3) Hanushek and Rivkin found working conditions play a larger role in teacher retention between sites. They note a few areas of potential investment that would be more effective than salary increases: behavior supports and improved leadership to start. hanushek.stanford.edu/publications...

2) If early-career earnings for credentialed teachers are higher for those hired into teaching roles, it suggests that those who pursued other options were wooed by something other than salary. caldercenter.org/publications...

1) If teachers leaving the profession are typically earning less than they were in the classroom, that working conditions > compensation. Certainly this is complicated by some percentage of leavers who were going to leave no matter what. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Data on compensation vs. working conditions are mixed, as this excerpt from @aefpweb.bsky.social Live Handbook notes, but there are three studies that I find more persuasive on compensation vs. working conditions. livehandbook.org/k-12-educati...

I don't agree that working conditions are more important than pay (these things are very difficult to compare) but it is true at some margin teachers prefer more support staff than higher salaries. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/...

I don't know that it's strange: the literature already points to working conditions playing a larger role than compensation in teachers' decision to change employers or leave the profession.

I wouldn't characterize the main point of school funding reform as boosting teacher salaries. It helps students - @kirabojackson.bsky.social's opening plenary at SREE covered that in great detail. The teacher compensation reform literature seems a bit more mixed. There's room for improvement.

I think that's partially right, but if anything the empirical evidence suggests unions limit this trend from being even more extreme edworkingpapers.com/sites/defaul...

exactly and many schools of choice actively market their small classes/staffing ratios. this trend appears to be a market response—which doesn't necessarily mean it's optimal!—as much as anything else.

The expensive private schools rich people send their kids to are full of moderate-salary teachers in very small classes.

it's also notable that the same trend (greater investment in people than salaries) show up in private schools. for better or worse this may reflect schools' response to what parents want.

what is the evidence that higher salaries are a better investment than more people? I think the research is mixed and unclear here. See eg www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Yes, but the structure of that investment matters. While raising teacher salaries across the board might increase teacher quality some, it's likely an investment that is a mile wide and inch deep. I'd invest in the pain points in the labor market, i.e., in some subjects and hard to staff schools. +👇

School funding reform has failed to boost teacher salaries, especially for those serving in high-need schools. Should we focus state advocacy efforts on teacher compensation reform instead? I say yes. What do you say?

Recognizing the success of past reforms shows what’s possible for #NJ and the U.S. in the decades ahead. @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social helpfully highlights the methods that led to the achievements of the 90s and aughts in this article for @the74.bsky.social: www.the74million.org/article/the-...

Point/counterpoint on AI in higher ed. John McWhorter: "These developments don’t keep me up at night." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv... Anastasia Berg: "It is [the] seemingly benign functions [of AI] that are the most pernicious for developing minds." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o...

If you've ever had to deal with the maddening, expensive child care and preschool market, consider the strong possibility that Trump's education agenda will turn the entire K-12 school system into the same mess. My latest in @usatoday.com: www.msn.com/en-us/news/o...

cc: @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social since he's always saying we need more K-12 discourse here....

@michaelpetrilli.bsky.social: The remarkable education attainment gains of the school reform era

also a good point. these trends are very striking. Seems likely that deseg contributed, though don't think we know the precise causes

yeah I couldn't immediately find a race breakdown for the most recent data, rendered the same way, though I imagine it's out there. Here's data with Black students running through the '70s cohorts.

High school graduation standards are in freefall. Is everybody cool with that? schooledbymikepetrilli.substack.com/p/high-schoo...

Great discussion here 👇

Get Schooled by @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social

"The declines we’ve seen since 2013 or so came on the heels of two decades of remarkable progress" @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social fordhaminstitute.org/national/com...

An education that meets the true needs of ALL students should be the goal. We would never oppose that for students requiring special education services. We acknowledge many flaws in current identification of SpEd students, but don’t push for abolishing the entire system. Same for gifted services.

It's solo @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social on the Gadfly and he's talking about a topic - gifted education - that is near and dear to my heart. A few quick thoughts (not about the Mamdani proposal, but G&T in general) 👇 fordhaminstitute.org/national/res... 1/n

Universal screening is the answer. I don’t believe in taking things away in service of “equity”.

