A teacher’s effectiveness has a tremendous impact on a child’s learning and academic trajectory. Ohio has debated for many months about how best to strengthen the quality of its teaching force. The biennial budget adopted in June calls for the state to develop a model teacher evaluation framework by the end of 2011 and to adopt policies tying teacher evaluations to key personnel decisions such as compensation, placement, tenure, and dismissal.
There has been much heated debate this year over bold changes that affect teachers, including dialing back pensions and union rights. Come to the Fordham Institute on August 23 to hear these matters candidly discussed by two high-visibility national education leaders who don't always agree: Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers and Frederick M. Hess, director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Which issues do we actually disagree about? Can we do so in ways that illumine rather than obscure?
Presented by the Nord Family Foundation, Ohio Grantmakers Forum, and Thomas B. Fordham Institute, with the ESC of Central Ohio and Public Performance Partners, this is a free, non-partisan event to help local government administrators – from county commissioners and city managers to school district superintendents – think differently about how they operate, and learn tangible strategies for sharing services and saving money.
A trio of recent studies and articles raises troubling questions about America's "Achievement-Gap Mania." Are we leaving our highest performing students behind in the quest to raise the test scores of students at the bottom? If so, what will this mean for our future international competitiveness?
Learn about the recent studies--Fordham's Do High Flyers Maintain their Altitude? and the George W. Bush Institute's Global Report Card—as well as Frederick M. Hess's new National Affairs essay, “Our Achievement-Gap Mania.” And join a conversation about whether our focus on raising the bottom is blinding us to trouble at the top.
School reforms abound today, yet even the boldest and most imaginative among them have produced—at best—marginal gains in student achievement. What America needs in the twenty-first century is a far more profound version of education reform. Instead of shoveling yet more policies, programs, and practices into our current system, we must deepen our understanding of the obstacles to reform that are posed by existing structures, governance arrangements, and power relationships. Yet few education reformers—or public officials—have been willing to delve into this touchy territory. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the Center for American Progress have teamed up to tackle these tough issues and ask how our mostly nineteenth-century system of K-12 governance might be modernized and made more receptive to the innumerable changes that have occurred—and need to occur—in the education realm. We have commissioned fifteen first-rate analysts to probe the structural impediments to school reform and to offer provocative alternatives. Join us for an all-day conference on December 1, 2011 as these distinguished scholars—joined by a cast of forward-thinkers—present their draft papers and probe the implications for governance reform. For the full conference schedule, author bios, and an introduction to Fordham’s and CAP’s overall work-plan in this realm visit our website.
Communities across the country are struggling to meet parental demand for high quality school options, including high-performing charter schools. Yet, with hundreds of new charter schools opening every year, not nearly enough of them offer the quality education that parents crave and kids deserve. Indeed, far too many fail to deliver education any better than the troubled neighborhood schools that they are meant as alternatives to.
Ten years after NCLB became law, our panel of experts will discuss the legacy and future of the accountability movement.
Join us for the first edition of Fordham LIVE! in 2012.
Tune in on January 18 to see Flypaper's Mike Petrilli answer questions you and other readers send in via Twitter.
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute invites you to an important and timely panel discussion of how school leaders can more effectively manage dollars, cut costs and improve finances overall.
The 2008-2009 economic tsunami has slashed tax collections, squeezing government and forcing public agencies to search out cost savings. The nation's K-12 schools, which depend upon $600 billion in local, state, and federal funding, have been buffeted by