Attendance Playbook: Smart Strategies for Reducing Chronic Absenteeism Post-Pandemic

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The Changing Private-School Choice Landscape

As states’ 2023 legislative sessions come to a close, join FutureEd for a conversation about the new wave of private-school-choice programs in Arkansas, Arizona, Iowa, and elsewhere.

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Education Legislation in the States

Legislative Tracker: 2023 State Bills on Public Support of Private Schooling

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Legislative Tracker: 2023 Teacher-Pay Bills in the States

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Legislative Tracker: 2023 Parent-Rights Bills in the States

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Who We Are

FutureEd is an independent, solution-oriented think tank at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy that is committed to improving opportunities and outcomes for vulnerable students in the nation’s schools and colleges.

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Deep Dives

FutureEd Reports

Comprehensive policy analysis of major issues facing schools and colleges

Unfinished Agenda: The Future of Standards-Based School Reform

Reflections on the evolution of the standards movement in American and the movement’s future

Leaning In: The New Power of Parents in Public Education

A profile of the changing parent landscape in public education

Invisible Students: The Information Crisis in Early Education

How to build stronger early learning systems post-pandemic

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The Teaching Profession

Teaching Innovation: New School Staffing Strategies Inspired by the Pandemic

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Tackling Teacher Shortages With Targeted Strategies

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Educators and ESSER: How Pandemic Spending Is Reshaping the Teaching Profession

Read More about Educators and ESSER: How Pandemic Spending Is Reshaping the Teaching Profession

The Churn

The latest leadership changes in the education sector

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Margaret Spellings, U.S. secretary of education under President George W. Bush, has been named chief executive officer of the Bipartisan Policy Center.

June 2023

Mike Miles, former superintendent for Dallas Independent School District and Colorado’s Harrison School District, has been appointed by the state to lead the Houston Independent School District.

June 2023

Asher Lehrer-Small, an education reporter at The 74, is joining Houston Landing, a nonprofit news outlet in Houston.

May 2023

Natalia Pane, who currently serves as the chief operations officer at Child Trends, has been named the organization’s next president.

May 2023

Amy Kuether, who was previously a senior writer for Ascendium’s Strategic Communications team, has joined the organization’s Education Philanthropy team as a program officer for strategic engagement.

May 2023

Ahnna Smith, who was executive director of the Workforce Investment Council of the District of Columbia, has joined the Education Strategy Group as a senior director.

May 2023

Brian Louie, who was a senior manager at Guild Education, is now vice president for investor relations and strategy at the Charter School Growth Fund.

May 2023

Warren Morgan, chief academic officer for Indianapolis Public Schools, has been named chief executive officer of the the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

May 2023

Jessica Rose, assistant superintendent of Lincoln Public Schools in Massachusetts, will join the Barr Foundation as education senior program officer.

May 2023

Mark Vianello, chief Operations Officer for Florida’s Marion County Public Schools in, has been named superintendent of Charlotte County Public Schools in Florida.

May 2023

Seth D. Harris, who served as acting secretary and deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor in the Obama administration, has joined Whiteboard Advisors as a senior advisor.

May 2023

Ben Vinson III, provost of Case Western Reserve University, has been named president of Howard University.

May 2023

Penny Schwinn, Tennessee’s commissioner of education, is stepping down from the post in June. Gov. Bill Lee plans to nominate Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds, vice president of policy with nonprofit ExcelinEd, as the next state schools’ chief.

May 2023

Jason Botel, a former acting U.S. assistant education secretary and vice president at Catapult Learning, is now vice president for national partnerships at the Age of Learning.

May 2023

Daniel Velasco, an equity consultant and former president of Latinos for Education, has been named chief executive officer of Ensemble Learning. He replaces Elise Darwish, who founded the nonprofit, which supports multilingual learning

May 2023

Alicia T. Johnson, president of KIPP NYC, has been named chief executive officer of the city’s charter network.

