Discipline Policy

Source:Manhattan Institute

Date: 7/24/25

The Cost of Restorative Justice in New York City Schools

New York City's public school system has changed how it addresses student misconduct over the last decade. Once reliant on traditional disciplinary measures such as suspensions, removals, and written referrals, the NYC system instead adopted restorative justice (RJ) as its preferred response to conflict and disruption.[1] Promoted as a progressive alternative to reduce racial disparities in discipline and foster healing for students, administrators quickly embedded RJ into district policy, budgets, and staff training mandates. Starting in 2015, policy changes made suspensions so challenging to implement that exclusionary discipline was removed as an option.[2]

NYC's implementation of RJ has failed to achieve its promises. The changes undermined teacher authority and weakened classroom order rather than improving school climate and advancing equity. They diverted resources away from necessary supports, despite the tens of millions in spending on ideologically driven programs, with little evidence of success.[3] In examining the city's policy design, financial decisions, and classroom-level consequences, this issue brief reveals how RJ reforms have produced widespread dysfunction. It also outlines a path forward based on structure, evidence, and accountability.

Education and the Workplace

Source: Urban Institute

Date: 7/24/25

Which College and Career Readiness Standards Best Align with Positive Outcomes after High School?

A student's experiences and accomplishments in high school serve as the foundation for accessing college and career opportunities. Many states have defined a set of criteria for college and career readiness. This report looks at more than 100 studies to summarize the causal research evidence on post-high school outcomes for 12 common college and career readiness benchmarks.

Education and the Workplace

Source: Urban Institute

Date: 7/24/25

Let's Measure Ready: A 50-State Analysis of College, Career, Military, and Civic Readiness Indicators

Governors and other state leaders know that the future economic competitiveness of their state depends on the strength of their education system. For years, college and career readiness (CCR) has been the mantra of many education leaders. Using education and workforce data, states went beyond measuring whether their high school students graduated ready for college or a career and began holding their high schools accountable for their students' readiness. Our analyses provide an updated 50-state landscape scan of CCR indicators, focused on variations in CCR indicators' design, components, benchmarks, and transparency.

Education and the Workplace

Source: Urban Institute

Date: 7/24/25

How States Can Encourage Economic Mobility by Improving How They Measure College and Career Readiness

Drawing from a [sic] of the college and career readiness measures used in accountability systems and a connecting those measures to long-term outcomes, this summary provides actionable steps state leaders can take toward an evidence-based set of indicators-the State Student Readiness Index-to give governors and state leaders a clear view of high schoolers' readiness to succeed as workers, taxpayers, and community members. This index will complement high school accountability systems and foundational tools such as the Education-to-Workforce Indicator Framework by focusing on end-of-high-school indicators that state leaders can use to monitor, plan, and set goals for the state's students.

Homeschooling

Source: EdChoice

Date: 7/24/25

Who Homeschools, Really?

Homeschooling is growing. Since the COVID pandemic, our best estimates suggest that homeschoolers grew from 3% of the American K-12 student population to 6%. When we consider that 7% of students are enrolled in charter schools and 9-10% of students are enrolled in private schools, we can recognize the size of the homeschooling population. And the homeschooling sector isn't just large. It is also incredibly diverse, especially when compared to longstanding-and often misleading-stereotypes.

 

Generally speaking, little is known about homeschooling. Homeschools don't participate in data collection in the same way that traditional public schools do. Some federal data that offer insights into homeschooling are being discontinued. Data that can provide nationally-representative insights into educational sectors like homeschooling were already scarce and are getting scarcer.

 

We set out to fix this problem. We surveyed a nationally representative sample of parents of school-aged children, providing rich insights into who homeschools. Who they are will surprise you.

Special Education / Politics, Policy, and School Practices

Source: Bellwether

Date: 7/24/25

Students With Disabilities: Early Actions for States in Response to Recent Changes

The first six months of the Trump administration have seen the introduction of many policy and legal actions that affect how the federal and state governments and school districts serve the country's nearly 8 million students with disabilities. This includes staff layoffs, proposed budget cuts, shifts in federal funding, and executive orders.

 

These changes at the federal level come at a time when the education system is grappling with persistent challenges serving and supporting students with disabilities, including teacher shortages and increased costs for services. The federal changes, either enacted or proposed, introduce new risks to stability and services for students with disabilities. State governors, legislators, state education agencies (SEAs), and other education leaders, however, can take steps to mitigate those risks.

 

This memo outlines the historical role of the federal government in educating students with disabilities and how the Trump administration's actions may impact that role. It also outlines actions state leaders can take and strategic questions to consider as they seek to develop, implement, and sustain policies that support students with disabilities.

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.

The Education Show Trial of the Century

By: Michael Poor, Education Next

A century-long arc in education jurisprudence came full circle last month when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that denying parents the option of pulling their children from classroom instruction against their religious beliefs is unconstitutional. While the bookend case from 1925 has little commonality in substance or kind with Mahmoud v. Taylor, the trial of schoolteacher John T. Scopes-which concluded 100 years ago today in Dayton, Tennessee-offers compelling evidence that history rhymes.

'Uber of education' app launches as parents seek public school alternatives

By: Joshua Q. Nelson, Fox News

"Edefy was launched in 2021 by a family with experience in investing in private schools overseas. The app's website explained that the software was "inspired by the rapid rise and outstanding results generated by Pod/Micro-Schooling."

28 Bills, Ten Commandments and 1 Source: A Christian Right 'Bill Mill'

By: By Mark Keierleber, The 74

"Barton isn't just a primary pitchman for the Ten Commandments law in Texas, his home state, an investigation by The 74 reveals. His fingerprints appear on 28 bills that have cropped up before the legislatures in 18 states this year. A data analysis of the bills exposes how their language, structure and requirements are inherently identical. In dozens of instances, they match model legislation pitched by Barton verbatim."

The Cost of Tax Breaks on Oregon's Public Schools

By: Anya Gizis, Good Jobs First

"Oregon's 191 public schools and regional education service agencies lost almost $275 million to tax abatements. These losses have more than doubled since 2019, when the districts lost $125 million. These millions in foregone revenue could have funded improved education outcomes, but instead they went to tax breaks. For context, in 2023, Oregon's school district spent $247 million on child nutrition. Property tax abatements given to data centers are the fastest-growing revenue problem."

Negotiating Tech: An Inventory of U.S. Union Contract Provisions for the Digital Age

By: Lisa Kresge, UC Berkeley Labor Center's Technology and Work Program

This is "a new resource from the Labor Center's Technology and Work Program for union negotiators, researchers, policymakers, journalists, and others: a searchable inventory of collective bargaining provisions related to digital workplace technologies. "

GreatLakesCenter.org