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"Gaining traction" is pretty apt, but maybe undersells how quickly the four-day school week has spread across some states. Definitely worth checking out the latest evidence on this one.

This paper seems vaguely familiar (and it's a thrill ride!)...

Professional Staff Diversity and Student Outcomes: Extending Our Understanding of Race/Ethnicity-Matching Effects in Education journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3...

Important job opportunity alert! Consider applying to be the Executive Director of the Professional Educator Standards Board here in WA state (the agency that oversee much of the state's teacher prep and licensure systems). www.governmentjobs.com/careers/wash...

To extend this, it appears that it’s moving out of the classroom and into the district offices - with even less known about it www.edweek.org/leadership/a...

"...they're teenagers, like, they're not angels" is my favorite quote from this week's Gadfly. It illustrates both a profound understanding of teenagers! and, more to the point of the episode, some of the concerns around AI in schools. More thoughts 👇 fordhaminstitute.org/national/res...

People don't move across state lines as much as they likely should. New work out in @jlaborecon.bsky.social by Riley Wilson: "The Isolated States of America: Home State Bias and the Impact of State Borders on Mobility" www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1...

"The students who took two math periods saw big gains on 8th grade state tests over similar peers who were in 8th grade math alone, equivalent to almost a full year of additional learning" www.edweek.org/teaching-lea...

Special education is one of our country's biggest investments—but does it actually work? Yes! According to a rigorous new study. Identification for services can fundamentally alter a student's trajectory. Via @joshua-goodman.com, et al. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/special-ed...

In case you've seen results going around today about a paper on reproducibility in the social sciences in Nature and it seems like reactions differ, you could be forgiven for being confused because there are actually *FOUR* such studies all published the same day, with somewhat differing results.

Vive la (credibility) révolution

Interested in teacher hiring decisions? I'll be presenting research about making better hiring decision this Friday at 12:30 PT. It's in person if you are in Seattle, but you can also register here for Zoom link: washington.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Attention teacher research and data users (& those who are research/data curious), this is a nice short summary piece on teacher data and research from @edwriters.bsky.social with links to resources:

Andy Rotherham rides again! The Pan-Mass Challenge (www.pmc.org) is great exercise for Andy and a good cause (cancer research) for all of us! Consider donating: profile.pmc.org/AR0140

This conversation between @natmalkus.bsky.social and @jeffdenning.com about grade inflation is a banger! Seriously, it's about Jeff (+co-authors)'s very good paper on the long term consequences for students of teacher grading standards. Totally worth listening to! www.aei.org/podcast/the-...

ICYMI: A new @caldercenter.bsky.social and NCTQ brief shows how states can use better data to improve student teaching experiences and prepare teachers for classroom success. 🔗 https://caldercenter.org/publications/lessons-state-education-agencies-why-building-clinical-practice-data-systems

I might just tune in (two of my favorite researchers talking about an important issue)! Oh wait, it's a @caldercenter.bsky.social webinar, I pretty much have to tune in!

In the last school year, after years of controversy, San Francisco schools fielded pilots that reintroduced Algebra to 8th grade. A preregistered, quasi-experimental study by Elizabeth Huffaker and me indicates the major pilots were largely successful. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/u...

Loved this discussion about grade inflation and parental information. A few reactions: 1) Early connection (by Mike) to expectations is exactly right! We argue for high expectations but the evidence is increasingly that we don't have them for grades. 1/n fordhaminstitute.org/national/res...

Cheapskin Effects? The Heterogeneous Value of Industry-Recognized Certificates Earned by High School Student Looks like @joshua-goodman.com has competition for best titles! edworkingpapers.com/ai26-1412

Claude can share all your anxieties!

Teacher hiring seems to me like an area with low-hanging fruit (for improvement in teacher quality)!

And thanks to @wtgrantfdn.bsky.social for supporting this work!

IncreasED: How Court Rulings Impact Special Education Identification journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3...

Terrific Kevin Mahnken piece on our new paper on which teacher applicants are making it through the hiring pipeline. We were surprised by the demographic differences, especially for Asian applicants. Here's the paper: caldercenter.org/publications... www.the74million.org/article/scho...

What a great #AEFP2026! Nice job @dbassok.bsky.social, we appreciate you!

And it's a blockbuster! All the papers in the session are both interesting and important. Hope to see you there.

So far, so VERY GOOD!

So excited to get #AEFP2026 started! Session tip: introduce yourself when you ask questions during the Q&A. This is a friendly conference! We're always happy to meet new folks here to learn about the latest in #EdResearch.

When do the best bands at a conference play? At the end. The same is true for academic conferences! Great session on Saturday morning. (10am; Vevey 2)

@aefpweb.bsky.social is already in full swing! Lot's of good stuff, but if you want to see an interesting session on Saturday morning, I know that 10.02 is a blockbuster having read all the papers.

Heading to Chicago for #AEFP2026 this week? Don't miss these panels featuring CALDER research from Cory Koedel, @roddy-theobald.bsky.social, Preeya Mbekeani, @afgilmour.bsky.social, @zeyuxu.bsky.social, John Krieg, @edizonross.bsky.social, & @brbackes.bsky.social!

Congratulations to our #AEFP2026 Thomas A Downes Best Paper Award winner!

This is a really interesting read about the ways kids today are actually doing better than prior generations (something that doesn't get as much attention as more negative news does) www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

New Report: Exploring Outcomes Based Contracting for EdTech digitalpromise.org/2026/03/16/n...

Great @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social solo episode on teacher diversity - tackles the thorny issue of how to balance the evidence that students (particularly Black students) benefit from race matching (seems good to have role models in all walks of life)... 1/n fordhaminstitute.org/national/res...

Unfortunately, I suspect we are seeing just the beginning of a period where we talk more about layoffs than teacher shortages.

"children who were exposed prenatally to industrial pollution have lower wages, are more likely to live in poverty as adults, have fewer years of completed education, and score lower on a summary index of long-run outcomes than their unexposed siblings" onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR) at Harvard is hiring two Postdoctoral Fellows #AEFP2026 check it out! apply.interfolio.com/183181

"Being assigned a higher average grade inflating teacher reduces future test scores, the likelihood of graduating, college enrollment, and earnings. In contrast, passing grade inflation increases high school graduation, with limited long-run effects." www.nber.org/papers/w34952

Lots of apt observations about the teacher labor market in this @mattyglesias.bsky.social piece: Is a New Teacher Better Off in Mississippi than in New York? @The74 www.the74million.org/article/is-a...

I'll see you there Paul!

Worth reading 👇

Great work by @jieezhong.bsky.social! If you are trying to make sense of the evidence on test-based grade retention policies, I have a new chapter that just came out @aefplivehandbook.bsky.social: livehandbook.org/k-12-educati...

Great coverage of a recent AEJ:Applied paper by my colleague @jieezhong.bsky.social!

Check out our blog post summarizing the results of our recent working paper on the retention effects of LEARNS teacher salary increases. We find that the raises are improving teacher retention—especially in rural & higher-need districts. More 👇 oep.uark.edu/raising-the-...

So good when researchers take the time to create a shorter version of long technical reports. It's often hard to do (balancing pithiness against nuance/caveats, at least for me) but important if you want your research to matter!

Will AI turn into Skynet? @rbnlake.bsky.social says "it depends." I would have liked more reassurance on this one, but at least Robin is more (cautiously) optimistic about how AI use could positively impact schools (by challenging approaches to teaching). + 👇 fordhaminstitute.org/national/res...

Terrific working with the folks from @nctq.bsky.social (and states) on this hopefully useful brief!