May 2023

Cheryl Logan, superintendent of Omaha Public Schools and former chief academic chief officer in Philadelphia, has been named inaugural executive director of the new McGraw Center for Educational Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education

April 2023

Hannah Smith, who was vice president of partnerships at ed-tech nonprofit Moneythink, joined Education Strategy Group as a director supporting the postsecondary transitions portfolio.

April 2023

Cheryl Watson-Harris, who has served as superintendent of DeKalb County Schools and deputy chancellor of New York City Department of Education, has been named executive director of Achieve Atlanta.

April 2023

Sinthia Sone-Moyano, an assistant superintendent in Connecticut’s Manchester Public Schools, has been named deputy commissioner for educational supports and wellness for the Connecticut State Department of Education.

April 2023

Kathryn Bradley, an education fellow at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, has been named partnerships manager at the Stuart Foundation.

April 2023

Amanda Fuchs Miller, a long-time Capitol Hill aide, most recently for Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is now deputy assistant secretary for higher education programs in the Office of Postsecondary Education at the U.S. Education Department.

April 2023

Katharine Strunk, an education policy and economics professor at Michigan State University and director of its Education Policy Innovation Collaborative, has been named dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania.

April 2023

Dympna Ugwu-Oju, editor of the Fresnoland Lab at the Fresno Bee, is joining EdSource as the K-12 Editor.

April 2023

Jorge Elorza, who was mayor of Providence, has been named chief executive officer or Democrats for Education Reform.

April 2023

Nicole Siegel, director of advocacy for social policy, education & politics at Third Way, is joining the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to work on higher education issues.

March 2023

Jermaine Myrie, chief external affairs officer at uAspire, has been named chief executive officer of the youth mentoring organization MENTOR.

March 2023

Keith Witham, who was director of education grant making at Ascendium Education Group, has been promoted to vice president of education philanthropy.

March 2023

Dacia Toll, chief executive officer of the online learning platform Stepmojo, is now co-CEO of Coursemojo, a merger of Coursello and Stepmojo

March 2023

Nick Simmons, who was senior advisor to U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, is now deputy chief of staff for Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont.

March 2023

Lisa Coons, chief academic officer in the Tennessee Department of Education, has been named Virginia’s superintendent of public instruction. Jeremy Riley, superintendent of Goochland County Public Schools, will serve as the state education department’s chief of staff.

March 2023

Erica L. Green, an education reporter at The New York Times for the past six years, is leaving the beat for other projects. The Times education team now includes Sarah Mervosh and Troy Clossen.

March 2023

David P. Cleary, who was Republican staff director for the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, has joined DLA Piper’s public affairs practice as a senior policy advisor.

March 2023

Kathy Chow, director of  communications and development for CivicWell and a former executive director of the Asian American Journalists Association, has been named executive director of Education Writers Association.

 

March 2023

Gabriella Gómez, deputy director of U.S. policy and finance for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is joining Strada Education Network as executive vice president of policy, advocacy, and communications.

March 2023

Chad Aldis, vice president for Ohio policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, has been named director of the Iowa Department of Education.

March 2023

Garry W. Jenkins, currently dean and William S. Pattee Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School, has been named president of Bates College.

March 2023

Monica R. Martinez, who was director of strategic initiatives at the Learning Policy Institute, has joined the Walter and Evelyn Haas, Jr. Foundation as director of the college success program.

February 2023

Shin Inouye, who was executive vice president of Communications at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, is now a deputy assistant secretary for communications at the U.S. Department of Education.

February 2023

Jennifer Engle, who was director of U.S. program data at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is now a senior advisor at the U.S. Department of Education.

February 2023

Arsenio Romero, superintendent of Los Lunas Schools in New Mexico, has been named  secretary of the New Mexico Public Education Department.

February 2023

Mark Teoh, who was vice president of learning, research, and impact at Teach Plus, has joined the Raikes Foundation as an education program officer.

