Middle School Parenting be like

“You don’t actually expect every state to follow Mississippi and Louisiana in how they teach reading?”

EdReports is looking for feedback on “how we can continue to earn and strengthen your trust.” docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

How do we retain our best teachers – because our best teachers are good at raising outcomes? While learning from the shortcomings of the merit pay era? @margueriteroza.bsky.social spotlights some initiatives worth knowing. mailchi.mp/3cf64c47e1d4...

Facing declines in reading performance, Massachusetts legislators are advancing a bill that touches a 3rd rail: curriculum mandates. I'm here to explain why MA absolutely needs this bill – and also to sound some alarms.🚨 Literacy friends, read until the end. 👀 www.karenvaites.org/p/massachuse...

Costume almost fooled us.

Astute observation from @evidentlyreading.bsky.social. Lucy Calkins made teachers think ELA classrooms for novice readers should mirror the practices of adults, and that would make kids love reading. open.substack.com/pub/curricul...

Yesterday, a big literacy bill passed the MA House. Soon, I’ll publish 2 pieces related to the developments. In the meantime, I’m resurfacing this piece on the Balanced Literacy Resistance in MA from 2024. Spoiler: some of these names will return. www.karenvaites.org/p/lessons-fr...

Watershed Moment: Massachusetts literacy bill passes House with unanimous support (!). I was honored to get the last word in the Boston Globe. The bill would require the use of state-approved materials by all districts. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/29/m... Open access link: archive.ph/7cHeb

I’m out here telling spooky stories. 👻 The linked reading: www.karenvaites.org/p/leveled-re...

This is the most important dichotomy in American education. Every state is Doing Something to improve reading instruction in the Science of Reading era. Only four states have student outcomes to show for it. open.substack.com/pub/karenvai...

#EducationSky Follow Karen, you won't be disappointed!

I wish I could skywrite Chad Aldeman’s latest piece above every Kindergarten parent night. “If your child is behind in the early grades, the odds that they will catch up decline every single year. Do. Not. Wait.” Really, look at the data he shares. open.substack.com/pub/aldemano...

This is the question of the hour. I wrote about it this week. Spoiler: the answer is "don't count on it." Read on: open.substack.com/pub/karenvai...

"Desks in rows and decoration-free walls are neither necessary nor sufficient proxies for effective teaching"

If anyone thinks Linda McMahon is hustling to bring the Southern Surge playbook to additional states, guess again. Also, the loss of Penny Schwinn is a massive downer. From my latest: open.substack.com/pub/karenvai...

Finally, the Southern Surge is getting the national attention it deserves. 🙌 I collected the key articles from the last month, in case you missed them. Honestly, they came so fast and furious that I haven’t been able to post them all here. open.substack.com/pub/karenvai...

Late to reading this but this is interesting because it isn’t just correlation (like lots of previous studies). They tracked impact over time.

This piece had me at the title: “Stop Being Such F****** Killjoys” A timely call by @katasolow.bsky.social to end silly infighting in k-12 spaces. open.substack.com/pub/scienceo...

New study on student cellphone bans finds short-term increases in discipline issues but ultimately improvements in both attendance and student achievement. www.nber.org/papers/w3438...

This is approx 1.5% of the US population. Not trivial numbers. Independent estimate from @gelliottmorris.com: “Our median estimate is that 5.2 million people participated in a No Kings Day demonstration somewhere in the country on Saturday...” open.substack.com/pub/gelliott...

Know someone struggling to believe that the Mississippi story is legit? Just send them to @rweingarten.bsky.social. She knows what’s up.

Holly Korbey’s excellent piece on the flawed curriculum review landscape has been republished by Fordham, and it was also featured in Sarah Schwartz’s EdWeek reporting. Don’t miss this one! open.substack.com/pub/hollykor...

As a Brit, a lot of these US articles on education get you thinking about things in a different way. Although it’s not ideal for kids in the short term. the variance you get with different states makes for fascinating study. #EduSky

Coverage of the Southern Surge continues to surge. In The Atlantic, Idrees Kahloon explores the “low-expectations theory” for American educational declines, and points to the Southern Surge as an important counter factual. Article: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv... Open access: archive.ph/TVewa

Kelsey Piper and I penned a detailed piece unpacking the Southern Surge, in response to a Freddie DeBoer straw man. “First, we must get straight on the plays in the Southern Surge playbook. BC, for the love of God, it’s not just phonics,” we wrote. DeBoer responds with… a long rant about phonics.

