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Doing Educational Equity Right: Effective Teachers
This is the eighth in a series on doing educational equity right. See the introductory post, as well as ones on school finance, student discipline, advanced education, school closures, homework and grading. One of the ironclad beliefs among education reformers back in the day was the certainty that the achievement...
School, European Style
Harvard Education Press, 2024, $35; 224 pages. Once upon a time, schools in America were plural in structure. Taxpayers funded Protestant, Catholic, and nonsectarian schools. Then along came the Big Bad Public School, which stamped out this glorious diversity. Fueled by waves of anti-Catholic nativism, educators like Horace Mann imposed a “unitary” system that restricted tax dollars to state-sponsored schools. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Academics and the People Who Don’t Read Them
A few months back, I lamented the disconnect between academe and the nation’s educational leaders and policymakers. It has unfortunate consequences. I recently had a front-row seat for an illuminating display. Earlier this month, Paul T. von Hippel penned a terrific piece for Education Next explaining how exaggerated claims about the miraculous powers of tutoring can be traced to a dubious “two-sigma” effect postulated by psychologist Benjamin Bloom 40 years back.
The Alexander Doctrine: Governors are Agents of Change
In education you need to figure out how to engage governors. So said former Tennessee Governor, U.S. Secretary of Education, and U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander to the National Assessment Governing Board in February in advance of its quarterly meeting. Senator Alexander sat down for a conversation with board member and...
The Education Exchange: High-Dosage Tutoring – A Prescription for Learning Loss
Beth Schueler, an Assistant Professor of Education and Public Policy at the University of Virginia, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss how tutoring could be used to lessen learning losses in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Should Schools Be Rewarded for Absenteeism?
I recently had a conversation about absenteeism that I found exasperating. So did the superintendent I spoke with, I’m sure. You can judge who had more cause. The quotes here aren’t verbatim, as I jotted them down afterwards, but the gist is accurate. As Dave Barry would say, “I’m not making this up.”
Recovering the Ideals of the University
In pursuit of political activism, institutions of higher education have compromised academic integrity. Education Next senior editor Paul E. Peterson recently spoke with James Hankins, professor of medieval and Renaissance history at Harvard University, about an editorial he wrote for The Wall Street Journal “Claudine Gay and Why Academic Honesty Matters.”
The Education Exchange: Why Some Charters Care Less about Learning
Steven Wilson, a Senior Fellow at Center on Reinventing Public Education, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss urban charter schools, and how a focus on culture rather than rigor is changing their mission.
How Not to Assess the Situation
Off the Mark: How Grades, Ratings, and Rankings Undermine Learning (but Don’t Have To) In the years since the Covid-19 outbreak, the grades and test scores that anchor our education system have been relentlessly disrupted. As the pandemic swept the globe, American schools canceled annual standardized testing, college admissions went “test-optional,” and students were offered “hold harmless” policies that prevented their grades from dropping, regardless of whether they completed assignments or even attended virtual classes. Most end-of-year testing returned to K–12 schools in 2021, but much of the “assessment holiday” has endured. Most colleges continue not to require SAT or ACT scores, states are eliminating high school graduation tests, and grading standards have slipped to their lowest levels on record. States and districts are fueling grade inflation through policies that, in the name of equity, prohibit penalties for late work, recalibrate grading scales in ways that make passing easier, require teachers to assign credit for assignments that aren’t turned in, and even eliminate grading penalties for cheating.
Doing Educational Equity Right: Grading
This is the seventh in a series on doing educational equity right. See the introductory post, as well as ones on school finance, student discipline, advanced education, school closures and homework. Student grading is one of those issues that has an enormous impact on kids and schools, yet for years...
How Building Knowledge Boosts Literacy and Learning
Educators and researchers have been fighting the reading wars for the last century, with battles see-sawing literacy instruction in American schools from phonics to whole language and, most recently, back to phonics again. Policymakers have entered the fray, after more than a quarter-century of stagnant reading scores in the United States. Over the last decade, 32 states and the District of Columbia have adopted new “science of reading” laws that require schools to use curricula and instructional techniques that are deemed “evidence-based.”
