Arizona, the model for voucher programs across the country, spent so much money paying private schoolers’ tuition that it faced hundreds of millions in budget cuts to critical state programs and projects last year. (Published July 2024)

Today's the last day for public comment on the ACTS survey component. I don't think there's much chance of stopping it from happening (this month![Happy Holidays?]), but comments on how to improve it might still have a chance. I just provided the 97th comment. www.regulations.gov/document/ED-...

Not sure how psychometrically sound this exam is going to be.

Happy Hanukkah from InnovateEDU! As we celebrate the eight days of light, we are reminded of the power of dedication and persistence against overwhelming odds. May your season be filled with joy and the renewed dedication to a brighter, more accessible future. #HappyHanukkah #InnovateEDU

I took a quick look at the new IPEDS data release. The new cost survey seems to have some bugs, so I dug into admissions data by gender as a preview of the proposed data collection by a whole bunch of subgroups. Beware small cell sizes and noise! robertkelchen.com/2025/12/14/a...

South Korea has a notoriously grueling college entrance exam. This year’s English portion was so hard that it led to a resignation. Could you answer some of the questions correctly? From NYT World: (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/12/13/w...

Some colleges are trying to be better with Early Decision. www.insidehighered.com/news/admissi...

Always listen to Uncle Ricky.

Hey @ipeds.bsky.social, the dates need to be corrected on the data release calendar. nces.ed.gov/ipeds/survey...

Great to see that some colleges and universities are investing in recruiting more students from low-income households. As Collin notes in the piece, some of the Pell growth is going to be a product of expanded eligibility for Pell, but that's likely not all of it. apnews.com/article/coll...

“There are no four-year publics below the HS diploma income threshold”

Four day school weeks are featured prominently in my upcoming book about bad ideas in education because they are one of the absolute worst ideas in education.

Veteran detained by ICE: I identified myself as a US citizen and a veteran, but that didn't matter. Agents smashed my window, sprayed tear gas into my car, dragged me out. Even after I complied, I was held for 3 days without charges. No phone call, no lawyer, no medical care

I will GO TO MY GRAVE beating this drum. Republicans (and Democrats) can win on pro-public education platforms in Georgia. The MAJORITY of voters in Georgia send their kids to public schools. Georgia’s 2026 majority will go to whichever party can figure out this nuance first. #GaPol

It would have been nice to have seen a link to or at least a mention of the Class Action research that is being cited in this paragraph in a @nytimes op-ed about early decision. I don't want to be petty, but for a new organization links to our work can be really helpful.

Assessing the impact of grade retention: A cautionary tale of exclusion restriction violations www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... "flagged students receive more intensive reading support even if not retained....we estimate similar effects in districts that did not retain any students"

The post-SFFA enrollment tracker is now up to 28 colleges and universities. Click on the post below to see the details. Read the post to see which 13 schools shared data last year but not this year! Share the post so everyone can see the weird thing Stanford did with its numbers this year!!

Here is the portion on grading from the Trump administration's proposed higher education compact.

New — What the internet backlash over rising remedial math at UC San Diego misses: Yes, it's a problem that math scores are going down, but selective, well-resourced universities are arguably best equipped to help students catch up. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/what-the-i...

The Department of Education shared data today on IHEs where, 4 years after earning a credential, graduates earned less than peers with only a high school diploma. What ED didn't shout out was just how many of those institutions are for-profits. So I got the data. jamessmurphy.com/2025/12/09/w...

EdChoice voucher bros, perennially on fire abt public school spending accountability, say This is Fine: "On any given day, Florida’s education department did not know where 30,000 students were going to school and could not account for the $270 million in taxpayer funds it took to support them."

The IPEDS admissions survey data for 2024-5 still has not been released. It has not been this late in the past 8 years, if ever. This is not a good sign for how things are functioning at the Department of Education and @ipeds.bsky.social.

The Department of Education is planning to start and finish workforce Pell regulation negotiations this week. Just like a student who waits until the last minute to write a term paper, the likelihood of mistakes making their way into important documents rises.

