Education Next
Education’s Exposed Right Flank
Tips for education leaders tired of clashing with conservative parents. There may be no more familiar question in education than, “Why can’t we put politics aside and do what’s best for kids?” The answer, which is obvious to anyone who’s ever sat through a school board meeting, is because we don’t agree on “what’s best for kids.” It’s not even clear what it would mean to “put politics aside,” given that politics is how we resolve public disagreements—and that public education entails the use of public funds to hire public employees to educate the public’s kids.
A New Hope for Higher Education
In October 2023, the University of Austin finally received permission to call itself a university. The start-up private college dedicated to the “fearless pursuit of truth” launched its effort in November 2021. Nearly two years later, the school received initial authorization from the Texas state agency tasked with oversight of higher education. That means the University of Austin, or UATX, may finally use the “university” label and begin recruiting students. But that green light is just the first step. It will be years before UATX enjoys full approval from the various regulatory entities it must satisfy.
Can the New University of Austin Revive the Culture of Inquiry in Higher Education?
Its founders seek to build a scholarly home for pluralism without creating a haven for the “anti-woke”. Socrates, who said “All I know is that I know nothing,” is a role model for Pano Kanelos, president of the new University of Austin. Socrates never stopped asking questions, even when the Athenian elite charged him with impiety and corrupting the youth of the city-state.
It’s a Crisis! It’s Nonsense! How Political Are K–12 Classrooms?
Amid K–12’s culture clashes, I’m constantly struck by how often we seem to be talking past one another. On this count, I observed a conversation last year that’s stuck with me ever since. It was late, on a D.C. sidewalk, after the bar had closed on the last stragglers from AEI’s K–12 Working Group.
The Education Exchange: “It’s Not a Miracle. It’s the Result of a Lot of Hard Work.”
Dr. Carey Wright, the State Superintendent of Schools for Maryland, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss Wright’s time as Mississippi’s state superintendent, as well as her current role in Maryland. Robert Pondiscio interviewed Dr. Wright in the Fall 2022 issue of Education Next.
AI is Officially Here, There, Everywhere, and Nowhere
When it comes to digital technology, educators and school systems haven’t historically been fleet of foot. But artificial intelligence is partially bucking the trend. Many teachers are embracing it, even as school systems follow form and are moving slowly, or barely at all. Among the myriad ways school systems...
Neville Chamberlain and “True History”
Smug self-certainty is a lousy lens through which to view history. In the past few years, there’s been much talk about the need to teach “true history.” The intuition is a healthy one (even if it’s frequently used to justify teaching politicized caricatures of America the Awful). We should teach “true history,” in all its glory. Both the good and the bad.
The Education Exchange: A Resource for Homeschoolers and the Policymakers who Support Them
Angela R. Watson,a senior research fellow at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy and an assistant research professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Education, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the launch of the Johns Hopkins Homeschool Hub.
Is Social and Emotional Learning “Bad Therapy”?
Abigail Shrier’s wildly popular new book, Bad Therapy, is one of the latest takes on the causes of the mental health crisis occurring among youth. Shrier’s diagnosis is that society’s obsession over kids’ feelings undermines their development, hindering their ability to manage the vicissitudes of life. This problem, she says, is largely due to contemporary approaches to psychotherapy, parenting, and schooling.
Tolerance in Tennessee
A Most Tolerant Little Town: The Explosive Beginning of School Desegregation. Simon & Schuster, 2023, $30; 362 pages. We know of the nine Black students who bravely enrolled at Little Rock Central High School in the fall of 1957, despite the Arkansas governor’s attempts to bar them. Many recall Norman Rockwell’s portrait of first-grader Ruby Bridges walking past a wall splattered with a tomato and a scribbled racial slur on her way to William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960. But the 1956 desegregation of Clinton High School in Anderson County, Tennessee, preceded both events. While it received extensive media coverage at the time, including photo essays in Look and an hour-long See it Now documentary by Edward R. Murrow, it has since been forgotten.
Campus Thuggery Is No Way to Cultivate Citizens
Sit-ins and stomping about are a recipe for illiberal education. Columbia University canceled in-person classes yesterday after weekend protests that the Biden White House termed “unconscionable and dangerous.” The New York Police Department ultimately arrested more than a 100 protesters who’d been part of the unruly mob chanting “Hamas, we love you, we support your rockets too!” and had turned Columbia’s campus into something that looked like a makeshift homeless encampment. The chaos was striking but hardly a one-off. Similar performances have erupted across the country, usually without consequence. That made the arrests at Columbia notable. It also punctuates a recent trend in which leaders at other institutions—including Vanderbilt University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Pomona College—finally did something they should have done long ago: mete out consequences to the bullies who are occupying campus buildings, sparking violence, vandalizing property, and threatening their peers.
