CHEERS
“Seventeen- and 18-year-olds are expected to navigate an astoundingly complex labor market, often with little or no explicit guidance,” writes Lauren Weber, a problem compounded across rural America, “by a dearth of opportunities and professional role models.” She looks into rootEd Alliance, started by investment banker Byron Trott, that places college and career advisers in schools:
Advisers are agnostic on whether students choose college, military service, employment or trade school. The goal is for each senior to have a Plan A and ideally a Plan B. To get there, advisers organize visits to employers, pile students into vans for college tours and keep lists of local scholarships.
Most important, they say, they push students to think about the future.
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New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani released an updated budget proposal scaling back an expensive teacher hiring spree tied to state-mandated class size reductions. The mayor—who campaigned on reducing class sizes—says the spending reduction reflects “an achievable plan that better serves both our students and our teachers.” —Alex Zimmerman and Michael Elsen-Rooney, Chalkbeat New York
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Meanwhile, “Cleveland Metropolitan School District leaders made the case for why tough decisions on layoffs and building closures are necessary,” writes Conor Morris.Cheers to Cleveland officials for not only aggressively closing schools, but also showing leadership on the issue by communicating, communicating, communicating.—Ideastream Public Media
JEERS
Talia Richman reports on how some Maryland schools lower expectations for students with cognitive disabilities, setting children as young as kindergarteners on a pathway unlikely to lead to a high school diploma. In better news, the state department of education is pushing back, proposing guardrails to curb districts that have been overusing alternate assessments—which lead to a completion certificate rather than a diploma. —The Baltimore Banner
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“The pandemic was the mudslide that had followed seven years of steady erosion in achievement,” Thomas Kane tells reporters covering the newly-released Education Scorecard. The results are indeed sobering, showing widespread reading declines across the country. Still, a few bright spots remain: math scores and absenteeism are improving post-pandemic. Chalkbeat’s Lily Altavena follows up with a look into how Detroit is outpacing similar districts through targeted reading interventions and building a culture of academic accountability.
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
