Coronavirus / COVID-19

Fordham Institute report: Rebooting the education reform movement and other topics

Editor’s note: Michael J. Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, offers this introduction to the Institute’s 2022 annual report. You can view the report here. Lucy and the football. Groundhog Day. “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” Use whatever metaphor you like,[Read More…]

The long-term shifts taking place in American K-12 education

American K-12 education was doing quite poorly before the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. In comparisons to other nations on international exams, American schools spent lavishly but scored poorly. Now matters are worse. The Stanford Educational Opportunity Project recently measured change in reading scores by school district between 2019 and[Read More…]

Students who left traditional public schools for charters not returning after pandemic

A new report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools reveals three key takeaways, updating its 2021 charter school enrollment report, “Voting With Their Feet.” Titled “Changing Course: Public School Enrollment Shifts During the Pandemic,” the report is an analysis of student enrollment trends in public schools during the[Read More…]

As COVID pandemic wanes, expect more Black families to seek alternatives to traditional schools

Many families whose schools were closed in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic or who erred on the side of caution about sending their children back to the classroom responded innovatively by forming learning pods – small groups of students led by a teacher or an educator guide. Now[Read More…]

Virtual school enrollment climbed as COVID receded, new data reveal

Editor’s note: This article appeared Monday on the74million.org. Kristy Maxwell realized something had to change the day she picked her son Levi up from school and found out his teacher had left the autistic kindergartener alone crying and throwing pencils from under his desk. The Michigan mom switched her son[Read More…]

Tyton Partners report: Blueprints for a post-pandemic K-12 education system

The Covid-19 pandemic proved that K-12 education was ripe for disruption. A new report from Tyton Partners finds that a majority of parents “prefer to direct and curate their child’s education rather than rely on local school systems.” With many families educating their children at home during the crisis, parents[Read More…]

Jeb Bush: How to end the epidemic of failure in America’s schools

Editor’s note: This commentary from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, founder and chairman of ExcelinEd and ExcelinEd in Action, appeared last week on wsj.com. While much of the U.S. has returned to normal after the pandemic, the long-term academic harm to students endures. This school year is the first time[Read More…]

New Jersey entrepreneur breathes new life into traditional education models

The simple answer to what makes Jill Perez tick most likely is the wrong one. Just because she never was a fan of masking youngsters, it’s easy — possibly even appealing — to tag her as a denier, a crank, anti-science, or a threat to Granny. Just stop. Summon up[Read More…]