Why Microschools Are Multiplying: Boys, neurodiverse students, and entrepreneurial parents are getting big results from a small model. bit.ly/44xMKcO

“Gifted” Is Dead. Long Live “Advanced” Learners! Beyond the labels, there is a benefit to treating students’ abilities as qualities schools can serve, not conditions they should diagnose. bit.ly/4gFVO6z

Do School Closures Save Money? A study of California districts reveals the challenge of balancing budgets as enrollments decline. bit.ly/4ppPWRq

Digging in on the New Federal Scholarship Tax Credit: For the FSTC to deliver on its promise, we should not overlook two big challenges ahead. bit.ly/4phgcNz

Paul Carrese, the Director of the Center for American Civics and Professor at Arizona State University, joins the Education Exchange to discuss his new book, 'Teaching America: Reflective Patriotism in Schools, College, and Culture.' https://bit.ly/4f5W8ZZ

Reinventing College as Something Everyone Can Use—and Afford: Apprenticeship degrees are ready to disrupt the “College for All” mindset. bit.ly/4fcatUL

The Propulsive Growth of Non-Teaching School Staff: Despite a steady decline in student enrollment, public schools have added more support roles to meet a growing demand for special education services. bit.ly/4baiwQC

What It Means That Offices of Civil Rights, Special Education Are Leaving ED: As other agencies absorb the groups, it is uncertain how much their operations will change. bit.ly/4ybdEEY

Lamar Alexander joins the Education Exchange to discuss his new book, "The Education of a Senator: From JFK to Trump." https://bit.ly/4v2Nd1k

"School is fine, but money is better. You don’t need school if you’ve got money. Money is more important than knowing some dead guy or the capital of Beijing. Use your Trump crypto to buy Trump t-shirts and hats, very reasonably priced at our gift shop." https://bit.ly/4a0iXfO

"But there is another, quieter policy in play that is reducing students’ regular access to school. Districts keep the label of a traditional five-day calendar while repeatedly closing schools to students on otherwise ordinary weekdays." bit.ly/4vuEqpA

What Is a Democratic Education, Anyway? Tocqueville understood that the fate of the republic rests on civic habits and democratic norms, not politics. bit.ly/4wax5vx

Martin R. West, the editor-in-chief of Education Next, joins the Education Exchange podcast to discuss the recent release of the National Assessment of Educational Progress Long-Term Trends. https://bit.ly/4eDBpws

When Government Eventually Gets It Right: FAFSA reform was Senator Lamar Alexander’s final legislative bow. ED did as little as possible to honor it, then everything it could to save it. bit.ly/4ai1UWM

Claiming the Moral High Ground for Character Education: New book offers primer on the cultivation of virtue at classical schools. bit.ly/4oMc5sL

How a Gifted Program Impacts Disadvantaged Students: Non-cognitive skills, college attainment boosted for high-ability boys. bit.ly/43qUEnO

Game Changer: The Rise of Sports Academies. The market for sports-focused private schools is growing, but quality varies. bit.ly/3QXJZ12

The Education Exchange: NAEP Scores Higher Among 9-Year-Olds Not Yet in School During Covid. bit.ly/4eDBpws

The Education Exchange: Why Cell Phone Bans Are Good for Students, Teachers. Less device use, more school engagement, better test scores point to effectiveness of powering down. https://bit.ly/43l8U1m

How State Courts Are Quietly Shaping U.S. Education: SCOTUS rulings get a lot of airtime, but ed reformers’ eyes should be on decisions coming from state benches. bit.ly/4vNR3MH

Putting Pandemic Learning Loss in Perspective: Broad achievement declines in 21st-century America demand new policy approaches. bit.ly/4v4g06B

The Quiet Erosion of the Five-Day School Week: Four-day school weeks attract attention and debate. Traditional calendars packed with student-free weekdays deserve it, too. https://bit.ly/4vuEqpA

Tough Times for an Education Budget Hawk: How can I embrace cuts to ed spending when the savings are washed away by a torrent of intergenerational plunder? bit.ly/4ogm21k

Michael Henderson, associate professor at Louisiana State University, is this week's guest on the Education Exchange podcast. https://bit.ly/49zlDAT

The Country Lawyer’s Guide to Governance: As governor, education secretary, and senator, Lamar Alexander left his mark on American education. https://bit.ly/3S7oISE

"So, you’re in 8th grade, huh—8th grade. I was tremendous at 8th grade, the best. All the girls asked to be my girlfriend. They’d all say, 'Sir, you’re so handsome. Can I be your girlfriend, please?' But I was too busy being the best student." bit.ly/4a0iXfO

