It’s the Year of the Independent: An analysis of the 2022 Midterm Election

In this election, Republicans, Democrats and the media expected a significant Red Wave. Projections of Republicans winning 240 seats were not uncommon, and most had the number at 230 or higher. On election night, it was not clear that Republicans could reach 218, and it wasn’t until over a week later that media entities began […]

What Do The New NAEP Data Say About Learning Loss?

By now, many of our readers may have already seen the headlines. “Reading and Math Scores Plummeted During Pandemic, New Data Show” from The Wall Street Journal. In The New York Times, “The Pandemic Erased Two Decades of Progress in Math and Reading.” As these articles report, data from the latest long term trending NAEP tests showed […]

A Call to Action on Mathematics

Over the weekend, hundreds of top scientists and mathematicians released a statement to, as they wrote, “express our alarm over recent trends in K-12 mathematics education in the United States.” Citing the California Mathematics Framework as an example of such a reform that is intended to enhance equity and reduce disparities, the authors go on to criticize […]

Is the US Becoming the World’s “C” Student?

Given the experience of the pandemic over the last year-and-a-half and the urgent need to confront the challenges it has brought, it can be easy to forget that the U.S.’s education system was experiencing challenges even before the pandemic. Data from the most recent Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2018 showed that America […]

“Split Decision”: An analysis of the 2020 Presidential Election

Going into the 2020 November election, Joe Biden enjoyed a sizable lead, according to most media polling. Democrats believed the country was moving toward the left; and that, as a result, the political environment was also moving significantly in their direction. If they could tie Republican Congressional candidates in swing districts/states to Trump, while the […]

Voters’ View on Proficiency

In our last Emerging Issues newsletter, we took a look at the latest data on the learning loss that voters believe has occurred due to the disruptions caused by the pandemic. As we noted, voters clearly believe schools will be facing some level of unfinished learning when students return to the classrooms. Schools will soon […]

New NAEP 12th Grade Data

In the flurry of headlines that were coming out right before the election, one that might have been missed was the release of the new math and reading achievement data for 12th grade on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Specifically, this week we will analyze the data by looking at the shares of […]