg tackles the question of whether federal pandemic relief for public schools was provided in the right way and in the right amount.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: October 20, 2022
“Young children were massively overlooked for special education.
Podcast
Evidence-Based Learning
Education Gadfly Show #842: Industry-recognized credentials aren’t living up to their potential
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Quentin Suffren, Senior Advisor of Innovation Policy for ExcelinEd,
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Jubilee for character education
Even educators who recognize the value of character are often deeply skeptical that educators can teach virtue as a matter of practice because—apart from religious contexts--they have never seen it done successfully. For this reason, it is important that we draw attention to successful, non-partisan, secular models of exemplary character education. We find such a model in the UK’s Jubilee Center for Character and Virtues.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders
Cultural sensitivity for me but not for thee
Imagine a close-knit community whose members take care of and look out for one another; enjoy strong, tight-knit families with many children, close social ties, and a deep sense of purpose and belonging; and seem mostly exempt from crime, suicide, substance abuse, and other such problems. Are the habits and institutions by which this community prepares its members for adult life successful?
Commentary
Advanced Education
14 great picture books for gifted preschoolers and kindergarteners
Research is resoundingly clear that regularly reading to and with our children leads to all sorts of positive outcomes.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The impact of teacher recruiting efforts on student achievement
Everyone knows that teachers are the most important in-school factor affecting student achievement, so getting the best ones in front of the neediest students is critical.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Does teacher quality affect students’ contact with the criminal justice system?
A recent study by Evan Rose, Jonathan Schellenberg, and Yotam Shem-Tov estimates the effect of teacher quality on criminal justice contact.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: October 13, 2022
A Harvard economist finds that providing students financial incentives is a cost-effective way of improving academic outcomes.
Podcast
School Finance
Education Gadfly Show #841: Good news for a change: Most states appear to be spending their ESSER dollars wisely
On This week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Carissa Miller, CEO of the Cou
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance
Why urban charters outperform traditional public schools
High-quality studies continue to find that urban charter schools boost achievement and other outcomes by more than their traditional-public-school peers—an advantage that has only grown larger as the charter sector has expanded and matured. Where the research literature is less clear is why urban charter schools consistently, and increasingly, outperform district schools. Still, it does offer some hints and plausible hypotheses.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
High-achieving middle and high schoolers gain from latest NYC ed reform
Amid nonstop controversy, New York City, which runs the nation’s largest school system, is again moving in the right direction when it comes to advancing the education of able students and opening opportunities to more high achievers. This after much retrograde activity during the regime of former Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Instructional time lost to Covid will likely mean persistent and widening gaps in literacy
An analysis in the New York Times last month cheerily assured readers that Covid-related learning losses “look real but sub-catastrophic.” The damage also appears “to not be permanent, with students recovering at least some ground already,” opined David Wallace-Wells, a columnist for the NYT Magazi
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Doug Lemov’s vision for fostering meaning, purpose, and belonging in our classrooms
For teachers, especially newer ones, Doug Lemov’s work acts as something of a life-saving manual.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: October 6, 2022
A Georgia teachers union has endorsed the Republican incumbent for state superintendent because his Democratic challenger supports school choice.
Podcast
Charter Schools
Education Gadfly Show #840: The state of state education reform
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Jennifer Alexander, Executive Director of the Policy Innovators in Education (
Commentary
Governance
A big, rambunctious conservative education agenda is a feature, not a bug
Last week, our friend Checker Finn published a dual review of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s “Commitment to America” and our recently published AEI volume
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
Should schools group students by ability?
One of the most contentious debates in American education focuses on whether to group students into classrooms using some measure of prior achievement.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Judge “for-profit” charter schools on their results, not the tax status of their main vendor
After a tumultuous reception, the Biden administration’s regulations for the federal
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
America’s education crisis as a national security threat
Since the end of World War II, the world’s population has not only gotten vastly bigger; it has also become vastly more educated. In nearly every country, the total number of years that citizens have attended school has grown faster than the population itself, and the number of college degrees conferred has grown even faster.