How to Be Right 80% of the Time in Education
This winter, Tim Daly penned a terrific retrospective on the Finland edu-craze of the early 2000s, terming it the “greatest hype bubble in the history of international education.” He recounts how selling the Finnish miracle became a “cottage industry,” nudged along by savvy PR and junkets “organized and paid for by the Finnish government.” Journalists, advocates, policymakers, educators, and philanthropists dutifully trekked abroad to learn Finland’s secret.
States are Bad at Giving Teachers Raises
Teacher shortages have been a chief concern of public school leaders since the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020. According to an August 2023 survey by the National Center for Education Statistics, 79 percent of public schools with at least one vacant teaching position reported difficulty filling slots for the 2023–24 school year.
The Education Exchange: Is It Smart to Drop SATs from College Admissions?
Donald Wittman, an emeritus professor in the Department of Economics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss Wittman’s latest report, which contends that the University of California erred when it ended the use of SAT and ACT scores in admissions. Wittman’s article, “The...
Two-Sigma Tutoring: Separating Science Fiction from Science Fact
An experimental intervention in the 1980s raised certain test scores by two standard deviations. It wasn’t just tutoring, and it’s never been replicated, but it continues to inspire. In the fall of 1945, when my father was not quite eight years old, his teacher told my grandmother that...
School Choice for Me but not for Thee
Lawsuits in Colorado seek exemption for religious preschools to access state funds. Over the past 12 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has significantly buttressed the rights of religious organizations to control how they govern themselves and to not be excluded from public programs simply because they are religious. The court’s Free Exercise Clause decisions have declared that religious institutions have substantial autonomy in deciding whom to hire (and fire) under the “ministerial exception,” that they cannot be barred from participating in adoption programs because of government nondiscrimination policies, and that they cannot be deprived of otherwise available benefits because of their religious beliefs and practices. Considering these doctrinal developments, one would think that states would be careful about religiously based discrimination. But as two recent lawsuits from Colorado show, one would be wrong.
Successes and Setbacks in Shaker Heights
Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity. Macmillan, 2023, $31.99; 400 pages. Laura Meckler has written a deeply engaging account of Shaker Heights, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb and planned community founded in 1909, whose current population totals some 29,000—roughly one-third Black and half white. Embracing some 70 years of history, Meckler’s early chapters focus on the struggles to keep the town desegregated—an often-fraught process in which Black inhabitants of Shaker found themselves criticized by other Blacks for trying to limit the number of new Black residents.
Did Google’s Gemini Just Give Us a Glimpse of Education’s Orwellian Future?
I want to be optimistic about AI’s role in education. Smart friends like Michael Horn and John Bailey have explained that there are huge potential benefits. My inbox is pelted by PR flacks touting the “far-sighted” school leaders and foundation honchos who’ve “embraced” AI. Plus, with nearly half of high schoolers saying they’ve used AI tools and education outlets offering ebullient profiles of students using AI to create 911 chatbots and postpartum depression apps, it feels churlish to be a stick-in-the-mud.
Doing Educational Equity Right: The Homework Gap
This is the sixth in a series on doing educational equity right. See the introductory post, as well as ones on school finance, student discipline, advanced education, and school closures. The casual observer might be surprised that there’s much controversy about homework. A common sense, man-on-the-street view would be straightforward:...
The Education Exchange: To Live and Die in LAUSD: Charters in Trouble
Ben Chapman, a reporter for The 74, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss Chapman’s recent article, which details the recent struggles of charter school operators in Los Angeles, Calif. Chapman’s article, “The Nation’s Biggest Charter School System Is Under Fire In Los Angeles,” is available now....
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Education Next aims to provide news and research to bring evidence to bear on current education policy. Bold change is needed in American education, but Education Next partakes of no program, campaign, or ideology. It goes where the evidence points.
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