February 2023

Elizabeth G. Schneider, chief officer for strategic initiatives for the NEA Foundation and former senior vice president for the Alliance for Excellent Education, will serve as deputy executive director for the National Assessment Governing Board.

February 2023

Stephen Kostyo, a senior policy advisor at the Learning Policy Institute, has joined the U.S. Education Department as a Full-Service Community Schools and Promise Neighborhood Impact Fellow through the Federation of American Scientists.

February 2023

Clarence Wardell III, who was the chief data and equity officer for the White House’s ARP implementation team, has joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as a senior program officer for economic mobility and opportunity.

February 2023

Matt Frendewey, vice president of strategy and executive engagement at ExcelinEd, is joining yes. every kid. foundation as vice president of strategy.

February 2023

Tony Sanders, superintendent of the U-46 school district in Elgin, Illinois, has been named Illinois’ next state superintendent of education.

February 2023

Richard Corcoran, a former Florida education commissioner, will become interim president of New College in Sarasota, Florida, in March after trustees fired current president Patricia Okker.

February 2023

Jonathan P. Moore, who was deputy superintendent for student achievement at the Nevada Department of Education, has been named chief strategy officer for the Council of Chief State School Officers.

February 2023

Jessica Cardichon, deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Education Department’s Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development, will become education policy director for new Senate HELP Committee chair Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.)

February 2023

John L. Jackson, Jr.,  dean of the Annenberg School for Communication, has been named provost of the University of Pennsylvania.

January 2023

Hans Goff, formerly of Amazon and the office of the assistant speaker for the U.S. House of Representatives, is now the vice president of advocacy and government affairs at Democrats for Education Reform and its affiliate organization Education Reform Now.

January 2023

Jordan Wicker, who was executive director of the Invest in Student Advancement Alliance, has been named vice president of government relations at Career Education Colleges and Universities.

January 2023

Nemat “Minouche” Shafik, president of the London School of Economics, has been named as the next president of Columbia University.

January 2023

Eric Waldo, former executive director of Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher Initiative, has been named president and CEO of the District of Columbia College Access Program, the city’s largest scholarship program.

January 2023

Laura Hamilton, who was an associate vice president at ETS, has moved to the American Institutes for Research to become senior director of education measurement and assessment.

January 2023

Frances Messano, president of the New Schools Venture Fund, has become CEO of the philanthropy

January 2023

Sadie Stockdale Jefferson, who was executive director for the Children First Fund and a former deputy chief of staff in Chicago Public Schools, has been named executive director of the University of Chicago Education Lab.

January 2023

Ellen Granberg, provost of the Rochester Institute of Technology, has been named president of George Washington University, the first woman to hold the post.

January 2023

Ramin Taheri, who was chief of staff for the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, is now CEO for Magnet Schools of America.

January 2023

Lindsay Fryer, who was a senior vice president at the Penn-Hill Group, is now president and founding principal of Lodestone DC, a government relations, lobbying, and consulting firm.

January 2023

Regan Kelly, who was a managing partner at TNTP, has joined Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies as director of education grant making.

January 2023

Jill Hawley, who was a senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is now vice president of philanthropy for Gary Community Ventures.

January 2023

Jessica Johnson, who was senior vice president for policy, practice, and systems change at the American Institutes for Research, is joining Education Northwest as chief program and development officer.

January 2023

Joe Graves, superintendent of the Mitchell School District in South Dakota, has been named the state’s next education secretary.  He replaces Tiffany Sanderson, who has taken a job as president of Lake Area Technical College.

January 2023

Sarah Mehrotra, who was a senior data and policy analyst at Education Trust, is a now a special assistant in the U.S. Education Department’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.

January 2023

Amanda Beaumont, who was deputy education policy director on the Senate HELP Committee, is now director of federal relations at the University of Michigan, leading up their education policy work.

January 2023

Jacob Oliva, senior chancellor at Florida’s Department of Education, has become Arkansas’s secretary of education.

January 2023

Umut Ozek, principal economist at CALDER/AIR, is moving to the RAND Corporation as a senior economist.