Kelsey Piper and I penned a detailed piece unpacking the Southern Surge, in response to a Freddie DeBoer straw man. “First, we must get straight on the plays in the Southern Surge playbook. BC, for the love of God, it’s not just phonics,” we wrote. DeBoer responds with… a long rant about phonics.

“There are signs that some classrooms are shifting away from long-form reading much earlier, as far back as elementary school.” www.edweek.org/teaching-lea...

New study in JAMA: “Preteens using increasing amounts of social media perform poorer in reading, vocabulary and memory tests in early adolescence compared with those who use no or little social media.” “It's problematic… even in small doses." Important read: www.npr.org/sections/sho...

Phonics fixes everything.

I am still seeing plenty of Misssissippi doubters in the mean streets of social media. I believe my piece with Kelsey Piper debunked these narratives, as well as one can. Please give it a read: open.substack.com/pub/theargum...

David Brooks shouts out the “so-called Southern Surge” in NYT. “Schools in blue states like California, OR and WA are languishing, but schools in red states like Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee & Louisiana, traditional laggards, are suddenly doing remarkably well…” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/o...

@natwexler.bsky.social wants everyone to look closely at the work in Louisiana and Tennessee, to understand the role of knowledge-building curricula. I heartily agree – and appreciate her kind words about my write up. open.substack.com/pub/nataliew...

Teacher preparation in America is such a mess. “@NCTQ’s analysis revealed that 40% of teacher prep programs are still teaching two or more practices that are incompatible with scientifically based reading instruction.” www.nctq.org/research-ins...

Highly recommended reading:

In yesterday's Boston Globe Magazine: My story on the Southern Surge and the Northern Nosedive.

The Mississippi success story is regularly misrepresented – dismissed as fluke or fakery, or reduced to “just phonics.” Kelsey Piper and I are having none of it. We tag-teamed on this new piece for The Argument magazine: open.substack.com/pub/theargum...

I’m getting this Q a lot, and I may pull together a reading list blog, BC there is a LOT of good content coming out right now specific to upper grades. Let’s start with some crowdsourcing! As for new research, the most striking thing reading is the decoding threshold research… 🧵

Overdue leadership transition at EdReports:

When I taught 5th grade at FCPS in Maryland, I was shocked that their language arts curriculum (Into Reading) did not include any books.

I’ve been surprised to find discover hesitation about value of whole books in SO Reading spaces. Also, both orgs reviewing curriculum don’t consider the use of whole books in reviews. EdReports & Reading League both give high marks to curricula lacking books. 😳 open.substack.com/pub/curricul...

Good news: it looks like NYT will cover the issue of books going missing from US classrooms. Bad news: they are only focused on high school. But the call is coming from the elementary and school buildings, too. Pls join me in encouraging @danagoldstein.bsky.social to broaden her focus.

My favorite response to the latest piece on the Southern Surge

A superb new piece on the Southern Surge. I was honored to speak with Kelsey Piper for her excellent reporting. Truly the must-read, send-to-all-your-friends article of the week. It is all over my feed, for good reason. open.substack.com/pub/theargum...

@natwexler.bsky.social takes a clear-eyed look at traction of federally-funded Ed research and reminds us that we are doing a weak job of getting research to be translated into classroom practice. W/ an excellent point about shallow focus on explicit instruction. open.substack.com/pub/nataliew...

Satisfaction with the quality of education in the US reaches record lows. And 73% of Americans think schools are headed in the wrong direction. New Gallup poll: news.gallup.com/poll/695174/...

“The demise of writing matters because writing is not a second thing that happens after thinking. The act of writing is an act of thinking.” @dkthomp.bsky.social captures the high stakes of academic declines: we need to be training our brains to compete w AI. www.theargumentmag.com/p/you-have-1...

The good news: studies don’t strongly support the idea that tech is destroying kids’ attention spans. The bad news: it could be affecting their motivation to focus on academic tasks. Essential reading from @dtwuva.bsky.social: www.educationnext.org/pay-attentio...