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Dear Colleagues,

Statewide standardized testing has played a central role in education policy for decades, as policymakers have sought to get a clearer picture of how schools are performing and spur them to improve. Yet state tests, required by federal law, have grown increasingly divisive. They’ve been attacked from many directions for many reasons.

At the heart of the controversy is the fact that stakeholders want the tests to serve two different, equally legitimate, and largely incompatible roles. They want the tests to provide policymakers information on student achievement that’s comparable across schools and school districts to hold schools accountable for results. And they want them to give educators and families detailed information to improve instruction and track individual student progress.

The competing priorities have caused high-quality tests developed at a substantial cost to be attacked by critics and abandoned by states, spawned new testing initiatives that have struggled to address both roles of testing simultaneously, and paralyzed the national discussion on ways to teach students to higher levels in a post-pandemic era when that work is critical.

The conflict is playing into the hands of opponents of all state testing, who would strip the testing provisions from federal law, putting the future of state testing at risk—and with it, testing’s vital contributions to instructional improvement, school quality, research, and educational equity.

[link removed] a new analysis, None of the Above: A New Vision for State Standardized Testing ([link removed]) , FutureEd Senior Fellow Lynn Olson and I propose a way out of the testing crisis. The key, in our view, is decoupling state testing from school accountability systems required by the federal government—allowing constructive changes to state tests while ensuring that policymakers continue to have a clear window into how students are performing and allowing emerging testing innovations to focus on strengthening instruction.

We know, given the intensity of the testing debate, that our blueprint for the future of state testing will draw criticism. That’s fine. Our goal is to spur a much-needed conversation about how best to resolve what has become a years-long stalemate on a critical issue.
Read the Report ([link removed])
The Future of the Tutoring Movement
FutureEd continues to examine ways to scale the high-quality tutoring programs that emerged in many public schools in the wake of the pandemic—a silver lining to the Covid crisis in education. The challenge now is to sustain the tutoring movement’s momentum as federal pandemic-recovery funds for schools wind down. Policy Director Liz Cohen explores one avenue for doing that in a recent commentary in The Hechinger Report ([link removed]) on the potential of the federal work-study program to fund thousands of college tutors in K-12 classrooms.

Liz recently testified ([link removed]) before the District of Columbia City Council on ways to respond to another, decidedly less encouraging post-pandemic trend: the rise in chronic student absenteeism.

Kaya Henderson on the Power of Teaching Black History
One of the lesser-known features of Kaya Henderson’s highly successful tenure as chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools was her introduction of curriculum materials that highlighted the history and culture of the city’s diverse students.

Since leaving DCPS, she has doubled down on that work, launching Reconstruction, a curriculum and technology company offering supplemental materials in African American history and culture. The experience has given her a unique vantage point on the nation’s battles over race and identity in recent years. Henderson, a FutureEd senior fellow, shared her perspectives with Editorial Director Maureen Kelleher in a FutureEd interview ([link removed]) .

Statehouse Updates
FutureEd has been following state legislative activity on key education issues. In our latest tracker, on teacher compensation ([link removed]) , we identify 59 bills across 22 states aimed at increasing teacher pay. Nine have been signed into law, including Utah legislation creating a pay-for-performance system.

State lawmakers have continued to pursue private-school choice ([link removed]) legislation after passing a flurry of laws on the issue last year. We have identified 118 bills in 34 states on the topic. Most aim to broaden the use of public funds for private schooling, but a handful of proposals would scale back parents’ publicly funded private options.

Chronic student absenteeism ([link removed].) spiked during the pandemic and has yet to recede to pre-pandemic levels in many places. Traditionally, schools and school districts have addressed absenteeism. But the stubborn post-pandemic absenteeism levels have led state lawmakers to take a greater role in proposing solutions. FutureEd has identified 71 bills in 28 states that would create new initiatives to prevent and address chronic absenteeism.

Upcoming Webinars
We’re hosting two webinars in the coming weeks.

The first explores a strategy for providing advanced learning opportunities to a far wider range of students that FutureEd Senior Fellow Peg Tyre outlines in our recent report, Excellence with Equity: The Case for Rethinking Gifted Education ([link removed]) . The conversation features local education leaders who have achieved that important goal. Register here ([link removed]) .

The second marks the forthcoming publication of a deep dive into the research on effective advocacy by Marc Porter Magee, chief executive of 50CAN. Marc and a panel of education advocates are going to explore how the research can help build support for high-quality tutoring. FutureEd and 50CAN are co-hosting the webinar through their AdvocacyLabs ([link removed]) partnership. Register here ([link removed]) .

New Book
I’m happy to announce that FutureEd Senior Fellow Anne Kim has a new book out today from The New Press. Poverty for Profit chronicles how a vast industry of bail bondsmen, federally funded school lunch suppliers, and many others profit from the persistence of poverty in America. It’s a sobering tale. You can order the book here ([link removed]) .

New Newsletter: The Churn
We know our readers want to keep up on the latest leadership moves in the education sector. To help, we’re launching a weekly newsletter, The Churn. You can sign up here ([link removed]) . We’ll continue to post transitions on our website ([link removed]) , too.

We also list on our website upcoming in-person and virtual education events ([link removed]) . Send your leadership news and events to [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) , and we’ll be happy to post them.

Thanks and best wishes,

Tom

Thomas Toch
Director, FutureEd
McCourt School of Public Policy
Georgetown University
[email protected]
@thomas_toch
| @futureedgu ([link removed]) | www.future-ed.org ([link removed])

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