Memo to the world: America’s secret sauce isn’t made in our classrooms
Innovation is learned on the weekends
Innovation is learned on the weekends
Checker and Peter square off
When it comes to organizations peddling Common Core implementation resources and strategies, the buyer should beware.
Two competing perspectives on reading instruction.
The Common Core emphasis on "close reading" challenges teachers to focus reading on actually reading.
The education sector remains an elusive prize for Apple, but the company is making a big move to change that.
Act now, align later
Why iPads won't replace textbooks in every classroom anytime soon.
When the Common Core academic content standards were first introduced, most observers thought at best ten or 12 state would adopt them, and few thought it possible they’d be adopted by all but a handful of statesHow is Ohio doing when it comes to preparing for the full implementation of the Common Core standards by 2014?
The U.S. economy has shed more than eight million jobs since 2008, and has created only two million new jobs in that same period of time, resulting in not only a high number of unemployed people, but also a high number of job vacancies.
When done correctly, data-driven instruction and lessons organized around clearly-defined aims are critical parts of improving student performance.
It's nice to see that states have plans for Common Core implementation--let's just hope they're good plans.
Thinking twice about “action civics” education
Walking the line between science and politics
Structural reform alone won't boost student achievement--but neither will a single-minded focus on curriculum and instruction.
Hearken back to junior high and high school for a moment. What “historical documents” were you taught in social studies and American history classes? The U.S. Constitution? Your state’s constitution? What about the Declaration of Independence or the Federalist Papers?
The New Hampshire GOP primary is overshadowing an important new Granite State law that allows parents to have their children exempted from elements of the curriculum they find objectionable.
Why education needs to learn a few lessons from Apple about evolving and improving over time.
Chris highlights a great resource for educators.
Editor Kathleen Porter-Magee introduces Fordham's new center for commentary and analysis on standards, curriculum, and instruction: the Common Core Watch blog.
Let's not gloss the challenges of transitioning to Common Core
The central problem besetting K-12 education in the United States today is still—as for almost thirty years now—that far too few of our kids are learning nearly enough for their own or the nation’s good. And the gains we’ve made, though well worth making, have been meager (and largely confined to math), are trumped by gains in other countries, and evaporate by the end of high school.
The Proficiency Illusion, science edition
The second edition of Fwd: Arresting Insights in Education summarizes Ohio state report card data for Dayton's district and charter public schools. Despite some recent gains, the phrase academic emergency continues to characterize the majority of Dayton's public schools. Also, youngsters in Dayton's charter schools outperformed their district peers on the 4th and 6th grade proficiency tests -- a finding that flies in the face of recent assertions that charter school students are learning less.
America: Take notes
Peter Meyer reflects on Tom Friedman's column about parents and education.
To improve student learning in Ohio, and in other states, we need to improve the quality of our teaching force.
Ohio adopted the Common Core standards in ELA and math in June 2010, but now stands at a crossroad in making sure statewide assessments are aligned to those standards. Ohio is a participating member in two federally funded assessment consortia—the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) and the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC)--but is a decision-maker in neither. This primer outlines both consortia and suggests that Ohio make a decision soon to begin the massive reboot required to realign assessments, professional development, and accountability systems to match the Common Core.
Each year, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute conducts an analysis of student achievement in Ohio's Big 8 urban districts and charter schools. 2010-2011's analysis looks at performance, growth (as measured by value-added), growth over time, comparisons between students in district schools, charters (and charters by type and authorizer type), e-schools, and more.