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Dear John,
It is week 238 in our new reality and we are thinking about implementation.

Back in 2020, the OECD published a policy report ([link removed]) that argued “that education policy has become more complex and requires balancing traditional top-down implementation processes with more bottom-up approaches that leave room for co-construction and local adaptation.” The challenge is that “policy reforms do not always translate into concrete actions and visible results in schools, however well designed they may be. Failure to produce the desired policy outcomes may come from the gap between the attention given to the policy while it is being designed and the lack of attention when it comes to implementing it, as well as resistance against the reforms or lack of capacity to put them in place.” That means that when a policy is passed, the work of education advocates has often just begun.

In the four years since the report’s publication, there has been a flurry of educational policies passed in states across the United States. Whether these legislative victories ultimately move the needle on expanding educational opportunities for kids will come down to how well they are implemented in each state. That will take ground-level data for all 50 states like the kind we have collected in our new State of Educational Opportunity in America ([link removed]) survey report. It will also take public servants willing to put a spotlight on what works and what doesn’t and reach across lines of differences to see these new initiatives through to success. And it will take state-level advocacy teams who are committed to their states for the long-term.

One of the ways we can ensure education advocacy campaigns stick around long enough to make policies work is to support them. That’s why we are excited to spotlight the HawaiiKidsCAN’s giving campaign that’s running this week. Hear stories from the parents and community members that work with Executive Director David Miyashiro all week across HawaiiKidsCAN’s social media ([link removed]) , and if you feel so inspired, we know he’d be grateful for your support ([link removed]) .

Also, a reminder that applications are open ([link removed]) for the seventh cohort of the National Voices Fellowship.

Last time ([link removed]) in the New Reality Roundup, we introduced The State of Educational Opportunity in America: A Survey of 20,000 Parents ([link removed]) , along with releases by local partners and media coverage. Today, we check-in on learning loss and look at how one executive director–NewMexicoKidsCAN’s Amanda Aragon–is analyzing her state’s survey results as she prepares for the next legislative session.
Best,

Marc Porter Magee, PhD
50CAN Founder and CEO

@marcportermagee ([link removed])

Drive a statewide conversation with data
“I’m so excited that we have some comparative data. Oftentimes in education it’s really hard to get up to date information, but also information that you can compare outside of your own state,” reflects Amanda Aragon, on the latest episode of the New Mexico Rising podcast ([link removed]) with Marc Porter Magee. The two discussed the results from the State of Educational Opportunity and how different the outcomes were for each state.
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Amanda also explored the way the survey data highlights a disconnect: parents in New Mexico are much more confident their children are at or above grade level in reading and math than what standardized tests reveal. “It’s a different conversation if someone isn’t saying to a parent, ‘Your child is below grade level, on grade level, above grade level.’ And what this survey shows to me is that communication is clearly not happening. Otherwise we wouldn’t have the disconnect that we’re seeing in the data,” Amanda shared. As a result, she’s speaking with stakeholders across the state with a single question: What can we do immediately to give parents a significantly more accurate picture of their children’s progress?

Amanda also discussed how the survey reveals deep inequalities: “In New Mexico, the state average is not only below the national average, but there are big gaps between low- and high-income families… The percentage of New Mexico families saying they understand how school budget decisions are being made are only 15%.”

Over the coming months, as she prepares for the upcoming legislative session, Amanda will be digging into the survey numbers with community and elected leaders across the state. “One of the things we’ve been able to do with stakeholders is ask, ‘What does this data mean? What does it mean about the satisfaction with our programs and policies? What can we do this year?”
* The task this week is to follow Amanda’s example by digging into your state’s survey data and hosting stakeholder conversations to build momentum for next’s legislative session.

Don't stop talking about learning loss
“There is evidence that this generation of K-12 students has not fully recovered academically — and may never do so,” Jessica Grose penned ([link removed]) in a column in the New York Times. “Test scores on core subjects are lower than they have been in decades, and the achievement gap between rich and poor students has widened even further. When I interview teachers, they tell me that some of their students are behaviorally and socially stunted in ways that aren’t always captured by statistics.”

