Publications
Turning the Corner to Quality
Bryan C. Hassel , C. Peter Svahn , Louann Bierlein Palmer , Michelle Godard Terrell / October 11, 2006
At the request of Ohio's top government and education leaders, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, National Association of Charter School Authorizers, and National Alliance for Public Charter Schools have issued a report seeking to strengthen the state's charter school program. Among its 17 recommendations are calls for closing low-performing charter schools while also helping more high-performance schools to open and succeed in Ohio.
To Dream the Impossible Dream: Four Approaches to National Standards and Tests for America's Schools
Michael J. Petrilli , Chester E. Finn, Jr. / August 29, 2006
Education policy leaders from across the political spectrum flesh out and evaluate several forms that national standards and testing could take.
Trends in Charter School Authorizing
Michael J. Petrilli , Chester E. Finn, Jr. , Rebecca Gau / May 3, 2006
Belatedly, policymakers and researchers are recognizing that quality charter schools depend on quality charter school authorizing. This report presents findings from a pioneering national examination of the organizations that sponsor, oversee, and hold accountable U.S. charter schools. Its primary aim is to describe and characterize these crucial but little-known organizations.
Mayhem in the Middle: How middle schools have failed America, and how to make them work
Chester E. Finn, Jr. , Cheri Pierson Yecke / September 14, 2005
American middle schools have become the places "where academic achievement goes to die." So says Cheri Yecke, K-12 Education Chancellor of Florida and author of the new Fordham report Mayhem in the Middle: How middle schools have failed America, and how to make them work. Today's middle schools have succumbed to a concept of "middle schoolism" in which a strong academic curriculum is traded for one that focuses more on emotional and social development, and less on learning the basics. And the achievement data reflects "middle schoolism's" results. In 1999, U.S. eighth graders scored nine points below average on the TIMSS assessment of math. What's more, these same eighth graders had outperformed the average by 28 points as fourth graders in 1995! According to Fordham President Chester E. Finn, Jr., "Trying to fix high schools while ignoring middle schools is like bandaging a wound before treating it for infection."
