All Research
Op-Ed
Snow Excuses
The past few years have featured a lot of hand-wringing about chronic absenteeism and the insanity of extended pandemic school closures. Most everyone now agrees that academic growth, social development, and mental health call for…
Op-Ed
AI in K–12: A New Year Reality Check for School Leaders
Educators have a lot of questions about AI. Well, when I want practical insight on ed tech, I frequently turn to the ever-thoughtful Michael Horn—lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School…
Op-Ed
Can School Reform Be Bipartisan Again?
Mike Petrilli, the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, recently launched a new Substack, SCHOOLED, that he hopes might help foster common ground on issues like accountability, charter schooling, gifted education,…
Op-Ed
Parent-School Partnerships Can Drive Academic Gains. Here’s How
A couple of years ago, in The Great School Rethink, I wrote at some length about the need to reimagine the parent-teacher partnership. In our era of chronic absenteeism, rampant misbehavior,…
Op-Ed
Finding Common Ground on Trump’s College Compact
As with so much in 2025, the Trump administration’s proposed “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” provoked predictably tribal reactions from college leaders and politicians. As predictable? What risks…
Op-Ed
What Could the New Federal Tuition Tax Credit Mean for School Choice?
Education savings accounts, tax-credit scholarships, vouchers, charter schools, home schooling, tutoring, course choice, dual degrees, and microschools are transforming K–12. In “Talking Choice,” Ashley Berner and I try to make…
Op-Ed
How Can Education Savings Accounts Serve Students with Special Needs?
As education savings account (ESA) laws have been adopted by a number of states in the past few years, many observers have wondered how these work in practice. One huge area of…
Article
The Southern Surge in Education
It’s been a grim stretch for America’s schools. Reading and math achievement are in a decade-long swoon. This year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) yielded the worst fourth-grade reading outcomes…
Op-Ed
How One State Improved Its NAEP Scores
The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress results had a lot of bad news, but there were some scattered bright spots. Louisiana was one of them. In fact, the…
Op-Ed
Let’s Open the Black Box of Selective College Admissions
The aftermath of the 2023 Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA) has put a spotlight on the capriciousness of admissions practices at selective colleges. In SFFA, the Supreme…
Op-Ed
Two Cheers for California’s Ban on Legacy Admissions
Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a new statewide ban on legacy admissions. It bars all colleges and universities, public or private, from taking into consideration an applicant’s relationship…
Op-Ed
A Unified Theory of Education
…worthy of this great nation. That’s where a unified theory just might help. Frederick M. Hess is the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Michael Q….