FutureEd Reports
In-depth Policy Analysis

Invisible Students: The Information Crisis in Early Education
No part of the nation’s education infrastructure has been more disrupted by the pandemic…

Changing the Narrative: The Push for New Equity Measures in Education
A wide range of organizations are working to gauge students’ needs and public…

The Movement to Replace High School Grades
In a feature piece in the October 26, 2021 issue of The Washington…

In Demand: The Real Teacher Shortages and How to Solve Them
Are there widespread teacher shortages in U.S. public education? Recent headlines suggest…

Right From the Start: D.C.’s Groundbreaking Teacher Hiring Strategy
The District of Columbia Public Schools is well-known for its comprehensive teacher-evaluation and performance-…

Teaching Innovation: New School Staffing Strategies Inspired by the Pandemic
Amid the profound disruption of the coronavirus pandemic, some schools and districts have responded…

Covid Relief Playbook: Smart Strategies for Investing Federal Funding
Disrupted for more than a year by the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. public education…

Present Danger: Solving the Deepening Student Absenteeism Crisis
States and school districts nationwide have reported higher student absenteeism during the pandemic, with schools…

Tough Test: The Nation’s Troubled Early Learning Assessment Landscape
At a time when the nation is investing significantly more resources into early learning,…

Blueprint for Testing: How Schools Should Assess Students During Covid
As schools reopen this fall, educators will need to…

Strategies for the New Administration to Strengthen Public Education
Among the many challenges facing the Biden-Harris administration is the future of the nation’s public…

Attendance Playbook: Smart Solutions for Reducing Chronic Absenteeism in the Covid Era
Amid the economic and health consequences of the coronavirus crisis and heightened anger over racism…

The Big Test: The Future of Statewide Standardized Assessments
Standardized testing has been a cornerstone of school reform for two decades. But a…

Disrupted: The Path to School Reform in the Nation’s Capital
When the District of Columbia’s city councilors handed 36-year-old Mayor Adrian Fenty control of the…

Master’s of None: The Fallacy of Advanced Ed Degrees
David Firestone, a special ed teacher in New York City, is in his final semester…

School Climate Surveys in State ESSA Plans
School climate and student engagement have emerged as key elements in promoting academic success. Recognizing…

The New Testing Landscape: State Assessments Under ESSA
State testing systems are in transition. Buffeted by anti-testing sentiment on the left…

Teacher Mindsets: How Educators’ Perspectives Shape Student Success
Research increasingly points to the importance of social and emotional learning to student…

Common Lotteries and the Future of Urban Public Education
New common enrollment systems permit families to select traditional public schools and charters using a single…

CORE Lessons: Measuring the Social and Emotional Sides of Student Success
The intensifying interest among education policymakers in the social and emotional dimensions of student success…

Scaling Reform: Tennessee’s Statewide Teacher Transformation
The federal Every Student Succeeds Act has placed authority for improving education squarely in states’…

Why It’s Wrong to Write Off the SIG Program
Twelve state and local evaluations of a federal grant program aimed at turning around struggling…

Writing the Rules for Tackling Chronic Absenteeism
Nearly three quarters of states now include chronic absenteeism in their rubrics for assessing…

A Policymaker’s Playbook for Transforming Teaching
District of Columbia Public Schools has been a source of some sensational headlines over the past…

Who’s In: Chronic Absenteeism Under ESSA
When Congress rewrote the federal education law in 2015, lawmakers sought to scale back the…

Vouchers in D.C.: Choosing Not to Choose
In May, after the Republican-controlled Congress renewed the private school voucher program for Washington, D.C.,…

How D.C. Schools Are Revolutionizing Teaching
When most people think of school reform in the District of Columbia, they probably remember…

Vouchers in Indiana: A Cautionary Tale
UPDATE: The latest research released in August 2018 shows that Indiana students…

Grading the Graders: Teacher Evaluation Reform
Until recently, there was scant attention paid to teacher evaluation in American public education.