Grose’s piece may sound like it is striking themes we have strived to put a spotlight on in this newsletter repeatedly over the past two years–because it is. But we have to resist the temptation to ignore these issues just because they aren’t new. Taken together, they paint a portrait of an education system in crisis and one that Americans are rapidly losing confidence in–Grose cites Gallup’s finding ([link removed]) that only 43% of Americans are completely or somewhat satisfied with the quality of public education, a datapoint that is also reflected ([link removed]) in depth in the State of Educational Opportunity in America ([link removed]) report.

What’s to be done? Grose argues greater transparency could lead to more pressure from parents for real change:

“I would personally like to see a federal push for more easily understandable data from states — both on school performance and our kids’ performance. There is a disconnect between grades, which have been inflated, and student knowledge,” she writes. “The Associated Press’s Annie Ma reported on a 2023 Gallup survey that showed that ‘88 percent of parents say their child is on grade level in reading, and 89 percent of parents believe their child is on grade level in math.’” That disconnect was also seen ([link removed]) in the State of Educational Opportunity, suggesting work in front of advocates, district officials and elected officeholders to act to bring urgent clarity to parents about the state of learning.
* The task this week is to share Grose’s column and continue to drumbeat in a way that makes learning loss too hard to ignore.


Transform Education Now secured ([link removed]) the approval of the city council for a $5.5 million investment in Denver’s budget to expand out-of-school activities, including the MySpark after-school program that provides low-income families with a way of accessing out-of-school sports, arts and tutoring.

HawaiiKidsCAN shared ([link removed]) highlights from their Right to Read event, held last month in partnership with the Hawaii Department of Education, in order to galvanize evidence-based practices in teaching literacy.

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The Right to Read highlight video

50CAN’s FIRE Fellowship launched last week, with an inaugural cohort of over 30 parents from across the country. The fellows met with National Organizing Manager Steven Quinn and immediately got to work crafting their advocacy stories and pitches. Over the next two months, fellows will engage in trainings around policy, advocacy and organizing.

The State of Educational Opportunity report continued to garner media attention, including in the West Virginia Intelligencer ([link removed]) , Indiana’s Indy Politics ([link removed]) , an op-ed ([link removed]) in Kentucky, Joanne Jacobs ([link removed]) and on Simon Conway’s ([link removed]) Iowa radio program.

Fordham Institute published ([link removed]) a research report that analyzed the impact of an innovative program that gave extra money to charter schools that met performance criteria, finding the initiative boosted academics and reduced chronic absenteeism.

A report from FutureEd gathers ([link removed]) the facts from the latest wave of ESAs, opportunity scholarships and vouchers, examining who is participating and the growth of programs.

The 74 Million’s Greg Toppo reports ([link removed]) on the first randomized control trial of AI-assisted tutoring, which determined that the program increased students’ math skills.

Writing in The 74 Million, David Harris looks ([link removed]) at a powerful new method of measuring school effectiveness: looking at employment and other life outcomes five years after graduation.

On AEI’s Report Card podcast ([link removed]) , Nat Malkus and College Board’s David Coleman talk about AP courses, the SAT and David’s “unified theory of standardized tests.”

According to a new analysis ([link removed]) by Brookings, declining college enrollment is more likely to hollow out colleges by leading to the elimination of programs and majors than to lead to their full closure.

A new study published in EdWorkingPapers finds ([link removed]) that a California pilot to expand the number of high school counselors increased both graduation rates and local college enrollment.


Eden Alonso-Rivera, a teen podcaster, is the winner ([link removed]) of NPR’s Student Podcast challenge, having bested 2,000 of her peers. Her podcast, A Relationship Behind Bars ([link removed]) , discussed her experience growing up with an incarcerated father. “I would never be the Eden sitting in this chair, talking in this microphone right now,” she shared, “if all of that didn’t happen, and I’m very proud of myself and I will always keep my chin up and my shoulders back.”

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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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