Commentary
Cheers and Jeers: July 17, 2026
CHEERS Cheers (again!) to the Lone Star State, via Chad Aldeman (again!):
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Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
How to make the high school diploma mean something again
Career and technical education deserves its growing support but cannot compensate for a diploma that no longer signals readiness. States seeking stronger workforce and college pathways should start by restoring the credibility of the credential that every graduate receives.
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School Finance, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Private School Choice
Religious liberty in education: Back to the Supreme Court
The question of whether, when, and how public funding may flow to religious schools has been contested for more than 150 years, animated by the tension between the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which bars the state from sponsoring religion, and its Free Exercise Clause, which restricts the burdens that can be placed on religion.
Commentary
Teachers & School Leaders
The learning recession might be caused by a teaching recession
Good evidence shows that we’re stuck in a “learning recession.” We also need to consider the likelihood of a connected recession in something indispensable to student learning, namely effective teaching.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Advanced Education
Should we use genetics to understand high-potential, low-income students? These researchers think it’s worth trying.
Low-income children face many disadvantages that impede academic success. But how much do those disadvantages matter, and how early do their effects become visible?
Podcast
Curriculum & Instruction
Can schools escape the digital delusion? | Episode 1026 of The Education Gadfly Show
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Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
There’s actually more to the i-Ready story: A rebuttal
Curriculum Associates CEO Kelly Sia recently defended her company’s flagship i-Ready platform to Fordham readers. The program, used by millions of students, has come under fire from teachers, parents, and students as part of an ed-tech backlash sweeping the nation.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance
Texas has a theory of education
Texas’s new social studies standards, required literature list, and curriculum have all drawn familiar charges of culture-war excess, with their inclusion of Bible stories, canonical books, and “patriotic” content. But taken together, these initiatives suggest something more consequential than conservative provocation. Read more.
Commentary
State assessments can be useful for both instruction and accountability—if we design them that way
Dale Chu’s recent critique of through-year assessment revisits a familiar concern: that state assessments cannot serve both accountability and instruction without compromising one purpose or the other. It is a concern worth taking seriously.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Through-year assessments can improve a broken testing system
In a recent Flypaper post, Dale Chu argues that the promise of a single assessment system doing multiple things well is “too good to be true.” He says that through-year assessments (TYA)—tests administered periodically throughout the school year that culminate in a summative score—are tryi
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Sixteen years later, what did NYC’s small schools accomplish?
New York City’s Small Schools of Choice (SSC) program was one of a panoply of education reforms enacted in the early 2000s under then-mayor Michael Bloomberg and schools chief Joel Klein.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Facilities, School Finance, Governance
Do school closures save money?
Throughout the first quarter of the 21st century, schools built up capacity to accommodate growing student populations, adding classroom space, teacher positions, and the many resources that go into educating a child. The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the build-up through the injection of giant sums of federal money to supplement state and local budgets.
Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
Kids ready for advanced math should get it automatically
In the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress Long Term Trends analysis, 23 percent of the 13-year-olds surveyed report that they are enrolled in Algebra I. For those seventh and eighth graders, that’s great news.
Podcast
Accountability & Testing
The accountability vibe shift | Episode 1025 of The Education Gadfly Show
Mike Petrilli takes the mic to consider whether America’s schools need a renewed sense of urgency around
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America’s high achievers are stuck
The newest Long-Term-Trend NAEP results bring some welcome news: Lower-performing nine-year-olds made substantial gains in reading and math. But it also brought unwelcome news: students at the top barely moved, while high-performing thirteen-year-olds remain well below their pre-pandemic marks. For the country’s highest achievers, progress remains elusive.
Commentary
How to raise a grateful American
In nearly every part of the country, the school year is over. The final bell has rung; report cards have been issued; summer vacation has begun. For teachers and schools, the clock has run out.
Commentary
Reorganizing the Education Department requires more than moving programs
The Trump administration is in the midst of a sweeping reorganization of the U.S. Department of Education.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
A school-closure study that does not support its own conclusions
A new white paper from NWEA, and its accompanying op-ed in The Hill, claim that districts are more likely to permanently shutter schools with a high proportion of poor and/or Black stud
Commentary
Who suffers when classrooms are disruptive
A recent study in the Journal of Educational Psychology examines the extent to which disruptive classroom environments contribute to children’s experiences of victimization (i.e., bullying) in elementary school.
Commentary
Career & Technical Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Honest talk about who should go to college
Editor’s note: This was first published as part of a newsletter for Mike’s Substack, SCHOOLED.
Commentary
An overlooked benefit of teacher evaluation: Fewer students facing exclusionary discipline
Teacher evaluation systems and their reforms were built, in part, on the idea that rubric-based classroom observations, paired with feedback, would improve teacher performance and raise student achievement. Not every reform delivered on this promise, but there were bright spots.
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Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Civics, citizenship, and America 250
As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, civics education and American citizenship are receiving much attention. Yet recent surveys reveal widening generational and partisan divides over patriotism, the nation’s founding, and what schools should teach about American history. The findings are troubling even as the growing effort to strengthen civic knowledge and commitment offers some grounds for hope.
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance
On NCLB, Wiener and Petrilli fight to a draw
As Americans are discovering during this summer’s World Cup, soccer often produces an outcome that is unsatisfying to our domestic sports sensibilities: a tie. One team controls possession while the other creates better scoring chances. Both leave the pitch claiming vindication, but neither gets to declare victory.
