WHAT WE’RE READING
What began as a strike at a single high school over France’s inequitable education system has grown into a national wave of protests, some turning violent and many bringing instruction to a halt. Thomas Chatterton Williams believes the violent unrest reflects nihilistic resentment more than a push for school reform:
For some time now, there has been an existential crisis at the heart of French life, rooted in a pervasive sense that the future will never equal the past, that the state cannot achieve what its citizens expect. The national pie is often seen as zero-sum, which explains why so many constituencies, from retirees to high schoolers, refuse to give an inch. Their anger accumulates, then it boils over. And the government is either unwilling or unable to contain it.
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Parents across the U.S. are coming together to protect or expand recess time. Emily Tate Sullivan describes the current legislative landscape for recess and why many adults believe unstructured play time is a critical part of the school day. Recess is great—but is there any limiting principle when it comes to state mandates anymore?
EXTRA CREDIT:
Chad Aldeman, “Philanthropy Once Built Schools. Today, It Could Build a New Way to Learn Math”
Thomas Arnett, “Why AI Tutors Aren’t Transforming Education”
Kirsten Baesler, “Stronger States, Stronger Outcomes: Building the Capacity for States to Lead”
Jeb Bush, “Trust in Education Has Fallen. It’s Time to Bring Back Strong Accountability”
Jay Greene, “School Choice, Not Test Scores, Produces Real Accountability”
Rick Hess and Ian Rowe, “Why Don’t We Talk More About Family Structure in Schooling?”
Colleen Hroncich, “Give Choice a Chance in West Virginia”
Joel Klein, “Nikole Hannah-Jones vs. Randi Weingarten”
John Moscatiello, “The Decline and Fall of Rigor in Advanced Placement”
Allison Dulin Salisbury and Sara Allan, “The Big Bets Education Needs in the Age of AI”
Megan Schopp, “The Other AI”
Andy Smarick, “Does Education Reform Have Regrets?” (and see Chris Stewart’s response below)
Isobel Stevenson, “Invisible Classrooms: What We’ve Learned About Education News Since the Nikole Hannah-Jones Essay”
Chris Stewart, “The war that ended multiracial ed reform”
Paul Vallas, “School Choice, Not Reparations, Is the Ticket to Success for Chicago’s Minority Families”
Rajiv Vinnakota, “Civic Skills Are Job Skills”
Natalie Wexler, “Yes, Writing Does Advance Thinking”
Daniel Willingham, “When Everyone Makes Sense and Nobody Learns”
Matthew Yglesias, “Why Schools Need a Phonics-Style Reckoning for Math” (repeated from last week but now without a paywall)
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P.S. Want even more for your to-read pile? Our compilation of responses to the Nikole Hannah-Jones article is up to over 100 articles!
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.
