Instructional practices, Instructional technology, Social and emotional learning

Source: Annenberg Institute

Date: Feb 2026

The Consequences of Cellphone Restrictions in Classrooms

Schools are increasingly restricting cellphones worldwide amid concerns about achievement and mental health, yet causal evidence on school-level bans remains mixed. We examine cellphone restrictions in Chile before the pandemic, where teacher discretion over cellphone use generated classroom-level variation. Using administrative and survey data, we exploit cross-cohort, within-teacher, and within-student cross-subject variation in cellphone policies. Restrictions modestly reduce eighth graders' in-class recreational cellphone use but not tenth graders, suggesting uneven compliance. They also lower eighth graders' perceived academic capability without affecting test scores. Our findings best extrapolate to decentralized policy contexts and contexts with uneven enforcement within schools.

Digital Technologies and Artificial Intelligence in Education

Source: Heritage Foundation

Date: 3/26/26

The Promise and Peril of Artificial Intelligence in Education

Policymakers and families should scrutinize proposals to adopt artificial intelligence in education, especially when those proposals rely on for-profit educational technology platforms. When powerful technologies are introduced without clear limits, safeguards often arrive too late. As policymakers consider AI in education, they must take seriously the research on harms to children from addictive design features that are common across online platforms. These risks are not hypothetical: They can harm attention, mental health, and learning. Schools should respond with common-sense limitations and clear restrictions instead of assuming that new technology will regulate itself. Protecting children, supporting families, and preserving educational integrity must remain the central goals.

Education and the Workplace

Source: Fordham Institute

Date: 3/27/26

College or Career Readiness? Postsecondary and Labor Market Outcomes for Ohio High School Students Earning Industry-Recognized Credentials

"As part of Ohio's effort to modernize career-and-technical education, it has actively encouraged high school students to earn industry-recognized credentials. Today, students can use credentials to meet certain graduation requirements and schools receive credit on their state report cards when students attain them. Ohio has also created the Innovative Workforce Incentive Program (IWIP), which reimburses schools when students earn credentials in high-demand career fields. In response to these incentives, a rapidly growing number of students earn industry credentials. Yet their value to Ohio students as they enter the labor market has not been studied. Conducted by Dr. Jay Plasman of The Ohio State University, this research examines the college and workforce outcomes of students who earn credentials during high school."

Education Savings Accounts (ESAs)

Source: EdChoice

Date: 3/26/26

The Long-Run Payoff of Universal ESAs in Texas

"Education prepares young people for success later in life. But because we tend to only be able to measure short term inputs and outputs (like per pupil funding and student test scores) we often fail to estimate how much a program costs or benefits over the long term.

 

Admittedly, the longer into the future one looks, the more uncertain the facts are. But with appropriate cautions in place, we can make some informed assumptions as to what will happen to students who participate in choice programs over the long term. Private school choice programs have been repeatedly found to increase both high school graduation, college matriculation, and college graduation rates, for both participating students and for students who remain in public schools. All three of those are associated with higher lifetime earnings (and thus higher tax payments), and a host of other positive outcomes from longer, healthier life expectancies to decreased risks of either committing or being the victim of a crime."

Math Education

Source: Manhattan Institute

Date: 3/26/26

New York State Math Standards Keep Changing While Students Stagnate

Mathematics proficiency shapes students' ability to access advanced coursework, complete key academic milestones, and pursue postsecondary pathways. Research has shown that early math achievement is one of the strongest predictors of later academic success, high school completion, and economic opportunity. When students fall behind in foundational math, every new concept becomes harder to learn. Students who fall behind in foundational math are less likely to succeed in advanced coursework, and gaps that emerge in elementary school tend to widen rather than close as academic demands increase.

Tuition Tax Credits

Source: Common Sense Institute

Date: 3/24/26

The Economic Impact From Colorado's Choice to Participate in the 'Education Freedom Tax Credit' Provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

"This study examines the potential fiscal implications of the federal school choice tax credit provision for the state of Colorado. By modeling the investment and participation amounts and rates, the study provides a framework for understanding how the federal education choice tax incentives could translate into wide-ranging impact across the state for years to come."

Review of Who's on Board? School Boards and Political Representation in an Age of Conflict

Source: Fordham Institute

Reviewed by: Carrie Sampson, Arizona State University; Jeanne M. Powers, Arizona State University

A recent Fordham Institute report surveys more than 5,000 school board members across over 3,000 districts, finding they are disproportionately White, college educated, and often current or former teachers, with politics and beliefs that largely mirror both the U.S. public and their local communities.

In their review of Who's on Board? School Boards and Political Representation in an Age of Conflict, Arizona State University professors Carrie Sampson and Jeanne M. Powers find the report offers a useful snapshot of board composition, political orientation, and perceptions.

After fights over social studies standards, conservative activists come for math

By: Steven Yoder, The Hechinger Report

"Model math standards produced by right-leaning education advocates helped spark a battle in South Dakota that could spread to other states"

How Democrats Lost the Plot on Schools - and How to Get It Back

By: Charles Barone, Education Next

"The good news is that Democrats are finally admitting what parents, advocates, and researchers have known for years: The party doesn't have a credible, student-centered education agenda. The bad news is how long it took to get here and the absence of a clear plan for turning the situation around."

U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of the Treasury Announce Historic Federal Student Assistance Partnership

By: U.S. Department of Education

This letter has blatant administration propaganda, but it is important to know what they are doing with student loans.

Ninth Circuit Ruling Against Funding 'Sectarian' 'Independent Study' Programs

By: Ed Whelan, National Review

"In an amended opinion issued today in Woolard v. Thurmond, a Ninth Circuit panel ruled that California's public charter schools may decline to fund and allow 'sectarian curricular materials' in 'independent study' programs."

The Consequences of Shattered Trust

By: Frederick Hess, Education Next

"Populism, identity politics, school closures, and financial irresponsibility have taken their toll on public confidence in American education"

Trump Administration to Move Dept. of Ed. Out of Its Longtime Offices

By: Sean Cavanagh, EducationWeek

The administration announced on Thursday that the Education Department beginning this summer will abandon its Lyndon B. Johnson building headquarters and move into a new location a block away formerly occupied by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

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