January 2023

Ben Sasse, a Republican U.S. senator from Nebraska, has resigned from the Senate to become president of the University of Florida.

January 2023

Spotlight

Jacqueline Rodriguez, vice president of research, policy and advocacy at American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, will become CEO of the National Center for Learning Disabilities

January 2023

John B. King, president of Education Trust and former U.S. secretary of education, has been named chancellor of The State University of New York system.

January 2023

Zahava Stadler, special assistant for state funding and policy at Education Trust, is joining New America as project director for a new Education Funding Equity Initiative.

January 2023

Tomás Hanna, chief talent officer for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, will become associate superintendent for secondary schools for the Philadelphia School District.

December 2022

Evelyn Nuñez, chief of schools the Philadelphia School District, will become associate superintendent of elementary schools for the district.

December 2022

Mike Herbstmann, chief financial officer of the Prince George’s County School District in Maryland, will become chief financial officer for the Philadelphia School District.

December 2022

Patrick Tutwiler, the former Lynn Public Schools superintendent and headmaster at Boston Public Schools who now serves as the senior program officer at the Boston-based Barr Foundation, has been named Massachusetts’ next secretary of education.

December 2022

Wesley Whistle, policy director for New America’s higher education program, is joining the U.S. Education Department to work on higher education issues.

December 2022

Claudine Gay, dean of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, will become Harvard University’s 30th president on July 1.

December 2022

Adam Phyall, director of technology and media services for Newton County School System in Covington, Georgia, has been named director of professional learning and leadership at All4Ed.

November 2022

Enrique A. Chaurand, who has led communications and marketing teams at UnidosUS and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, will become vice president of communications and marketing at All4Ed.

November 2022

Greg Toppo, a former lead education writer at USA Today and past president of the Education Writers Association, has joined the staff of The 74.

November 2022

David R. Schuler, superintendent of High School District 214 in Arlington Heights, Ill., and the 2018 National Superintendent of the Year, has been named executive director of AASA, The School Superintendents Association. He will replace Daniel A. Domenech, who is retiring in February.

November 2022

Natasha Ushomirsky, state director for Massachusetts at Education Trust, is joining the Barr Foundation’s education team as senior program officer.

November 2022

Katie Zaback, an education consultant who served in the Colorado Department of Higher Education, is joining Colorado Succeeds as vice president of governmental affairs.

November 2022

Jessie Mandle, who was deputy director of Voices for Utah Children, is now national program director for the Healthy Schools Campaign.

November 2022

Dana Goldstein, a long-time education reporter at The New York Times, is moving off the beat to cover family policy, demographics and sociology. Vimal Patel is shifting from the Times’ Express desk to cover free speech in education. Jacey Fortin and Sarah Mervosh joined the education desk earlier in fall 2o22.

November 2022

Jenny Curtin, who was a senior program officer at the Barr Foundation, has been appointed as the foundation’s director of education.

November 2022

Jack Stripling, a leadership and accountability reporter at The Chronicle of Higher Education, is joining The Washington Post’s education team as an investigative reporter focused on universities and colleges.

November 2022

Denise Forte, who was serving as interim CEO of Education Trust, has been named to the position permanently.

October 2022

Casey Haugner Wrenn, who was executive director of student readiness and early postsecondary at the Tennessee Department of Education, is now director of career readiness at Education Strategy Group.

October 2022

Brian Prescott, vice president of  the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS), has been named president of the organization. He replaces Sally Johnstone, who is retiring.

October 2022

Scott Montgomery, who spent years in senior positions at ACT before leaving to run a Christian school in Iowa, is returning to ACT as vice president of strategic initiatives.

October 2022

Nicholas Munyan-Penney, who was a senior policy analyst at Education Reform Now, is joining Education Trust as assistant director of P12 policy.

October 2022

Kortne Edogun-Ticey, an education consultant and former administrator in Washington, D.C.’s Office of the State Superintendent, is now a senior advisor in the U.S. Education Department’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.

