CHEERS
New data from the National Center for Health Statistics show that teen birth rates continue to fall, reaching a historic low in 2025. It’s great news, since children born to teen parents tend to struggle. Yet this dramatic decline—11.7 births per 1,000 female teens in 2025 compared to 61.8 per 1,000 in 1991—makes recent school achievement drops even more disappointing because the teenaged pregnancy trend should be serving as a significant tailwind to improved student outcomes. —Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR
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Jessika Harkay shares an uplifting look at Connecticut’s lowest-funded school district, where elementary school students are beating the odds on reading proficiency scores. Behind their success are dedicated teachers supporting each other, hands-on oversight and accountability, and innovative efforts to improve student outcomes. The district is scaling successful school-level efforts, including small shifts to the school day schedule—building in transition times and reteach days for difficult units—and bigger changes like a departmentalized third grade schedule where students rotate between classrooms. —The 74
JEERS
A new AI bot links up with learning platforms to find and complete assignments without any student involvement; its creator calls it a wake-up call reflecting the reality that educators need to rethink assignments. As AI companies race to lock in young users, both students and educators worry about the impact on learning. “Even as growing numbers of students are using the technology, a majority believe that the more they use AI for classwork, the more it will harm their critical-thinking skills,” writes Lila Shroff. —The Atlantic
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Pennsylvania created high school graduation pathways to bypass standardized testing requirements. Now, popular credentials include one in “ladder safety,” which, as Rebecca Redelmeier notes, has “little value or relevance to students after graduation,” and finds that “no one at the state or district level is analyzing which credentials students submit to meet graduation requirements.”
Pushing students to develop technical skills via industry-recognized credentials isn’t an inherently flawed idea, but the details matter. In a recent report for Fordham, Jay Plasman dug into how credentials earned in high school impact college and workforce outcomes in Ohio, where a “career experience and technical skill” pathway also allows underperforming high schoolers to earn credentials in fields unlikely to yield the long-term opportunities that come with basic math and English proficiency. Pennsylvania’s leaders may want to take note.
Editor's note: This was first published on Mike Petrilli's Substack, SCHOOLED, a twice-weekly free Substack and email newsletter restarting the education-reform conversation.
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Sharp analysis of the week’s biggest K–12 debates
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Curated commentary from across the ed-policy world
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Lively discussion—including reader reactions and pushback
