If you have experience as an educator in any capacity and love working with data, I hope you'll consider applying. We start reviewing applications on Monday.

I mean just read the part where the author identifies extremely obvious methodological issues with the survey data that underpin Gray’s entire argument and Gray seems totally surprised and says he’ll add a footnote, and then tell me this seems like a fair arbiter of the evidence.

Sixteen years later, what did NYC’s small schools accomplish? via Amber Northern, Thomas B. Fordham Institute (cc: @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social) fordhaminstitute.org/national/com...

Hey folks, are we calling it the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit or the Education Freedom Tax Credit? @mattbarnum.bsky.social @danagoldstein.bsky.social @alexanderrusso.bsky.social @jenjennings.bsky.social

I do think there's a striking lack of urgency around student achievement & that the level of urgency matters. The only thing I'd add to what Mike said is that I'd argue some of the differences we see in pandemic recovery is due to leadership & the vibes created by policy leaders.

It's solo @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social on vibes and school accountability and boy did this episode speak to me. I don't know about causality (did accountability exist b/c of the vibes or did the vibes create accountability?), but ... 👇 fordhaminstitute.org/national/res...

I don't hate it, but I know some teachers use YouTube videos occasionally, and I can see how some teachers find the pendulum swing between online school and this a bit much. On the "what else should we be thinking about" front, evidence! www.the74million.org/article/5-qu...

Hey everyone: Let’s debate LA’s screen time policy schooledbymikepetrilli.substack.com/p/lets-debat...

Via Joshua Dunn at @educationnext.bsky.social: A Definitive—But Not Final—Decision on Transgender Athletes The Supreme Court’s ruling on biological males participating in female sports is sure to invite more Title IX litigation www.educationnext.org/a-definitive...

Yglesias: We should care more about actual efficacy in teaching bit.ly/4apEzme

I think Wiener’s take on NCLB is not aligned with the evidence. Though there are fair critiques of the prior generation of accountability, I think we are much better positioned to do it well this time around. open.substack.com/pub/edpolicy...

i-Ready is a convenient target for the techlash embroiling schools. But many of the attacks on it are unfair, distort evidence, or would apply to nearly any curriculum or assessment used in schools. This is a clear and reasonable response. *disclosure: I serve on a research advisory board for CA.

Via the @curriculumassoc.bsky.social CEO: There’s more to the i-Ready story fordhaminstitute.org/national/com... @mpolikoff.bsky.social @larryferlazzo.bsky.social @benjaminjriley.bsky.social

Via @mattbarnum.bsky.social Non-college career pathways have a math problem Politicians say that students can skip a four-year degree and still earn a solid living. That’s true, but the odds are lower. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/non-colleg...

Great work from Nat Malkus and Sam Hollon to show that we can make remarkably accurate predictions about kids' chronic absenteeism very early in the school year using available data: www.aei.org/research-pro...

USA! USA! USA!

Funny/not funny mcusercontent.com/6e1ae4ac6324...

Many Democratic governors have been waiting to see the rules before opting into a major federal school choice expansion. Will they like what they see?

New- A striking and unexplained disparity has emerged across a number of tests in different grades and subjects. Relative to boys, girls' scores have generally fallen faster and been slower to recover, if they're recovered at all. This is a big deal! www.chalkbeat.org/2026/06/11/g...

Hey look, the Trump folks got something right!

You can’t bet on Little League, or high school sports either, says the CFTC www.bloomberg.com/opinion/news...

New: State takeovers of local school systems are growing, but do they work to improve learning? Also in this roundup: growth vs. proficiency, why school enrollment is plummeting in Mississippi, a surprising defender of federal school spending, and more. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/school-tak...

"How much student learning is lost, one ordinary weekday at a time, by district policies that intentionally disrupt instruction?" - @annaegalite.bsky.social Good question! www.educationnext.org/the-quiet-er...

The A.I. Classroom Is Quiet. Way Too Quiet. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/08/o... gift link

Today's must read: A great back-and-forth between Rick Hess & @mattbarnum.bsky.social on what education reporting gets right, and wrong, today edweek.org/education/op... #EWA26 @edweek.org @chalkbeat.org

Grade inflation is finally getting the attention it deserves. It's overdue, as grading standards have completely collapsed. My son graduated from Walt Whitman in Bethesda, MD yesterday. Wanna guess how many seniors had perfect straight A's all four years? Out of 500 graduates? 86!

