New— The new tax law could be a boon for school choice by reimbursing "donations" made to nonprofits that issue K-12 scholarships. Yet convincing taxpayers to donate could require a massive marketing budget, according to an internal estimate I learned about. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/06/30/f...

New: Performance pay is controversial among teachers, but what if it works? www.chalkbeat.org/2026/06/25/t...

New: Are there truly many, well-paid jobs available for those without a four-year degree? That's the emerging narrative; I looked at the data. Tl:dr: This graph that breaks down occupation by annual wages and the share of workers who hold a four-year degree. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/06/23/s...

Great reporting here from @mattbarnum.bsky.social // Non-college career pathways have a math problem. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/non-colleg...

New: Are there truly many, well-paid jobs available for those without a four-year degree? That's the emerging narrative; I looked at the data. Tl:dr: This graph that breaks down occupation by annual wages and the share of workers who hold a four-year degree. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/06/23/s...

This is good stuff from @mattbarnum.bsky.social www.chalkbeat.org/2026/06/23/s...

Student cheating is becoming impossible to detect as some A.I. companies coach young adults on how to get away with it. Inside a new arms race: "humanizers" and "autotypers" face off against AI detectors. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/18/u...

New: The Trump administration has promised to "return education to the states." In reality, states are getting back only modest authority. And in other realms the administration is expanding federal power. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/is-trump-a...

Education Secretary Linda McMahon told parents in a video announcing seismic shifts to special education and civil rights enforcement that “I’ve heard you.” Parents say that might be true, but that she didn’t listen.

The Trump admin recently found a suburban CO district in violation of Title IX in part because "male students occupy 61 roster positions on girls’ sports teams." Turns out, according to the district, those were not athletes but male mascots and managers. www.chalkbeat.org/colorado/202...

Many Democratic governors have been waiting to see the rules before opting into a major federal school choice expansion. Will they like what they see?

New- A striking and unexplained disparity has emerged across a number of tests in different grades and subjects. Relative to boys, girls' scores have generally fallen faster and been slower to recover, if they're recovered at all. This is a big deal! www.chalkbeat.org/2026/06/11/g...

If we're just talking about "private money" here, then why a law necessary to "direct" it?

There seems to be a bit of confusion about this, but the federal tax credit scholarship program has *always* explicitly allowed the funding to go towards public school students. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/09/u...

Some good news and bad news in this latest NAEP data. Nine-year-olds' scores are up, but 13-year-olds are flat after a decade of decline. Via @lilyalta.bsky.social. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/06/10/n...

New: State takeovers of local school systems are growing, but do they work to improve learning? Also in this roundup: growth vs. proficiency, why school enrollment is plummeting in Mississippi, a surprising defender of federal school spending, and more. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/school-tak...

New- Will artificial intelligence reduce demand for formal education? I take a look at the historical interplay between technology, the economy and education and how that helps us understand what might come next. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/06/04/g...

Today's must read: A great back-and-forth between Rick Hess & @mattbarnum.bsky.social on what education reporting gets right, and wrong, today edweek.org/education/op... #EWA26 @edweek.org @chalkbeat.org

To the extent "Gen Z" thinks this — and such broad generalizations are often dubious — it partially reflects a relentless and misleading media narrative that in recent years has ignored the actual data here.

I was surprised Sand was not familiar with the federal tax credit scholarship program! bsky.app/profile/evie...

New: The conventional narrative is that Dems need to embrace school choice, even vouchers, to win on education. In his run for Iowa governor, @robsandia.bsky.social is taking a very different approach. I spoke to him about his educational views and vision. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/06/02/r...

I really enjoyed chatting with Rick Hess about the state of education journalism www.edweek.org/education/op...

New- AI has prompted a bevy of takes saying that students don't need to learn boring facts. Instead, schools should focus on durable skills like "critical thinking." The problem: critical thinking cannot be abstracted away from content knowledge. Read more: www.chalkbeat.org/2026/05/28/a...

As this Post op-ed acknowledges in the body of the piece, the "rise in [felony] assaults" across all of NYC schools refers to an increase from ... 28 to 34. Not percent, but incidents. That's across some 1,500+ schools. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

In a few weeks, June 11, I'll be a hosting a conversation with Indiana Ed. Secretary Katie Jenner and Rhode Island Ed. Commissioner Angelica Infante-Green. We'll be discussing the Trump administration's promise to "return education to the states." Join us! www.eventbrite.com/e/has-the-tr...

