Month: July 2023

Teacher Pay Emerges As Democratic Primary Issue – by Ira Stoll

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Beto O’Rourke campaigns in Portsmouth, N.H. Call it the teacher primary. Over the weekend, one Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, called for federal spending to lift teacher pay so that it’s level with that of other college graduates. “In America, public school teachers are paid about $13,000 a year less than other college graduates. That could be mortgage ...

Reflections on a Four-Year Sentence – by Chester E. Finn, Jr.

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A surprising array of events are arranged in four-year cycles: leap years, the Olympics, presidential elections, and many “terms of office,” including those on the Maryland State Board of Education, where I just concluded my tour of duty. There’s much that I won’t miss, including the obese briefing books we were sent every month, the depressing old Baltimore building in which ...

What We’re Watching: Have We Closed Socioeconomic Achievement Gaps? – by Education Next

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On Tuesday, April 9 at noon, an event surrounding the release of a new study on socioeconomic achievement gaps will be hosted by Stanford’s Hoover Institution and Harvard’s Kennedy School. The study, published by Education Next, examines whether the achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students has widened, narrowed, or persisted.  Eric Hanushek, on...

The Education Exchange: How Declining Birth Rates Could Affect Schools – by Education Next

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A decline in birth rates in the U.S. could mean that the school-aged population will spiral downward in the next decade and beyond. Would this be a disaster for schools? Or could there be a silver lining? Mike Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss his new article, “The Baby Bust Goes to School.” Follow The Educatio...

What Life Before EdTech Can Teach Us About Personalized Learning – by Julia Freeland Fisher

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In many circles, edtech and the future of learning have become synonymous. This is unsurprising given the enormous uptick in online courses and technology tools in K–12 schools nationwide, not to mention the promise that technology holds to dismantle barriers to access and experience that have plagued the education system for years. Yet, with excitement over new gadgets and po...

In the News: The Democratic Platform: More of a Victory for Reformers Than It Seems – by Education Next

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On his blog, Doug Harris takes a close look at the Democratic party’s education platform, reviewing what it says about testing, accountability, charters, and school choice. Overall, he writes, the platform doesn’t include any ideas that could reasonably replace the existing reform approach. The reform building is standing intact. All the signs here still point in on...

Curriculum Becomes a Reform Strategy – by Chester E. Finn, Jr.

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“Structural” education reformers—the kind who worry about school governance, choice, standards, accountability, ESSA, universal pre-K, graduation rates, collective bargaining, etc.—have long been faulted by “inside the classroom” educators for neglecting pedagogy and curriculum. When Hoover’s Koret Task Force was active, for example, Don Hirsch and (the former) Diane Ravitch re...