TOP TASKS

Chart a path out of the learning recession

“The United States entered a ‘learning recession’ in 2013 that it has struggled mightily — and thus far ineffectively — to escape, according to a report unveiled Wednesday by a group of respected social scientists,” writes Kevin Mahnken for The 74 Million on the release of the Education Scorecard, led by Harvard’s Thomas Kane and Stanford’s Sean Reardon. Unlike the NAEP, which uses the same assessment across the country, the Education Scorecard utilizes a common national scale to create an “apples to apple” comparison across different state tests. 

To get the full picture of all the problems they uncovered across the country we encourage you to read the full report, but given all the glum news we wanted to make sure that the positive state and district examples didn’t get lost.

“Louisiana and Alabama were the only states where math scores were higher in 2025 than pre-pandemic,” Chalkbeat writes. “Louisiana is also the only state that beat its pre-pandemic average in reading, with 87% of traditional public school students attending a district where scores are higher than in 2019.” Tennessee was another bright spot, ranking second in math recovery and fourth in reading recovery, with TennesseeCAN Executive Director Chelsea Crawford telling the Tennessee Firefly that the Scorecard “indicates Tennessee’s K-12 education policies and investments to improve student outcomes are working.”

Chelsea told us more about what led to the progress: “The Tennessee Literacy Success Act really paid off in reading gains, and without a lot of fanfare, we worked with the Department of Education to apply those same lessons to math, with ongoing teacher training and resources at the center of the support. I think further gains are on the horizon, especially after this session where we required every school in the state to offer advanced math.”

We asked Kelli Bottger, Executive Director of Louisiana Kids Matter for her take. Here is what she said: “For people looking to implement a similar playbook, here’s what we did over the past several years: high dosage tutoring, teacher training in the science of reading and numeracy, K-3 literacy and numeracy screeners and leaders at every level insisting on instructional excellence with accountability for results. This wasn’t the work of one year or one leader, but took a long-term collective effort.”

If you want to go even deeper, the research team behind the Education Scorecard also identified  “Districts on the Rise.” These 108 districts are making significant progress, with 23 districts–including 7 from CAN states–highlighted as case studies available to advocates and educators.

Here’s some of the themes that emerge from these case studies of what these districts are focused on: 

• Implemented one-on-one or small group tutoring
• Offered free summer learning camps
• Ensured high quality instructional materials in reading and math
• Hired instructional coaches and trained them to implement the science of reading
• Established a culture of outcomes based on goal-setting and monitoring student progress over time
• Created systems to address chronic absenteeism

The release of the Education Scorecard has garnered significant media attention, providing a real opportunity for advocates to host conversations with electeds and the public on the policy changes that will spur an escape from the learning recession.

Pass and implement advanced math auto-enrollment

New research published at Ed Working Papers finds strong backing for a policy that has been pursued by a number of states across the 50CAN network over the past two years: automatically enrolling students in advanced math courses based on their test scores, rather than waiting on teacher recommendations.

“Students who had the opportunity to take advanced math earned higher math test scores, completed more rigorous high school coursework, and were more likely to attend a four-year college,” UCLA researchers Carrie E. Miller and Meredith Phillips write. “These effects largely hold across student subgroups and are relatively robust to omitted confounders.”

The issue is one of access. Enrollment in advanced math courses has declined 10% across the country over the past decade, though those declines haven’t been evenly distributed. In Los Angeles, the primary district studied by the researchers, advanced math enrollment is down 40%.

“And now you see why I was so passionate about this issue,” Michael O’Sullivan, Executive Director of GeorgiaCAN says, referencing his win this year on a math reform package that included automatic enrollment, along with instructional supports and mandated core instructional time requirements. “When we remove arbitrary barriers to advanced courses, we allow more students to reach their full potential. And, in doing so, could potentially alter their entire life trajectory.”

Other states have heard the call as well. In Tennessee, Chelsea Crawford successfully passed legislation to require all schools in the state to offer advanced math courses as a foundational step. In Delaware, Britney Mumford is working with legislative partners to introduce an auto-enrollment bill and predicts it will be introduced this week. In North Carolina, Marcus Brandon has set an auto-enrollment goal and reports progress being made; the bill had a committee meeting earlier this month

Key Resources

Using data from the Educational Opportunity Survey, James Schuls looks into where the wealthy are sending their children to school and the implications of those choices.

A study of Indiana’s charter schools at Ed Working Papers, during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, finds that charter schools contributed to stronger post-pandemic recovery.

Teacher-student conflict in early elementary grades cascades into worse outcomes when students are 26 years old, states new research at Ed Working Papers.

At Alexander Russo’s The Grade, Abraham Kenmore examines how education reporters are using AI to assist their journalism.

Urban Institute asks how reliable LLMs are at parsing public data and finds that between incorrect information presented as fact and struggling to find and utilize specific data points, the tools aren’t great yet.

A new analysis by The Economist finds that recent college graduates in fields more exposed to AI have experienced markedly worse employment outcomes.

At Fordham, Sean Dougherty calls for additional research into the value of CTE credential programs, along with previewing some of the most promising upcoming projects.