Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Governance
Lively days for NAEP
Those who pay attention to the “Nation’s Report Card” tend to take it for granted. In truth, most people heed it not at all.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Should we be worried about rising inflation?
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
Accountability & Testing, Governance
NAEP: Meeting today’s needs and building a national assessment for the future
Joint Statement from Peggy G. Carr, Ph.D., Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics and Lesley Muldoon, Executive Director of the National Assessment Governing Board
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, High Achievers
San Francisco’s detracking experiment
Editor's note: This post was originally published on tomloveless.com.
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
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
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
The case for starting NAEP in kindergarten
Way back in the late 1960s, when federal officials and eminent psychologists were first designing the National Assessment of Educational Progress, they probably never contemplated testing students younger than nine. After all, the technology for mass testing at the time—bubble sheets and No.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Why authorizers shouldn’t shy away from helping their charter schools improve
A decade ago, most charter school authorizers agreed it was not their job to help struggling charter schools. But times have changed, and best practices in charter school authorizing are evolving. Authorizers are exploring ways to support and encourage improvement in the charter schools they oversee, and some charter schools appreciate the change.
Podcast
Accountability & Testing, ESSA, Curriculum & Instruction
Education Gadfly Show #801: Grumpy New Year with Checker Finn
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast (listen on
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Education’s enduring love affair with “luxury beliefs”
The proof of a powerful idea is how well it sticks. Once you hear about it “you start to see it everywhere,” as Bari Weiss puts it. She was describing “luxury beliefs,” a phrase coined by Rob Henderson, an Air Force veteran and Ph.D.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Would eliminating college admissions tests really make education more equitable?
When the University of California began phasing-out college admissions test scores as part of a recent legal settlement, the rationale was “equity.” Lawyers for the students who brought the lawsuit said that “SAT and ACT scores are largely a proxy for a student’s socioeconomic background and race,” rather than measures of ac
Podcast
Accountability & Testing
Education Gadfly Show #795: Why we should test in K–2
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Dale Chu, senior visiting fellow at Fordham and independe
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Private School Choice
The complexities of accountability and private school choice
Among its many educational impacts, the pandemic has reenergized efforts to expand private school choice. States like Ohio, where it already existed, have expanded eligibility and increased funding.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The case for K–2 testing
Under federal law, states must assess students annually in reading and math in grades 3–8 and at least once during high school, as well as testing science once in elementary, middle, and high school.
Podcast
Accountability & Testing
Education Gadfly Show #792: NAEP scores were falling even before the pandemic. Was the Great Recession to blame?
On this week’s podcast, Checker Finn joins Mike Petrilli and David Griffith to discuss las
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Blinding ourselves to America’s achievement woes
Much as happened after A Nation at Risk, the U.S. finds itself facing a bleak education fate, even as many deny the problem. Back then, however, the denials came mostly from the education establishment, while governors, business leaders, and even U.S.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Ohio data show the pandemic's heavy toll on student achievement and the importance of in-person learning
The Covid-19 pandemic caused unprecedented disruptions to teaching and learning across America, including school closures, sudden changes to instructional delivery, economic hardship, and social isolation.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
A better way to improve literacy among Black and Hispanic children
For the last half-century, if you read the mission statement of virtually any education reform organization, you will find earnest language about closing the racial or class achievement gaps. Unfortunately, not only have gaps failed to narrow during this multi-decade obsession, overall achievement levels have also remained mostly static.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
NWEA measures the impact of the pandemic on student achievement and growth
Researchers at NWEA have been using data from their MAP Growth assessments to predict and analyze learning losses since the start of the pandemic.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
More dumb things done in the name of educational “equity”
Parents across the country are up in arms over their school systems’ equity initiatives. To be clear, this is not “equity” as I came to define it when I started teaching nearly a quarter century ago.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Can changing our eduspeak help with post-pandemic schooling?
The radio show Marketplace recently ran a piece asking, “Can changing home appraisal language help close the wealth gap?” The story examined structural racism in the housing market, specifically the wealth gap that persists as a result of Black and Hispanic families having t
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Busting the belief gap via regular student assessment
At its simplest, the belief gap is the gulf between what students can accomplish and what others—particularly teachers—believe they can achieve. It is especially pernicious when beliefs around academic competency are fueled by extraneous information such as socioeconomic status, race, or gender.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Remote instruction is to blame for plummeting test scores
Texas recently became the first state to release state test score data since the pandemic hit.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance
2.7 cheers for the NAEP Reading Framework
Gadfly habitues have seen me grump, criticize, lament and recently brighten over the protract
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
How well do public schools in large cities overcome the effects of poverty and other barriers?
A recently released report by the Council of the Great City Schools seeks to determine whether urban public schools—including charters—are succeeding in their efforts to mitigate the effects of poverty and other educational barriers.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance
An improved forecast for the NAEP reading assessment
The prolonged fracas within and far beyond the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) concerning a new “framework” for NAEP’s future assessment of reading has been ominous on several fronts—as I haven’t hesi
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Are Virginia’s elementary schools worsening achievement gaps?
A new working paper from researchers out of the University of Virginia uses data from the state’s kindergarten literacy assessment, the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS), to examine how the subsequent achievement trajectories of kindergarteners who enter school with similar literacy levels differ by race and/or SES. The findings are worrying.
Podcast
Accountability & Testing, ESSA, Governance, Private School Choice
The Education Gadfly Show #777: O-H-I-O: School reform victories in the Buckeye State
O-H-I-O: School reform victories in the Buckeye State
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance
Evaluating state intervention in low-performing districts 2011–2016
Across America, states are constitutionally responsible for providing K–12 education, but in practice school districts are the primary structure by which education is delivered. The vast majority of such districts are run by locally elected school boards.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Zombie ideas in education
Editor’s note: This was first published in Educational Leadership.