Think Twice Weekly Report
JUNE 28 - JuLY 11, 2025
The Think Twice Weekly Report compiles public education-related policy reports, research and articles of interest to policymakers, educators and stakeholders. This list is not exhaustive but is meant to highlight recent reports that may be used to support or undermine the work of our subscribers in supporting public schools. We encourage you to take a moment to scan these reports and determine if they may be used by policy makers to assist or erode your mission.
Policy Reports
Safe Schools; COVID 19
Source: Annenberg Exchange Ed Working Papers
Date: June 2025
The Unintended Cost of Distance Learning: An Analysis of Child Maltreatment
From the author: "Education personnel play a crucial role in identifying and reporting child maltreatment. However, school closures amid COVID-19 pandemic disrupted this vital reporting system. I causally investigate how remote learning influenced trends in child maltreatment reports and risks, leveraging county-level variations in remote learning instructional weeks in the United States during the 2020-21 school year. Utilizing maltreatment report and maltreatment-related fatality data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), I find that counties with higher exposure to remote instruction experienced fewer screened-in allegations of school-aged children, but a higher substantiated allegations and an increase in maltreatment-related child fatalities. The reduction in allegations was primarily driven by those reported by education personnel, and the impacts varied significantly based on characteristics such as the child's race/ethnicity and the type of maltreatment. These results highlight an unintended cost of distance learning: remote instruction impaired the detection of child maltreatment, leading to fewer reports but more severe cases that could have lasting impacts on children. They also urge prompt policy interventions to safeguard children who remain undetected and to repair the reporting gaps caused by educator-child disconnection."
Digital Technologies and Artificial Intelligence in Education
Source: Bellwether
Date: 6/28/25
Productive Struggle: How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Learning, Effort, and Youth Development in Education
"By weaving together evidence from the science of learning, capabilities of emerging technology, and early empirical research, this report explores the blurry boundaries where AI can amplify effective teaching and learning, and where it risks undercutting them. The goal is not to pick sides; rather, it is to illuminate the design, research, and implementation choices that will determine how and whether AI eases or impairs the kind of productive struggle that cultivates lifelong learners."
School Choice
Source: Heritage Foundation
Date: 7/9/25
Learning Systems: Shaping the Role of Artificial Intelligence in Education
A bipartisan coalition in the late 20th century intended to spur improvement of the K-12 education system through test-based accountability and public school choice. The ability of this coalition to institute meaningful accountability proved extremely limited. State accountability systems morphed into hollow bureaucratic compliance rituals delivering participation trophies rather than real consequences. Now, a brighter future beckons. Private organizations have supplanted state school ratings. The guardians of the education status quo cannot easily subvert private organizations, and the public has a greater degree of trust in them. The broadening of choice from an exclusive focus on schools to a broader universe of education methods liberates choice from conventional supply constraints. Accordingly, growth in formula-funded, universally available, and multi-use programs, such as those in Arizona and Florida, have exceeded that of previous education choice programs.
Reports Reviewed
GLC seeks to ensure that policy briefs impacting education reform are based on sound, credible academic research. Below are reviews conducted with GLC support.
Review of Apples to Apples: The Definitive Look at School Test Scores in Milwaukee and Wisconsin for 2024
Source: Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty
Reviewed by: Benjamin Shear, University of Colorado Boulder
A recent report from the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) examines publicly available test score data from Spring 2024 in Wisconsin to investigate the relative effectiveness and cost of school choice programs.
The report claims to provide evidence that private schools participating in the state's voucher programs and charter schools yield better academic results as compared with traditional public schools, but Benjamin Shear of the University of Colorado Boulder identifies several critical limitations in the data and analyses behind those claims. NEPC today published Professor Shear's review of WILL's Apples to Apples: The Definitive Look at School Test Scores in Milwaukee and Wisconsin for 2024.
What We're Reading
Research and articles that we want to highlight for subscribers as potential resources:
How the Supreme Court Is Making Public Education Itself Unconstitutional
By: Johann Neem, EdWeek
A startling opinion piece by Johann Neem, a professor of history at Western Washington University and the author of Democracy's Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America.
A District-by-District Accounting of the $6.2 Billion the U.S. Department of Education Has Held Back from Schools
By: Zahava Stadler and Jordan Abbott, New America
The U.S. Department of Education is refusing to release billions of dollars for public schools. The tables show the 100 school districts (across the 46 states for which data was available) that will lose the most funding if this money isn't distributed as Congress intended. Table 1 shows the districts that would see the biggest cuts in total dollars, and Table 2 shows the districts that would lose the most in per-pupil funding.
Cyber school facing wrongful death suit says it's 'unreasonable' for teachers to see students weekly
By: Jill Barshay, The Hechinger Report
"This year, the state House is trying two different approaches to tighten the law, at least one of which could be included in this year's delayed state budget. In June, the chamber passed a sweeping bill that would make changes to the cyber charter law, among them an update to the wellness check language."
Managing Through the Noise: How Superintendents See Shifts in the Federal Role in Education
By: Katie Meyer, Chalkbeat
"Across big cities and rural communities, school district leaders are navigating serious uncertainties, major funding disruptions, and political challenges. All this "noise" is pushing leaders to stabilize their schools and plan for worst-case scenarios- instead of focusing on improving academic support. "
A D.C. Insider Explains What's Changed in Education Policy
By: Robin Lake, Paul Hill, Lydia Rainey, CRPE
From Rick Hess, AEI: "There's a lot of uncertainty about federal education policy today. How does it really work? What's changed? Well, uber-insider Vic Klatt has just stepped back from a storied career and is perfectly situated to give the inside scoop."
About the Think Twice think tank review project
The goal of the Think Twice project is to provide the public, policymakers and the press with timely academically sound reviews of selected think tank publications. The Think Twice project is funded by the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice. The reviews that are part of this project are expert third-party reviews produced by the National Education Policy Center.
About the Great Lakes Center for Education Research & Practice
The Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice is an independent nonprofit organization supported by education stakeholders across the country. The mission of the Great Lakes Center is to support and disseminate high quality research and review of research for the purpose of informing education policy and to develop research-based resources for us by those who advocate for education reform.
