Peter Greene: The One And Only Lesson To Be Learned From NAEP Scores

The One And Only Lesson To Be Learned From NAEP Scores

The One And Only Lesson To Be Learned From NAEP Scores

The world of education is a fuzzy one, with some declaring that teaching is more art than science. But then the National Assessment of Educational Progress is issued. “The Nation’s Report Card” is greeted as a source of hard data about the educational achievement of fourth and eighth graders (and in some years, high school students), theoretically neither biased nor tweaked as state tests might be.

NAEP scores were released this week, and they have been percolating down through pundits, ed writers, ed bureaucrats, and ordinary ed kibitzers. So now that we have had a few days to absorb and process, what have some folks offered as important lessons, and what’s the only lesson that really counts?

Some have offered lessons that are simply misreadings of the data. The three NAEP levels (basic, proficient, and advanced) do not necessarily mean what folks think they mean, which is why Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was incorrect when she claimed that NAEP showed two thirds of students don’t read at grade level. NAEP’s CONTINUE READING: The One And Only Lesson To Be Learned From NAEP Scores

CURMUDGUCATION: Why Market Forces Will Not Provide Charter School Accountability

CURMUDGUCATION: Why Market Forces Will Not Provide Charter School Accountability

Why Market Forces Will Not Provide Charter School Accountability

It has been a rough day at my house. The IRS is auditing me and needs me to send them money now. My computer has a virus. My Microsoft Windows is expired and will shut down soon. And if I don’t re-enter my personal information, my email, Netflix, and bank accounts will all be shut down. The only good news is that I still have a chance to buy great insurance, and I’m still waiting to hear back from that Nigerian prince. 

Why do phone and online scammers keep at it, long after the vast majority of folks have heard about the most common scams, and even your mother knows not to say “yes” to a robocaller? Why don’t these scammers think, “Time to change my business model?” Because if scammers get a return on even one hit out of 10,000, that’s more than enough to keep them in business.

Charter school advocates have long argued that one reason that charters don’t need much formal government oversight is that they are subject to a greater accountability, that they must answer to parents who can “vote with their feet.” But the feet of charter parents don’t exert very much pressure.

The vast majority of charter school operators have nothing in common with phone scammers, but the same basic market principle applies.

Take, for instance, the Success Academy chain of New York City. New York City schools have an enrollment of roughly 1.1 million students; Success Academy has roughly 18,000, plus a waiting list. Over 1 million students have already voted with their feet against Success Academy, but there are CONTINUE READING: 

The Chicago teachers’ strike contract deal, explained - Vox

The Chicago teachers’ strike contract deal, explained - Vox

The 11-day teachers strike in Chicago paid off
It got more than $30 million extra spending for public schools.

Thousands of Chicago public school teachers are back in class.

Teachers returned to school Friday after going on strike for 11 days. They had picketed in the snow and rain until union leaders and city officials struck a deal to raise teacher pay and to put a social worker and nurse in each school. Some of the teachers’ most ambitious proposals, such as requiring the city to expand affordable housing, didn’t make the cut.

“Did we accomplish every single little thing? No. But I can say that we moved the needle on educational justice in the city,” Jesse Sharkey, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, said in a press conference Thursday.

The district also committed to spending $35 million to shrink oversized classrooms and to prioritize schools that serve the most at-risk students. The deal includes a 16 percent pay raise for teachers over five years, and a remarkable 40 percent raise for teaching assistants, clerks, and other lower-paid workers. The new, five-year contract will also boost investment per pupil and reduce the number of students in each class.

Teachers had wanted more, though. They also wanted more affordable housing in the city for students and teachers. That’s something no teachers union has demanded in recent contract negotiations.

These kinds of broad demands are part of a growing movement, led by teachers and labor CONTINUE READING: The Chicago teachers’ strike contract deal, explained - Vox

The “Parenting Tax” of School Choice | JSTOR Daily

The “Parenting Tax” of School Choice | JSTOR Daily

The “Parenting Tax” of School Choice
The framework of school choice imposes a kind of tax, one paid in the time and effort that it imposes on many black parents.

For decades, when the topic of unequal public schools comes up, one of the main prescriptions politicians and policymakers have offered is “choice.” In a recent paper, the sociologists Angela Simms and Elizabeth Talbert explain one aspect of school choice that’s rarely part of these conversations: the “tax” in time and effort that it imposes on many black parents. 

