In the new year Chalkbeat Ideas will host an online event about the Education Department's future with Lindsey Burke of the Trump administration. Join @ericameltzer.bsky.social and me for what I'm sure will be a lively conversation! You can also submit questions. www.eventbrite.com/e/chalkbeat-...

New— Emails I obtained show that a top charter school advocacy group is concerned about moving education programs to the Department of Labor. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/charter-sc...

College costs are soaring! www.brookings.edu/articles/wha...

New— I spoke with @dianeravitch.bsky.social about her new book, a memoir on her many decades in the education policy debates. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/what-diane...

Education groups are jockeying to shape the federal tax-credit scholarship through the rule-making process. But making this scheme, designed to create a voucher-like benefit, work for public school students could be tricky. www.chalkbeat.org/2025/12/09/f...

This is a terrific and helpfully clear piece about what IQ scores do (and don't) mean. www.aft.org/ae/winter202...

Worth listening to @mattbarnum.bsky.social who busts three general myths about higher ed (maybe debunker-in-chief or uncle-debunker?): 1) average tuition has soared; 2) 4YC enrollment has plummeted; 3) it's not worth it to go to college. Plus 👇 fordhaminstitute.org/national/res...

This UCSD story is driving the national conversation around math education right now. There is plenty of evidence that math outcomes are not nearly where we'd want them to be, but Matt has a predictably nuanced and research-backed take. #edusky

I enjoyed joining @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social to discuss the new mythologies of higher education. Net tuition is not soaring, the value of a degree is not plummeting and neither is four-year college enrollment. educationgadflyshow.substack.com/p/is-the-col...

Important reality check from @mattbarnum.bsky.social on the oft-heard refrain that loosening admissions at selective schools will harm the lower-scoring students who get in by setting them up for failure. Research shows precisely the opposite: those students see real benefits.

New — What the internet backlash over rising remedial math at UC San Diego misses: Yes, it's a problem that math scores are going down, but selective, well-resourced universities are arguably best equipped to help students catch up. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/what-the-i...

NEW: Our look at one of the most important players in the school choice debate: Jeff Yass, the billionaire funding campaigns across the country and in his home state of PA. Got a chance to talk with him at length and he had lots of provocative things to say 1/x www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Great piece by @tktk.bsky.social on the growing backlash to school-issued screens in L.A. www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...

Great, nuanced @mattbarnum.bsky.social piece My take: Studies demonstrating larger impacts on low-stakes tests & LT outcomes use a no accountability counterfactual that no longer exists. That was the right research q then. But the current policy q is what happens when we mix stronger acc back in.

The rise of accommodations is a legit issue to explore, but this graf conflates two different things. *504 plans* are generally for accommodations. IEPs are for needed educational services and *do not* disproportionately go to advantaged students. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Lots of words here but very little new: the retention as selection bias explanation does not make sense for explaining Mississippi's long-run gains because retained students must eventually move forward. statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2025/12/01/h...

There's a new nostalgia for No Child Left Behind gripping parts of the education world . I took a deep dive into the research to see whether it's really true that NCLB-style school accountability drove learning gains. Answer: yes—with several asterisks cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/would-more...

New: I look at the surprisingly difficult question of how to rank different states' schools (inspired by @jerseyjazzman.bsky.social). I also take a look at a new project summarizing education research on various topics. And more in this Ideas roundup cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/chalkbeat-...

Nice piece by @laurameckler.bsky.social wondering how moving Education Department functions to different federal agencies would "return education to the states." www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...

Excited to share that I'm writing a book: a history of the debates over funding public schools from the 1960's to now. (Yes the working title is tongue in cheek.) Now I just need to finish writing—stay tuned! And if you want to follow my work, you can do so here: www.chalkbeat.org/newsletters/...

"In surveys conducted this year by eight different organizations, all but one showed Democrats with an edge on education. Voters again now tend to trust Democrats on the issue of education," writes @mattbarnum.bsky.social. www.chalkbeat.org/2025/11/18/w...

New– I look at why outsourcing the Education Department is and is not a big deal. It sets up major legal and political fights. But it won't matter for the typical school. Federal influence comes from funding, not the name of the administrative agency. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/why-trump-...

This is, as always, an excellent and comprehensive take from @mattbarnum.bsky.social www.chalkbeat.org/2025/11/18/w...

New— There's been a lot of discussion about Democrats losing their historic advantage with voters on education. In fact, this oft-repeated narrative no longer seems to be true. Nearly every poll from this year shows Dems with a clear edge on education. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/voters-sti...

