The problem with sacred cows isn't that they existed – it's that they have taken on new life as facts, even as the world changes around them. @merici.bsky.social takes on the sacred cows of digital government delivery, and what we can win if we put them out to pasture. fas.org/publication/...

your alarm bells should *always* go up when you read about ginormous effect sizes like this. in this case, the study looks at a pretty small number of album release days (10) and finds an increase of 18.2 fatalities nationwide on those days. I don't find that particularly convincing!

Universities think they're too nerdy for city hall. City hall thinks they're not nerdy enough for universities. Meanwhile, communities wait for solutions. The new Civic Research Agenda report digs into what's stalling the research-to-impact pipeline — and how to fix it. fas.org/initiative/c...

she’s a 10 but Excel thinks she’s October

Attending #2025APPAM? Come check out my session this Saturday where I'm partnering with colleagues to talk about the future role of evidence synthesis and AI in powering better policy- and decision-making.

also worth noting that TX-18, a heavily democratic district, has been without a rep since January...

This is illegal. www.gao.gov/blog/what-po...

Rep. Wesley Hunt has spent months trying to get officials to hire Elon Musk’s The Boring Co. to build a major flood control project in Houston. The company has pitched tunnels that are far smaller than what may be needed to address the flooding issues.🤔 @lmcgaughy.bsky.social @chengyilun.bsky.social

Truly wild that this entire story doesn't mention the fact that DOGE nuked USDS and 18F, which actually did this work for years. Including online passport renewal and the creation of Direct File to make filing taxes easier! www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Ever since the former commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics was dismissed by the Trump administration in February, I wanted to hear her story. Peggy Carr was among a string of Black senior officials fired in early 2025. (1/3)

Posted in the State Department. The resistance always grows. Tomorrow there will be more of us.

It’s true, FEMA doesn’t serve people as well as it should. But it’s also clear that in large part the tragedy unfolding in Central Texas was exacerbated by a failure of local and state officials’ response. So why should Texans trust those same people to manage their recovery?

for my #edusky people, highly recommend this resource the HEDCO institute just dropped that is tracking research on four-day school weeks (and all their research dashboards!): hedcoinstitute.uoregon.edu/dashboards/f...

real bummer finding out that literally everything was on the honor system this whole time

Yesterday, June 2, was an interesting day at work. I was reporting a story about how the Education Department hadn't delivered a report to Congress on the Condition of Education, despite the June 1 deadline mandated by law. 🧵 (1/9)

A blast from my past: New evidence on the program Skew the Script finds promising impact of the curriculum on AP test scores. This resource helped me bring Beyonce, influencer salary, and food deserts into the conversation into my math classroom! skewthescript.org/blog/harvard... #edusky #mathsky

Delighted to see this piece with Victor Ambros, @carlbergstrom.com, Carol Greider, @michaelemann.bsky.social, and @briannosek.bsky.social in the wild. Trump’s new ‘gold standard’ rule will destroy American science as we know it @standupforscience.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” report misinterprets some studies and cites others that don’t exist, according to the listed authors

Exactly what we’ve been SCREAMING about since this whole mess started. This was inevitable. It’s not fault of the office itself. It’s entirely the fault of the current administration.

"For me, the answer now lies in refusal, the withdrawal of participation from systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging." Today I am resigning from the National Science Board and the Library of Congress Scholars Council. I wrote about my decision in TIME. time.com/7285045/resi...

THREAD | Today, our team from the @scientistsorg.bsky.social and the Future Evidence Foundation shared a report sharing learnings and recommendations from a year-long design sprint that explored potential use of an innovative approach, living evidence, at the federal What Works Clearinghouse.

Last summer, we @scientistsorg.bsky.social sourced 100+ science and technology policy ideas that would be ready in-time for whoever took office to act on. We gave the authors of these ideas the tools to push for them, support them, and turn them into actually-implemented policy.

Visiting the Whitney Plantation changed my life, and I think about the lessons it taught me constantly. It is emotionally heavy but so worth your time to prioritize visiting, especially now.

Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower was not just a novel, but an actual prophecy...

Linda McMahon said just two weeks ago at ASU+GSV that NAEP was "something we absolutely need to keep" and that it's "what keeps us honest, because it's comparing apples to apples."

Funding for the education department's online library is slated to end: hechingerreport.org/proof-points... via @jillbarshay.bsky.social

Found this quote while on a walk when the Dept of Ed layoffs were announced… we’d do better to remember these wise words.

I have a lot of thoughts on this one, but I'll let the evidence lead: the only rigorous studies I'm aware of on school vouchers, studying the impact of DC's program, found that it had no impact on student achievement or college enrollment.

but her emails!

Direct File is more popular than Apple. It's more efficient than paying some guy hundreds of dollars to file your taxes for you. It's more efficient than feeding your information to a third party, spending hours hoping you entered the numbers correctly. Its big problem? That it was good.

I love to talk about ASAP not just because of its impressive run of positive results in well-conducted RCTs (below), but also because it just makes sense: Give college students the resources they need - advising, financial support, tutoring, etc. - and they are much more likely to succeed.

NIH has rescinded its scientific integrity policy. Hard to see this as anything other than clearing the way for shoddy research on things like vaccines. Regardless of the rationale, it's bad news for public health. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

If Mike Waltz was a fan of the Bachelor, he would've learned a lesson from Colton inadvertently revealing the winner of his season because his Venmo history was public. It pays off to watch reality TV! 😌 www.wired.com/story/michae...

a rare spot of good news for the #evidencebasedpolicy community: it appears that CLEAR (Clearinghouse for Labor Evaluation and Research) is back up this morning after disappearing for 2 months! this is a critical source of information on the evidence base for labor/workforce interventions.

Chilling insight into IES contract cancellations: "Although [IES Acting Director] Soldner pointed out that some of those contracts were designed to meet congressional requirements, this person said, dozens of cancellations went out that day." www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

The Trump administration's erasure of federal data has put the Internet Archive in the spotlight. The organization, with its small but mighty team, is working to help save the world's digital history.

well, turns out it is in fact a bad idea to put a television host in charge of the DOD! 🫠

We need to start being louder about how US-government funded research fosters innovation that impacts people's everyday lives. DARPA research led to the internet and GPS; NSF funding led to MRIs and barcodes and Doppler radars! www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

The EPA’s science office conducts independent research on forever chemicals that poison our water, on the health effects of wildfire smoke, on microplastics, and so much more. Eliminating this research does not improve efficiency – it sells out our public health.

🚨red alert 🚨 for education researchers! #edusky #econsky

Texas for years maintained an unofficial and illegal cap on special education. The U.S. Department of Education (under Trump!) found that Texas violated the rights of students with disabilities and owed services to many students.

extreme heat + dry winter air + high winds = perfect storm for wildfire risk and smoke exposure (which is why policymakers need to pay attention to the severe compounding public health threat that wildfire smoke and extreme heat pose, even when it's not summer)

The majority of these cuts (~60% of the union workers laid off last night) appear to affect Federal Student Aid and the Office of Civil Rights. This is about restricting access to opportunity.

Hearing that nearly all the employees in the statistics agency inside the Education Department -- NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) -- have lost their jobs. Rumors that the NAEP test -- the nation's report card -- will no longer be run by NCES. This info is not confirmed.

posting on behalf of my union, FAS United — the Trump administration must release political detainee Mahmoud Khalil

"At the end of the day, evidence has no agenda and favors no partisan opinion — in this sense, it is the cornerstone of a functional democracy."

For 58 years, FOIA has put power and knowledge directly in the hands of the people. Any erosion of transparency mechanisms like FOIA – whether by direct abolishment or de-prioritization that leads to eventual decay – sets a concerning precedent. fas.org/publication/...

something that is not getting enough attention in all the chaos: the trump administration has disbanded a number of federal advisory committees (latest example linked). these are a critical tool for govt to seek input from experts! www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

10 lives, 5 years later: How the pandemic altered the futures of these parents, kids and educators