Simms and Talbert conducted interviews with black and white parents in the Cleveland area. Participants were chosen randomly from neighborhoods at a range of income levels. Of the white parents studied, 10 out of 15 sent all their children to their neighborhood schools. Simms and Talbert write that these parents “described their school decision-making process as requiring no significant effort.” Of the white parents who sent their kids to non-neighborhood schools, such as charter or magnet schools, four out of five lived in the city of Cleveland.

“In general, we find that White parents, regardless of income, tend to be satisfied with their neighborhood public schools, which are usually in predominantly White middle-class suburbs,” the authors write.

Among the 26 black parents, on the other hand, 20 sent at least one child to a “choice” school. As with white parents, families living in the city of Cleveland were more likely to use choice options, but even black parents in the suburbs were evenly split between choice and traditional routes.

While white families often chose to live in specific communities because they were known for having “good schools,” that option was often not available to black families—and not just for financial reasons. Many black parents worried that moving into “good,” whiter districts would take them away from their social support systems, which, due to historical segregation, tend to be in communities with “bad” local schools.

Simms and Talbert write that the black parents they spoke with were highly conversant in the CONTINUE READING: The “Parenting Tax” of School Choice | JSTOR Daily

Ron Chernow: Alexander Hamilton Would Support Impeachment | Diane Ravitch's blog

Ron Chernow: Alexander Hamilton Would Support Impeachment | Diane Ravitch's blog

Ron Chernow: Alexander Hamilton Would Support Impeachment

Ron Chernow, author of Hamilton, wrote in the Washington Post that Trump is the populist demagogue that Alexander Hamilton feared and warned about in The Federalist Papers.

He wrote:

There seems little doubt, given his writings on the presidency, that Hamilton would have been aghast at Trump’s behavior and appalled by his invitation to foreign actors to meddle in our elections. As a result, he would most certainly have endorsed the current impeachment inquiry. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Trump embodies Hamilton’s worst fears about the kind of person who might someday head the government.

Among our founders, Hamilton’s views count heavily because he was the foremost proponent of a robust presidency, yet he also harbored an abiding fear that a brazen demagogue could seize the office. That worry helps to explain why he analyzed impeachment in such detail: He viewed it as a crucial instrument to curb possible abuses arising from the enlarged powers he otherwise championed.

Unlike Thomas Jefferson, with his sunny faith in the CONTINUE READING: Ron Chernow: Alexander Hamilton Would Support Impeachment | Diane Ravitch's blog

How state-funded charter schools are avoiding vaccine requirements

How state-funded charter schools are avoiding vaccine requirements

How state-funded charter schools are avoiding vaccine requirements

SACRAMENTO — Nearly all California students must get vaccinated after state leaders tightened laws following the 2014 Disneyland measles scare, but at least one loophole remains: new hybrid programs known as charter home schools.

Across the country, state leaders and health advocates have aggressively pushed for new vaccination requirements, especially after the U.S. this year experienced its highest number of measles cases since 1992. California has been at the forefront, enacting a law last month that cracks down on doctors known for approving scores of waivers so unvaccinated children can attend school.

But there remain ways to get around the law and still receive a taxpayer-funded education, even in California. Though many home-based charters bring students together for regular classroom instruction or activities, the state doesn't uniformly enforce vaccination laws for such programs.

Monique Labarre, a San Diego attorney turned nursing student with an interest in public health, has two children in home-based charter programs. She said she appreciates the flexibility they offer, but that she's "unpopular" within the home school movement because of her pro-vaccine stance.

"People are taking public money but they aren't vaccinating. They believe that [the law] doesn't apply to public home-school charters," Labarre said. “Home-schooling doesn’t look like what people think — they are clustering together. But the law is not super clear and needs greater regulation.”

The state's strict vaccination laws, both written by State Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), a pediatrician, apply to all schools except for “home-based private schools and students enrolled in an independent study program." Charter schools are public. But for the increasing number of programs that blend home instruction and class time, the rules blur.

California doesn't have a clear interpretation of whether home-based charter CONTINUE READING: How state-funded charter schools are avoiding vaccine requirements

The New Unionism: Bargaining for the Common Good | Diane Ravitch's blog

The New Unionism: Bargaining for the Common Good | Diane Ravitch's blog

The New Unionism: Bargaining for the Common Good

The Chicago teachers’ strike is over but it performed a valuable service that reaches far beyond Chicago and its educators. In recent years, the union movement was recoiling from blow after blow as its adversaries attempted to destroy it by passing right-to-work laws in the states, attacking it in state courts with challenges to due process, and winning a Supreme Court victory (Janus) that was intended to kill the unions off.

