Phyllis W. Jordan is former associate director of FutureEd, writing about education policy and editing the work of fellows and others. Jordan has written extensively for FutureEd about student absenteeism and Covid relief spending. An experienced writer and editor, Jordan served in senior editing positions at the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, where she managed a team of 40 reporters and her responsibilities included editing the newspaper’s education coverage. Jordan also served as the communications director at Attendance Works, a San Francisco-based national nonprofit focused on improving the policy, research and practice around school attendance, and as a vice-president of the Hatcher Group, a communications firm that works exclusively with foundations and nonprofit organizations. At Hatcher, Jordan worked on a range of education initiatives, across print, digital, and social media platforms, including the crafting of a communications strategy for the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading to improve early literacy. Jordan holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Sweet Briar College.

Work by Phyllis W. Jordan

The Looming Medicaid Crisis for Children—and Schools

With the end of the Covid-created federal public health emergency, millions of students are losing access to health care.

State Strategies for Fighting Chronic Student Absenteeism

The battle against chronic student absenteeism has traditionally been waged in schools and communities. Increasingly, though, legislators and advocates are exploring state-level strategies to tackle the absenteeism problem.

Have Policymakers Overlooked a Major Contributor to the Dismal 2022 NAEP Results?

An analysis that looks at the correlation between abanseteem and test scores.

How California’s Schools Are Spending Billions in Federal Pandemic Relief

An analysis of how California localities are spending the third round of federal Covid-relief aid

Attendance Playbook: Smart Solutions for Reducing Student Absenteeism Post-Pandemic

Research and best practices on evidence-based strategies to reducing student absenteeism

Q&A: Goldhaber on the Early Impact of ESSER Funding on Learning Recovery

As schools used their federal Covid-relief aid to address student learning loss in the 2021-22 school year, a team of researchers drawn from institutions…

How Home Visits Helped Connecticut Cut Student Absenteeism

When students started dropping off the school rolls during the pandemic, Connecticut put $10.7 million of its federal relief aid toward a home visiting program…

Research Notes: Evaluating the Impact of Teach for America: Two New Studies

For as long as Teach for America (TFA) has been placing new teachers into public schools, debate has persisted over the staffing model’s impact on student…