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How Kamala Harris Can Move to the Center on Education
The Democrats’ new presumptive nominee has an opportunity to embrace choice and insist on accountability. Josh Barro wrote earlier this week that Vice President Kamala Harris has the remarkable fortune to run in a general election without having staked out any unpopular positions in a Democratic primary—at least not since she ran for president five long years ago. That means she enjoys the ability to claim some positions in the political center that can address her weaknesses and boost her chances of victory. “Harris’s biggest political liability,” Barro argued, “is that she may be seen as too politically extreme, and she can reposition herself toward the center without penalty, if she is willing to do that.”
Jonathan Kozol’s Last Stand against School Inequality
Jonathan Kozol is a legend. His work is like an eclipse, casting a long shadow over the decisionmaking and motivations of many people I respect, admire, and have learned from. Writers love words and, in a recent New York Times interview, Kozol recounted that the poet Archibald MacLeish, who taught him at Harvard, encouraged him to use strong ones. “There is a tendency to assume that the extremes of expression are always wrong,” he said, “and that the truth, by its own preference, likes to live in the middle. It doesn’t always live in the middle.”
Fauci: The Expert on Top
“Experts should be on tap, not on top,” Winston Churchill advised. The adage leaped to mind while reading the self-indulgent memoir, On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service, by Anthony Fauci, M.D. Both the book’s title and the degree following the author’s name make it clear Fauci wants to be known as an expert, a professional, one best able to decide.
Post-Convention Thoughts on Republicans and Education
Previews of a second Trump term underestimate the import of the GOP’s NatCon takeover. Coming out of the Republican National Convention, in its fixation on the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 and the GOP platform, the education commentariat seems to be getting some big things wrong as it contemplates a possible second Trump administration. This isn’t unusual, given education’s progressive bent and the field’s inclination to caricature Republicans. But it’s especially significant, given that (as I write) RealClearPolling reports that the aggregated betting markets give Trump a 60% chance to claim the White House this fall.
The Education Exchange: Los Angeles Says No More Cell Phones in Class
Imminent phone ban by nation’s second-largest school district could be first domino to fall. Nick Melvoin, member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss LAUSD’s decision to ban cell phone use during the school day, which will take effect in January 2025.
Are AP Exams Getting Easier?
There’s reason to suspect that the gold standard for academic achievement is losing its shine. Three decades ago, the College Board “recentered” the SAT. Now, it’s “recalibrating” Advanced Placement. Though both adjustments in these enormously influential testing programs can be justified by psychometricians, both are also probable examples of what the late Senator Daniel P. Moynihan famously termed “defining deviancy down.”
Comparing the GOP Platform and Project 2025 on K–12 Education
While distinct in their details, both documents share commitments to a reduced federal role and universal school choice. Textbooks tell us that political parties pursue power, interest groups protect their welfare, and think tanks conduct research on policy-relevant topics. These distinctions have never been absolute. Historically, parties adopted platforms designed to win elections; think tanks have always had a partisan coloration. But lines that differentiate these types of political organizations blur today as never before.
Grade Inflation Sends AP Test Scores Soaring
College Board appears to be bowing to pressure to reduce failure rates. A “recalibration” of scores on the AP tests taken by hundreds of thousands of high school students means that this year, the share of students receiving top scores on some of the most commonly taken tests has roughly doubled.
The Education Exchange: More U.S., European Students in Special Education
Nina Thorup Dalgaard, a senior researcher at VIVE, The Danish Center for Social Science Research, joins the Education Exchange to discuss the rise in students receiving special education, and how meeting the individual needs of all those children has become more challenging.
Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative
A Brown University economist reflects on his early education in a rollicking new memoir. In a photograph of the John Marshall Harlan High School chess team, I stand in the lower right corner, smiling in a striped collared shirt. I appear to be looking just to the side of the camera. Compared to my six classmates, I look like a mere child who has somehow found his way into the picture. But my presence there is authentic. Due to a combination of intellectual precociousness and a registration error that led me to skip a year and a half of elementary school, I entered high school at age twelve.
The Hidden Role of K–12 Open-Enrollment Policies in U.S. Public Schools
Detailed data from three states shed light on opportunities and barriers. Open enrollment in public schools is a form of school choice that allows students to attend schools other than the one assigned to them by their school district. Though often less visible than policies such as charter schools, vouchers, and education savings accounts, K–12 open enrollment is rising in popularity across the nation, and 73 percent of school parents support it. As of 2023, 43 states permit or mandate some degree of open enrollment, but only 16 states have strong open-enrollment laws. Since 2021, 10 states have significantly improved their open-enrollment laws. For example, Idaho’s new law requires all school districts to participate in open enrollment and also establishes better program transparency.
What If Boys Like the “Wrong” Kind of History?
An Amazon box was on the porch the other day. (I get sent a lot of books. It’s a cool perk.) I pulled out five colorful, oversized paperbacks. Great Battles for Boys: The Korean War. Great Battles for Boys: The American Revolution. Great Battles for Boys: WW2 in Europe. And two more. I found the titles delightfully countercultural.
The Education Exchange: Are Teachers Paid Enough?
An ambitious Chicago union proposal would make city’s educators among highest compensated in U.S. Chad Aldeman, the founder of Read Not Guess, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss how teachers are paid, and how recent demands by the Chicago Teachers Union could impact the teacher salary landscape. Watch Aldeman’s...
Supreme Confusion in Oklahoma
Issues raised in state’s religious charter school case predestined to rise again. The Oklahoma Supreme Court on June 25 delivered its eagerly anticipated decision on whether the state could authorize an explicitly religious charter school. The court said no, resolving for now the issue in Oklahoma. But its inscrutable reasoning on the First Amendment’s establishment and free exercise clauses indicate that the U.S. Supreme Court will have to take up the issue—in either this case or one that will inevitably arise in another state.
The Education Exchange: Catholic Education at a Crossroads
Triumphant through the pandemic, Chicago’s Catholic schools face headwinds with the end of Illinois’s tax credit scholarship program. Greg Richmond, the superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Chicago, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the challenges Catholic schools have faced through the years, and how they are navigating the current school choice landscape.
Brookings Misleads Readers Again in Arizona ESA Rebuttal
Selective categorizing of participants clouds who benefits from distinct programs. Earlier this month I exposed the critical flaw in a recent Brookings Institution report that purported to show that Arizona families participating in the state’s K–12 education savings accounts (ESA) policy are disproportionately wealthy. The Brookings researchers had...
Next-Gen Classroom Observations, Powered by AI
Let’s go to the videotape to improve instruction and classroom practice. As is typical for edtech hype, the initial burst of enthusiasm for artificial intelligence in education focused on student-facing applications. Products like IXL, Zearn, and Khan Academy’s chatbot Khanmigo could take on the heavy lifting and personalize instruction for every kid! Who needs tutors, or even teachers, when kids can learn from machines?
Has a Glitchy Chatbot Taken Over a Major Education Research Organization?
An extensive preview of AERA’s 2025 national conference suggests so. Earlier this year, I shared my fear that a glitchy chatbot had seized control of a major education research journal. The editors’ torrent of inhuman gibberish made it hard to imagine that real people were still pulling the strings.
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Education Next aims to provide news and research to bring evidence to bear on current education policy. Bold change is needed in American education, but Education Next partakes of no program, campaign, or ideology. It goes where the evidence points.
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