But the teachers’ strikes that began in West Virginia in 2018 and continued through the Chicago strike point to a new brand of teacher activism.

Although legislatures have tried to limit collective bargaining solely to wages and benefits, the new unionism has a different vision, which they call “bargaining for the common good.”

Teachers are as concerned about children’s health and well-being, about class size, about having a full-time nurse in every school as they are about their own wages. In Chicago, they worked out the salary gains before the strike started. The strike was about improving conditions CONTINUE READING: The New Unionism: Bargaining for the Common Good | Diane Ravitch's blog

Shawgi Tell: Charter School Advocates Demand That Everyone Fend for Themselves | Dissident Voice

Charter School Advocates Demand That Everyone Fend for Themselves | Dissident Voice

Charter School Advocates Demand That Everyone Fend for Themselves

Promoters of privately-operated charter schools that intensify segregation and siphon money from public schools idolize the law of the jungle where the “strongest survive.”

This backward view assumes that everyone is nothing more than a consumer and that education is mainly a commodity. Such a discredited outlook is a direct assault on the modern principle that education is a basic human right and that schools must be fully-funded, publicly controlled, high quality, integrated, and available to all for free in every community. No one should have to worry about which school to send their child to. Government must take up its social responsibility to provide the right to education with a guarantee in practice. There is no reason not to have a great school with many programs in every neighborhood in America.

The “free market” consumerist approach to education was recently on full display at the 2020 “School Choice Fair” in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina. Not surprisingly, the “Fair” overwhelmed and confused many parents trying to figure out how to “choose” the “best” school for their child.

Some direct quotes from a brief October 30, 2019 news report on the “School CONTINUE READING: Charter School Advocates Demand That Everyone Fend for Themselves | Dissident Voice

Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers. A poet talks pedagogy. – Fred Klonsky

Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers. A poet talks pedagogy. – Fred Klonsky

HITTING LEFT WITH THE KLONSKY BROTHERS. A POET TALKS PEDAGOGY

If you’re a Chicago teacher, you had to miss our Friday live broadcast of Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers.

It’s is available on podcast here.

What if a poet was mayor or union president we pondered, talking to Chicago poet and founder of Louder than a Bomb, Kevin Coval.

Kevin said he was inspired by the power of community that was demonstrated by Chicago teachers over the past two weeks.

Of course, Mike and I agreed.

We wondered whether the divisions among progressives continue as it did after the CONTINUE READING: Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers. A poet talks pedagogy. – Fred Klonsky

Four Ways That Any Educator Can Affirm, Protect, & Honor the Humanity of Black Students - Philly's 7th Ward

Four Ways That Any Educator Can Affirm, Protect, & Honor the Humanity of Black Students - Philly's 7th Ward

FOUR WAYS THAT ANY EDUCATOR CAN AFFIRM, PROTECT, & HONOR THE HUMANITY OF BLACK STUDENTS

Years ago, my then-four-year-old son and I were watching Black-ish. As Junior, a character played by Marcus Scribner, was talking on the show, my son said to me, “Daddy, Junior is my favorite character on Black-ish. He’s my favorite character on all the shows.”

When I asked him why, he said because Junior looked like him. While my wife melted and hugged him tight, I smiled and was astounded that at his age, he recognized skin color and positively identified himself with a young black man on television.

My wife and I work hard to humanize his and his sisters’ blackness. However, I wonder if any effort is put into humanizing blackness for my children and other black children in our schools and early childhood facilities.

In light of the country’s current political climate, humanizing black people and their blackness is critical. Once black children step outside of the care of a parent or guardian, they will confront anti-blackness; they may even confront people who mean them harm. In my state of New Jersey, a former CONTINUE READING: Four Ways That Any Educator Can Affirm, Protect, & Honor the Humanity of Black Students - Philly's 7th Ward

John Thompson: This year's OKCPS to-do list has at least 30 big items

This year's OKCPS to-do list has at least 30 big items

This year’s OKCPS to-do list has at least 30 big items

As students and teachers come out of fall break and wait anxiously for Thanksgiving break, perhaps it is a good time to remember that Oklahoma City Public Schools started this academic year facing a formidable “To Do” list. While the district anticipated many challenges, some tasks it now faces could not have been foreseen. Other problems were predicted by educators and patrons.

