Displaying 1-30 of 647 results
Commentary
3.24.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Why we should follow the science—to school

Michael J. Petrilli

A new edited volume, “Follow the Science to School,” aims to identify what science tells us about evidence-based practices in elementary schools, and describes what they look like in the real world of classrooms. Following the science into its application in this way—and sharing how it works on the ground—enables us to suggest workable answers to key questions rather than challenging every teacher, school, or district, to figure out those answers on their own.

Commentary
3.24.2022
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Curriculum wars are inevitable and necessary

Daniel Buck

There is much to love in George Packer’s essay on the culture wars and education in The Atlantic. He castigates both sides of the partisan aisle for their follies: the left’s support for school closures “far longer than either the science or welfare of children justified” and the

Commentary
3.18.2022
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Should we be worried about rising inflation?

Seth Gershenson

Inflation is up, and no, I’m not talking about gas prices. I’m talking about some troubling trends observed among the 2019 graduating class of high school students in the recently released 2019 NAEP High School Transcript Study.

Commentary
3.17.2022
Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Work instead of school: A better approach for our lowest-performing students?

Michael J. Petrilli

High school-age Americans struggling mightily with academics aren’t well served by our current approach to secondary education. But there may be a better model that would give them a more worthwhile experience and lead to better long-term outcomes: Let them take jobs while still in high school—during the school day, during both their junior and senior years, full pay included, no strings attached.

Commentary
3.17.2022
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Civic education and the battle for Ukraine

Chester E. Finn, Jr.

We’re all watching the news and hating what we’re seeing, the one big exception being the patriotic heroism of millions of Ukrainians (and the much smaller but still impressive collection of others who have been traveling to Ukraine to join the fight for freedom).

Commentary
3.10.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, High Achievers, Teachers & School Leaders

Keep fighting for selective high schools

Brandon L. Wright

In cities across the country, selective high schools are facing increasing pressure to change their admissions policies to make their incoming student populations more socioeconomically and racially diverse. Closing these gaps is a laudable and important goal. But the most common strategies for accomplishing it are racially discriminatory, misguided, and ineffective.

Commentary
3.10.2022
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders

Could Great Hearts Academy change the face of private education?

Robert Pondiscio

Remote learning is hard to love. The nation’s forced experiment in online education the past few years has been a disaster for kids. Educators and parents alike have come to view virtual learning as a necessary evil at best, an ad hoc response to a national crisis.

Commentary
3.10.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

About that Tennessee pre-K study

David Griffith

It’s rare that a piece of social science makes you question the nature of your reality, but such was my reaction to the latest, much-discussed update on the performance of Tennessee’s pre-k program—or more specifically, on the fate of the 2,990 children from low-income families who applied to oversubscribed pre-K program sites across

Commentary
3.3.2022
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Smash-and-grab education reform

Dale Chu

Eight months out from a midterm election cycle that is shaping up to be a bloodbath for Democrats, Republican Senator Rick Scott recently released an “eleven-point plan to rescue America” that speaks volumes about the GOP’s posture on education. What’s most telling is what’s missing from Scott’s plan: a serious and good faith discussion of the most pressing issues facing our Covid-constrained education system.

Commentary
2.24.2022
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders

The hypocrisy of school districts saying they’re “open to all”

Jessica Poiner

Opponents of school choice regularly criticize private schools for not taking all comers, contrasting them with traditional public schools, which they claim are open to all. But that’s not true in many places, especially wealthier suburbs, where public schools are typically restricted to students who live within geographic boundaries. Attending them requires a hefty mortgage and property taxes or sky-high rents that are out of the reach of low- and middle-income families.

Commentary
2.24.2022
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Classics and Black history: Lessons from Dr. Anika Prather

Jennifer Frey

A common charge against classical education—education that is rooted in the classical texts of the Western ancient world and that seeks to develop the moral and intellectual character of its students—is that it is inextricably racist, sexist, and quite generally offensive or alienating to members of historically marginalized communities.

Commentary
2.24.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

A principal explains how to repair the harm of “college for all”

Arthur Samuels

As Michael Petrilli wrote in these pages a few weeks ago, the education reform movement has come to the realization that its belief in “college for all,” while well-intended, was misguided.

Commentary
2.24.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

“Doing science” boosts academic achievement

Jeff Murray

In 2017, a team of researchers from Finland and Michigan State University who were eager to improve science instruction for secondary students launched a field trial for Crafting Engaging Science Environments (CESE), a project-based curriculum they created and aligned with the Next Gener

Commentary
2.24.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Online credit recovery and long-term earnings potential

Jeff Murray

The Covid slide has both expanded the need for students to take remedial classes and produced greater familiarity with remote learning. As a result, online credit recovery options have become more necessary and readily accessible at the same time.

Commentary
2.17.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

End school mask mandates

Daniel Buck

Thirteen states and D.C. still mandate face masks for students, as do myriad individual districts in places that defer to local leaders. In total, about half of American students have to wear a mask every day. But there’s little evidence that this mitigates the spread of Covid—a consideration that the Omicron variant has made less important anyway—and, more importantly, masking inflicts real educational and emotional harm on students.

Commentary
2.17.2022
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Why I left the classroom during the Great Resignation

Nathaniel Grossman

Millions of Americans are quitting their jobs. “The Great Resignation” is causing a labor shortage in many industries, as workers leave for other jobs or simply stay home. The field of education is one that’s hurting.

Commentary
2.17.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Incentivize individual agency to achieve upward mobility

Ian Rowe

Editor’s note: This testimony was given by Fordham Institute trustee Ian Rowe on January 20, 2022, to the U.S.

Commentary
2.17.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

Dual language education seems to be a promising route to academic progress

Amber M. Northern, Ph.D.

Dual language instruction (DL) is a version of bilingual education that renders instruction in two languages in the same classroom. It differs from the more common English-only classroom with pullout/separate services for students learning English as a second language (ESL). It also differs from language immersion in which students receive all instruction in their non-native language.

Commentary
2.11.2022
Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

The plot to weaken New York City charters

Robert Pondiscio

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
2.10.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

Of course there’s tracking in high schools. Get over it.

Michael J. Petrilli

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
2.10.2022
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders

The pedagogy of the depressed

Robert Pondiscio

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
2.10.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

We’re teaching mediocrity in literature classrooms

Daniel Buck

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
2.10.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Governance, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders

What factors predict states’ embrace of private school choice?

Nathaniel Grossman

School choice is on the rise. In the last few decades, families have benefited from an explosion of educational options.

Commentary
2.10.2022
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders

How did the pandemic affect school bullying?

Julia Wolf

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?