The key point for me is not about identifying and cultivating the next Einstein, but ensuring that kids who are performing well above their peers are being challenged as well, per this paper edworkingpapers.com/sites/defaul...

I agree with your suggestions. Also, my sense is that some forms of enrichment tied to the gifted label could benefit any student. Jen's suggestion for a subject-specific approach could be helpful in clarifying the need to challenge students and how the opportunity offered addresses that need.

I'm on board with all 3. I'm not sure what the right % is at the school level but applaud the idea of offering everywhere. I'd add a 4th, which is fluidity/continuous re-evaluation (i.e. this is not a "once and for all" decision) my spring class is called Schooled!

I don't know about that, but I like these ideas a lot!

Hey Bluesky friends, how can we get more folks on the left to support gifted education? Would my 3 ideas help? schooledbymikepetrilli.substack.com/p/how-can-we...

Education “reform advocates should always want…bipartisan support…[I]t makes for a stronger & more durable coalition,” says @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social True, but sometimes that’s not enough (see NCLB). You need the upper middle class as well. schooledbymikepetrilli.substack.com?utm_campaign...

The Disappearing Black School Board Member Who sits on your local school board? It’s fewer Black folks than two decades ago. wordinblack.com/2025/10/disa... @alexanderrusso.bsky.social @dmhouston.bsky.social @wordinblacknews.bsky.social

The low numbers for Hispanic school board members are extremely disappointing. I wonder if political scientists find the same underrepresentation on city councils, county councils, state legislatures, etc., or is there something about school board elections driving this? @dmhouston.bsky.social

Supported by both the Fordham Institute and @wallacefoundation.bsky.social, Michael Hartney and I explored the extent to which U.S. school board members are politically and demographically representative of the communities they serve. Here's a summary of our main findings: 1/12

New from Fordham, the Wallace Foundation, @dmhouston.bsky.social & Michael Hartney: Who’s on Board? School Boards and Political Representation in an Age of Conflict fordhaminstitute.org/national/res...

WATCH NOW: The New Federal Education Tax Credit: Policy and Politics, featuring @progressivepolicy.org's Rachel Canter, @dfer.org's Jorge Elorza, @brookings.edu's Jon Valant, @futureedgu.bsky.social's @thomastoch.bsky.social, and yours truly. future-ed.org/webinar-the-...

Steven Pinker on the Harvard admissions department: "It is terrible. I’ve argued that as much. They use holistic criteria, which is mumbo-jumbo. It’s mysticism."

There have been plenty of takes since last week's #NAEP results showed 12th graders performing at the lowest reading level since the test launched in 1992. This analysis from @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social is esp. disconcerting: that cohort had achieved NAEP’s highest 4th-grade reading scores. #edusky

The cohort of students who scored at record-low levels in 12th grade reading were part of the same generation of kids who scored at record-high levels in 4th grade. So what happened? fordhaminstitute.org/national/com...

An example of remedial education done right, courtesy of the U.S. military. Once these recruits couldn't make the cut. Now they make up a quarter of Army troops. www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

It's solo @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social on the Gadfly, but if you want some good arguments for phone bans (the scant evidence is a bit mixed, but as parent, I'm 100% that we ought to have them) listen in! fordhaminstitute.org/national/res...

ICYMI, most teachers HATE so-called "equitable grading," especially the "gifty fifty." www.the74million.org/article/a-th...

I, too, am very skeptical that through-year assessments are the right solution to concerns about accountability.

In yesterday's SCHOOLED, my take on through-year assessments in Texas, plus edu-opinions from @cedr.bsky.social @karenvaites.bsky.social @chadaldeman.bsky.social @marcportermagee.bsky.social & more: substack.com/home/post/p-...

Yet another reason for y'all on the left to hate standardized tests (especially difficult ones).

Citizenship Tests Could Be About To Get Much Harder. Here’s What You Need to Know time.com/7315217/citi...

Today's must read: A sweeping and insightful overview from @bostoncollege.bsky.social 's Shep Melnick. Trump’s Civil Rights Agenda Comes for Public Schools www.educationnext.org/trumps-civil...