News

30 Ideas for Fixing U.S. Schools, Ranked by Experts

September 28, 2026

U.S. schools are facing a daunting problem. Students simply can’t read or do math as well as they used to. Student test scores have declined over the last decade, in an academic slump that started before the pandemic and has continued since. Compared with...

Pilot, Test, and Assess Ideas First

September 25, 2026

Pilot, test, assess. It's not the obvious answer to the question: How do we help students succeed? But as far as Professor Tom Kane is concerned, it’s one of the best answers. When asked why, he says, “Because student behavior and teacher behavior are...

Back to School Advice for Teachers

August 30, 2026

As students across the country head back to school, CEPR Executive Director Christina Grant joined NBC News to offer advice to teachers and parents on how to kick the year off right, from making a positive first contact to communicating through the year...

Growing debate as major school district scales back screen time

August 15, 2026

See more at nbcnews.com

Accountability Works. Outcomes-Based Contracting Makes It Work Better

August 06, 2026

As John Adams observed, “facts are stubborn things.” The facts, as education policy writer Chad Aldeman recently observed, are that No Child Left Behind coincided with some of the fastest achievement gains on record for Black, Hispanic and low-income...

Inside the MORE Field Lab: How a Unique Research-Practice Partnership is Improving Implementation in Year Two

July 10, 2026

As World Cup festivities filled Boston this July, the READS Lab hosted a different kind of celebration: a Summer Leadership Institute (SLI) that brought together seven district partners from across the country to share exciting results from their first...

SLS Summer 2026 Newsletter

June 17, 2026

Dear friends, It’s been a busy season for States Leading States as the weather has warmed up! Last month, I had the opportunity to attend the 2026 Strategic Data Project (SDP) Convening in Cambridge, and it reminded me how hard so many people are working...

Younger Students’ Test Scores Bounce Back After the Pandemic

June 10, 2026

After years of dire test scores coming out of the pandemic, new national test results released on Wednesday offered a glimmer of hope — at least for younger students. The nation’s 9-year-olds, who were in preschool when the pandemic hit, have made a...

Schools Must Do the Hard Work If High-Dosage Tutoring Is to Help Every Student

May 27, 2026

There is a temptation in education to abandon projects rapidly and instead chase a new solution as a magic bullet for improving student outcomes. Too often, when an investment doesn’t have an instant payoff, it’s abandoned for the next shiny thing. New...

Christina Grant

What's behind the decade-long 'learning recession' for American students

May 22, 2026

William Brangham: As the school year is coming to a close, a new analysis shines yet another harsh spotlight on what's being called a learning recession for America's students. And it's a problem that started long before the pandemic. That's according to...

Tom Kane has tracked years of U.S. test scores. Here’s what he’s learned — and still can’t explain.

May 21, 2026

Just about everyone in education is trying to figure out why student achievement has been declining and how to raise it back up. If anyone would know the answer it might be Tom Kane, a Harvard University professor who has been poring over data on student...

Kids' test scores began declining way before COVID. These schools are making gains

May 13, 2026

The pandemic-era backslide in math and reading scores for students across the U.S. was not a sudden catastrophe but the continuation of a brutal, decade-long "learning recession" that began years before COVID-19's arrival. That's according to the latest...