@criterion.bsky.social has so many good movies. And such a terrible website. Sure, I'd love to continue watching these movies I finished watching in 2023. And of course I don't want to pick up where I left off on the nearly 4-hours movie I'm actually currently watching.

Are there things other than education that people pay for (sometimes a lot for) in which they're not expected to think of it as a commercial transaction? Or told they shouldn't think of themselves as consumers? Not trying to snark here. Genuinely curious. Medical care? Art collecting? Museums?

Read this: www.wgbh.org/news/local/2...

This is so vile. www.wgbh.org/news/local/2...

Happy #Caturday!

If anyone is looking for a present for someone who likes graphic novels, Anders Nilsen's Tongues is the best thing I've read in many years. www.andersbrekhusnilsen.com

Europeans are waking up this morning to find the new US National Security Strategy (quietly) released. And what it has to say on Europe could not be clearer. On the „stark prospect of civilizations erasure“ for example. 👇

@stanforduniversity.bsky.social decided to essentially spend $3 million a year to keep admitting legacy students in secret.

Red Lobster never released a commercial with a jingle that went “Shrimply having a wonderful Fishmastime.” That’s why they went bankrupt.

Still time to register!

A terrific story illustrating (once again) that the first account of a story is almost never the whole story. The elimination of an Honors College turns out have little to do with ideology and lots to do with money.

After the "college admissions scandal" which involved parents bribing boutique sports coaches (who are often underpaid) to give their children recruiting slots for which they simply weren't qualified (as an athlete) I started explaining the easy sources for checking athlete legitimacy in Tennis.

First up, Nolan Pope presents (with @jeffdenning.com, Rachel Nesbit, and Merrill Warnick): "Easy A's, Less Pay: The Long-Term Effects of Grade Inflation" The paper explores the labor market effects on students of being assigned high school teachers that are more lenient graders.

This year, universities are giving $228 million to football coaches who failed at coaching football so that they won't coach football anymore.

As the ripple effects of the SFFA decision eliminate many race-affiliated scholarships, place-based scholarships (which are a good idea anyway) can play an important role in increasing multiple forms of campus diversity.

Longtime GOP staffer Vic Klatt comes out of retirement to write: Moving K–12 programs to the Department of Labor is neither smart nor conservative fordhaminstitute.org/national/com...

Please come for all the gory details on the new ACTS survey component: >3.5 times the administrative burden! >Millions of dollars in unbudgeted costs! >12 columns of data on every single applicant since 2020! >29 columns of data on every enrolled student! >7 years of data to be reported by April!

Corey DeAngelis says, "Low-income families benefit from school choice more than anybody else. This is a big deal for families who couldn’t afford private school before." That's a bald-faced lie based on every state's voucher data, not a "reasonable researchers disagree" issue.

Please come for all the gory details on the new ACTS survey component: >3.5 times the administrative burden! >Millions of dollars in unbudgeted costs! >12 columns of data on every single applicant since 2020! >29 columns of data on every enrolled student! >7 years of data to be reported by April!

While the administration has said it is cutting “woke programs” that “poison the minds of Americans", it actually funded fewer grants in every area of science and medicine. “They brought everything to a stop,” said Sarah Kobrin, a branch chief at the N.I.H.’s National Cancer Institute

The people who are trying to destroy universities when it comes to inclusion around race and gender are also opposed to inclusion around disability. This bullshit gives them cover. Once again, legacy media laundering far right complaints because it makes elites feel smug.

20-somethings are more politically engaged now than when I was that age, but their votings rates are still pretty dismal.

Now do this for the White House.

I'm grateful for the coverage of this report on early decision by @ronlieber.bsky.social in the @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2025/11/29/b...

Q: "The Heritage Foundation, the architect of Project 2025, has said that it wants to dox your editors. How do you protect people from that?" A: "It’s embarrassing for the Heritage Foundation. I remember when they were intellectually respectable." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/18/m...