Let’s take a look at the OKCPS to-do list and ponder how we all — students, teachers, administrators, parents and community members — can support the tough tasks facing Oklahoma’s largest school district.

Since January, OKCPS has had to …

1. Plan and implement EmbraceOKC, a “collaborative initiative with a focus on mental health,” which involves partnerships with the Oklahoma State Department of Mental Health, Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, the Oklahoma City Public Schools Foundation, the United Way of Central Oklahoma, and the City of Oklahoma City.
2. The related effort of planning and implementing trauma-informed instruction.
3. Implement the reorganized Vision of Equity, “so all students receive a high-quality education.”
4. Progress toward meeting new state standards on chronic absenteeism.
5. Plan and implement the new Innovative Transformation Schools program.
6. Plan and implement a new transfer policy.
7. Tackle the teacher shortage which results in large numbers of inexperienced and CONTINUE READING: This year's OKCPS to-do list has at least 30 big items

Students in History Class Debate Impeachment (Burch) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Students in History Class Debate Impeachment (Burch) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
Students in History Class Debate Impeachment (Burch)

Journalist Audra Burch sat in a world history class recently and described history teacher Chris Dier’s lessons on impeachment. The article appeared October 23, 2019. I follow this description of the lesson with some questions that occurred to me.

It was impeachment day in Mr. Dier’s world history class at Chalmette High School. Andrew Johnson, the first impeached president, was on the lesson plan. So was Richard M. Nixon, who avoided facing such a fate by resigning. Bill Clinton, who also was impeached but never convicted, was part of the discussion.

But most of the class was centered on the latest president to face possible removal from office: Donald J. Trump, who is on social media just as much as some of Chris Dier’s students.

At Chalmette High, located in a conservative Louisiana parish, the students in Mr. Dier’s class recently confronted the merits of the case against Mr. Trump, who stands accused of pressuring Ukraine to investigate his chief Democratic rival, Joseph R. Biden Jr. Mr. Dier saw the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry against Mr. Trump as an opportunity: a real-time lesson in civics and political science for his students.

So, for two 90-minute class periods, Mr. Dier’s seniors pretended to be members of Congress, but without the bluster and sniping — dutifully obeying the signs on the walls about how to respectfully agree to disagree.

“We have never studied anything that was unfolding live,” said Grace Bartholomae, one of the students. “This is history.”

To help his students understand the details of the inquiry, Mr. Dier assembled a CONTINUE READING: Students in History Class Debate Impeachment (Burch) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Montessori, Dewey, & Aristotle Respond to NAEP decline | The Merrow Report

Montessori, Dewey, &  Aristotle Respond to NAEP decline | The Merrow Report

Montessori, Dewey, & Aristotle Respond to NAEP decline

By now you know about the disappointing scores on what is widely known as The Nation’s Report Card, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP.  Basically, what was called ‘a lost decade‘ a year or two ago has continued.

Here’s a short summary from the NAEP announcement: “Average reading scores for the nation in 2019 were lower for students in both fourth and eighth grade than in 2017, while average mathematics scores were higher by 1 point for fourth graders and lower by 1 point for eighth graders…….In mathematics and reading for both grades, a little more than one-third of students nationally scored at or above the NAEP Proficient level in 2019.”

The responses from the Administration, the center-right, and the left were not surprising.  Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos labelled it a ‘student achievement crisis’ and issued a call for ‘education freedom’ for parents so they could escape failing schools.  See here for her response and here for analysis.

The center-right, basically the ‘School Reform’ advocates who have controlled the public education for 20 years, focused on the smattering of good news in the NAEP report:

       Hispanic students had a higher average mathematics score in 2019 compared to 2017.

       Fourth grade mathematics scores increased in nine states.

       Mississippi showed an increase in grade 4 reading.

       Grade 8 reading scores increased in the District of Columbia.

