With student achievement in decline and debates over who’s responsible intensifying, how should we define and measure school quality? FutureEd and the Keystone Policy Center hosted this webinar with national leaders on the past, present, and future of school measurement. Colorado Governor Jared Polis joins Margaret Spellings, president of the Bipartisan Policy Center and former […]| Untitled - FutureEd
The U.S. Department of Education’s mission, as established by Congress, is to “strengthen the Federal commitment to assuring access to equal educational opportunity for every individual.” Congress, of course, has the authority to alter that mission or even close the department. It hasn’t done either. But the Trump administration’s latest round of staffing cuts during […]| Untitled - FutureEd
In this episode, Jeff Selingo and Michael Horn interview Walter Iwanenko Jr, the president of Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania, on how and why the school pursued a merger with Ursuline College near Cleveland, Ohio. Although mergers and acquisitions are typically perceived negatively in the higher education space, this conversation highlights how they can benefit […]| Untitled - FutureEd
In his first two months in office, President Donald Trump ordered the closing of the Education Department and fired half of its staff. The department’s research and statistics division, called the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), was particularly hard hit. About 90 percent of its staff lost their jobs and more than 100 federal contracts to conduct its primary […]| Untitled - FutureEd
Since the pandemic, many colleges and universities have adopted test-optional policies, allowing applicants to decide whether to submit standardized test scores. A new study by Anna Kye at UC Irvine and Meng-Jia Wu at Loyola University Chicago finds that, at one private Midwestern university with a moderately selective admit rate, the policy coincided with a […]| Untitled - FutureEd
The Trump administration’s newly passed federal tax credit scholarship program could dramatically reshape the education landscape, providing families with potentially billions of dollars in funding…| FutureEd
In this episode, Jeff Selingo and Michael Horn bring back the reporters roundtable format with Hilary Burns (The Boston Globe), Doug Belkin (The Wall Street Journal), and Karin Fischer (The Chronicle of Higher Education) to explore how the Trump administration is reshaping higher education. The conversation covers why elite universities like Harvard are being singled […]| Untitled - FutureEd
Parents’ definitions of student success play a key role in determining which schools they select for their children. A recent study by Matthew H. Lee at Kennesaw State and Angela R. Watson at Johns Hopkins finds that parents prioritize standardized test scores above all other indicators when defining student success. The researchers surveyed a nationally […]| Untitled - FutureEd
Though chronic absenteeism has declined from its post-COVID peak, too many students are still missing too much school. Research shows that absent students fall behind academically and are more likely to drop out of high school and face long-term social and economic consequences than those who attend regularly. Worse, the highest rates of absence are […]| Untitled - FutureEd
In this episode, Michael Horn interviews Jeff Selingo on his new book Dream School: Finding the College That’s Right for You, which argues that the narrative around college has overly focused on…| FutureEd
Higher education leaders had little downtime this summer as new federal policies and rapid advances in artificial intelligence dominated the agenda. In this episode, Jeff Selingo and Michael Horn open season 9 of the podcast by unpacking the most significant developments of the past few months: Columbia University’s landmark settlement with the federal government, a […]| Untitled - FutureEd
Many school districts offer remediation courses to help students who are behind academically catch up. A study by Umut Özek of the RAND Corporation finds that while high school remediation improves short-term academic achievement, it does not lead to better long-term postsecondary outcomes. The study evaluated the impact of a Florida law requiring remediation for […]| Untitled - FutureEd
Amid the churn of school-improvement efforts in the United States, the unprecedented educational experiment in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed much of the city’s school…| FutureEd
Since the pandemic, school districts have faced persistently high rates of chronic absenteeism. A recent study by Stanford researchers Monica G. Lee, Susanna Loeb, and Carly D. Robinson found that high-impact tutoring increases the likelihood that students show up to school. The study analyzed Washington DC’s High-Impact Tutoring Initiative, which provided math and reading tutoring […]| Untitled - FutureEd
The federal education tax credit tucked into President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” would fund private and religious K-12 school scholarships for all but the nation’s wealthiest families. The initiative is a sharp break from decades of federal education policy that focused on strengthening public schools, particularly for low-income and historically underserved […]| Untitled - FutureEd
