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National study of 1.8 million charter students shows charter pupils outperform peers at traditional public schools
Charter school students make more average progress in math and English than their counterparts in traditional public schools, including months of additional learning in some states, according to a new national overview. The authors of the study find that campuses grouped within larger charter management organizations are particularly effective at accelerating student achievement. The report,...
By Kevin Mahnken | June 14, 2023
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COVID’s ‘complicated picture’: Mental health worse, staffing tight, enrollment frozen at nation’s schools
More than two-thirds of public schools saw higher percentages of their students seeking mental health services in 2022 than before the pandemic — but only a slim majority believed they were able to meet children’s heightened psychological needs, according to a federal report released Wednesday. The revelation comes from The Condition of Education 2023, the latest...
By Kevin Mahnken | May 30, 2023
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Carnegie, ETS team up to develop competency-based assessments
Two major players in K–12 education launched a joint effort last month to develop new assessments that could help shift schools’ focus away from traditional “seat time” requirements and toward more accurate measures of mastery over academic content. The new tests, to be created by the Educational Testing Service and the Carnegie Foundation for the...
By Kevin Mahnken | May 25, 2023
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Steep drop in student history scores leaves officials ‘very, very concerned’
Eighth graders’ knowledge of both history and civics fell significantly between 2018 and 2022, according to the latest scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Federal officials called the decline an ominous sign for America’s civic culture, with U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona criticizing some states for “banning history books and censoring educators.”...
By Kevin Mahnken | May 3, 2023
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Tough love: Study shows kids benefit from teachers with high grading standards
They might not want to hear it, but it’s true: Students assigned to teachers with tougher grading policies are better off in the long run, research suggests. According to a paper released last fall through Brown University’s Annenberg Institute for School Reform, eighth- and ninth-graders who learned from math teachers with relatively higher performance standards earned better...
By Kevin Mahnken | March 30, 2023
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Q&A: Educator & Khan Academy founder Sal Khan on COVID’s staggering math toll
By some measures, Sal Khan is the most influential math teacher in U.S. history. The 46-year-old entrepreneur and former financial analyst is the founder of Khan Academy, a nonprofit site offering thousands of free video lessons on a range of K-12 subjects. Since its beginnings as a YouTube channel (which itself grew out of Khan’s...
By Kevin Mahnken | February 16, 2023
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A DARPA for K–12? Omnibus bill includes substantial new funds for education R&D
Funding increases written into the recently passed $1.7 trillion federal omnibus package will provide a substantial jumpstart to education research and statistics this year — and could even evolve into an entity mirroring DARPA, the Pentagon’s storied research and development branch. The law, passed by bipartisan majorities and signed by President Biden in the closing days of...
By Kevin Mahnken | January 9, 2023
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14 Charts this year that helped us better understand COVID’s impact on students, teachers and schools
The pandemic had to end sometime. Historians will ultimately place its climax at some point in 2022. It was the year that Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s most prominent public health authority, declared that the country was “out of the pandemic phase,” as COVID case rates plummeted from their Omicron highs. By the fall, President Biden...
By Kevin Mahnken | December 21, 2022
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Teachers felt more COVID anxiety than healthcare workers, study finds
Teachers were far more likely than other workers to experience anxiety during the first year of the pandemic, a newly released study has found. And among teachers, those who worked remotely for most of the 2020-21 school year reported higher rates of depression and loneliness than those who worked in-person. The study, which leverages a...
By Kevin Mahnken | November 28, 2022
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Despite COVID backlash, Thurmond sails toward second term as California schools chief
California’s race for state superintendent is in its final days. But according to some local observers, the outcome has been in hand for most of the year. Incumbent Superintendent Tony Thurmond might have avoided campaigning entirely, in fact, if he’d picked up just a few extra points of support in the June primary. Instead, he...
By Kevin Mahnken | November 3, 2022