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April 4, 2025
How One State Improved Its NAEP Scores
…through school. This cannot continue to be the case. We must go back to teaching foundational skills in math and place a greater emphasis on mathematical fluency. Society talks about…
March 28, 2025
Cracking the Code Behind Dismal 8th Grade Reading Scores
…or materials. A recent RAND research survey of teachers in grades 3-8 found that 44 percent of their students “always or nearly always experience difficulty” reading the content of their instructional materials….
March 20, 2025
To Transform K-12 Education, the Trump Administration Should Measure What Matters
…states saw a decrease in scores from 2019 to 2024 in 8th-grade math. Tennessee, the sole exception, showed no change at all. To help analyze results, NAEP is legally required to collect…
March 12, 2025
Why Alabama Needs The Success Sequence
…family stability (the share of teens raised in an intact family). This matters because states with higher levels of stability have better outcomes for children, such as higher educational attainment and…
February 7, 2025
Low-Performing Students Fall Farther Behind the Pack
…including subject-matter knowledge, application of such knowledge to real-world situations, and analytical skills appropriate to the subject matter.” Grade 4 students reaching the proficient level should be able to describe…
January 21, 2025
How Trump Can Permanently Fix the Student Loan Program
…surrender on loan cancellation means the momentum on this matter is with Trump and his new administration. They have a golden opportunity to fix the student loan program for good….
December 17, 2024
Make America Smart Again: The Jeopardy Test for Graduation
…that high school graduates have mastered key subjects has fallen out of fashion. This month’s results of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study are the latest bad news on that…
November 14, 2024
The Rotting of the College Board
…and Andover to Harvard and Yale had once meant that university administrators had a pretty good idea of what they were getting when students matriculated. Maybe some were mediocre students…
November 14, 2024
Florida, the Forgotten Education-Reform Star
…the authors note, no other state matched Florida’s NAEP results in fourth-grade math among students eligible for free lunch. But perhaps most significantly, Florida ranks third nationally in fourth-grade reading…
June 18, 2024
A Unified Theory of Education
…focusing on results that match the model. Second, good educational institutions are voluntary. Government agencies don’t spin the same webs of support that voluntary organizations do. Bureaucratic routines and electronic…