Policy

Getting all students “college- and career-ready” is the centerpiece for much of today’s education policy. Going back until at least the beginning of the Obama administration, the U.S. Department of Education has taken the lead on this by calling on all K-12 schools to measurably prepare students to succeed after...

One clear shift in thinking between the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and its predecessor, No Child Left Behind, is this: The ESSA prompts schools to use evidence-based interventions with students, particularly if those students qualify for Title 1 funding (intended to provide extra support to students living in...

Once an optional, preschool-like addition to elementary school programs, kindergarten has come a long way. For years, most kindergarten classes offered a half-day introduction to life in school, with plenty of time for free play, snacks, and even naps. Today, however, parents have a hard time finding anything other than...

School districts seeking a fairly simple way to boost achievement might want to look outside their classroom doors by adding more recess time to the school day. Sure, it may be fun for the kids, but as a growing body of research suggests, it also makes students better able to...

In a blog post for the online site Edutopia, New York City teacher Jose Vilson described serving on an education policy panel in Maryland with several other teachers. Along the way, Vilson and the other panelists were asked what a school of their own design would look like. Vilson said...

Charter schools have been part of the education landscape since 1991, when Minnesota created the nation’s first law authorizing this publicly funded, independently run school model. Back then, charters were positioned as a companion to traditional public schools that allowed teachers and students the freedom to work together in smaller,...

Most high school students today expect to go to college, but they do not feel adequately prepared for it. This revelation can be found among the results of a multi-year student survey conducted by the nonprofit organization YouthTruth. Between 2010 and 2015, YouthTruth asked thousands of students around the country...

Many educators and students recognize the need for unique, individualized learning within their schools. However, for larger organizations such as the public school system, providing individual schools with a high level of independence isn’t always feasible. To ensure students get all the resources they need and are making adequate progress...

Holding students back in school has long been a controversial topic. Grade retention was common in the one-room schoolhouses of the 19th century because there were more formal agreed-upon ideas about the academic content students should be able to master at each grade level. Then, in the 1930s, holding students...

As educators, we know the importance of creating and delivering high-quality instruction for maximizing student achievement. In K–12 literacy programs, providing a strong curriculum and assessments for students is an essential component of skill development and meeting expectations of standardized tests. But what happens when, despite all of this preparation,...