The teacher shortage is a crisis unfolding at the district, state and federal levels, worsening student learning and threatening the stability of schools– with no end in sight. In Illinois, 5,300 classroom positions went unfilled in 2022, the highest percentag... More »
As the Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said, “All students deserve access to safe, supportive schools and classrooms.” Today, these privileges remain out of reach for many. Since the 1990s, disciplinary action and exclusionary policies have widened racia... More »
Jack Markell served as the governor of Delaware from 2009 to 2017, Throughout this period, education reform was an important part of his work. In fact, during Governor Markell’s first term, Delaware was chosen as one of the first two states to receive competit... More »
As American political rhetoric becomes more and more partisan, debates around public education have become increasingly divisive. From Betsy DeVos’s support for charter schools to nationwide protests by public teachers demanding higher pay, disagreement abound... More »
In recent years, educators and policymakers have expanded the conversation around student success by moving beyond standardized test scores. Social-emotional learning (SEL), in particular, has emerged as an important factor in student outcomes. The use of non-... More »
School closure can be a jarring process for students, families and communities. Over the past decade, school closures have become a lightning rod, sparking debate across the country. These closures raise several key questions, including where students go after... More »
Since the introduction of the Kalamazoo Public School District’s Promise Scholarship Program in 2005, public school districts across the country have announced similar initiatives, offering college scholarships for students who have attended its public schools... More »
Arguments supporting private management of schools date back to the founding of the United States and have reflected a variety of ideological positions. The call for privatization policies like school vouchers intensified in the mid-20th century due largely to... More »
Gifted programs in U.S. schools help many students find the sort of academic success that opens the door to opportunities later in life. A recent Vanderbilt University study explores the depths of inequality in the assignment of black students to gifted progra... More »
Improving the quality of education worldwide continues to be a policy challenge. Recently, UNESCO estimated that 38 percent of children have not mastered the basics of reading and math, although over half of them have been in school for four years. One of the ... More »
Just 30 miles north of Boston on the Merrimack River is the city of Lawrence, Massachusetts. This industrial metropolitan area is home to almost 80,000 people, with a median household income of $32,851 and a poverty rate of 29.2 percent. Almost 40 percent of r... More »
In her paper, Amber L. Brown evaluates whether there is a difference in the school readiness of children born to teenage mothers versus children born to average-age mothers participating in the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) progr... More »