WHAT WE’RE READING
Aleksandra Appleton reports on Indiana’s efforts to build postsecondary pathways that avoid the shortcomings of many existing apprenticeship models. The plan lets high schoolers begin training for in-demand careers, then helps those students earn a college degree down the road—often with financial support from their employers.
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After years of falling or stagnant student achievement, Maryland is changing how students learn math. The source of the declines isn’t completely clear—Baltimore Banner’s Liz Bowie wonders whether raising the bar with Common Core inadvertently harmed struggling students:
Theories abound, but today educators believe the way teachers translated the standards into the classroom didn’t help. Students were expected to perform at higher levels than ever before, and often there was no plan to help students who were already behind. In addition, many of the concepts were taught once, rather than being reinforced in the next year or two. That meant struggling students fell further behind.
It’s a mystery also on Nat Malkus’s mind, as he considers factors ranging from smartphones and social media to the pandemic and the Great Recession. He wonders about the timing of federal efforts, too, but suggests it was ESSA and the decline of NCLB that caused—or reflected—a broader cultural shift against high standards.
EXTRA CREDIT:
Chad Aldeman, “Why Common Tests Matter” (in state voucher programs)
Daniel Buck, “Kentucky Audit Reveals Systemic School Failure — What’s Happening in Your State? ”
Corey DeAngelis, “A Nebraska Lawsuit Claims Public Schools Are Unconstitutional”
Ray Domanico, “Private Schools Are No Threat to Democracy”
Jessica Grose, “AI in Norway’s Schools”
Michael Hartney and Vlad Kogan, “Absentee Teachers: The Other Attendance Problem”
Colleen Hroncich, “In the AI Era, School Choice Is Crucial”
Patricia Levesque, “The Three Prongs of Education Reform Success: Policy, Programs, and Political Perseverance”
Kenneth Marcus, “Why Moving the Office of Civil Rights from ED to DOJ Will Be Better for Families”
Karen Hawley Miles, “What Districts Actually Need to Implement College & Career Pathways at Scale”
Kelsey Piper, “Why parents love a school with bogus numbers” (about Alpha School)
Benjamin Riley, “The 50 Percent Problem”
Natalie Wexler, “Do We Need Another National Reading Panel? ”
Daniel Willingham, “Students Should Only Use AI for Things They Already Know How to Do Well”
Editor's note: This was first published on Mike Petrilli's Substack, SCHOOLED, a free Substack and email newsletter restarting the education-reform conversation. Click here to subscribe for sharp analysis of the week’s biggest K–12 debates, curated commentary from across the ed-policy world, and lively discussion—including reader reactions and pushback.
