Interesting comparative study of attendance patterns in OECD countries pre vs. post pandemic by @jakeanders.uk and colleagues! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield won the race for Detroit mayor by a wide margin Tuesday. Her big win was also historic, with Sheffield becoming the city’s first female mayor.

Mary Sheffield and Solomon Kinloch both say they will play a role in education by partnering with schools to address the social challenges that impede student’s learning

It is your right to vote, Wolverines 💛💙! Head to the voting booth today!

“Parents were very open about what they needed, what they lacked, and we were able to provide that on the spot assistance and support for them“…Most students needed updated immunizations or struggled with transportation.

What can Detroit’s next mayor do for education? What do Detroiters want from the next mayor? Here’s what you need to know about tomorrow's mayoral election and the candidates.

Mary Sheffield and Solomon Kinloch say they want to partner with local schools to improve student outcomes. Voters decide Tuesday.

A few months ago, I started to hear from history teachers that the curriculum materials they’d used for years were being pulled from the market, or they were not being allowed to use them because of political pressures. My investigation of this trend published today: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/u...

This is largely a phenomenon of high income families leaving public schools. The highest income 20% of districts have lost more public school students than the other 80% combined (lower income districts have largely recovered enrollments).

Transportation plays a key role in how families experience school choice. Learn more in Sarah W. Lenhoff (@sarahlenhoff.bsky.social) and Samuel Speroni’s chapter on transportation in school choice systems: livehandbook.org/k-12-educati...

School transportation seems like one of those obvious resources that is essential to making public school work, yet it often gets short shrift. I was glad to work with Sam to summarize what we know about school transit usage, offerings, and effects in this @aefplivehandbook.bsky.social chapter.

A great insight from Sam Hollon and Nat Malkus about predicting chronic absenteeism: if you know whether a student was chronically absent last year, that's almost as good as knowing their attendance through the first half of the year! (87% vs. 91% accuracy) www.aei.org/research-pro...

After FL cell phone ban, attendance increased for middle and high school students by about 1.3 days on average

It was an honor to interview @dlabaree.bsky.social for this month’s @nepc.bsky.social podcast. I’ve learned so much from Professor Labaree’s writing, and it was a real treat to learn from him through our conversation about recent shifts in education policy. If you have a few mins, give it a listen!

How has the #COVID19 pandemic impacted K-12 #students over time? Read assistant professor of #education @jeremylsinger.bsky.social's perspective in this special issue of Teachers College Record. #umflint #research @umflintteach.bsky.social  ▶️ https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/TCZ/current

New working paper on contemporary child labor in the U.S. and its impacts on school attendance ⬇️ edworkingpapers.com/ai25-1302 With absolute dream team @mimiarnoldlyon.bsky.social @stevebholt.bsky.social & PhD student Ji Hyun Byeon

To understand the Trump administration’s vision for American education, @megomatz.bsky.social and I studied dozens of hours of political appointees’ speeches and podcasts and essays. What emerged is a desire to dismantle the nation’s system of public schools.

The Detroit school district is considering giving bikes to chronically absent students in other schools.

The federal government has long surveyed high schoolers to help track how their academic choices may have influenced the course of their lives. The Trump administration put an end to that effort.

Come work with us! We’re really excited about our research on attendance and chronic absenteeism. And we’d be really excited to work with you! Reach out if you have any questions. Detroit-based preferred, but remote might be possible. Start as early as Dec 2025 or later in Spring/Summer 2026.

Supporters of the plan said the new budget would help close opportunity gaps for at-risk students and other kids who need additional support, Bridge Michigan reports. (via @bridgemi.com)

HEP authors @sarahlenhoff.bsky.social and @jeremylsinger.bsky.social were quoted in an article published by @chalkbeat.org, which delves into the problem of chronic absenteeism in Michigan. Read the piece here:

For grad students or postdocs out there: let me know if you'd like to present in my department's (Ed Policy, Org, & Leadership) Quantitative Working Group meeting Wednesday of next week (October 8) at 3pm Central time. Work at any stage is fine, it's very informal. I have a presenter gap this month.

I'm very proud to share a new, first-of-its-kind analysis and data tool from my team at @educationwork.newamerica.org. Redrawing the Lines is a first-ever look at how, if states draw school district borders with equity as the goal, they can HUGELY reduce funding inequality and segregation. #edusky

Community schools are amazing: - chronic absenteeism ⤵️ - suspension rates ⤵️ - test scores ⤴️ with historically underserved students experiencing the largest gains

ED is requesting public comments on the direction that they should take the Institute of Education Sciences. Feedback is due October 15. public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-18608.pdf

3) Many of the most absent children had relatively rare or extreme events that kept them away, so overly simplistic approaches that assume common reasons for absence may not work. Schools need to understand the issues of each student.

NEW from me and Amie Rapaport at @futureedgu.bsky.social: New Parent Research Helps Explain Causes of Post-Pandemic Absenteeism Crisis // www.future-ed.org/new-parent-r...

New EPIC report: three decades of Michigan school finance—what’s changed, what $ reaches classrooms, and what that means for students. Read: bit.ly/47UWWPq

Congress is debating changes to the Department of Education’s budget that could impact how federal funds support #students. Urban's new #tool lets you explore how different funding scenarios might affect your K-12 school district. Access the #data today.

New paper! Using data from NC, we estimate that getting attendance rates back to pre-pandemic levels in 2023-24 could have improved state math achievement by 0.017-0.025 SDs in this year, or 13-19% of what would be needed for a full academic recovery. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Here’s how Pulaski Elementary-Middle School dropped its chronic absenteeism rate by 47 percentage points.

Want to see how potential changes to #education Title funding might affect #K-12 districts? Check out this nifty data tool from @kblagg.bsky.social and me! You can choose your own scenarios and see projected impacts to keep up with the policy proposals from Congress. www.urban.org/research/pub...

Like Carla Brown, the people who take care of Michigan’s youngest children — those between birth and 3 years old — receive low pay for a challenging job that plays a critical role in early childhood development, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Michigan’s chronic absenteeism rate drops but is still above pre-pandemic levels www.chalkbeat.org/detroit/2025...

Quick look at the data! The highest-absenteeism districts have continued to make the most progress, at this point improving upon their pre-pandemic baseline.

Michigan chronic absenteeism inches down but remains higher than pre-pandemic bridgemi.com/talent-educa...

Trump is seeking over $6 billion in cuts to K-12 public schools. House Republicans wamt to cut $4.7 billion in Title I funding alone. In @educationwork.newamerica.org's latest analysis, see how both budgets would impact each congressional district--and then #callyourrepresentative. #edusky #publiced

I'm hiring a postdoc to assist with creating a longitudinal dataset of state charter school funding laws. More info in the position description. Please share!

Great job with an awesome team doing impactful work (and Detroit is super cool too!)

For those interested in the growth of ESA vouchers and the new federal push for vouchers by Trump and Congressional Republicans, please read this thread about the important new voucher study & the NYT article about that study. reachcentered.org/publications...

Our paper on school choice and school-based transportation in Detroit is now published in EEPA! @sarahlenhoff.bsky.social

"students with access to a bus at a school—either a traditional or shuttle-style bus—were 4-5 percentage points more likely to enroll in that school...greater for traditional buses in higher-crime neighborhoods & for shuttle-style buses for farther-away choices" journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3...

📢 Job Posting! 📢 We are hiring TWO postdocs at Detroit PEER at Wayne State (detroitpeer.org)! We are looking for one quant/mixed methods expert and one qual/mixed expert to work with me & @jeremylsinger.bsky.social on attendance research. Apply by Oct. 10, but flexible on start date! Please share!