Commentary
What we're reading this week: October 22
During the pandemic, Kaneadsha Jones and her husband went seven months without steady work while caring for three daughters, one of whom is immunocompromised.
Event
Curriculum & Instruction
Will more social studies instruction improve students’ reading outcomes?
According to the Nation’s Report Card (NAEP), just one-third of U.S. fourth- and eighth-grade students can read proficiently. Among students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, it’s just one in five.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Partisanship and American education
What are we teaching the children about our country? The short answer: not much.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The case for urban charter schools
Contrary to much public rhetoric, the evidence for expanding charter schools in urban areas is stronger than ever. To be sure, the research is less positive for charters operating outside of the nation’s urban centers. And multiple studies suggest that internet-based schools and charters that serve mostly middle-class students, perform worse than their district counterparts, at least on traditional test-score-based measures. But charters needn’t work everywhere to be of service to society.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Charter schooling on the ropes?
The negative partisanship animating this year’s presidential contest notwithstanding, charter school advocates will have their hands full no matter who prevails.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Ohio’s charter school turnaround
For a number of years, Ohio’s charter school sector has been more of a punchline than an exemplar in national debates about charters. The criticisms, though sometimes exaggerated, were not entirely unwarranted.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
The vanishing pre-K advantage
Before the coming of the pandemic, pre-K was a hot topic.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Denver school board champions Black excellence, except in charter schools
The Denver school board spent forty-five minutes Monday getting an update on its Black Excellence Resolution and worthy efforts being made at district and school levels to address systemic racism and implicit bias.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
Are we ready to close schools’ windows?
For the past nine months, the battle against Covid-19 has required school districts to constantly adapt as conditions evolved. School indoor air quality is the next challenge districts must successfully meet if in-person instruction is to continue or resume. Let me begin with some points I think many people reading this agree on:
Commentary
What we're reading this week: October 14
Teachers unions have become the main barriers to school reopenings in places where they are feasible. Students are the ones paying the price.
Podcast
Curriculum & Instruction
The Education Gadfly Show: Lemov and Woolway on teaching like a champion—online
On this week’s podcast, Mike Petrilli and David Griffith are joined by Doug Lemov and Erica Woolway, co-managing director and chi
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
A response to Tim Shanahan on “Social Studies Instruction and Reading Comprehension”
After the release of a new study I co-authored for the Thomas B.
Commentary
What we're reading this week: October 7
“Too many aspiring teachers lack sufficient knowledge and preparation to guide students through these tough times.” —Hechinger Report Since before Covid-19, the Vision Coalition in Delaware has been rethinking high school to bring hands-on, technical, and projec
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
Equity and unintended consequences in the Washington suburbs
Two big public-school systems in the D.C. area are on the verge of letting their zeal for equity and racial justice lead to consequences they may end up regretting. Fairfax County, which operates one of America’s best known and most esteemed “exam schools,” is may use a lottery, rather than test scores and other quality measures, for admissions. And Loudoun County is considering revising its rules for “professional conduct” by school staff to punish employees—teachers included—in truly Orwellian ways.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Teachers & School Leaders
The unwelcome success of charter schools
Of the nearly 2,000 public school students beginning high school in the South Bronx (District 8 of NYC public schools) in 2015, only 2 percent graduated ready for college four years later.
Commentary
School Finance
Money matters, which is another reason for spending it well
Last month, Teachers College Press is releasing Getting the Most Bang for the Education Buck, a new volume edited by Rick Hess and Brandon Wright.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance
The interconnectedness of school-finance reforms and test-based accountability
Proponents of test-based accountability generally believe that robust systems—those that set high bars for achieving success, generate copious and transparent data, and impose substantive awards or consequences based on progress (or lack thereof)—are enough to boost student achievement. Another school of thought posits that more funding to schools does likewise.
Podcast
Curriculum & Instruction
The Education Gadfly Show: Reading comprehension is not a skill, and other lessons from Fordham’s latest study
On this week’s podcast, Fordham’s Adam Tyner joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss the
Commentary
What we're reading this week: September 30, 2020
Only a quarter of students can name the three branches of government, and many young people are ignorant of the Holocaust. The best way to get civics back in the classroom is to test it. —Gov.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Elementary schools: To improve reading comprehension, teach more social studies
If America is serious about wanting kids to become better readers, our elementary schools need to spend more time teaching social studies rather than doubling-down on “reading comprehension.” This may seem counterintuitive, but it’s the key takeaway from our new study. It’s also especially important for girls and those from lower-income and/or non-English-speaking homes.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Do America’s elementary school students need more social studies?
A new study published last week by Fordham, Social Studies Instruction and Reading Comprehension: Evidence from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, suggests that to become better readers, elementary students should spend more time on social studies.
Commentary
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
School leaders must spend money more efficiently. Here are four places to start.
There used to be two sureties when it came to American K–12 education: Kids would attend school, and school leaders would demand more money.
Commentary
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Forecasting the long-run costs of coronavirus
Modeling the effects of a global pandemic while it’s ongoing seems like a prime example of “inexact science.” It’s also sure to depress. But it’s happening.
Podcast
Facilities, Governance
The Education Gadfly Show: How to open a school safely during a pandemic
On this week’s podcast, Aaron Daly, COO of Brooklyn Laboratory Chart
Commentary
Is the one-track mind of the ed reform movement doing more harm than good?
Earlier this month, Harvard professor of government Michael Sandel published this opinion piece in the New York Times, arguing that discrimination towards the “uneducated” (i.e., people without a college degree) remains acceptable by society even among those who otherwise champion equality
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Outdoor learning can help students during Covid-19 and beyond
When students at Anser Charter School in Garden City, Idaho, begin returning to in-person classes September 28, everything about school will look different than six months ago.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
NEW REPORT: Social Studies Instruction and Reading Comprehension: Evidence from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study
Even as phonics battles rage in the realm of primary reading and with two-thirds of American fourth and eighth graders failing to read proficiently, another tussle has been with us for ages regarding how best to develop the vital elements of reading ability that go beyond decoding skills and phonemic awareness.
Report
Curriculum & Instruction
Social Studies Instruction and Reading Comprehension: Evidence from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study
Even as phonics battles rage in the realm of primary reading and with two-thirds of American fourth and eighth graders failing to read proficiently, another tussle has been with us for ages regarding how best to develop the vital elements of reading ability that go beyond decoding skills and phonemic awareness.
Podcast
School Finance, Governance
The Education Gadfly Show: How the pandemic could lead to smarter school spending
On this week’s podcast, Brandon Wright joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss his and Rick Hess’s new edited volume,
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
A commission on teaching American history might do some good
American schoolchildren should not be taught to hate their country, or to view it as an “inherently racist” or “white supremacist” nation. But to move forward constructively on this point, instead of in a manner that further divides the country, it would be much better for a broad coalition of the center-right to the center-left to embrace a teaching of history that is clear-eyed, patriotic, and critical.
