The Cost of Over-Teaching Phonics: In teaching reading, don’t miss the forest for the trees. bit.ly/4vgRsaI

Education Innovation and the Search for Transformational Solution-ness: Paul Banksley argues for the freedom to paint in shades of pastel possibility. bit.ly/4vasZny

"School leaders at the wealthiest public middle school in the nation’s capital told parents that reading short passages will better prepare students for high school. The rationale for this change fails even a basic smell test." bit.ly/4qRUG26

Universities are perceived ideologically biased and extremist, but the data paints a different picture. Hoover's Paola Sapienza discusses how political opinions are represented on colleges, with more students closer to the center than not. Listen to the conversation via @educationnext.bsky.social

“We talk endlessly about the deficits K–12 and college students have in learning, skills, and finances. We talk much less about the missing ingredient that converts credentials into a career: social capital.” bit.ly/4brLwCO

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

"For many years, education researchers have puzzled over a common phenomenon known as the 'fadeout effect'—that is, that the benefits of education interventions, such as early childhood enrichment programs, often diminish or disappear." bit.ly/3OaOdAJ

Hot Takes on AI and Education: Sorting through the brilliance, the buzz, and the bluster. bit.ly/41AhdVX

The Classical Learning Test Takes Aim at the SAT–ACT Duopoly: The upstart assessment is making inroads in the college admissions game. bit.ly/4bMiNJb

How Democrats Lost the Plot on Schools—and How to Get It Back. Despite polling showing progressives maintain a slight edge on education, public trust in the party has plummeted. bit.ly/3PyAYKQ

Rediscovering Knowledge as the Key to Reading: Two champions of knowledge-rich instruction reflect on its current momentum. bit.ly/4t562jF

The Consequences of Shattered Trust: Populism, identity politics, school closures, and financial irresponsibility have taken their toll on public confidence in American education. bit.ly/4bsWsS2

"Central Wake is a small public charter school that provides a personalized approach to learning for students who have dropped out of high school or are on the verge of doing so." bit.ly/4l5CgIZ

The Dumbing Down of Advanced Placement Tests: High school grade inflation imposes long-term harms, new research shows. bit.ly/3P7FFey

The Social Wealth Gap: Many students lack the social connections that lead to better outcomes. Schools can help make them. bit.ly/4brLwCO

No Homework? No Problem. Eminent ed school dean Smug Snidely sees the decline in take-home assignments as allowing students more time to be their authentic selves. bit.ly/4sdywrF

Restorative Justice Didn’t Deliver. Why? Teachers say focusing on students’ social and emotional wellbeing to address discipline has left classrooms harder to manage than ever. bit.ly/4bpa3Zi

Don’t Just Fight Teen Screen Time—Fund the Alternatives. A solution for the Anxious Generation is hiding in plain sight: Education Freedom Accounts. bit.ly/4lpXm4T

Logged In, Tuned Out: Fifteen years and billions of dollars later, what has learning tech accomplished? bit.ly/4bbVQyB

Will the Science of Reading Deliver This Time? It’s one bandwagon that might be worth jumping on, but it’ll need to steer around some potholes. bit.ly/4swv1w5

Don’t Call Them the Underdogs: New film gives competitive students of Washington Urban Debate League their due and others hope for the future of civic engagement. bit.ly/47csGOG

School Choice or School Spending? Florida’s 15-Year Experiment Points to the Answer. Scaling choice in the Sunshine State is found to be at least 11 times more cost effective in improving public school student performance than simply spending more. https://bit.ly/4siiFaQ

At-Risk Students Get Second Chance at North Carolina Charter School: Drop-out recovery program lends connection, support, and a better shot at success. bit.ly/4l5CgIZ

The Education Exchange: Virtual Learning Must Be a Choice, Not the Only Option. Unfairly blamed for pandemic learning losses, digital instruction boasts many unsung benefits. bit.ly/3MXcLgc

