CHEERS
“Certain charter schools rejected staffers’ demands and kept their focus on academic excellence, continuing to report exceptional results for disadvantaged students, even through the pandemic. They show the charter sector how to rebuild what was lost—and point the way to closing the achievement gap in America’s schools.” —Steven F. Wilson, The Atlantic
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“Dozens of Oakland school principals, warning of dire conditions in classrooms, urged district leaders this week to stop stalling and do what has to be done: Close schools and pick a permanent superintendent.” —Jill Tucker, The San Francisco Chronicle
JEERS
David Labaree and Deborah Malizia claim the standards-driven reform movement is based on misleading statistics in 1983’s A Nation at Risk, blaming test-based standards for poor teaching, teen stress, and narrowed curriculum. Relitigating a 43-year-old report is not the way to improve schools in 2026, especially now that so few public schools today resemble the “pressure cookers” they describe. —The Hechinger Report
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Also today on the strawman beat: Chad McLeod explains why it’s unfair to judge schools as businesses. Now if he could only point to a place where that’s actually happening. —The 74
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In The Atlantic, Marc Novicoff looks into why New York spends more per pupil than any of the nation’s largest 100 public-school districts yet still pays starting teachers less than in places with much lower costs of living. He writes:
All of this spending on small class sizes, small schools, and accommodations for students with special challenges might be worth it if the investment led to a high-performing school district. But New York City’s scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress are average for a large-city school district. In fourth grade, only a third of students score at or above ‘proficient’ in math, and only 28 percent do so in reading. The numbers for eighth grade are slightly worse. This puts New York City on par with Denver, which spends half as much per pupil, and Clark County, Nevada, which spends one-third as much.
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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