Democrats for Education Reform's Joe Williams and the Hoover Institution's Terry Moe debate the future of teacher unions
Michael J. Petrilli discusses the pros and cons of socioeconomically mixed public schools
Fordham's Andy Smarick, the Education Department's Carmel Martin, and former Chicago schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard debate the successes and failings of turnaround efforts
Ulrich Boser (Center for American Progress), Frederick M. Hess (AEI), Eric Lerum (StudentsFirst), Tom Luna (State Superintendent in Idaho), and Eric Smith (Chiefs for Change), with Fordham's Mike Petrilli moderating, will come together to discuss the future of ed reform and to launch StudentsFirst's 2013 State of Education report card.
StudentsFirst will launch its fifty-state and D.C. policy report card
50-State & DC Policy Report Card on January 9th, from 10 - 11:30am,
with the American Enterprise Institute at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Washington, D.C.
Many proponents of private school choice take for granted that schools won’t participate if government asks too much of them, especially if it demands that they be publicly accountable for student achievement. Were such school refusals to be widespread, the programs themselves could not serve many kids. But is this assumption justified?
Operating in the Dark: What Outdated State Policies and Data Gaps Mean for Effective School Leadership hosted by the George W. Bush Institute, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, and America Achieves on Tuesday, February 5, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. EST.
In recent years, most of the education reform movement’s energy has centered on teacher quality and accountability, parental
choice, and innovations such as charter schools—all of which are vital to improving public education in the United States. Very
little attention, however, has been paid to the classroom—that is, what exactly is being taught and how. Scholars increasingly see
curriculum as the missing piece of the education reform puzzle.
The development of high-quality, content-rich curricula is of utmost concern right now as states struggle to adopt the new
Common Core State Standards. The Common Core has the potential to push school districts to do what they have needed to
do for years: adopt coherent, cohesive, content-rich curricula. But will this hope become a reality? Or will the Common Core
become just another failed reform initiative?
The Manhattan Institute and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute are partnering on this forum to discuss how to ensure that the
adoption of the Common Core State Standards leads to content-rich curricula and improved student learning. We hope you can
join us for this timely and important discussion.
In his State of the Union address, President Obama called for making preschool available to every child in America. But questions abound: Is universal preschool politically and fiscally feasible—or even educationally necessary? Should we be expending federal resources on universal pre-K or targeting true Kindergarten-readiness programs for the neediest kids? How robust is the evidence of lasting impacts? And what exactly is the president proposing?
Join the Thomas B. Fordham Institute for a review of the research on preschool education and a lively debate on the prospects of the president’s preschool plan.
There is much reforming of education going on, but how well are these reforms being received by the front-line educators who are required to implement them? Are the state’s superintendents embracing the school reforms coming their way or resisting them? What reforms do superintendents support and which ones do they believe will have the greatest staying power and the most significant impact on schools and student achievement? Where do reformers and superintendent agree when it comes to school reform? Where do these disagree and why do reformers (including the Thomas B. Fordham Institute) keep pushing reforms that superintendents and other educators resist and even disdain? These are just a few of the questions that we will explore during our upcoming event.
Join the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the National Council on Teacher Quality for a timely look at the teacher-pension crisis and various state efforts to address it.