1. My Plan for a Better Education System
LISTEN: As the battle over the future of education continues to heat up, I took a step back this week and talked about what an ideal K-12 system in the U.S. would look like if I were to design it from the ground up. I cover everything from what’s working and what policymakers and educators have gotten wrong to the bold, forward-thinking innovations that can best serve students in a rapidly changing world:
Listen to the full episode here. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the episode - leave a comment below or send me a note at lostdebate@thebranchmedia.org.
2. The Gender Gap in Education Leadership
READ: Women Leading Ed released a new survey this week that shows over 80% of female superintendents and top district leaders experience gender bias, including being scrutinized more than men and expected to conform to rigid professional standards. Many report delaying family plans, being overlooked for promotions, and feeling pressure to obtain advanced degrees to compete with male counterparts. They also report feeling external pressure to dress, speak, or behave a certain way:
“No one will take you seriously with a ponytail. No one will take you seriously if you aren’t wearing a suit,” Candace Standberry-Robertson, executive director of system-wide programming for NOLA Public Schools in New Orleans, wrote. Sometimes casual attire is more appropriate for the tasks that come with her position, she said. “Who wants to be all dolled up and sweaty while delivering boxes of instructional materials to schools?”
Read more from Linda Jacobson in The 74 here.
3. Blue States’ Steep Slide
READ: Michael Hartney and Paul E. Peterson took a closer look at the politicization of school closures during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and NAEP data from 2019 to 2024. What they found was that students in blue states, often where schools were closed longer, suffered steeper declines in math and reading than those in red states. While factors like union influence, school choice, and federal funding may have played a role, Hartney and Peterson argue extended closures are the most plausible cause of these disparities — and that leaders must take long-term educational impact into account when weighing future responses to public health concerns:
Some might wish to celebrate the decline in long-standing geographical disparities in achievement between red and blue states. But most will be alarmed that so many U.S. students suffered such a severe decline from the pandemic, producing losses that remain sizeable four years after the Covid outbreak in math—and in reading now show signs of further slippage.
If our results are validated by further research, the policy implications are immense. The risk of pandemics remains great. Should such a dreadful event occur again in the future, governments will, we hope, realize they need to balance short-term public health consequences against long-term educational ones.
Read more in Education Next here.
4. Chaos at Department of Education
READ/LISTEN: Laura Meckler and Hannah Natanson at The Washington Post reported on the Department of Education’s abrupt termination of nearly 90 contracts worth $900 million this week. Led by DOGE, the cuts include vital programs like the Common Core of Data, financial aid research, and education practice guides, leaving experts and staff in disarray. But to what end? Some education experts say that DOGE may have overstated the financial benefits of these cuts:
Nat Malkus, a senior fellow at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, pulled data on the canceled contracts that suggested DOGE overstated the cost of some of them. He also found that, in many cases, contractors are already several years into their agreements, so a lot of the money has been spent already. His preliminary calculations show that the actual savings may be half as much as DOGE claims, or less.
Malkus’s concern is that agreements were canceled without careful consideration, and for less of a benefit than advertised.
“There’s a lot of bloat in IES. There’s a lot of problems to be solved,” he said. “These are problems you solve with a scalpel and maybe a hatchet, but not a bulldozer.”
Read more here. Chris and Kate also discussed the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education on this week’s episode of the Citizen Stewart Show. Listen here.
5. Universal Pre-K’s Growing Impact
READ: Vox’s Anna North welcomed in preschool application season by doing a deep dive into the impact of universal pre-k programs. Universal preschool has expanded nationwide thanks to bipartisan backing, boosting school readiness and family economic stability. Yet despite record-high enrollment, funding gaps and quality inconsistencies persist, and federal policies remain unpredictable. North says parents have become accustomed to preschool and won’t give it up without a fight:
New York City has had free, universal preschool for 4-year-olds since 2014, and then-Mayor Bill de Blasio promised that universal “3-K” for 3-year-olds would be next. But his successor, Eric Adams, backed away from that goal, and last year, about 2,500 kids whose families applied did not get a 3-K offer.
Parents pushed back, signing petitions and calling their council members. All families who applied ultimately received offers that year (though some spent time on wait lists), and the mayor reversed some planned cuts to the program’s budget, said Rebecca Bailin, founder and executive director of the advocacy group New Yorkers United for Child Care. “It is a real proof of concept, that organizing on this issue was broadly popular,” Bailin told me.
Read more here.
6. Fixing Virginia’s Report Card “Honesty Gap”
READ: Most parents believe their child is performing at or above grade level, but actual data shows only about half of students meet grade-level expectations. Report cards often mislead parents by factoring in participation, attendance, and effort rather than purely academic mastery. Bibb Hubbard and Cindi Williams shared more about Virginia’s plan to address the report card “honesty gap” with a new accountability model that includes fall and winter growth assessments, a literacy screner for young students, and an online platform categorizing schools based on performance:
This focus on improving teacher-parent communication is particularly important in light of the disruptions caused by COVID-19. Many children have faced significant learning setbacks, making it essential for schools and families to work together to help them recover. And, in a recent survey , parents said that they trust communication from their child’s teacher more than any other indicator of student performance.
Research from Learning Heroes shows that when parents know their child is struggling academically, they take specific actions. One of the primary actions they take is talking with their teacher. Parents who know their child is behind stack rank academics above paying the bills and concerns about social media. But they cannot help solve a problem they do not know they have.
Read more in The 74 here.
7. Michigan’s Teacher First Housing
READ: In northwest Michigan, high housing costs have forced educators like Chandra Fles into extreme situations, including living in tents. To address this crisis, local school leaders and lawmakers have launched Michigan’s first subsidized educator housing project, aiming to build 144 affordable units. The initiative, funded partly by a $5 million state allocation, seeks to attract and retain teachers struggling with the region’s high rental costs—and local officials say this is just the beginning:
Rep. Betsy Coffia, a Democrat from Traverse City who helped secure the northwest Michigan project’s initial funding, said it’s an “innovative” way to approach a problem that spans wider than the education system.
The lack of available and affordable housing in her district impacts every sector of its workforce, she said.
“I don’t think the end of the road needs to be a company town situation where your boss owns your housing,” said Coffia. “I think the bigger approach should include looking at how restrictive zoning keeps us from building the kinds of housing we need.”
Read more from Hannah Dellinger at Chalkbeat here.