CHEERS
The National Assessment Governing Board approved an expanded NAEP which offers states the opportunity to get results in twelfth grade math and reading, eighth grade science, and civics in both eighth and twelfth grades. As Linda Jacobson reports, the news is a welcome relief after last year’s uncertainty about NAEP’s future. Checker Finn has made the case for state-by-state twelfth grade scores for years, and it appears we will soon benefit from knowing whether students approaching the end of high school are prepared.
—
Last week, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed a slate of improved charter school policies into law. The bill allows the state’s Teacher Salary Supplement to follow students to their charter school, includes charter teachers in the state retirement system, and provides low-interest loans for facilities. Charter school students also have expanded access to extracurriculars and to community college courses. The governor noted that ten charter schools operate in the state, with eight more authorized to open. —Isabella Luu, Iowa Public Radio
—
Matt Barnum shares insights from a University of Chicago study looking at how old-school mailers helped Los Angeles parents learn about and select better, higher-growth schools for their children. Economist Chris Campos, who conducted the experiment, found that sharing information about student growth drove decisions, and not just for families who received the letters. Matt writes:
When a middle school was saturated with informational letters, more students tended to choose high schools with higher growth scores. That was even the case for families that did not get their own letter. In other words, what mattered more than individual information was a community-level shift in thinking. “There seems to be a tipping point,” Campos says.
He continued to track these students as they moved through high school. Those from middle schools where growth information was widely shared were more likely to enroll in college and to report more supportive high school environments. Campos’s theory for why is simple: They benefitted from choosing better high schools based on better information.
JEERS
“A special education instructor placed on paid leave for allegedly abusing an autistic third-grader was elected president of the Seattle teachers’ union on Friday.” —Caitlin McCormack, New York Post
—
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani used his first veto to block law enforcement’s consideration of buffer zones to protect schools from potentially violent protests amid rampant antisemitism. Binyamin Krauss, who leads a Jewish school in the Bronx, calls on New York’s city council to overturn the veto. —The Washington Post
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.
-
Sharp analysis of the week’s biggest K–12 debates
-
Curated commentary from across the ed-policy world
-
Lively discussion—including reader reactions and pushback