New: Pandemic-era school closures still occupy a significant part of the American political discourse, but do they still matter for student test scores? Answer: yes, but only a bit. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/we-re-stil...

Already getting some Discourse wins here. (I take full credit.) www.wsj.com/lifestyle/ca...

This is big news: Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group, has helped to seed a test case in Colorado over whether public schools can provide Christian education www.chalkbeat.org/colorado/202...

There’s a big gap between the narrative about higher ed and the data, explains @mattbarnum.bsky.social for @chalkbeat.org. Tuition is actually more affordable, and both the value of a bachelor’s degree and four-year college enrollment remain “near historic highs.” www.chalkbeat.org/2025/11/11/i...

Reports of the death of the bachelor’s degree have been greatly exaggerated. Enrollment is near pre-pandemic levels, real tuition is flat or down, and the college wage premium remains high. I explore how the narrative became disconnected from the data. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/is-college...

A study of a large Florida school district found that the effects of immigration enforcement on students’ academic performance was concentrated in high-poverty schools. The test score declines also occurred for U.S. citizen students.

New: I spoke with MagicSchool's Adeel Khan about the AI in schools. –Khan says AI can draft IEPs. -He says that schools should empower students with information to make their "own choices" about AI. –He responds to math errors I ran into in the platform. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/magicschoo...

Technologists have long chased the dream that technology-powered tutoring can improve student learning by two standard deviations, a massive effect. OpenAI is the latest. The problem: Effects of this size are virtually never seen even by human tutors. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/3-ways-ai-...

The Coming AI Teaching Assistant Boom (And Cheating) open.substack.com/pub/curmudgu... @mattbarnum.bsky.social

What will AI actually mean for schools over the next several years? Here are my theories: –The student cheating problem won't go away. –AI will increasingly become a ubiquitous teaching assistant. –AI will *not* be a super-tutor. cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/3-ways-ai-...

New: Margaret Spellings, the former Education Secretary under George W. Bush, tells me that she does not think it would be a good idea to close the Department of Education. Actually, she says, it would be inefficient. Check out our full interview: cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/the-former...

The first installment of @chalkbeat.org’s new “ideas” column does not disappoint. @mattbarnum.bsky.social brings his characteristically open mind, thorough research, and even-handed assessment to education’s much-discussed “Southern surge.” www.chalkbeat.org/2025/10/28/l...

Great article by @mattbarnum.bsky.social cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/the-southe...

New: I try to unpack what we do and don't know about the "Southern surge" in student learning cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/the-southe...

"There have been some notable Southern success stories, especially in fourth grade. ... Eighth grade results have been less impressive for these Southern exemplars, though." www.chalkbeat.org/2025/10/28/l... from @mattbarnum.bsky.social in his debut Ideas piece for @chalkbeat.org.

It's happening: The first Chalkbeat Ideas newsletter will go out tomorrow with a detailed look at data on the "Southern surge." You can sign up to get the newsletter here: www.chalkbeat.org/newsletters/... Learn more about my we're launching this new project here: www.chalkbeat.org/2025/10/27/i...

Colorado now has what appears to the be the first-ever self-identified "public Christian school." Expect litigation to follow. www.chalkbeat.org/colorado/202...

It seems very plausible that there is room to be smarter w/ contracting. But also notable that they didn't offer many examples. The only one Mamdani offered is DOE did not rigorously track the technology it bought for remote learning in the middle of a global health emergency

My last piece at WSJ looks at how traditional public schools are trying to win back students and the public in the face of intense political pressure, declining birth rates, and more competition. www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

This is my last week at the Wall Street Journal. I'll be returning to Chalkbeat to launch a new section focused on the big ideas and debates in American education. More on this soon! You can sign up to keep following my work here: www.chalkbeat.org/newsletters/...

New: A look at the latest 12th grade test scores, which paint a grim picture.* *Officials acknowledge, though, that rising graduation rates could complicate the longer-run interpretation of these results if more low-performing students are now taking the test. www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

New: The Trump administration is now targeting race-neutral efforts to achieve racial diversity. This marks a striking shift from what some opponents of affirmative action had previously argued. www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

Our look at huge changes to civil rights enforcement for schools: -A reversal in what's considered discrimination w/ reverse racial discrimination and transgender sports cases prioritized -Severe staff cuts leaving thousands of others unresolved. www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...

New: The Education Department's cuts have left the niche, government-backed "industry" of education research in a dire state. www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

What are the top books assigned in U.S. high schools? Turns out they're mostly the same as thirty years ago. www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

New: SCOTUS clears the way for Trump's deep staffing cuts at the Education Department www.wsj.com/politics/pol...