New public management (NPM) has dominated the reforms in the higher education sector and the academic discussion on how universities should be governed since the 1980s. Besides, the introduction of accountability and efficiency measures in the form of performance measurement and pay-for-performance scheme, a key debated aspect of NPM is the…

This article takes Margaret Meek Spencer's 1988 pamphlet "How Texts Teach What Readers Learn" to frame a discussion about the purpose of English Literature in English secondary schools. The primary data informing this article is taken from original interviews with ten Heads of English departments in English secondary schools. Henri…

In 2015, President Obama signed the reauthorization of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), a significant United States education policy. ESSA replaced the No Child Left Behind Act, preserving certain aspects of standardized testing while introducing newfound flexibility for states and local educational agencies in shaping their accountability…

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has solicited public comment on pandemic-related revisions to its important "Learning Time" regulation, 603 CMR 27.00. The revisions establish baseline procedural and substantive requirements for in-person, hybrid, and remote learning. Appreciating that the…

The 2020-21 Fordham Sponsorship Annual Report provides insight into our sponsorship work during the last school year, one of the most challenging imaginable for schools, students, and families. As expected, student outcomes on 2020-21 state assessments were lower across all schools last year, but other traditional academic outcome data were once…

The latest edition of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation's sponsorship annual report highlights our work during the 2021-22 school year, overseeing twelve schools that served 5,500 students in four Ohio cities. We value this opportunity to keep stakeholders and the public informed about our efforts, and provide information on each of the schools…

In 2013 and 2018, the National Science and Technology Counsel (NSTC) released reports to raise awareness about the rapid growth in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) occupations. One of the ways states are addressing the projected increases in STEM careers and the lack of growth in how many students are pursuing STEM…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), passed in 2015, signaled a major shift in the roles of states and districts in supporting school improvement. Under ESSA, state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs) have more responsibility and flexibility in developing and implementing plans, informed by local context, to support the…

Our 2022-23 Fordham Sponsorship Annual Report shares our work during the last school year, overseeing thirteen schools that served approximately 6,000 students in Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati and Portsmouth, Ohio. We value this opportunity to keep stakeholders and the public informed about our efforts, provide information on each of the schools we…

The link between health and learning is clear: healthy, active and well-nourished children are more likely to attend school, be ready to learn and stay engaged in class. Yet far too many students--particularly low income students and students of color--spend their days in buildings with unhealthy air, have limited opportunities for physical…

Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires all states to collect and report school-level expenditure information, state education agencies (SEAs) are considering whether to set statewide rules for local education agencies (LEAs) around how to assign expenditures. Specifically, many states are wondering whether they need to standardize a practice…

In 2010, the Massachusetts Legislature lifted the cap on the number of charter schools that the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) can authorize in low-performing school districts. The "smart cap" requires the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to rank district performance (based on student outcomes)…

Charter school authorizers (authorizers) that are committed to fostering high-quality charter school options for all students have an imperative to understand the nature of school distress and failure. Authorizers and other stakeholders need to be able to identify and understand schools experiencing distress, long before a state accountability…

If our destination is improved student achievement, we cannot get there without valuing and effectively using data in education. Central to reaching this goal is building trust among all those who have a stake in education that individual student data, such as attendance, course taking, grades, and test scores, are being collected for meaningful…

The 2019-20 Fordham Sponsorship Annual Report provides insight into our sponsorship work during the year and the performance of our sponsored schools. In a typical year, performance includes state academic test outcomes, financial measures and operations and governance measures. Due to the cancellation of state testing last spring, you'll see that…