Editor’s note: A different version of this essay was first published by The 74.
Set aside for a moment the debate about whether Elon Musk’s DOGE is an honest effort to cut waste, fraud, and abuse from the federal government. Let’s ask a different question: What would a serious effort to get more bang from our education buck look like?
For generations, the traditional public school has been a bedrock institution in American life.
Editor’s note: This was first published on the author’s Substack, Governing Right.
Trump administration officials announced on Tuesday that they are laying off 1,300 employees at the U.S. Department of Education. This is on top of nearly 600 people who had already taken early retirement or buyouts, as well as another 60 probationary employees who had already been fired. This brings the agency’s headcount down from about 4,100 to about 2,200, a major reduction. Here are some thoughts on the situation as we understand it now.
When my middle child was in high school, nothing I said or did could keep him from dropping out. But what if I’d tried paying him?
The idea of “sending education back to the states” is a cornerstone of President Trump’s rhetoric on schooling, and it has strong support from many congressional Republicans.
In recent years, school choice has made impressive strides. Eleven states have codified universal or near-universal private school choice programs.
Scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) were released on January 29. How were they?
Our latest study pilots a new measure of a school’s quality: its contribution to students’ grade point averages at their next school. It sends a clear message to educators that one of their core missions is to help their graduates succeed in their next step—not just in reading and math, but in all subjects—and not just on tests, but on the stuff that tests struggle to capture.
A new report from the Collaborative for Student Success aims to refocus attention on the “honesty gap” in the wake of the latest (and disastrous) NAEP results.
When I started teaching in Louisiana in 2004, I was told that the state was expanding annual assessments of students to all grades 3–8 because Louisiana ranked forty-ninth in the country for reading proficiency. I started to hear a gutting phrase that I’ve since learned is common across the southeast, “the only state behind us is Mississippi. Thank goodness for Mississippi.”
The third iteration of the Education Recovery Scorecard, compiled by Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research, was released hot on the heels of 2024 NAEP test scores and is an
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Mike and David discuss what’s really going on with DOG
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Delia Pompa, Senior Fellow for Education P
If DOGE actually sought the “government efficiency” in its name, it could help modernize the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. But slashing and burning, as happened the other day, won’t improve matters. It’s just going to weaken the foremost truth squad in American education, the chief sponsor and funder of rigorous analysis, reliable data, and clear-eyed evaluations in a realm that needs more of those things, not less.
Conservative criticism of Penny Schwinn’s nomination as Deputy Secretary of Education has so far focused on her bona fides in fighting “culture wars” in schools. But other important elements are at stake right now. Specifically, prioritizing competence and effectiveness in teachers, administrators, and leaders. Our students deserve no less. Schwinn’s nomination is an opportunity to refocus on what truly matters.
This fictional press release outlines a transformational approach to the typical school calendar, creating two different grade-level entry points and offering the promise of improving academic outcomes as well as the PK–12 education profession.
Looking at the impacts of desegregation through an economic lens, Roland Fryer says that racial integration isn’t merely a moral or ethical endeavor but an economic necessity when access to important developmental resources are on the line.
Though President Trump’s new executive order “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling” contains many elements that resonate with me philosophically and educationally, I’m having trouble reconciling it with the longstanding statutory prohibition on Uncle Sam mucking with
Editor’s note: This was first published on the author’s Substack, Governing Right
The data are out, and as everybody now knows—and as Mike Petrilli foresaw—they’re pretty grim. Here’s the short version, straight from the National Center for Education Statistics:
Despite working longer hours and experiencing higher levels of stress
The Supreme Court agreed on Friday afternoon to hear a landmark religious charter schools case out of Oklahoma, and it’s a much bigger deal than you might imagine.
The education world was greeted with encouraging news over the weekend when President Trump announced that former Tennessee education commissioner Penny Schwinn would serve as the next U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education. Schwinn’s track record should complement Secretary-designate Linda McMahon’s skill set, and augurs well for a new administration that is being pulled in different directions on education policy.
When I graduated from high school, the first charter schools in America were just opening their doors. But I have advocated for, worked with, and supported their right to serve families for more than twenty years now.
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Rick Hess, the director of education policy studies
“A supernova is what happens when a star has reached the end of its life and explodes in a brilliant burst of light. Supernovas can briefly outshine entire galaxies and radiate more energy than our sun will in its entire lifetime.” —Nancy Taylor Tillman, Space.com
The forthcoming results from the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress—due out on January 29—are likely to be bad, bad, bad. The term we may hear a lot is that “the bottom is falling out,” if the scores for low-performing students in particular continue to plummet.
