CHEERS
Caitlynn Peetz Stephens looks at the (overdue) pushback against the 4-day school week trend, with Indiana putting academic performance and other requirements in place before shortening time in the classroom, and additional states considering guardrails to protect learning and ensure that communities want the change.
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In Wisconsin last week, an appeals court restored 2011’s Act 10, the controversial law curtailing public sector collective bargaining. As Stéphane Lavertu detailed last month, student achievement rose after the reform took hold in the Badger State, with NAEP scores up as teachers union membership and union political spending fell dramatically. New state profiles of teachers union strength across the U.S. are available on Fordham’s website to go along with our updated report on union influence.
JEERS
San Francisco’s Mission High School sends more students to UC Berkeley than any other—in part thanks to extensive support from a college counseling program that helps students navigate the competitive admissions process—yet the high school also has one of the worst UC graduation rates in the state. I’m on the record as saying that poor postsecondary decision-making is a tragedy of lost human potential. If colleges won’t take steps to ensure preparedness, high school counselors (maybe with the help of AI?) need to do a better job pointing kids toward pathways where they can find success.
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
