Teachers generally like teaching. They stay in their chosen profession about as long as accountants or social workers stay in theirs.  Teachers may not get rich, but they live comfortably middle-class lives. Plus, teachers get to retire a couple of years earlier than other workers.  Those are some of the positive narratives that policymakers need...

Anyone who sells products to public schools can tell you education is a huge market. Schools spend billions of dollars annually on contracts for everything from HVAC maintenance to technology services and tutoring. Almost all agree to pay vendors for goods or services rendered, not for the student outcomes they produce. But, as I wrote...

Alabama recently deployed math coaches to low-performing schools; New Jersey is creating new statewide civics and history assessments; and California leaders are planning major investments in professional development to turn around achievement declines. Those are all efforts fueled by data from the Nation’s Report Card to close learning gaps worsened by the pandemic. It’s encouraging...

When K-12 schools closed their doors for in-person instruction in spring 2020, it had a variety of negative effects on students and teachers. It also shut off the training opportunities for future educators.  In response, states instituted a variety of short-term waivers allowing candidates to teach without fulfilling their normal requirements. Those policies helped candidates...

Each year, the ed tech company I work for, HMH, conducts a survey designed to understand the obstacles and opportunities teachers and administrators experience. This year’s Educator Confidence Report revealed new insights into how more than 1,200 K-12 teachers are feeling about the profession overall, as well as their attitudes toward generative artificial intelligence —...

Public education is at an inflection point in the campaign for learning recovery. The average eighth grader is an entire school year behind, according to national data, and students in underserved communities continue to face the biggest setbacks in the wake of COVID. Many students have regressed since 2021, even after returning to fully in-person...

Many kids are not going to school. That’s the takeaway from the abundant headlines warning about the escalating epidemic of chronic absenteeism that has worsened since 2020.  The 74’s Linda Jacobson reported earlier this fall on various efforts by school districts to address rising rates of chronic absenteeism. These include districts sending robocalls with the voice of...

This essay was originally published as part of the Center on Reinventing Public Education’s 2023 “State of the American Student” report. As part of the effort, CRPE asked 14 experts from various sectors to offer up examples of innovations, solutions or possible paths forward as education leaders navigate the current crisis. (See all the perspectives)  Countless...

In a new Aspen Economic Strategy Group report, Jonathan Guryan and Jens Ludwig argue schools are bungling the rollout of high-dosage tutoring: “When schools are faced with the possibility of change, they tend to do fewer of the hard things that will help students and more of the easier things.” Schools won’t change the schedule, they...

There is not one American public education system; the U.S. is a collection of 50 states, and those states have chosen to deliver public education using very different approaches. These choices manifest themselves in a variety of ways, including how much money states provide for their public schools, how many people work in those schools...