The Education Exchange: Private Schools Have the Edge on Civic Education
Patrick J. Wolf, a professor of Education Policy at the University of Arkansas, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss Wolf’s new research, which investigates the impact of private education on civic knowledge, skills and participation. “The Public Purposes of Private Education: a Civic Outcomes Meta-Analysis,” co-written with M. Danish...
Doing Educational Equity Wrong
This is the final article in a series on doing educational equity right. See the introductory post, as well as ones on school finance, student discipline, advanced education, school closures, homework, grading and effective teaching. For the past several months, I’ve been pumping out posts about “doing educational equity right.”...
Fishing for Rules
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the Department of Education has long been known for its tendency to overstep in its rulemaking. Many federal agencies are tempted to avoid the notice-and-comment requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) by fabricating administrative law in the form of “clarifications” and “guidance”—but no agency has succumbed to that temptation more than OCR. As Shep Melnick has pointed out (see “Rethinking Federal Regulation of Sexual Harassment,” features, Winter 2018), OCR has used “Dear Colleague” letters (DCLs) to rewrite Title IX and wade into hot-button issues such as bathroom access for transgender students, school resources, and racial disparities in school discipline. In fact, playing fast and loose with administrative procedures seems to be part of the office’s DNA. When OCR was first obligated to create rules for enforcing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it published them not in the Federal Register but in The Saturday Review of Literature.
A Need for More Speed in Education Data
Part two in a conversation with outgoing IES director Mark Schneider. On Monday, I talked with departing Institute of Education Sciences Director Mark Schneider, who just wrapped up his six-year term. In our conversation, he argued for newer and better research centers at IES, along with a heightened commitment to producing timely and accessible reports. Well, as anyone who knows Mark well can attest, he almost always has more to say. I thought I’d reach back out and see if he had anything else he wanted to get off his mind. Here is Part Two of our conversation.
My Uber Driver Just Doesn’t Get Student Loan Forgiveness
My Uber driver had on talk radio as I got into the car. They were talking about President Biden’s wonderful plan to forgive billions in student debt. “Boy, that’s exciting stuff, isn’t it?” I marveled. “All those long-suffering borrowers are finally getting some relief.”. She...
Generative AI in Education: Another Mindless Mistake?
Picture the scene: A new technology has been introduced that is unlike anything we’ve seen before. This technology creates a new means of sharing information that is both interesting and entertaining and promises to generate new forms of knowledge on a regular basis. Indeed, this new creation appears so transformative, it leads one of the world’s most prominent entrepreneurs to predict that the method of transmitting knowledge to students will be radically altered in just a few years.
Research, Report, Repeat … and Reflect
Part one in a conversation with outgoing IES director Mark Schneider. Just last month, Mark Schneider wrapped up his six-year term as the director of the Institute of Education Sciences. At IES, he was charged with overseeing the nation’s education research efforts, including such well-known efforts as the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the What Works Clearinghouse. Before assuming his role at IES, Mark was a vice president at the American Institutes for Research, commissioner at the National Center for Education Statistics, and spent many years chairing the political science department at SUNY-Stony Brook. Having known Mark for many, many years, I was interested in his reflections on his tenure at IES. Here’s what he had to say. (This is Part One of a two-part interview, the second of which is scheduled to be published on Wednesday.)
The Education Exchange: Is Mayoral Control of School Boards Good for New York City?
Vladimir Kogan, a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Ohio State University, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss a new report from the New York State Education Department which argues that control of schools should move from mayors to school boards. The report, “Mayoral Control of New York...
The 5 Percent Problem
In 1924, Sidney Pressey, a professor from Ohio State University, invented a teaching machine. The mechanical device, about the size of a portable typewriter, allowed students to press one of four keys to answer questions curated by expert instructors. A later version dispensed candy for correct answers. Education optimists were...
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Education Next aims to provide news and research to bring evidence to bear on current education policy. Bold change is needed in American education, but Education Next partakes of no program, campaign, or ideology. It goes where the evidence points.
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