October 2022

Tim Farrell, senior vice president and chief operating officer of the Military Child Education Coalition, has been named CEO of United Through Reading, a program that supports read-aloud programs for military families.

October 2022

Chelsea Montgomery, executive director of the Office of Student Supports in Georgia’s Fulton County Schools, has been named assistant superintendent of student services for Atlanta Public Schools.

October 2022

Jessica Sutter, an education consultant and president of the D.C. State Board of Education in joining the team at the Institute for Citizens & Scholars as the portfolio partner for youth civic development.

October 2022

Bernadine Futrell, who was director for the Office of Head Start at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has moved to the Education Department as deputy assistant secretary of education for equity and discretionary grants and support services.

October 2022

Marlon Marshall, a partner at the City Fund and former Obama administration official, has been named CEO of the City Fund. He replaces Neerav Kingsland, who is joining City Fund’s board.

October 2022

Blanchi Roblero, who was chief of staff of the Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs at the U.S. Department of Education, is now deputy assistant secretary for that office.

January 2022

Education, By the Numbers

FutureEd Index

Teacher Salaries & Rent Prices

  • 15

    Cities where a one-bedroom rental is unaffordable for a new teacher with a bachelor's degree

  • 9

    Cities where a one-bedroom rental is unaffordable for a new teacher with a master's degree

Source: NCTQ

NAEP History Scores

  • 29%

    8th graders scoring below "basic" on NAEP U.S. history, 2014

  • 40%

    8th graders scoring below "basic" on NAEP U.S. history, 2022

Source: National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

School Resource Officers

  • 36%

    Schools that are lower-income, predominantly Black (>80%) with a school resource officer, 2017-18

  • 5%

    Schools that are lower-income, predominantly White (>80%) with a school resource officer, 2017-18

Source: Urban Institute

Teacher Pension Costs

  • $21.8 billion

    Teacher pension costs in 2001

  • $63.7 billion

    Teacher pension costs in 2021, adjusted for inflation

Source: Equable Institute

Chronic Absenteeism

  • 8 million

    Students who were chronically absent pre-pandemic

  • 16 million

    Students who were chronically absent in spring 2022

Source: Attendance Works

Book Bans, 2021-22 School Year

  • 2,532

    Book bans during the 2021-22 school year

  • 1,648

    Unique book titles being banned

Source: Pen America

Advanced Math Offerings

  • 87%

    High schools with low enrollment of students from low-income families offering calculus

  • 45%

    High schools with high enrollment of students from low-income families offering calculus

Source: Learning Policy Institute

Perception of School Quality

  • 34%

    Registered voters who rate the U.S. public school system as good or excellent

  • 60%

    Registered voters who rate the U.S. public school system as fair or poor

Source: Murmuration

Girls’ Mental Health

  • 57%

    Teen girls who reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless in 2021

  • 36%

    Teen girls who reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless in 2011

Source: CDC

Rainy-Day Funds

  • $136.8 billion

    Estimated rainy-day funds among states in FY2023

  • $134.5 billion

    Estimated rainy-day funds among states in FY2022

Source: National Association of State Budget Officers

Curriculum Changes, 2022

  • 24%

    Teachers who altered their curricula in response to the limitations placed on how they can address topics related to race or gender

Source: RAND

Universal Pre-K

  • 17

    States, plus D.C., with a universal pre-k policy as of January 2023

  • 5

    States with at least 70 percent of 4-year-olds enrolled in pre-K, 2019-20

Source: National Institute for Early Education Research

Tutoring

  • 56%

    Schools that report using high-impact or high-dosage tutoring, 2022

  • 38%

    Schools that report using another form of tutoring

Source: Institute of Education Sciences 2022 School Pulse Panel

Investments in SEL

  • 31%

    School districts in blue states earmarking federal Covid-relief aid for social emotional learning

  • 28%

    School districts in red states

Source: FutureEd Analysis

Math Test Scores in D.C.

