Commentary
Topics
Commentary
What we're reading this week: February 17, 2022
In this interview, the Manhattan Institute’s Reihan Salam explains why a conservative vision for civic discourse in a pluralistic democracy is at odds with critical race theory.
Undefined
Teachers & School Leaders
Education Gadfly Show #807: What are schools doing with their Covid relief dollars?
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast (listen on
Commentary
Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The plot to weaken New York City charters
If New York politics were sane and rational—if our elected officials were serious about the pursuit of educational excellence and what’s best for children—the city’s charter school sector would be a point of civic pride.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Of course there’s tracking in high schools. Get over it.
Tracking in our high schools is simply a fact, and we would do well to stop pretending otherwise or believing that it could be any other way. At the very least, we should allow for diverging paths after tenth grade, and we need to completely rethink our approach for our lowest-performing kids.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
The pedagogy of the depressed
Editor’s note: This essay is adapted with permission from the cover story of the March issue of Commentary, “The Unbearable Bleakness of American Schooling.” The middle school two blocks from my New York City apartment is named for Jonas Salk.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
We’re teaching mediocrity in literature classrooms
Since the beginning of the common school movement in the 1800s, we have valued our institutions of public education for their unifying nature, and the creation of a literate populace is an essential element of that goal. But much modern-day English instruction accomplishes neither. These middle school and high school classrooms barely resemble what you or I remember from our school years.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders
What factors predict states’ embrace of private school choice?
School choice is on the rise. In the last few decades, families have benefited from an explosion of educational options.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
How did the pandemic affect school bullying?
When schools went online at the beginning of the pandemic, it was unclear how the sudden and disruptive shift would impact student behavior. Would cyberbullying, for example, increase with students spending more time on their devices? And would time away from other students increase bullying when students returned to buildings?
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: February 10, 2022
Parents and young adults have similar opinions about the effectiveness of K–12 and postsecondary education.
Undefined
Curriculum & Instruction
The Education Gadfly Show #806: On school boards, curriculum controversies, and a Parents’ Bill of Rights
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast (listen on
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Other states should follow Virginia’s lead on critical race theory
Editor’s note: This was first published by Fox News.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders
Did public education have it coming?
In many ways, the educational failures of the past several years—including those caused by the pandemic—were far worse than they needed to be because of long-standing characteristics of American public education. Namely, the tendency to place employees’ interests first, the disempowering of parents, and the failure to innovate.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The Maus that roared: Who do you want to decide what’s best for kids?
The school board in McMinn County, Tennessee, voted 10-0 to remove Maus, a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel by cartoonist Art Spiegelman, from its eighth grade curriculum last month, citing concerns about explicit language and disturbing illustrations.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The curriculum transparency trap
Amid the raging culture fires engulfing our politics and schools comes a concerted push among some conservative groups to codify a “parents’ bill of rights.” House minority leader Kevin McCarthy rolled out
Commentary
Is Florida showing the way on boosting middle school outcomes?
Much has been written about the third grade retention policy
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: February 3, 2022
Ed reform must accept the fact that “there are some kids that are more academically talented than others.” —
Undefined
Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Personalized Learning
Education Gadfly Show #805: High schools didn’t get the memo that college isn’t for everyone
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast (listen on
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
We all agree that college isn’t for everyone. We should start acting like it.
One of the biggest shifts in education reform in recent years has been widening acknowledgment that the “college for all” mantra was misguided. Yet so far our commitment to “multiple pathways” to opportunity is almost all talk accompanied by very little action. High school course requirements and accountability systems continue to push almost all students into the college-prep track.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Charter school expansion narrows achievement gaps
Fordham’s new study, based on data from 400 metropolitan statistical areas and 534 micropolitan statistical areas, finds that an increase in total charter school enrollment share is associated with a significant narrowing of a metro area’s racial and socioeconomic math achievement gaps. With the country reeling from a pandemic that’s caused widespread learning loss, especially for disadvantaged students, getting more children into charter schools could help reverse those dire trends.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders
Americans have lost trust in public schools
Editor’s note: This essay was first published by The 74.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
A century of school reform, through the eyes of Larry Cuban
Confessions of a School Reformer, a new book by emeritus Stanford education professor Larry Cuban, still going strong at eighty-eight, combines personal memoir with a history and analysis of U.S.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Virtual schools should get more support and attention
A recent release from the Education Commission of the States reminds us that the term “virtual school” refers to several different types of educational options, and that the ecosystem—more important now than ever before—requires specific attention and support from policymakers.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: January 27, 2022
This month’s sudden switch to remote learning is troubling news for kindergarteners.
Report
Charter Schools
Still Rising: Charter School Enrollment and Student Achievement at the Metropolitan Level
In the wake of the biggest education crisis in living memory, the need for transformational change is palpable and urgent. This report asks: Can a rising tide of charter schools carry students in America's largest metro areas—including those in traditional public schools?
Undefined
Education Gadfly Show #804: How charter schools are closing achievement gaps in metro areas
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast (listen on
Commentary
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Some Republicans want Miguel Cardona gone. They might come to regret it.
A letter seeking federal law enforcement intervention into threats aimed at school board members has caused a hullabaloo one year into U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona’s otherwise unremarkable tenure. Though his role in soliciting the letter is unclear, some Congressional Republicans would love nothing more than to see him become the fall guy. They would do well to consider how their thirst for blood might cut both ways.
