NCES and IES, as we’ve known them, are unlikely to return. While that’s regrettable in many respects, it also opens the door to build something stronger—an independent entity that can carry forward NCES’s essential mission without being subject to political impulses and whims of the day. And importantly, we wouldn’t be starting from scratch.
Can school districts still work to close persistent achievement gaps in an era when race-targeted interventions may violate federal law? That question is no longer hypothetical. The Trump administration now argues that using race—even to expand opportunity—constitutes discrimination under Title VI. This reframing casts efforts like targeted funding or DEI initiatives not as remedies for inequity, but as violations of the very laws once used to justify them.
On Tuesday, April 29, I gave the keynote presentation at an event titled “New Pathways for Teachers in the Age of School Choice,” hosted by the American Enterprise Institute and the University of Austin.
Early in my tenure at the education policy organization I founded, we barely had any money. No money meant no lobbyist, which left me, a complete stranger to the legislative process, to figure out how to pass meaningful policy.
Back in 2015, three Ohio community colleges launched The Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP), a comprehensive suite of supports meant to help new community college students persist in school and complete a degree in three years or less. Across three studies, evaluation partner MDRC has tracked longer-term outcomes via a randomized controlled trial. It just released a fourth.
As Trump's first 100 days usher in deep education budget cuts, federal layoffs, and a push for school choice, debates over the future role of government in schools intensify.
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, former Education Week reporter Erik Robelen j
Over the past few months, a quiet but intense debate has broken out among education-reform Democrats over whether the party should embrace private school choice—particularly the ESAs spreading kudzu-like across the country.
In April of 2022, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute launched the National Working Group on Advanced Education.
We’ve gone nearly a decade without a president who prioritized education reform—and the country is worse for it. If the issue is going to have a meaningful place in the next presidential race, the groundwork must begin now.
Over the past year, publications from Teen Vogue to the Associated Press have bemoaned students’ lack of reading stamina.
State-level school funding reforms are common means by which state policymakers can make broad changes in the flow of money to districts, schools, and students—usually aiming for increased funds to students with the most need in a quest for improved student outcomes. Still, research on the impacts of statewide funding reforms is not clear cut.
A fair but tough appraisal of Trump’s first 100 days in education. —Rick Hess Straight Up
The last two weeks of April featured a rare doubleheader at the Supreme Court, as the justices took up two cases dealing with the intersection of religious liberty and public education. The Court has a path that would respect the secular nature of public schooling while guaranteeing parents their right of free expression, and that is to declare that states must provide taxpayer support to religious schools.
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Rachel Canter, the
This report explores advanced math pathways in the New England region. As a supplement to the primary report Calculus or Statistics: Does It Matter?, this targeted analysis examines access to and participation in advanced math courses, as well as ongoing efforts to develop and diversify these pathways across New England.
K–12 student enrollment nationwide has been declining since in 2019, with traditional school districts bearing the brunt of both a baby bust and
Are high school students better served by completing their math studies with calculus or statistics? This question has provoked lively debate in the education world, in the mathematics world, and in the college admissions world. But remarkably little is known for certain about what difference—if any—it actually makes.
The U.S. Department of Education has been cut down to half its previous size. Over the past month, as more than a thousand former employees carted their belongings out of the building at 400 Maryland Avenue, they were greeted by protesters denouncing the clumsy cuts and callous execution.
Lately, I’ve been asking audiences (mostly comprised of public school district leaders) to rate ESSER. Thumbs up for success, down for disaster. The most common answer, by far, is a tepid something in between.
Pandemic-era disruptions to education resulted in an unprecedented influx of federal funds to K–12 schools, some of which was used to address lost student learning.
Babies, toddlers, children, and teens are negatively impacted by parental device use; parents need to keep their own screen time to a minimum and put their phones down around their children.
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Matt Giani, professor and
While calculus remains the gold standard in most college admissions offices, educators and employers increasingly champion advanced statistics as critical for navigating today’s data-driven workforce. So which math pathway actually shapes long-term success?
Three emerging issues—each unfolding in a different branch of government—offer a telling snapshot of where federal education policy could be headed. They involve religious charter schools, tax-credit scholarships, and ESSA waivers. On their own, each represents a flashpoint. Taken together, they provide a rare glimpse into the full machinery of federal influence—and a timely reminder that education policymaking in Washington still matters.
In this time of uncertainty and divisiveness, I’ll begin by thanking Robert Pondiscio for lifting up the AFT’s magazine, American Educator.
I appreciate and admire Randi Weingarten’s willingness to engage in a discussion about American Educator and the American Federation of Teacher’s role in education.
