1. The Education Wake-Up Call
READ: The latest NAEP results confirm long-standing concerns: pandemic recovery has been inadequate and achievement gaps are widening. Low expectations, high absenteeism, and a lack of rigorous academic opportunities are leaving students unprepared for the future. Robin Lake took to the pages of The 74 to argue that it’s time for drastic change:
If you have been paying attention, the NAEP results should not shock you. What should shock you is that education systems are not, on the whole, changing course. Isn’t the very definition of insanity doing the same things while expecting different results?
The data are clear. Young kids are not catching up. Gaps were widening even before the pandemic. The crisis is real, and it is not going away on its own. Believing the NAEP results means acting on them. Hope is not a strategy. Strong leadership, political courage and a commitment to evidence-based reforms are the only paths forward.
Read more here.
2. Why Men Skip Teaching
READ: Male teachers are becoming increasingly rare. Only about one in four public school teachers identify as a man, compared to nearly one in three in past decades. Schools struggle to attract male educators due to factors like lower salaries and societal perceptions of teaching as a secondary-earner profession. Research suggests boys could benefit from more male role models in the classroom:
A 2006 study found that male teachers were less likely to see boys as disruptive. A 2017 paper showed that students had “more positive perceptions of their teachers” when they shared a gender. A few studies have also linked male teachers to improved learning among boys, though others haven’t found such a clear connection.
Read more from Matt Barnum and Paul Overberg in The Wall Street Journal here.
3. Trump Rolls Back Title IX
READ/LISTEN: The Trump administration has rolled back Title IX protections for gender identity in schools, reverting to the 2020 regulations under former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. This shift follows a federal judge’s ruling that overturned Biden-era Title IX rules, which had expanded protections for transgender students. Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor stated that Title IX enforcement will now align with Trump’s executive order defining sex as strictly male or female:
“President Trump ordered all agencies and departments within the Executive Branch to ‘enforce all sex-protective laws to promote [the] reality’ that there are ‘two sexes, male and female,’ and that “[t]hese sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality,” Trainor wrote. “Title IX must be enforced consistent with President Trump’s order.”
While Trainor’s guidance lacks the force of law, it signals how the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights will handle future investigations. Read more from Andrew Ujifusa in Chalkbeat here. I spoke with Title IX expert Dan Schorr about the future of Biden’s regulations for an episode of Lost Debate last year. Listen here.
4. Education Grants in Limbo
READ: The Trump administration’s now-reversed freeze on federal spending temporarily disrupted Head Start and other discretionary grants this week. While a federal judge has blocked the freeze, it’s still left programs scrambling:
Providers said they could not get into the payment management system that they use to request funds and get reimbursement. These funds, which must be spent within two days of when they are requested, are used for everything from staff salaries to utility bills, said Donna Davidson, president and CEO of Easter Seals North Georgia, which is a Head Start provider.
“If this doesn’t correct itself fairly quickly, we’re going to have to close,” Davidson said. “We are hoping that this was an error, but we’re already on Tuesday, payroll is on Friday, [and] we have to be able to draw down that money to make payroll.”
Read more from Hannah Natanson, Laura Meckler, Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, Susan Svrluga and Amanda Morris in The Washington Post here.
5. SCOTUS and the Future of Charter Schools
READ: Michael J. Petrilli took a closer look at the Supreme Court’s decision to hear a case on whether states that allow secular charter schools must also permit religious charter schools. If the Court rules in favor of religious inclusion, religious charter schools could become legal in 46 states:
I suspect we’ll see thousands of Catholic and other religious schools turn into charter schools in every corner of the country in the next year or two. But that’s not a foregone conclusion, for a few reasons. For one, some state charter laws make it hard for private schools (even non-religious ones) to “convert” to charter status, though those challenges can probably be overcome. More importantly, states, districts, and authorizers that don’t want religious charter schools might decide to stop approving new charters altogether. Unless the Court rules that such a move itself amounts to religious discrimination, it would be a disaster for the charter school sector—and is what has charter advocacy leaders, who oppose religious charters, understandably worried.
Read more in Education Next here.
6. Culture Wars Drain Schools
READ: A 2024 UCLA report estimates that culture war conflicts cost U.S. school districts $3.2 billion in the 2023–2024 school year. Superintendents from 467 districts reported increased expenses due to legal fees, security, and staff turnover linked to debates over critical race theory, book bans, and gender issues. High-conflict districts faced especially steep costs:
"Again and again, we heard stories of sizable expenses related to all this tumult—the money schools and school systems needed to spend on these issues….meant less money was available for other educational priorities," the report reads. "Across rural, suburban, and urban areas and in communities of all political persuasions, we heard that these costs could be sizable, and that they were meaningfully impacting the quality of education students received."
Read more from Emma Camp in Reason here.
7. Displaced by Fire
READ: Children who fled the Los Angeles fires left behind homes, schools, and treasured belongings, carrying only a few stuffed animals, blankets, and essentials. Families now live in temporary housing, navigating online learning and uncertainty about the future. Alyce McFadden and Isabelle Taft at The New York Times spoke with ten children who lost their homes in the fire:
Jet’s mom says he has been really upset. When she asked him about the fire, he buried his head in the cushions of their new couch.
“It’s broken,” he said. “Mommy’s house.”
Lily misses driving to school with Alessandra and Yasmine, and stopping at Starbucks along the way.
“Our whole lives, we’ve been looking forward to going to high school together,” Lily said. “It’s just sad.”
Remote learning reminds Abigail of the pandemic, when she was in middle school. This time, it feels worse. Back then, middle schoolers all across the country were in the same boat.
“It was fine in Covid because it was everybody. But now it’s just one school,” she said.
Read more here.