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Dear John,

It is week 232 in our new reality and we are thinking about how rare it is that states provide parents with the information they need to make educational choices.

“Many state report cards make it difficult to do things that should be easy,” USC Professor Morgan Polikoff argues in a new piece ([link removed]) for The 74. “Parents should be able to use the report cards to compare schools they are considering for their children, but in too many places, that is impossible. Advocates should be able to understand, at minimum, the performance of federally mandated student groups, such as children with disabilities and English learners, but many states completely bury these data. Further, report cards often lack other kinds of data that parents might want about available services, like advanced coursework, counseling, even sports and the arts.”

It's a major problem and we are grateful to Polikoff and his colleagues for putting a spotlight on it in their new report ([link removed]) for CRPE. We can’t put it any better than he does at the end of his piece: “Given the importance of effective public education and the apparent need and demand for the data, how can states justify doing such a lousy job at informing parents?”

Last time ([link removed]) in the New Reality Roundup, we looked at the expanding world of homeschooling and identified potential short and long term solutions for chronic absenteeism. This week, we look at the long-term consequences of districts’ ill-conceived removal of algebra from middle school classrooms alongside a new example of how America’s public schools are truly not open to all.

We’ll be away in Denver, Colorado for our annual summit so The New Reality Roundup we’ll return to your inboxes on October 7.
Best,

Marc Porter Magee, PhD
50CAN Founder and CEO

@marcportermagee ([link removed])

Learn from the “No Algebra in 8th” debacle
In 2014, San Francisco Unified school district reworked their math curriculum to remove Algebra as an option for 8th grade students in the name of equity. In the years that followed this idea–that rigorous courses should be restricted so that no one falls behind– spread to a number of school districts across the country, including Cambridge, Massachusetts ([link removed]) which removed Algebra as an 8th grade option in 2019.

However, evidence mounted ([link removed]) that the changes did little to address inequalities in math while slowing down more advanced students. Over the past year, districts have reversed course, with Cambridge voting in August 2023 ([link removed]) to bring back Algebra in 8th grade and San Francisco Unified voting to do the same in February 2024 ([link removed]) . For countless classes of students, however, the damage has been done. A weakening of the curriculum, combined with pandemic-era learning losses, is leading to an increased focus on math remediation in college.

The latest example is at a university based in Cambridge you may have heard of.

“The Harvard Math Department will pilot a new introductory course aimed at rectifying a lack of foundational algebra skills among students, according to Harvard’s Director of Introductory Math Brendan A. Kelly,” S. Mac Healy and Angelina Parker reported ([link removed]) last week in the Crimson. The remedial course will require students to attend five days a week, a decision that Director of Introductory Math Brandon Kelly explains as necessary, telling Healy and Parker, “Students don’t have the skills that we had intended downstream in the curriculum, and so it creates different trajectories in students’ math abilities.”

* The task this week is to reject the idea that equity is advanced in education by weakening the curriculum offered to students and insist on the kind of personalized education that allows them to be truly prepared for college and beyond.


Make “open to all” mean what it says
Access to advanced math concepts isn’t a problem for students at Ivanhoe Elementary in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, where fifth graders are analyzing ([link removed]) graphs and explaining the function of the Fibonacci sequence. The school is the subject of the latest investigation by Available to All’s Tim deRoche.

“L.A. Unified recently broke ground on a beautiful new $70 million renovation of Ivanhoe Elementary in Silver Lake, adding a shiny new building that will boost permanent capacity at the school,” Tim writes ([link removed]) for the Los Angeles Daily News. “But there was no need for this project. There are six other elementary schools in the neighborhood that are literally half-empty … The district could have saved that $70 million in taxpayer money by simply opening up those other schools to the Ivanhoe families. But that wasn’t politically possible. Why? Ivanhoe is a coveted school, and parents have often paid a significant premium to live in the attendance zone and be assured of a spot in Ivanhoe.”

Ivanhoe Elementary is yet another instance where our system of education, ostensibly open to all, is really just open to some; those that can afford the right mortgage. As 50CAN President Derrell Bradford showed in his examination of redlining ([link removed]) , this system is not an accident but has been designed this way on purpose, underscoring our need to deliver for families the ability to choose the education that’s right for them.

* The task this week is to share Tim’s story of Ivanhoe and stand up for an education system where educational opportunity is truly open to all.


Over 55,000 students in North Carolina are waiting to hear if the legislature will appropriate funds that will move them off the waiting list for an ESA, which has proven to be more popular than expected by even the strongest school choice proponents. CarolinaCAN Executive Director Marcus Brandon is anticipating a vote on the issue soon and working hard to make sure parents’ voices are heard in the debate.

NewMexicoKidsCAN Executive Director Amanda Aragon was profiled ([link removed]) by CharterFolks’ Jed Wallace, where she highlights the impact that charter schools are making throughout the Land of Enchantment and how the schools represent hope for local families. She also commented ([link removed]) on the lack of discussion of education policy in the 2024 presidential election cycle for Axios, “It's kind of like every person is out for themselves. Hope you get to live in a good school district. Hope your attendance boundary is to a good school because no one is really putting a plan together to make it better."

50CAN President Derrell Bradford shared ([link removed]) thoughts in the Wall Street Journal on the Biden administration's record on charter schools and what that may portend in a Harris administration.

National Voices Fellow Lauren May will appear this Friday on the Florida’s Voice ([link removed]) radio program to discuss the game-changing impact of Florida’s Family Empowerment Scholarships. Meanwhile, fellow Nasiyah Isra-Ul released her new documentary, following homeschooling families in Virginia.

Brookings documents ([link removed]) the major changes to the education system that emerged as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, including new technologies and instructional practices.

Jorge Elorza, the former mayor of Providence, Rhode Island and current CEO of DFER, reflects ([link removed]) on his own classical education experience at Providence’s Classical High School for Education Next.

Manhattan Institute’s Ray Domanico looks at ([link removed]) the legal and legislative victories for school choice and examines different approaches to accountability.

New research from Shaun M. Dougherty, Andrew Miller and Yerin Yoon published at Ed Working Papers finds ([link removed]) Catholic school enrollment suffers when charter schools are opened nearby.

Chronic absenteeism, the ESSER fiscal cliff and private school choice are among the items ([link removed]) on FutureEd’s Fall 2024 Policy Watch List.

AEI’s “Return to Learn” tool provides ([link removed]) the most useful tracking of state reporting of chronic absenteeism and just got updated with fresh data.

Mike Petrilli argues ([link removed]) at Fordham that we need changes in high school graduation requirements to boost the number of quality career programs.


An entry in NASA’s Europa Clipper challenge asks students to imagine what the spacecraft might find beneath the icy surface of Jupiter’s fourth largest moon. It is a great reminder of how many mysteries in the universe await curious minds. Young fledgling artists can still enter the art challenge ([link removed]) until the end of this month, with selected artwork not only being featured online but also during the spacecraft’s launch in October.

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ABOUT 50CAN

50CAN: The 50-State Campaign for Achievement Now is a nonprofit organization that works at the local level to advocate for a high-quality education for all kids, regardless of their address.

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