Education Next

Noelle McAffee, a philosophy professor at Emory University, and two colleagues were arrested by university police in April 2024 during pro-Palestine protests on campus. The three faculty members filed a complaint against their university, arguing that Emory violated its own free expression policy. Every week seems to bring a new controversy regarding suspected or confirmed violations of academic freedom. Why are these conflicts so common? We think the answer is at least partly tha

“Did you know my school was bad like this when you decided to put me here?” Najya asked her mother, Nikole Hannah-Jones, the New York Times reporter and creator of the bestselling book and television series The 1619 Project. Najya was enrolled in the Urban Assembly Unison School, a low-performing New York City middle school. “You know what I am talking about. We looked up our school! We saw the test scores. We saw the ratings,” Najya continued, growing agitated. “So you had money to send me to o

High school students in Viveiro in Galicia, Spain, sit for the Selectivity or University Entrance Examinations on July 7, 2020—an exception granted to a mandated nationwide shutdown to mitigate the spread of Covid-19. The Covid-19 pandemic led to an unprecedented disruption to schooling worldwide, causing learning losses that students in many places have yet to overcome. The setbacks children experienced could damage their future job prospects and earning power and hamper their su

Midterm elections are often tough for the party that controls the White House. That’s especially true for Republicans this year, with inflation up and Trump’s poll numbers way down. Signs of a potential blue wave are evident in the generic ballot and projections for key races. Five weeks from Election Day, betting markets predict that Democrats will claim both houses of Congress. Last week, Nate Silver marveled, “Polls for Republicans are just getting worse by the day in a way that isn’t actuall

In 2024, Laurence Holt of the XQ Institute wrote in this publication about “The 5 Percent Problem,” a term that quickly became common parlance within the ed-tech zeitgeist (see “The 5 Percent Problem,” features, Fall 2024). Holt argued that when it comes to measuring the student-learning outcomes of various ed-tech programs, the results often only apply to the 5 percent of students who “used the program as intended. The other 95 percent see minimal gains, if any.” Holt’s primary focus was on on

I just finished a new book with USC’s Pedro Noguera. (It’ll be out next April.) It’s got me reflecting on how odd the education discourse has gotten. But let me back up a bit. In 2020, Pedro and I penned our book A Search for Common Ground. It consisted of a back-and-forth correspondence that played out while the nation was paralyzed by Covid-19 and rocked by the killing of George Floyd. Reasoned, respectful debate was in short supply. Even before the pandemic, it had gotten damn hard to tackle

The Education Exchange · Ep. 461 – Sept. 21, 2026 – California Eyes a Big Change in School Governance Michael Kirst, professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss a recently passed law that gives California’s governor more power over education in the state. Follow The Education Exchange on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or here on Education Next. — Education Next TranscriptFull transc

When I taught high school in Virginia in the early 2020s, I was only vaguely aware of the existence of something called “portrait of a graduate.” Whatever this portrait was, it didn’t seem to impact my daily work, so it didn’t capture my attention. On the other hand, I knew my IB courses and our state assessments backward and forward. Those shaped what we did in the classroom. Since then, portraits of a graduate (or, sometimes, of a learner) have spread to at least 26 states, plus many more dist

Teacher Kara Semtner leads her 6th grade science class at Normal Park Upper School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in a game on the first day of school in 2015. The state’s teacher tenure reform law was passed in 2011. For the better part of a century, most public school teachers in the United States were paid according to rigid “step and lane” systems, with pay and tenure based on education and years of experience. Meanwhile, performance evaluations were infrequent, did not include me

The pushback on AI and data centers is widespread and real, but parents seem a lot less worried about the devices that have overrun their kids’ classrooms. For all the attention to the recent Meta litigation and the push to ban cell phones in schools, parents haven’t urged educators to resist the cascade of ed tech represented by Chromebooks, iPads, Canvas, i-Ready, and Kahoot. If anything, they have welcomed these devices and programs into their children’s education and daily lives. As I noted

The Education Exchange · Ep. 460 – Sept. 14, 2026 – Can Microschoolers, Homeschoolers Receive Federal Tax Credit Scholarships? It’s Complicated. Angela R. Watson, a senior research fellow at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss how regulations with the new Federal Scholarship Tax Credit may exclude home schools and microschools. The Emerging School Models: Broadening the Landscape for Choice conference will be held by the

Advocates of Australia’s Online Safety Amendment Act, restricting the use of social media platforms by children under 16, project “Let them be kids” on the Sydney Harbour Bridge on December 10, 2025, the day the legislation took effect. Since it was published two years ago, Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation has made, we believe, a huge contribution by sounding the alarm on teen screentime. Haidt’s been active endorsing solutions: parents shouldn’t permit smartphones until ag

A Head Start center in Baltimore, Maryland, was one of about 1,600 in operation across the U.S. as of late 2025. A proposed overhaul to the program by Health and Human Services is intended to give more local control over Head Start programs, but budget cuts could result in the closure of some centers. This summer, the Trump administration announced plans to overhaul the $12 billion federal Head Start program. The plan has sparked fierce debate, with fiery critiques from Democrats

The Education Exchange · Ep. 459 – Sept. 8, 2026 – The Little School Sector That Roared Dan Hamlin, the dean of the College of Education at the University of Texas, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss Hamlin’s latest research, which looks to measure the growth and impact of microschools in the United States. The study “Measuring the Microschool Experience: A National Analysis of Student Experiences, Family Perspectives, and Learning Outcomes,” will be presented dur

As parents and teachers discover more reasons to question the indiscriminate carpet bombing of classrooms with digital devices and ed tech of dubious pedagogical value, a case from Arizona reveals another, more Orwellian, danger. The Marana Unified School District and Marana High School deploy a suite of ed-tech devices and programs, purportedly in service of improving learning. Unfortunately, this technology also allows the school to conduct what amounts to nearly 24/7 monitoring of students. T

The bucolic serenity of liberal arts college campuses like Brandeis belies a growing crisis of identity, relevance, and purpose in preparing young adults for participation in a rapidly changing workforce and economy. Maintenance employees buzz around outside the admissions building, sprucing up the campus for commencement as, inside, a new crop of prospective students and their parents take their seats for a presentation from a recruiter. It’s a typical scene in the longstanding c

James Burrows directed over 100 sitcoms during his career, including some of the most iconic series in television history. Among hits like Cheers and Friends were also a few flops like Teachers., which was canceled after just six episodes in 2006. Perhaps the cast didn’t play enough poker together. The world of TV and film is rich with insight for education. Writers, producers, and directors tell stories and deliver moral instruction, work under intense practical constraints, and

The Education Exchange · Ep. 458 – Aug. 31, 2026 – Houston Adopts Reforms to Raise Proficiency, Close Achievement Gaps Mike Miles, the superintendent of Houston Independent School District, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss Miles’ new book, By Design: How to Transform School Systems. Follow The Education Exchange on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or here on Education Next. — Education Next TranscriptFull transcription P

The Trump administration’s proposal to transfer the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to the Department of Justice has generated predictable opposition. Critics argue that the move would weaken civil rights enforcement by divorcing it from the education expertise that has long distinguished the office. These concerns deserve respectful consideration. OCR has protected the rights of millions of students. Its attorneys and investigators have specialized knowledge of schools,

Howard Gardner, the Hobbs Research Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is best known for his theory of multiple intelligences, which—despite the qualms of skeptics like me—has profoundly shaped schooling for decades. He’s authored 30 books, translated into 32 languages, and been named one of the world’s 100 most influential public intellectuals by both Foreign Policy and Prospect. Howard and I have known each other for more than 30 years, and he rece