Research finds modest but significant math gains among summer school participants| FutureEd
Warnings about declining public school enrollment have grown louder recently—and for good reason. Between fall 2019 and fall 2023, enrollment fell from 50.8 million to 49.5 million, a loss of more than 1.2 million students, or 2.5 percent, in just five years. The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the decline, erasing more than a decade […]| Untitled - FutureEd
This piece originally appeared in Education Week. What makes a good public school—and how would we know it? While these questions may appear simple to answer—given all the publicly available data and…| FutureEd
This podcast episode originally appeared on the Education Gadfly Show. FutureEd Director Thomas Toch and Senior Fellow Lynn Olson joined the Education Gadfly Show podcast to discuss FutureEd’s report Quality Check: The New, Best Way to Measure School Performance and explore how to rethink school measurement by moving beyond traditional test-based metrics.| Untitled - FutureEd
A new study by Stanford University researcher Thomas Dee presents compelling evidence that the escalated immigration enforcement efforts in early 2025 have increased student absenteeism in communities with large immigrant populations. The study analyzes the impact of the sharp increase in immigration enforcement during January and February 2025, following a shift in federal policy. While […]| Untitled - FutureEd
This piece originally appeared Education Next. In December 2022, Kate Brodeur, an assistant professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, pitched an idea to Zeb Kellough…| FutureEd
An analysis of the 10 states with universal private school choice programs in 2024-25| FutureEd
Congress hasn’t reauthorized the Higher Education Act in more than 15 years, leaving major issues in college affordability, accountability, and access to be addressed through temporary measures or executive action. In this episode, Jeff Selingo and Michael Horn talk with James Kvaal, former Under Secretary of Education, and Preston Cooper, senior fellow at the American […]| Untitled - FutureEd
What’s the best way to measure a school’s quality? It depends on whom you ask. Parents, educators, employers and policymakers hold many different opinions about the goals of education and, therefore, about how to judge school performance. Yet virtually every educational aim rests on the same foundation: giving students a strong academic grounding […]| Untitled - FutureEd
With student achievement declining and many states struggling to effectively support school improvement, it’s time to revisit a fundamental question: What makes a good school, and how should we measure it? FutureEd hosted this timely conversation about today’s school measurement and accountability systems and how policymakers can build research-based measurement models to drive school improvement. […]| Untitled - FutureEd
In the wake of January’s disappointing National Assessment of Educational Progress results, one finding stands out: students who miss the most school have the worst outcomes. This isn’t surprising…| FutureEd
In the second episode of this special two-part series recorded at the Milken Institute, Jeff Selingo moderates a wide-ranging conversation with higher education leaders, including the presidents of Dartmouth, Stanford, UC San Diego, and Yeshiva University, along with the CEO of ETS. Together, they tackle the most pressing challenges facing colleges and universities today—from campus […]| Untitled - FutureEd
The higher education sector—Harvard in particular—has come under growing scrutiny from both the media and government. What went wrong, and how should institutions respond? In this first episode of a special two-part series recorded at the Milken Institute, Jeff Selingo sits down with investor and outspoken Harvard critic Bill Ackman to explore the mounting challenges […]| Untitled - FutureEd
From major cuts to the Department of Education to the loss of government funding, the Trump Administration has dramatically reshaped the higher education landscape. What do these changes mean…| FutureEd
Micro-credentials—qualifications awarded to students and workers who complete short, often skills-based courses—have become increasingly popular in higher education and the workforce. Now, K-12 schools are beginning to explore their potential to better engage students, build career readiness, and deliver more personalized learning. In Skill Building: The Emerging Micro-Credential Movement in K-12 Education, FutureEd Senior Fellow […]| Untitled - FutureEd
This report presents a new model for measuring school performance, grounded in what research shows matters most for learning.| FutureEd
2025 legislation on public funds for private education| FutureEd
Report on Rhode Island’s successful strategy for addressing chronic absenteeism| FutureEd
Table of Contents Introduction Which Children Do These Programs Serve? How Do Universal Programs Impact State and Local Budgets? How is the Money Spent? How Much are Students Learning?| FutureEd
Tracking 2024 state legislation on vouchers, education savings accounts, and other education scholarships| FutureEd
State level chronic absenteeism data| FutureEd