The hottest take in education. bsky.app/profile/paul...

New: Under-the-radar tidbits from the big new study on U.S. test scores: —High- + low-poverty districts have fared the best of late —Results would probably be worse absent federal Covid aid —Low attendance is dragging down results, but only a bit And more... www.chalkbeat.org/2026/05/21/t...

It's pretty remarkable how quickly i-Ready has become public enemy #1 in the ed-tech backlash. It's also remarkable how quickly their product has spread in schools. The company says one in three (!) students use it bsky.app/profile/lily...

Information about school quality made a much bigger difference in parental choices when a critical mass of parents got the same info. @mattbarnum.bsky.social on an interesting study that touches on the social aspect of how we choose schools. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/05/19/l...

New: Can better information about school quality help families choose better schools? A remarkable experiment — yes, a real random-assignment experiment — tested this out in Los Angeles. The takeaway: information can help but its not enough on its own. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/05/19/l...

New research on providing information to parents who are selecting a school: information and social factors matter. Via @mattbarnum.bsky.social www.chalkbeat.org/2026/05/19/l...

The gloomy headlines about the future of American higher ed been seemingly relentless. But the discourse is missing some basic(and surprising) facts about what’s actually happening right now. Here are 10....

This is a big if true situation....because it's not clear McMahon is accurately describing the admin's position here. (The regulations will come from Treasury not U.S. ED.) bsky.app/profile/chal...

2023 data for annual STICKER price at U.S. Colleges. Upper-bound on cost paid by students (because it does not consider aid and grants)

It's a real problem that so many people who write about higher education think that the typical college costs "hundreds of thousands of dollars." www.wsj.com/lifestyle/ca...

The nation’s second-largest school district is putting new limits on devices — a symbolic shift amid a broader backlash against ed-tech.

New: Since DOGE cut the statistical arm of the Education Department, basic facts about American schools are no longer readily available. Some of these data points can be found elsewhere but are now harder to track down. Others simply don't exist anymore. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/05/07/e...

New– There was recently a massive wave of attention on a report from the University of California San Diego, noting a sharp increase in the number of students who required remedial math. I talked to one of the students at the center of the controversy. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/05/05/u...

Yet another poll showing Dems lead with voters on education and schools (+8, it's their second best issue.) Perhaps surprisingly, this is unchanged since 2023, so it's not a Trump effect. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Part of a superintendent's job these days is beating back the onslaught of ed-tech pitches. bsky.app/profile/lily...

New: I roundup answers to the following —Did school reform work? —Has Democrats' edge on education waned? —Does simply sending young kids home with books boost reading scores? —Is education research trustworthy? cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/chalkbeat-...

New: There are large gaps in educational outcomes by race and family income. The natural assumption is that schools are vastly unequal. But in fact the largest resources inequalities emerge when kids are out of school, per a new study from @davidblazar.bsky.social. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/04/21/p...

Some students get tutoring but end up as ‘intervention lifers.’ This common sense tactic could help. - via @ericameltzer.bsky.social #EdResearch #EdPolicy #EduSky www.chalkbeat.org/2026/04/20/t...

Two things are true here. First, lots of education research is of disturbingly low-quality — and that's a real problem for the field. But second, painting with such a broad brush about a large, intellectually diverse field is not right. bsky.app/profile/bren...

Terminating civil rights agreements could have ripple effects far beyond those cases or even transgender students as a group. “Once you open that door to something that is unprecedented, where does it end?" one longtime OCR employee asked. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/04/14/t...

New: There's an effort to reassemble the bipartisan school reform coalition that once dominated Washington. Will it work? I look at why it might and why it might not. These ideas are dominating the media narrative but it's not clear they have a real constituency. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/04/14/b...

NEW Just a few years ago Sal Khan was predicting that AI was poised to revolutionize education. But his experience launching an AI-powered tutor, Khanmigo, has been sobering, he says. The hope that it would quickly become a super-tutor still seems a long way off. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/04/09/s...

NEW Just a few years ago Sal Khan was predicting that AI was poised to revolutionize education. But his experience launching an AI-powered tutor, Khanmigo, has been sobering, he says. The hope that it would quickly become a super-tutor still seems a long way off. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/04/09/s...

New: When one teacher totally dropped ed-tech from his classroom, teaching and learning became harder. That might be why it's been successful. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/04/07/t...

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...