Month: April 2020

Bricks Without Straw: Maryland’s ESSA Accountability Plan – by Chester E. Finn, Jr.

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Last week, Maryland governor Larry Hogan notified the State Board of Education (on which I serve*) and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos that he will not sign the state’s ESSA accountability plan, which is due in Washington on Monday. The previous day, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker notified his state superintendent of public instruction that he won’t sign that one, either. Both...

Lessons from the Renaissance – by Ian Lindquist

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Virtue Politics: Soulcraft and Statecraft in Renaissance Italy by James Hankins Harvard University Press, 2019,$45; 768 pages. As reviewed by Ian Lindquist Education of the young presents the most important public policy challenge that any polity faces. This is not to say it is the most pressing—that designation would belong to the task of national defense, without which educa...

The Education Exchange: Students Control the Learning at Summit Schools – by Education Next

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Diane Tavenner, CEO of Summit Schools, sits down with Paul E. Peterson to discuss how Summit has spent the past 15 years building a school model around what we know about what motivates students, how they learn, and what they need to be able to do. For more information about Summit, please read “Pacesetter in Personalized Learning,” by Joanne Jacobs, in the Fall 201...

Education Takes 11th in ‘16 – by Frederick Hess

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Today, my colleague Kelsey Hamilton and I released a look at how much attention the public is paying to education this year. We used the monthly Gallup surveys and the (occasional) CBS News surveys for 2016. You can read the brief here, but I figured I’d give blog readers a quick look at the takeaways. For those who don’t track such things, here’s the deal: Each month, Gallup a...

In the News: A Coronavirus A for Everyone – by Education Next

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A Wall Street Journal editorial, “A Coronavirus A for Everyone,” warns of “the potential for arrested educational development” related to decisions by some school districts, in response to the pandemic, to suspend or alter their usual grading policies. Says the Journal: “The pandemic will pass, but what used to be called the soft bigotry of low expectations helps no one but te...

When Will School Reopen? The Latest State-by-State Info – by Melissa Fall

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Since we most recently updated this graphic, even more states—including Delaware, Rhode Island, and North Carolina—have announced decisions to close school buildings for the remainder of the academic year, bringing to 42 the total number of states with schools physically closed until August or September. Washington, D.C., will also keep school buildings physically closed to stu...