A lot of people in K–12 education politics/policy are trying to convince themselves (and others) that U.S. families are desperate for schools to figure out how to *use* AI in schools. I think that that's wrong—and absolutely NOT what U.S. families want.

I had many thoughts about that NYT grade inflation op-ed from a couple days ago. Here are some of them. // It's Gonna Be Much Harder Than People Think to Change the Narratives About Testing and Grades edpolicyhub.substack.com/p/its-going-...

How Powerful Are Teachers’ Unions? It Depends on the State The Janus decision, membership density, and new advocacy groups shape their impact, a new analysis finds www.edweek.org/teaching-lea... @evieblad.bsky.social @edweek.org @alexanderrusso.bsky.social

Obviously Josh is better versed in the doctrinal issues...but to me Plyler is consistent with Rodriguez, which was clear it was not referring to instances of an "absolute denial of educational opportunities."

Is that teachers' unions were not MORE weakened by the Supreme Court’s 2018 Janus decision. The report indicates some weakening, but my recollection is that folks thought that Janus would decimate teachers' unions. PS - @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social, nice shout out to Crowded House!

Interesting new report on teacher union power across states. Lots of nonsurprises, e.g., teachers' unions are stronger in blue states, but also some surprises, such as teachers' unions endorsements of republications. But, what may be most surprising 👇 fordhaminstitute.org/national/res...

Much as I love my scaled scores and percentiles, humans have a much more visceral reaction to A's and B's and C's, probably because it meant something to them during their own formative years. So yeah, let's have state depts of ed assign letter grades in addition to the scores.

Teacher union influence is waning. In A Crowded Table, @mimiarnoldlyon.bsky.social, Sandy Frost Waldron, and Rebecca Jacobsen rank union strength across all fifty states and D.C. and examine how the K–12 landscape has grown more crowded. Read the report: fordhaminstitute.org/national/res...

Today in 2 things can be true at the same time: 1. Prohibiting undocumented students from attending public schools (or making them pay tuition) would be bad. 2. Plyler is bad law. www.educationnext.org/a-bad-suprem...

This smart op-ed by @arielkalil.bsky.social and Derek Rury makes me think that states should assign letter grades to standardized test scores so that parents find such information more comprehensible and salient. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/o...

A big win for the ed reform organization (and DFER splinter group) Center for Strong Public Schools, which endorsed her.

Unless I am misunderstanding the situation I don't really see why a D governor would turn this down. If you do, it's just giving away money to red states as opposed to keeping it in-state.

Trump’s education tax credit is poorly designed, but blue states should opt into it anyway fordhaminstitute.org/national/com...

My hot takes 1) Declining interest in the teaching profession is an important & under-recognized driver of test declines. 2) Condemning "screens" as universally bad is foolish. Online tutoring, computer adaptive learning can offer great differentiated instruction. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/u...

Lots of things are going on in Education in Arkansas. Check out this great episode 👇 and stay tuned for all the research we have underway evaluating these efforts...

Can Arkansas make teaching great again? | Episode 1017 of The Education Gadfly Show, featuring Arkansas Education Secretary Jacob Oliva fordhaminstitute.org/national/res...

Strictly as a feat of data journalism partnering with world-class research this tool is wildly impressive www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

I don't love the design of the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit, but I am glad to see blue states opting into it nonetheless. schooledbymikepetrilli.substack.com/p/new-york-p... @jenjennings.bsky.social @mpolikoff.bsky.social @joshcowenmi.bsky.social

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, let's embrace cell phone bans to make teaching more satisfying, pay our best teachers more, and put research front and center. The Latest in Literacy is out: www.karenvaites.org/p/the-latest...

The Science, and Culture, of Reading Instruction // www.chadaldeman.com/p/the-scienc...

Well-said. I also appreciated @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social's straight talk: What if states get prescriptive about curriculum... and get it wrong? "If states are going to push, prod, or outright command districts to adopt certain curricula, hire certain vendors, [etc.], they’d better be right."

What if states get prescriptive about curriculum... and get it wrong? Thank you @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social for asking this elephant-in-the-room Q. Read it all: schooledbymikepetrilli.substack.com/p/pondiscio-...

Today in horseshoe politics: The right/libertarian universal school choice group EdChoice buddies up with teachers to bemoan standardized tests. the74million.org/article/teac... @the74.bsky.social