One of the key metrics that the Winston Group watches in education is issue handling. Do voters have more confidence in Republicans or Democrats to handle the issue? Our recent piece for Education Next attempted to explain some of the recent contradictory findings about who voters prefer more. Today, we look
Last week, we covered the release of the latest NAEP results for 12th grade. The results were not good news. Only 22% of 2024 seniors were considered at or above proficient in math, while 35% were considered at or above proficient in reading, erasing two decades’ worth of progress. These
If anything, the one good thing that could be said of the 12th grade NAEP results released early yesterday morning is that they reinforce the importance of a rigorous, national benchmark assessment like NAEP and the information it provides. That may be the sliver of silver lining in what was
The New York Fed is out with its Household Debt and Credit report for Q2 2025, looking at aggregate household debt and debts of varying kinds, including student loan debt. Here are three key findings from their historical data: The total student loan balance for the second quarter of 2025
The Winston Group is out with a new policy paper, “A New Direction for the National Assessment of Educational Progress,” published by the American Enterprise Institute. The paper outlines a new direction for NAEP as well as education reform. In addition to asserting the importance of NAEP, we make two key
With the One Big Beautiful Bill the law of the land, there are a host of new policy implications to unpack, especially pertaining to higher education. Among the changes in the law is an increased endowments tax, up to 8% for wealthy, private colleges (compared to 1.4% currently). The new