CHEERS
Micah Ward covers findings from a new Brookings analysis of school board culture war conflicts, which are “rare and declining”:
Only about one in ten U.S. school districts had any media-documented conflict over Covid masking, critical race theory, book bans, or transgender student issues between 2018 and 2024, but those districts enrolled roughly three in ten of the nation’s public school students.
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Last week, the Ohio House passed a bill requiring schools to provide additional academic support to struggling traditional public and charter school students—and making it easier for high-performing students to accelerate. “Too many Ohio students are falling behind in math,” my colleague Chad Aldis, Fordham’s vice president for Ohio Policy, tells Laura Hancock of Cleveland.com. “Students struggling in math will have difficulties demonstrating the critical-thinking and problem-solving skills necessary for twenty-first-century success.”
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“Massachusetts lawmakers on Tuesday announced a deal to overhaul literacy instruction for the state’s youngest learners,” writes John Hilliard, who notes that, despite Massachusetts Teachers Association opposition, “lawmakers contend they have to act now to stop a decade-long decline in student achievement.” Their compromise mandates phonics-based instruction and bans cueing, while also empowering the state education agency to vet curricular materials and increase accountability. Mary Tamer is happy about the bill, so you should be, too.
JEERS
Sarah Sparks shares the findings from RAND’s 2026 State of the American Teacher and the American Life Panel surveys: Eighteen percent of K–12 public teachers plan to leave at the end of this school year, and less than a quarter say they plan to stay in the classroom as long as possible. As Sarah reports, the survey reveals declining rates of stress and depression among teachers, but burnout has increased, in part because of classroom management struggles.
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Democratic socialist Janeese Lewis George won this week’s D.C. mayoral primary and is unlikely to face a serious challenger in the fall election. Her platform echoes complaints from the Washington Teachers Union, reports Kevin Mahnken, and threatens to undo decades of reforms that led to better outcomes for students, including the district’s rigorous teacher evaluation system:
Lewis George has declared that she will end IMPACT if elected. In responses to a candidate questionnaire circulated by WTU, she claimed the system “undermines educators’ expertise and students’ joy of learning.” While committing to retain mayoral control, she has also suggested that she will transform Washington’s office of the superintendent into an independent agency—an idea that could lead to less direct oversight over student data and standards, some worry.
I’m hearing from some local reformers that Lewis George will turn out to be OK on our issues. More to come on this one, for sure.
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
