Commentary
What we're reading this week: June 15, 2023
Centrists can reboot education reform. —Liam Kerr Passing legislation is only the start of the challenges to implementing universal ESAs successfully.
Topics
Podcast
Accountability & Testing, Advanced Education, Personalized Learning
#874: How to build a continuum of advanced learning opportunities, with Nick Colangelo
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Nick Colangelo of the University of Iowa joins Mike Petr
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
How school systems can balance equity and excellence in their advanced education initiatives
One of the most important efforts in America today is making sure we have as large and diverse a group of academic high achievers as possible in order to meet tomorrow’s challenges. A new report released this week—Building a Wider, More Diverse Pipeline of Advanced Learners—offers three-dozen recommendations to education leaders and policymakers at all levels on how to accomplish this.
Event
Advanced Education
Webinar: How to Build a Wider, More Diverse Pipeline of Advanced Learners
The National Working Group on Advanced Education was formed in Spring 2022, prompted by long-standing shortcomings in America’s handling of schooling for advanced learners (a.k.a.
Report
Advanced Education
Building a Wider, More Diverse Pipeline of Advanced Learners
Thirty-six recommendations for how districts, charter networks, and states can build a continuum of advanced learning opportunities, customized to individual students’ needs and abilities, that spans the K–12 spectrum.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction
Summertime isn’t quite so easy
Kids are now about to finish school for the year—in some places already have—and parents face difficult challenges, even as their daughters and sons kick up their heels in blissful freedom. Some of those challenges have been around forever, such as how to keep them occupied and out of trouble without completely disrupting parents’ lives and work. But others, like offsetting the immense learning loss caused by the pandemic, are still new.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Classical charter school enrollment skyrockets in Texas
Recent shifts in enrollment patterns across Texas school sectors have gone in one direction—out of traditional public schools. Within those shifts, a disproportionately large swath of students has left for classical charter schools. These trends reflect a wider renaissance of classical schooling across the United States.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance
The charter school landscape for English learners: An interview with two Texas experts
Texas is home to a fifth of the country’s English learners, as well as the state where the number of them has quintupled over the past decade.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
“Hold harmless” grading policies are anything but
Arguments for and against “no zeroes” and other types of “hold harmless” grading
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: June 8, 2023
“There is no such thing as a morally neutral education, in public schools or anywhere else.” —American Conservative Schools should be phone-free zones, as a growing body of research shows that they inhibit academic, cognitive, and social development.
Podcast
Charter Schools, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders
#873: Private and charter school teachers are thriving, with Paul DiPerna
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Paul DiPerna of EdChoice joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to di
Commentary
Charter Schools, Governance
Catch up on the religious charter schools debate
In a 3-2 decision yesterday, an Oklahoma state board defied the attorney general and approved the nation’s first religious charter school. Those of us at Fordham have been following the debate closely. These blog posts and podcasts will help you get up to speed:
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Building moral literacy through reading: One charter school’s answer to “book bans”
While most of the country debates restricting children’s access to books, at Liberty, a Core Knowledge school that emphasizes character education, the debate runs in the opposite direction: Which books should kids be reading?
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
No, AP isn’t ushering in a totalitarian regime
In the summer of 2018, I was thrilled to learn that I would be teaching AP English Language and Composition starting that fall. As part of New York City’s AP for All initiative, I became one of the first two AP teachers at my small, alternative public high school.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice
School choice proponents must wrestle with its shortcomings
Thomas Sowell famously quipped that “there are no solutions, only tradeoffs.” Even seemingly beneficial policies have repercussions. Reduce the prison population and crime increases. Close schools to prevent the spread of Covid and standardized test scores plummet. What’s more, even historic, society-altering changes come with side effects.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance
Worldwide, learning loss and pandemic school closures were directly connected
Quantifying learning loss experienced by students whose schools closed for extended periods during the coronavirus pandemic is vital.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: June 1, 2023
An expert math instructor travels the country, reminding students of their humanity in the face of AI.
Podcast
Charter Schools, Governance, Private School Choice
#872: The religious charter school debate, with Kathleen Porter-Magee
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Kathleen Porter-Magee of Partnership Schools—a network of Catholic school
Commentary
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
School systems’ essential quest for coherence
Every leader of a state or school system gets asked the question, “How do all of the things we are doing fit together?” It’s a question about “coherence”—the Holy Grail of education, says Freitag. And for the last two years, she has worked with leaders of four offices in one state with the goal of finding more of it. Here’s what she learned.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance
The CLT is a growing, classical alternative to the ACT and SAT: An interview with its co-founder
Last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation that allowed high schoolers to use the Classic Learning Test (CLT)—a classical alternative to the SAT and ACT—to qualify for the state’s Bright Futures scholarship. Already accepted at over 200 colleges, this legislation is the CLT’s biggest boost yet.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
States should embed civic content into statewide reading assessments
Editor’s note: This was first published by The 74.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Another nail in the “money doesn’t matter” coffin
In recent years, the debate on the impact of financial resources in education has been petering out. Studies showing that more money for schools has had a discernable effect on student academic outcomes, particularly for students from lower-income families, keep accumulating.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Dire straits: Taking stock of and addressing pandemic-related learning loss
As the school year winds down, and with the World Health Organization officially declaring the emergency phase of the Covid-19 pandemic over earlier this month, many students, parents, a
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: May 25, 2023
“Why teacher evaluation reforms flopped.” —Matthew Yglesias The Educational Testing Service and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching are collaborating on new tests they say will promote students’ learning at their own pace and decrease the need for traditional “seat time.” —
Podcast
Accountability & Testing
#871: The severity of pandemic learning loss, with Tom Kane
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Tom Kane of Harvard University joins Mike Petrilli to discuss his findings from The Education Recovery Scorecard Project.
Commentary
Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
New York City turns gifted education into a glorified lottery, disregarding research
Editor’s note: This article was first published by The 74.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
What we need from a “DARPA for education”: A Mars rover for schools
There’s a lot of buzz right now about the potential for the Institute of Education Sciences to finally get the resources and authority to support major breakthroughs in teaching and learning via an “ARPA-ED,” modeled after the Defense Department’s DARPA program. Petrilli wants something more fundamental: basic information about what the heck is going on in America’s classrooms. Enter his (admittedly far-fetched) “Mars rover for schools” idea.
