Dual Enrollment

Source: FutureEd

Date: Feb 2025

Do Dual Enrollment Students Realize Better Long-Run Earnings? Variations in Financial Outcomes Among Key Student Groups

Overall, the study suggests that while dual-credit programs can improve long-term earnings, the benefits are not equally shared. The authors recommend more intentional advising and better alignment between dual credit coursework and college pathways to ensure that these programs better serve underserved students.

Attendance, Immigration

Source: FutureEd

Date: June 2025

Recent Immigration Raids Increased Student Absences

A new study by Stanford University researcher Thomas Dee presents compelling evidence that the escalated immigration enforcement efforts in early 2025 have increased student absenteeism in communities with large immigrant populations.

Digital Technologies and Artificial Intelligence in Education

Source: CRPE

Date: 1/29/26

Think Forward: Building a Coherent Approach to AI in Education

In November 2025, the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) convened a diverse group of policymakers, system leaders, educators, researchers, funders, and technology experts for the Think Forward: Learning with AI Forum in New Mexico. At a moment when rapid advances in artificial intelligence are colliding with longstanding inequities and structural challenges in K-12 education, participants came together to grapple with a shared question: how can education lead, rather than react to, AI-driven change? Through candid discussions and working sessions, the group examined where current AI efforts are falling short and what it would take to build a more coherent, human-centered approach to teaching and learning in an uncertain future. This white paper is the result of those discussions.

Literacy Education

Source: Bellwether

Date: 1/30/26

Literacy for All Students

The United States faces a literacy crisis, and Kansas City, Missouri, is no exception. Seventy-seven percent of Kansas City's third graders are not proficient in English language arts, and at least 290,000 adults in the Greater Kansas City region struggle with basic literacy skills. This challenge disproportionately impacts students from low-income families and students of color, reflecting not just an achievement gap but also an opportunity and access gap that restricts students' future success. Kansas City needed a coordinated and sustained approach to address this crisis. In 2024, SchoolSmart

 

Kansas City (SchoolSmartKC) - a nonprofit dedicated to accelerating student growth and proficiency for Kansas City students - took the lead in developing Literacy for All Students (LFAS). This citywide initiative blends the coherence of a proven literacy model from Mississippi with the strength of Kansas City's local leadership and cross-sector collaboration.

 

This series includes a summary report and three separate case studies focused on a different aspect of the initiative, including its origins and design philosophy, collaboration structure, and lessons learned during rollout. Together, the case studies provide a comprehensive view of how Kansas City stakeholders are working together to improve literacy outcomes. The series also offers insights for practitioners, funders, and policymakers seeking to understand and replicate evidence-based, locally driven approaches to literacy improvement.

Politics, Policy, and School Practices

Source: Heritage Foundation

Date: 1/26/26

The Shrinking Federal Footprint: Education Returns to the States

In its 45-year history, the U.S. Department of Education has not made state and local education offices more efficient, nor has the agency implemented policies that led to improved student achievement. Decisions about a child's education should be made by the adults who are closest to that child-parents and teachers, not bureaucrats in Washington. With a smaller federal footprint in education, state lawmakers should develop policies to promote parent decision-making and reduce administrative burdens on schools. Closing the U.S. Department of Education does not signal the end of education, but a set of new beginnings for parents, states and local educators.

School Finance and Funding / Higher Education

Source: Common Sense Institute

Date: 1/26/26

Potential Savings in Colorado's Higher Education System: A Brief Analysis

Postsecondary schools across the country, especially research universities, are facing large federal funding cuts. Meanwhile, to help relieve its tightening budget, Colorado's government is expected to diminish the share of state spending it allocates to higher education. These circumstances will force schools to either raise revenue from other sources, like tuition, or cut costs; diminished state support, however, alongside negligible enrollment growth over the last two decades, renders the former mostly impractical.

 

Fortunately, there is evidence that at least some of Colorado's schools can overcome these threats by cutting administrative costs or duplicative services. Dual-mission institutions, which combine the functions of a four-year university and a community college, are growing in number in other states and have proven effective at managing costs by avoiding redundant spending. Simpler solutions may also be available in cases like that of the Auraria Campus, whose central administrative body has raised its spending far faster than its tenant institutions have raised their spending on education.

Higher Education / School Finance and Funding

Source: Bellwether

Date: 1/23/26

Formulating Success: A Primer on Outcomes-Based Funding for Higher Education

This primer for policymakers, advocates, funders, and higher education leaders explores the opportunities and challenges of outcomes-based funding. Stakeholders can use this report to make informed decisions about whether, how, and why a state might incorporate outcomes-based elements into its higher education funding model. The resource includes a nuanced analysis of the purpose of outcomes-based funding models, addresses key questions states should consider before adopting one, and provides practical guidance on the critical design choices that can determine whether an outcomes-based model becomes a catalyst for improvement or simply another administrative burden.

Review of Redrawing the Lines: How Purposeful School System Redistricting Can Increase Funding Fairness and Decrease Segregation

Source: New America

Reviewed by: Christopher Cleveland and Joshua Almes of Brown University

A recent New America report argues that states can advance educational equity by redrawing school district boundaries to reduce within-state fiscal and demographic disparities. While the analysis has some methodological limitations, it offers policymakers a useful framework for understanding how existing district lines shape unequal access to resources.

Christopher Cleveland and Joshua Almes of Brown University reviewed Redrawing the Lines: How Purposeful School System Redistricting Can Increase Funding Fairness and Decrease Segregation. Their review assesses how well the report meets its goals, and it identifies areas where additional research could strengthen the discussion.

To the Ones Who Are Tired: A Message for the Cathedral Builders

By: Shawn Ginwright, The Work Within Us

This article has many "glimmers" - ideas and statements that can help leaders see their work in a new context. A few of my favorites: "Justice work lives on cathedral time, even when the system insists on stopwatch logic....Urgency without a long view turns into despair....Rest is part of the work. It's how you sustain your capacity to keep building."

Sanders Releases New Report Detailing How Trump's Plan to Privatize Public Education Hurts Students

By: Bernie Sanders, U.S. Senator for Vermont

"President Trump's so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” created the nation's first federal school voucher program at a cost of up to $51 billion a year - more than it currently spends on the Title I program serving low-income students and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) combined."

Strong unions, stronger communities and democracy

By: Margaret Poydock and Celine McNicholas, Economic Policy Institute

"There is an undeniable correlation between higher levels of unionization and stronger economic, community, and democratic outcomes. States with a larger share of workers represented by a union enjoy higher incomes, greater access to health insurance, and fewer voting When workers join together in a union and collectively bargain with their employer, they can improve their pay, benefits, and working conditions."

What it's like each day in Minneapolis

By: Leah Asmelash, CNN

"In the midst of the ICE surge, the definition of teachers' duties has stretched. Before, any family troubles were usually handled by a social worker for the sake of privacy, circumventing teachers and other staff. Today, those delineations are erased. The school's basement is filled with food donations, Elizabeth said, and most of the teachers deliver food to families at least one day a week. With community volunteers, they walk kids to and from school so parents don't have to leave their homes. They post pictures of the children in class to a secure platform, so their parents can see their kids are safe."

They don't give an inch. Even when an American is killed.

By: Ramesh Ponnuru

From the American Enterprise Institute, "National Review editor in chief and longtime conservative voice Ramesh Ponnuru condemns the moral and political failures of the administration's initial response."

GreatLakesCenter.org