OPINION‘Shut up and teach’: The high stakes of teacher voice
A New York City teacher writes, “I am saddened that my efforts researching and negotiating the work of public education seem meaningless in the face of current policy debates.”
New evidence that small schools work?
You might have forgotten about the small schools movement amid all the recent hubbub about overhauling teacher evaluations. But a study released on January 25th reminds us that only a few years ago, reducing the number of total students in a school was seen as a key weapon in the arsenal of urban school reform, [...]
As some schools plunge into technology, poor schools are left behind
CHICAGO – On a recent Friday morning, 15-year-old Jerod Franklin stared at his hands as he labored to type up memories of the first time he grilled steak. Next to him, classmate Brittany Levy tackled a piece about a trip to the hospital. The Bronzeville Scholastic Institute ninth-graders were working on writing assignments in the [...]
Free courses may shake universities’ monopoly on credit
Just as the Internet has made news free and music cheap, it may be about to vastly lower the cost of one of the most expensive commodities in America: college. Several new companies and organizations with impressive pedigrees are harnessing the Internet to provide college courses for free, or for next to nothing. And while [...]
Apple gets into the e-textbook business
In a hyped press conference today, Apple announced that the company is getting into the e-textbook game. Here are the highlights: -iPad owners will now be able to buy e-textbooks from the big three textbook publishers, Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The price for high school textbooks will be $14.99. The e-textbooks can include [...]
Report: Miami district needs to improve teacher evaluations
A report to be released Thursday by a national research group on teacher quality suggests the Miami-Dade school district is not doing enough to get rid of underperforming teachers.
Study: Educational apps for young children growing rapidly
Long connected to schools by offering discounted computers and other equipment to students and teachers, Apple seems to be getting even more intertwined with education—in and out of the classroom. On Thursday, the tech giant is expected to announce its entry into the textbook market—and this at a time when a day doesn’t seem to [...]
The battle over treating teachers as professionals
Should teachers be treated as professionals? The question may seem easy enough to answer—most people in education, whether they are union representatives or reformers advocating for more charter schools, say “yes.” Yet the question is in many ways at the heart of the raging debate–currently boiling over in New York–over how to improve struggling schools. [...]
School finance in the digital-learning era: A review
The Fordham Institute continued its critical series exploring how to create sound policy for digital learning in November with two new papers, “Teachers in the Age of Digital Instruction” by Bryan C. Hassel and Emily Hassel, and “School Finance in the Digital-Learning Era” by Paul T. Hill. And more are on the way soon, including important ones [...]