This could be presented another way, of course: Mississippi was the ONLY state CONTINUE READING: Montessori, Dewey, & Aristotle Respond to NAEP decline | The Merrow Report

THIS WEEK Education Research Report

Education Research Report

THIS WEEK 

Education Research Report

Nearly 1 Million Students with Some College Returned and Earned a Degree Since 2014

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 19h

“Some College, No Degree” Report Reveals 3.5 Million Americans with Some College Have High Potential to Return and Finish College The United States saw nearly one million former students, in just five years, return to postsecondary education and earn their first undergraduate credential, according to a new report, “Some College, No Degree: A 2019 Snapshot for the Nation and 50 States,” released t

Student engagement and hope are significantly related to student academic outcomes

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 20h

Complete report With the current shift in U.S. education policies putting a priority on social-emotional learning (SEL), the importance of teachers and schools having SEL resources -- proven to create positive student outcomes -- is growing rapidly. As the new goals and guidelines are implemented in accordance with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), schools have, unfortunately, been flooded w

OCT 31

The Early College High School Model

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d

Early college high schools provide students with both high school and college experiences, with the goal of ensuring that students graduate with a high school diploma and two years of transferable college credit or an associate degree. These small schools, which are sometimes located on college campuses, are designed to provide all students with an academically rigorous course of study. Some earl

Stay the Course study

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 1d

Stay the Course is intended to help students overcome individual barriers to completing their community college program by offering comprehensive case management services through a social service agency. Each student in the program is paired with a social worker who offers mentoring, coaching, and referrals to other supports both within and outside the college. These services are more intensive t

OCT 30

Creativity in Learning

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

Eighty-seven percent of teachers and 77% of parents agree that teaching approaches that inspire creativity in the learning process have a bigger payoff for students. Yet, students spend most of their time on traditional lessons that do little to encourage creativity, even though the growing availability of technology promises new ways of learning. Gallup conducted qualitative and quantitative res

Investments in teacher PD pay off

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

New Teacher Center has partnered with Metis Associates, Inc. to explore what returns on investment in professional learning yields. This report uses the data and results from the i3 Validation study conducted by SRI International as a foundation, Key findings : EDUCATORS INCREASE LEARNING AND STAY LONGER Students of NTC-supported teachers in grades 4 through 8 demonstrated up to 5 months of addit

Unfinished: Insights From Ongoing Work to Accelerate Outcomes for Students With Learning Gaps

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

Despite some gains over the past 20 years, significant numbers of students are not meeting grade-level expectations as defined by performance on academic assessments. Meanwhile, few schools are able to support the sort of accelerated academic learning needed to catch students up to grade-level expectations. Evidence indicates this is not for lack of educator commitment or dedication. Instead, man

Reading Scores Decline on 2019 Nation's Report Card

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

Fourth-graders' mathematics scores increase; eighth-graders' mathematics and reading scores decrease The average reading score for American fourth- and eighth-grade students decreased between 2017 and 2019, according to The Nation's Report Card, released today by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Changes in mathematics scores were mixed over the two-year period, with an increas

Impacts of a Principal Professional Development Program Focused on Instructional Leadership

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 2d

A new report finds an approach to help principals improve their leadership practices did not improve students’ achievement, perhaps because principals’ instructional practices did not change as intended. The Institute of Education Sciences released a report today (October 30) entitled . This report from the National Center for Education Evaluation (NCEE) assesses one approach to supporting princ

OCT 29

Text-based nudges to high school seniors boost financial aid filing, college enrollment

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

High school seniors who receive texted reminders--or "nudges"--from their school counselors are 17 percent more likely to complete the college financial aid application process and 8 percent more likely to enroll in college directly after graduating than their peers who are not nudged, according to a new study published today in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis , a peer-reviewed journal

Should preschool writing be more communication and less ABCs?

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

Writing instruction in early education should be about more than letter formation and penmanship, argue Michigan State University researchers who found preschool teachers don't often encourage writing for communication purposes. "Few teachers in this study think about writing as communication," said Hope Gerde, associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies. "Howeve

Media Use By Tweens and Teens

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

This large-scale study explores how kids age 8 to 18 in the U.S. use media across an array of activities and devices—including short-form, mobile-friendly platforms like YouTube—to see where they spend their time and what they enjoy most. Combined with the data from the 2015 report, the 2019 census gives us a clearer view of how young people's media use has evolved over time. The results speak to

Math acceleration in elementary school: Girls are less likely to be nominated

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 3d

This paper examines curricular acceleration in mathematics during elementary school using administrative data from a large, diverse school district that recently implemented a targeted, test-based acceleration policy. The authors first characterize access to advanced math and then estimate effects of acceleration in math on measures of short-run academic achievement as well as non-test-score meas

Report Advocates Privatizing Schools Overseas, but Without Convincing Evidence

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

A new report, Beyond the Mirage: How Pragmatic Stewardship Could Transform Learning Outcomes in International Education Systems , prescribes a shift in the leadership role of education ministers – from providers and guarantors of education to pragmatic stewards of education systems. Frank Adamson, of California State University, Sacramento, reviewed the report and found that its use of questionab

