Writing for the Fordham Foundation, Jonathan Plucker reviews the research on programs for advanced learners. Excerpts from the piece appear below: Advanced learning programs are effective, and we have reams of research to support that conclusion. What follows is a rough summary of intervention research, listed from more to less evidence of effectiveness. For the Read more about Do Programs for Advanced Learners Work?[…]
Writing for redefinED, Ashley Berner recently released a four-part series on the power of high-quality curriculum. Excerpts from the first article are below, and links to all four posts appear at the bottom of the page: It is a truth universally acknowledged that high-performing school systems around the world require students to master serious academic Read more about Why Curriculum Matters[…]
Recently The 74 reported on a new initiative in Cleveland designed to confront Coronavirus learning loss by focusing on mastery learning. Excerpts of the piece appear below: A bold proposal in Cleveland could set the tone for how schools around the country could restart in the fall, one that takes into account students’ vastly different Read more about Cleveland Schools Considering ‘Mastery’ Learning Initiative That Would Scrap Grade Levels[…]
It sounds simple—award credit based on student learning. But as schools grapple with how to determine what students have learned during this period of social distancing and how to award credit for this learning, questions have arisen about the best way to go about implementing competency-based approaches. Complexities related to student grouping, curriculum design, scheduling, Read more about May Issue Brief: Competency-Based Learning[…]
Thomas Arnett, writing for the Christensen Institute, recently reflected on the necessity of mastery-based grading to facilitate personalized learning. Excerpts of the piece appear below: Student-centered learning offers enormous potential to better meet each students’ individual learning needs. By varying the time, place, path, and pace of learning, student-centered learning helps those who struggle, those Read more about For Student-Centered Learning to Work, Schools Must Rethink How to Assess Learning and Award Credit[…]
Recently, Chester Finn reflected on a new study which finds that achievement gaps have not closed in the last 50 years and educational improvements have not been seen at the high school level. Excerpts appear below: An ambitious, important new piece of analysis in Education Next concludes that young Americans across the socioeconomic spectrum have Read more about Achievement Quandaries[…]
The National Center for College and Career Transitions (NC3T) has released a new position paper, arguing for Career Connected Learning as a strategy for engaging students and preparing them to thrive in the adult world. Written by Hans Meeder and Brett Pawlowski, this piece provides education decision-makers and stakeholders with a sweeping look at the Read more about NC3T – Preparing Our Students for the Real World: The Education Shift Our Children and Future Demand[…]
Writing for The 74, Beth Hawkins recently reviewed innovations that shake up the high school to college pipeline emerging from the symposium celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Center on Reinventing Public Education. Excerpts of the piece appear below: The symposium explored ways in which the traditional concept of school could be challenged, pushing particularly Read more about To Usher In an ‘Age of Agility’ in Education, We Must Talk Less About Schools – and More About Students[…]
All 2019 Wonkathon submissions are in. This year’s Wonkathon asked contributors to address a fundamental and challenging question: What’s the best way to help students who are several grade levels behind? Fordham’s Flypaper received nineteen submissions from policy experts and education practitioners. As expected, there was a wide range of solutions offered, and no two Read more about How to Help Students who are Several Grade Levels Behind[…]
New Schools Venture Fund has released a new insight brief, “Using Expanded Measures of Student Success for School Improvement.” Nearly five years ago, in 2015, NSVF began investing in a national portfolio of innovative public schools that all embrace what they call an expanded definition of student success. So far, the organization has invested in Read more about Using Expanded Measures of Student Success for School Improvement[…]
Writing for The 74, Joel Rose and Daniel Weisberg recently reviewed an apparent paradox in education. Math instruction is both too rigorous and not rigorous enough. See below for excerpts from their piece: Walk into almost any classroom in America, and you’ll find at least some students who’ve fallen behind the academic standards for their Read more about Do Kids Fall Behind in Math Because There Isn’t Enough Grade-Level Material, or Because There’s Too Much? It’s Both[…]
A team of current and former Stanford University researchers studied whether racial and ethnic segregation at school still matters today by looking at 350 million test scores across nearly every school in the United States from the 2008-09 school year to the 2015-16 school year. The study looked at student test performance in math and Read more about Poverty levels in schools key determinant of achievement gaps, not racial or ethnic composition, study finds[…]
An interactive data tool from the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University creates the first database that attempts to measure the performance of every elementary and middle school in the country. The data set not only provides academic achievement for schools, districts, and states around the country, but it also allows those entities to be Read more about New Data Tool Rates ‘Educational Opportunity’ Offered in Nation’s Schools, Districts[…]
Reducing chronic absence and developing conditions for learning are instrumental to improving outcomes for students and can be improved through policy reform and leadership. Schools and educators have the power to improve both student attendance and conditions for learning. A new Hamilton Project data interactive, “Chronic Absence: School and Community Factors,” examines the factors that Read more about What are the factors that affect learning at your school?[…]
In Fordham’s Flypaper, Erika Sanzi recently wrote about the crisis for American Boys in public schools. Excerpts of the piece appear below: There was a time decades ago when girls trailed boys in math and science and we as a nation deemed that to be unacceptable. Starting in the 1970s, initiatives and organizations sprung up Read more about Sounding the Alarm for Boys in our Schools[…]
Chiefs for Change, a bipartisan network of state and district education chiefs, released a report showing that many states, tacitly or explicitly, promote the use of low-quality K-12 instructional materials. In the most recent review cycles, some states did not approve even a single highly rated curriculum for school districts to use — despite research Read more about Choosing Wisely: How States Can Help Districts Adopt High-Quality Instructional Materials[…]