The Therapist Widget Effect: A shortage of quality teen mental health providers calls to mind the miscues over teacher evaluation and what lessons can be applied. bit.ly/4vrOqjj

The Yale Report and the Value of the Liberal Arts: At a minimum, colleges should be delivering a broad-based education that fosters critical thinking to restore public trust in higher ed. bit.ly/43ItOaE

Trump’s Big, Beautiful Civics Speech to Oakmont Middle School: “George Washington made America great once. I’ve already done it two times. That’s why people say Trump is the best president.” bit.ly/4a0iXfO

How Teaching History Can Help Our Terrible Reading Scores: The narrative appeal of the past and application to present civic concerns has common cause with building literacy. bit.ly/4dQ2vQh

Teen Boys Are Gambling. A Lot. The tidal wave of legal sports betting has easily infiltrated schools and swept up boys. There’s still time for commonsense guardrails and effective education. bit.ly/4uuZJqQ

A Bad Supreme Court Decision Is Hard to Undo: As states look to challenge Plyler v. Doe on educating children of unlawfully present parents, the court will need to confront its shaky constitutional grounds. bit.ly/4e3TrIR

The Brain That Sees Patterns: For too long, teachers have been asking struggling readers to guess at words instead of helping them to learn the code. bit.ly/3R9ilOy

"Nearly all states have passed 'science of reading' laws, and most researchers and educators now agree students need to learn letters and sounds explicitly and systematically to become proficient readers." bit.ly/4vgRsaI

If you are enjoying what you read here, consider subscribing to the web content of Education Next and begin receiving the latest education news, opinion, research, reviews, and podcasts delivered weekly to your inbox. bit.ly/3FT6aQc

Patrick Graff, a Senior Fellow with the American Federation for Children, is this week's guest on the Education Exchange podcast. bit.ly/4njmdZ4

Can Banning Cellphones Save Student Learning? Evidence from Florida, home of the first statewide mandate. bit.ly/4v2EWLp

Five Lessons for School Reformers: 2026 Edition. As K–12 reform heats back up, what can we learn from the last time the movement was riding high? bit.ly/48Sj64z

What If a Physician Prescribed a Soccer League Instead of Therapy? “Social prescribing” tries to put struggling teens into activities instead of therapy. It should work, so why hasn’t it yet? bit.ly/4cSYmMr

New Caps on Federal Student Lending Could Impact Schools of Education: Expensive institutions may need to reckon with OBBBA’s effort to rein in the nation’s $1.7 trillion in student loan debt. bit.ly/3QPtYKe

High School Reform for Dummies: “Mere knowledge” is getting sidelined at innovative models that embrace a vaporous notion of success, leaving students and society vulnerable in the “age of AI.” bit.ly/4cQ8mWE

Governors Can Fix Higher Ed: A generation ago, state leaders collaborated to fix a K–12 nation at risk. Universities today need the same gubernatorial guidance. bit.ly/3QUwuyN

Apprenticeship Should Be a Centerpiece of Workforce Pell: The earn-and-learn expansion of federal Pell Grant eligibility offers policymakers an opportunity to leverage our most promising workforce pathway. bit.ly/3QEQ2XS

Hope or Hype? What to Make of Yale’s Report on Trust in Higher Ed. A valuable document has come out of New Haven, but will it make good on its promises? bit.ly/3OHb3ka

The proposals for overhauling the Institute of Education Sciences could address its operational inefficiencies but are unlikely to break through our ideological stalemate. bit.ly/42nJZtc

The Case for a National Assessment of Flourishing and Participation: Why the rebuilt IES needs a NAEP for 3 p.m. to midnight that’s anonymous and representative. bit.ly/4sHDSe1

The State of Education Politics Today: What does partisan polarization mean for schooling and higher education? bit.ly/41KpFSD

School-to-Work Programs Launch Students into Careers, but Maybe Not Far Enough. Although the pathway has been a boon to rural employers, it can limit the mobility of recent graduates. bit.ly/4vAXymt

Colorado’s Small Rural Districts: A Potent Source of Education and Community. Overlooked and undervalued, three remote school districts show what could be possible with even more support from the state. bit.ly/3Ogx3SJ

The Battle Hymn of the Refugee Teacher: The explosive growth of classical education is luring teachers from traditional district schools—and reminding them why they became teachers in the first place. bit.ly/4tJmjeq