We Need to Talk More About What Makes a Book Good: From the classics to contemporary YA fiction, enthusiasts fail to separate the wheat from the chaff. bit.ly/4biaIN7

Carl Hendrick reviews "The Digital Delusion" by Jared Cooney Horvath for Education Next. https://bit.ly/4to85AF

Fuller Opportunities: A new film chronicles the life of Howard Fuller: leader, activist, radical, and school choice champion. bit.ly/4ciChXQ

The Slant on Teaching Cursive Fails to Convince: Two new states mandate cursive instruction but overstate its benefits. bit.ly/4tSkCwt

The (Un)Dead Anti-Voucher Legal Precedent: Twenty years later, Florida Supreme Court’s defunct decision in Bush v. Holmes refuses to die. bit.ly/40t0IdF

Do Campus Monocultures Create Groupthink? Recent studies show how ideology can shade all corners of the academy, even the findings of quantitative researchers. bit.ly/4rZ1xXs

Tailor your EdNext experience with daily and weekly emails: https://bit.ly/3FT6aQc

"School leaders at the wealthiest public middle school in the nation’s capital told parents that reading short passages will better prepare students for high school. The rationale for this change fails even a basic smell test." https://bit.ly/4qRUG26

"The authors say their review offers important guidance for SEL decision-making. A closer look reveals reasons to be cautious about the very confident conclusions now circulating in the media." bit.ly/4qZHDvc

What American Education Reformers Can Learn from England: Conservative education minister’s new book offers a roadmap for aligning practice to evidence. bit.ly/4rpR2wt

Many Families Choose Public Schools Other Than Their Assigned Ones: An analysis of 27 states and Washington, D.C. shows open enrollment is increasingly an attractive public school choice. bit.ly/4kE9b7c

The Education Exchange: School Boards Have a Bigger Impact on Outcomes Than You Think. Board members’ policy priorities, not their identities, are most consequential for students. bit.ly/4aTseae

Nation’s Report Card in Civics Getting a Makeover: Public input and a new kind of state participation needed. bit.ly/3MGzlcX

AI Didn’t Destroy Critical Thinking. We Did. Now educators must think critically about how to use these transformational tools to help students learn. bit.ly/4arLWZh

Why Do Most Education Interventions Fade Out Over Time? There is evidence both to explain and complicate the “fadeout effect” bit.ly/3OaOdAJ

Behavioral Activation Is the Phonics of Therapy: To the chagrin of professionals who dedicate careers to complex solutions, sometimes the simplest intervention is the most effective. bit.ly/3ZvrXEc

A Latter-Day Luddite Pulls the Plug on EdTech: New book argues it’s not the tools we use but the values we hold that make the difference in education. bit.ly/4to85AF

The Education Exchange: Charter Schools and Historically Black Colleges Join Forces with Philanthropic Support. bit.ly/4ah9Czy

Snow Excuses: Education leaders reveal a clear double standard by insisting students should be in school while making little effort to keep schools open. bit.ly/4tkgGUJ

The Hidden Conformity of Standing Out: Students seeking admission to selective schools face the dilemma of trying to get noticed for identical distinctions. bit.ly/49ZbdLt

"We live in an age of vast written content, even as video seems to command ever more of our attention." bit.ly/4qRUG26

M. Danish Shakeel, a Professor and the director of the E. G. West Centre for Education Policy at The University of Buckingham, is this week's guest on the Education Exchange podcast. bit.ly/3ZgpTQf

The Science of Memory Goes to School: The distinction between what is true and what we remember complicates the work of education. bit.ly/3OiLwNp

The Culture War on Repeat: Half a century of battles over what schools teach have generated more outrage than improvement. bit.ly/4akcYmC

It's not too late to check out Education Next's Top 20 Articles of 2025: bit.ly/4av2mlu

Reading to Your Kids is Far More Than a Routine: Family reading invites conversation, creates an intellectual community. bit.ly/3Z5Zgxk