OCT 28

One child received an afterschool supper for every 16 low-income children who participated in the National School Lunch Program

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

More Can be Done to Feed Hungry Children After School Media Contact: Emily Pickren epickren@frac.org 202-640-1118 More than 1.3 million children benefited from afterschool suppers at school- and community-based programs on an average weekday in October 2018. That was a 10.4 percent increase from the previous year, according to the annual Afterschool Suppers: A Snapshot of Participation report, re

Education Policy and Black Teachers: Perspectives on Race, Policy, and Teacher Diversity

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

This article examines interview responses from prominent education researchers who were asked to consider the role of major educational policies in the underrepresentation of Black teachers in public schools. Participants considered policies related to accountability and market reforms including testing, school choice and charter schools, and alternative teacher education. Although participants a

Being better-looking raised children's learning outcomes

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

Complete report This study uses data from the 11 waves of the U.S. Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development 1991-2005, following children from ages 6 months through 15 years. Observers rated videos of them, obtaining measures of looks at each age. Given their family income, parents’ education, race/ethnicity and gender, being better-looking raised subsequent changes in measurements of obje

Sibling Spillovers in Educational Achievement

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

This study finds positive spillover effects from an older to a younger child in less affluent families and negative spillover effects from a younger to an older child in more affluent families. These results are consistent with direct spillovers dominating in economically disadvantaged families and with parental reinforcement in more affluent families.

Addressing Capacity Shortfalls at California’s Universities

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

Complete report Reforms undertaken by California in the past decade to improve academic performance and prepare students to attend four-year universities are paying off: More students are graduating from high school than ever before, and more of them have completed college preparatory classes. In addition, growing numbers of community college students are earning the credits needed to transfer an

Influences of executive function, language comprehension, and fluency on reading comprehension

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which children’s executive function predicted their reading comprehension performance. Participants were approximately 18,000 kindergartners in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011. The results suggest that individual differences in reading comprehension were influenced by variations in executive function. C

Charter school penetration and growth played a role in increasing socioeconomic segregation within districts

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

This study examines the effect of the expansion of charter schools on socioeconomic segregation in American public education. Using a district-level panel data set from 1998 to 2015, the authors describe and model changes in within-district segregation of low-income students, proxied by free-lunch eligibility (FLE). The authors show that the segregation of FLE students from non-FLE students incre

Creativity in Learning

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

is a new report based on Gallup's study of how creativity in learning fosters problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, especially when supported by transformative technology use. Report findings include: Teacher, parent and student perspectives on what U.S. schools need for students to succeed The impact and outcomes of creativity in learning The supports and barriers to making creativity a

The US and the High Price of Child Care: An Examination of a Broken System

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

More than 12 million children younger than age five are in some form of child care in the United States. provides a review of how child care is an issue for all of us and shares our policy recommendations for supporting families and child care providers. Also featured are: An overview of the child care ecosystem and how each member is affected by unaffordable child care How Child Care Resource a

Early Childhood Essentials framework

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

The presents the essential skills and competencies children should acquire before they enter kindergarten and the related skills and competencies early childhood educators (early educators) must cultivate in order to provide high-quality early learning experiences that will set all children on the path to success in school and in life. It provides a baseline of knowledge to help decisions-makers

Teacher Leadership Opportunities

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

A new analysis by the National Council on Teacher Quality demonstrates that more states are recognizing the importance of leadership roles for teachers, signaling that state policy is reflecting teachers’ voices. Thirty-five states now have formal teacher leadership policies, with a net of eight additional states adopting formal teacher leadership policies in the past two years. This statewide re

Education plans, book review, Trump's Head start proposal

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 4d

A presidential candidate drops a new education plan. A new book details the practices of one of the nation’s highest performing — and polarizing — charter school networks. And then all of edu-Twitter is afire with hot takes, long threads, and far too many mentions. These quick responses can leave little room for nuance and prevent us from asking the tough, necessary questions required to push pub

OCT 26

Geography, School Type, And High Student Attendance

by Jonathan Kantrowitz / 6d

Full report Detroit has the highest rate of chronic absenteeism of any major city in the U.S., with more than half of students missing 18 or more days (10% of the school year). Still, about one-fifth of the city’s students between 2010-11 

Education Research Report