Online credit recovery that boosts graduation rates by failing students

Jeremy Noonan
In October, President Obama announced that the national high school graduation rate had reached an all-time high in 2015 . Yet...
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High Stakes for High Schoolers

Eleven weeks ago, in High Stakes for High Achievers: State Accountability in the Age of ESSA , the Fordham Institute reported...
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High Stakes for High Achievers

No Child Left Behind meant well, but it had a pernicious flaw: It created strong incentives for schools to focus all their energy...
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When it comes to fighting for kids, Hillary will be a voice in my head

Erika Sanzi
I voted for Hillary Clinton. I wasn’t excited about it as so many other women, young and old, were. And the #ImWithHer movement...
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Four great bloggers join the Fordham team

Alyssa Schwenk
Today, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute is pleased to formally announce that we’re adding four new senior fellows to our team:...
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Charter Schools at the Crossroads

Over the past quarter-century, charter schools have gone from an upstart education experiment to a prominent, promising, and...
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Charter School Boards in the Nation's Capital

Tens of thousands of individuals across the United States volunteer their time, energy, and expertise as members of charter...
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Uniting Latinos behind school reform

Jason Crye
In “ Lost opportunity for charter schools ,” Robert Pondiscio says education reformers should blame themselves for the failure of...
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More wins than losses for education reform in a tumultuous election year, especially in NY

Derrell Bradford
The dust is settling from Election Day. And though many people struggle to find the upside in the White House’s residents-in-...
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Now what?

Michael J. Petrilli
Like most of you, I am in shock and more than a little worried. I can’t pretend to be a neutral policy analyst today; I made my...
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How states should redesign their accountability systems under ESSA

David Griffith
Michael J. Petrilli
Those of us at the Fordham Institute have long held that there’s no one best way to design a state accountability system. It’s...
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When bright kids become disillusioned

James T. Webb
Bright children are often intense, sensitive, idealistic, and concerned with fairness, and they are quick to see inconsistencies...
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The six essential qualities that gifted educators can instill in their students

George Betts
I can still remember my first day of teaching at the middle school level. The students seemed very excited about class. After the...
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Lost opportunity for charter schools

Robert Pondiscio
While the rest of the nation was riveted by the final days of the presidential campaign, the education world was paying equally...
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Wisconsin gets back in the school-choice groove

Jason Crye
Wisconsin is the birthplace of the school-choice movement. In the pantheon of education reform shine names like Wisconsin State...
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The obfuscation endemic in school levy requests

Aaron Churchill
One important decision facing many voters on Election Day is whether to approve their school districts’ tax requests . These...
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A knowledge-rich curriculum is the best prep for Common Core reading tests

Ruth Wattenberg
It’s now a fairly well established fact that under No Child Left Behind, and to some extent during the years leading up to it,...
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The Massachusetts charter school cap harms disadvantaged students

Chester E. Finn, Jr.
Brandon L. Wright
The most disadvantaged children in Massachusetts stand to benefit most if the state’s tight cap on charter schools is loosened—a...
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NAEP Science 2015: Deep problems lurk behind the mostly positive news

Brandon L. Wright
Last week, the U.S. Department of Education released the results of its most recent national science test for fourth, eighth, and...
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Rich insights on poverty

Michael J. Petrilli
Education leaders and policymakers should be just as concerned about what happens to young people after they exit their schools,...
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We can't let any gifted kids slip through the cracks

M. René Islas and Rudy Crew
Imagine being a student who is academically gifted but whose abilities are not easily identified by teachers. Then imagine that...
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Effective reading instruction in spite of New York's lackluster standards

Matthew Levey
Drafting state learning standards is a task simultaneously critical and thankless. In New York, where I opened an elementary...
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Disadvantaged gifted students in Rhode Island are finally getting the chance to show it

Erika Sanzi
If there is one thing that has haunted me over the years as an educator (now former) and as a mother, it is the disparity in...
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New model law from the National Alliance acknowledges the elephant in the room: Virtual charter schools

Chad L. Aldis
Jessica Poiner
Ohio’s charter school movement has faced a number of challenges over the past decade. A myriad of school closings and allegations...
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Charter schools are reinventing local control

Chester E. Finn, Jr.
Bruno V. Manno
Brandon L. Wright
America’s devotion to local control of schools is dying, but it is also being reborn as a new faith in charter schools. These...
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What a Democratic wave election would mean for education reform

Michael J. Petrilli
If the latest polls are to be believed, Hillary Clinton may be heading toward a landslide victory, especially as far as the...
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It's dangerous to deny the existence of implicit bias

Lisette Paretlow
In a recent blog post on the Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s Flypaper blog, writer Kay Hymowitz erroneously stated that “implicit...
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