  • 31%

    D.C. students scoring proficient in math in 2019

  • 19%

    D.C. students scoring proficient in math in 2022

Source: Office of the State Superintendent of Schools

Student-Counselor Ratio

  • 408

    Average number of students per counselor in schools, 2021-22

  • 250

    Recommended number of students per counselor in schools

Source: Chalkbeat

Teacher Starting Salaries 20-21

  • $32,495

    Average starting salary for teachers in Montana

  • $56,313

    Average starting salary for teachers in DC

Source: National Education Association

Per Pupil Expenditures FY20

  • $19,035

    Median per pupil expenditures by school districts in FY20 in the Northeast

  • $10,746

    In the South

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

9th Grade Enrollment

  • 15

    States, plus Washington D.C., that had at least a 5% growth in 9th grade enrollment compared to 2020-21

Source: Burbio data compiled from 35 states and Washington, D.C.

Firearm-related Deaths

  • 4,357

    Firearm-related deaths among children in 2020

  • 30%

    Increase in firearm-related deaths among children between 2019-2020

Source: NPR analysis

Education as a Voter Issue, 2022

  • 82%

    Parents who would vote for someone outside of their political party if their education platform aligned with their views

Source: National Alliance for Public Charter Schools

Preschool Enrollment

  • 55%

    3- to 5-year-old children enrolled in school, 2020

  • 66%

    3- to 5-year-old children enrolled in school, 2019

Source: NCES

Attendance Rates in NYC

  • 41%

    Students chronically absent in New York City, 2021-22

  • 27%

    Students chronically absent in New York City pre-pandemic

Source: NYC Department of Education

State Rates of Absenteeism

  • 35.7%

    Students chronically absent during the 2020-21 school year in Kentucky

  • 2.1%

    Students chronically absent during the 2020-21 school year in Wyoming

Source: Ed Data Express

A National Look at Attendance

  • 10.1 million

    Students who were chronically absent during 2020-21 school year

  • 8 million

    Students who were chronically absent pre-pandemic

Source: Attendance Works

Charter School Demographics 20-21

  • 35%

    Public charter school students that are Hispanic

  • 24%

    Public charter school students that are Black

Source: National Alliance for Public Charter Schools

Charter School Laws

  • 45

    States, plus DC, that have passed laws allowing public charter schools as of Dec. 2022

  • 3.7 million

    Public charter school students in the U.S., 2020-21

Source: National Alliance for Public Charter Schools

Enrollment Changes

  • 7%

    Increase in U.S. students enrolled in charter schools in 2020-21

  • 5.6%

    Increase students in homeschooling in 2020-21

Source: National Alliance for Public Charter Schools

Principal Stress During the Pandemic

  • 83%

    Principals who reported frequent job-related stress last school year (2020-21)

  • 59%

    Principals who cited supporting teachers’ mental health as a main source of stress

Source: Learn Together Surveys

Projected ESSER III Spending

  • $2.2 billion

    Projected ESSER III spending on psychologists/mental health professionals

  • $1.2 billion

    Projected ESSER III spending on social-emotional learning

Source: FutureEd

Next Generation Ideas

The Future of American Education

Resetting the agenda for the nation's schools and colleges

Read the Essays

When School Reform Is Not Enough

A New Strategy for Driving Educational Equity

The Promise and Peril of New Teaching Technologies

An Equity Agenda for Higher Education

In Defense of College Degrees and New Post-Secondary Pathways

The Case for a New School Finance Reform Agenda

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High-Dosage Tutoring

State Guidance for High-Impact Tutoring

Read More about State Guidance for High-Impact Tutoring

Tennessee’s Impressive Response to Learning Loss

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Smart State Strategies for Building Intensive Tutoring Systems

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The Churn

The latest leadership changes in the education sector

Events

Upcoming events at FutureEd and across the education policy world

FutureEd in the News

Media mentions and our work on other platforms