Think Twice Weekly Report

Accountability, Assessment, Education Reform, School evaluation

Source: FutureEd partners and the Keystone Policy Center

Date: April 2025

Quality Check: The New, Best Way to Measure School Performance

FutureEd Director Thomas Toch and Senior Fellow Lynn Olson present a blueprint for resolving the testing stalemate, one that proposes a new role for state tests as part of a testing model promoting high standards, greater transparency for policymakers and parents, and a strong focus on teaching and learning.

Education Policy and Policymaking

Source: CRPE

Date: 4/30/25

America Can't be Great Without Good Schools: How Policymakers Can Create More of Them

"Policymakers have long understood that the success or failure of the publicly financed system of education casts a long shadow, shaping the lives of parents and non-parents, employers and workers, immigrants and native-born alike. While schools have always struggled to deliver what their communities count on them to provide, those struggles have reached a new crescendo. . . . Delivering on this aspiration requires policymakers to close the gap between what students and families want from public schools, what public schools have historically made available to them, and what policymakers spend their time and energy addressing. Today, this gap is larger than ever, thanks to the influence of interest groups and partisan elites whose policy priorities often diverge dramatically from the needs of children and families-public education's core users and beneficiaries. What follows are concrete steps to close that gap."

Math Education

Source: Fordham Institute

Date: 4/30/25

Advanced Math Pathways in New England

"The study identifies several trends in high school math in New England. Consider that since 2008, the share of New England high schools offering AP Statistics has doubled, and statistics enrollments are catching up to calculus. Meanwhile, three states have loosened rigid "Algebra II-to-Calculus" mandates in favor of more flexible, proficiency-based or STEM-credit requirements, and several other states are drafting new standards meant to keep data science pathways as rigorous as the traditional track. In short, the report shows a region in transition: Calculus still matters, but statistics is fast becoming its peer. Ensuring every pathway remains rigorous will require clear course standards, tighter K-12-college coordination, and state-level support so districts don't have to reinvent math reform one classroom at a time."

Tuition Tax Credits

Source: Pioneer Institute

Date: 4/29/25

"Earning Full Credit: A Toolkit for Designing Tax-Credit Scholarship Policies (2025 Edition)"

"Over the past three decades, tax-credit scholarship (TCS) policies have helped hundreds of thousands of American families provide their children with the learning environment that meets their individual needs. Until recently, TCS policies were the most-used form of private school choice. Now available in 21 states, more than 330,000 students nationwide use tax-credit scholarships to attend the school of their family's choice.

TCS policies create an incentive for taxpayers to contribute to nonprofit scholarship organizations that aid families with tuition and, in some states, other K-12 educational expenses. As with other policies, their ultimate success or failure depends greatly on how they are designed. This paper explores the central design features of TCS policies-such as eligibility, the tax-credit value, tax-credit caps, scholarship size and uses, and academic accountability provisions-and outlines the approaches TCS policies take in each state.

The paper also offers suggestions regarding each feature for policymakers who want to design a TCS policy that is most likely to succeed at its central purpose: empowering families to provide their children with the education that works best for them. To that end, the paper recommends designing each policy element in such a way that they maximize the incentive for taxpayers to contribute to scholarship organizations, the number of families that can benefit from the scholarships, and the freedom and flexibility of scholarship organizations to serve those families. A summary of these suggestions can be found in the conclusion."

Review of The Persistence of Religious Discrimination in Publicly Funded Pre-K Programs

Source: Manhattan Institute

Reviewed by: Joshua Weishart, Suffolk University Law School

A recent report from the Manhattan Institute asserts that many religious pre-K providers are being unconstitutionally excluded from publicly funded education programs that remain open to other private schools. But incomplete research and methodological flaws render the report of relatively little value to policymakers or the public.

Joshua Weishart of Suffolk University Law School expands on these shortcomings in his review of The Persistence of Religious Discrimination in Publicly Funded Pre-K Programs.

Data reveals Oklahoma school choice program sending significant share of funds to wealthiest families

By: Spencer Humphrey, KFOR

"Oklahoma's school choice program was billed, in large part, as a way to help low-income families get their kids the best education possible, but new state data shows a major share of its funds are going to the state's wealthiest families, while the share going to families making below the average income remains unclear."

A smaller Nation's Report Card

By: Jill Barshay, The Hechinger Report

"The main reading and math tests, which are required by Congress, were preserved. But to cut costs in an attempt to appease Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE, the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) scrapped a 2029 administration of the Long-Term Trend NAEP, an exam that has tracked student achievement since the 1970s.* Also cut were fourth grade science in 2028, 12th grade science in 2032 and 12th grade history in 2030. Writing assessments, which had been slated for 2032, were canceled entirely. State and local results were also dropped for an assortment of exams."

Et Tu, Urban Institute?

By: Stephen Dyer, 10th Period

This pushes back on the new Urban Institute study that shows Ohio Ed Choice voucher students were more likely to enroll in and graduate from college than eligible students who remained in public schools. The article strongly points out the flaws in the study.

Why national charter leaders are very worried about Oklahoma's religious charter school

By: Erica Meltzer, Chalkbeat

A finding that charter schools are private entities would require revisiting decades-old legal assumptions while giving rhetorical ammunition to the sector's strongest critics. Charter supporters fear that public funds, their treasured autonomy, and perhaps even their existence are at risk.

GreatLakesCenter.org