Dear John,
It is week 264 of our new reality and we are thinking about math.
Once a month, the 50CAN team takes a break from the hectic pace of our advocacy campaigns to do a deep dive into one policy area with an outside expert. Last week, the expert who joined us was Zarek Drozda, the executive director of the nonprofit math initiative Data Science 4 Everyone, based at the University of Chicago. Over the past four years Drozda and his team have built out a coalition of more than 3,000 education leaders working in 29 states to find new ways to re-engage students by reenergizing math instruction in the United States.
Before leading Data Science 4 Everyone, Drozda worked at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), which administers the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and in our discussion last week he made the case that there is much more insight that can be gleaned from the data than we typically get from coverage that looks only at the topline results in math and reading.
For example, while overall math achievement has declined over the past decade and a half, it hasn’t changed at the same rate in every content area. Breaking out the NAEP results across the different parts of math instruction illuminates the specific challenges we face.
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“In U.S. math education, Geometry and Data often get the short straw,” Drozda wrote in an analysis of these results earlier this year. “Whether this is a result of instructional prioritization decisions that were made during the pandemic to ensure students reach the next grade level with less time, the tendency for geometry and data to be cut for time at the end of the year, a lack of teacher confidence in these areas, or something else, we need to boost investment and interventions in these areas.” Dozens of educators and parents weighed in response to a post on X about the chart with their own ideas on what might be going on.
It is a reminder of how much more we have to learn from digging into the data from standardized tests, how important it is that we protect these windows into student learning and how many unanswered questions are left as we aim to not just get back to the achievement levels of the past but surpass them.
Last time in the New Reality Roundup, we looked at how closing the digital divide has made the learning divide worse and examined why Harvard’s students are taking remedial math. This week, we take stock of Georgia’s legislative session and speak with the Emily Anne Gullickson, Virginia’s new Secretary of Education.
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Aim for policy wins that are more than the sum of their parts
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The Peach State’s 2025 legislative session wrapped up last week with six big wins that move the state closer to GeorgiaCAN’s vision of an education system that leads the nation in opportunity and achievement and touch on every pillar of Believe in Better. Here’s what GeorgiaCAN’s Michael O’Sullivan, Steven Quinn, Ty’Sheka Lambert and Missy Purcell worked so hard to get done this year:
Cutting out the classroom noise. In an age of ubiquitous digital distractions, Georgia lawmakers decided it was time to help students tune out the TikToks and pay attention in class. House Bill 340, the “Distraction-Free Education Act,” will require K-8 schools to implement policies that keep cell phones out of kids’ hands during the school day. The idea is simple: fewer distractions makes it easier for teachers to teach and students to learn. GeorgiaCAN’s executive director Michael O’Sullivan celebrated this bill as “an important step toward keeping our students focused on learning rather than distracted by cell phones,” applauding the strong bipartisan support behind it. HB340 passed both the House and Senate, with passage in the latter chamber coming on a 54-2 vote and now heads to Governor Kemp’s desk.
Building literacy. Georgia didn’t stop at clearing out distractions; lawmakers also tackled the content of learning by doubling down on the fundamentals of reading. With an ambitious literacy package (House Bill 307 and Senate Bill 93), Georgia has joined a nationwide wave of states moving decisively towards the science of reading as the foundation of everything it does. The new laws prohibit the destructive “three-cueing” method of teaching reading–an old guesswork approach that encouraged kids to guess words from pictures or context clues–and mandate that schools use high-quality, phonics-based literacy instruction grounded in evidence. The team also secured funding in the state budget to put 116 new literacy coaches into the field to help teachers master proven approaches to helping all students thrive.
Expanding choices and opportunity. Georgia lawmakers gave a boost to ensuring every child can find the right school for them with a new charter school law (SB82). This legislation, the “Local Charter School Authorization and Support Act,” makes it easier to launch high-quality charter schools by offering incentive grants to local school boards for each new charter school they approve, creating a process that encourages partnership rather than competition. The team was able to get $500,000 in the budget as the seed funds for the incentive grants.
Funding the Promise Scholarship. Following last year’s passage of the Georgia Promise Scholarship, GeorgiaCAN successfully advocated for the program to be fully funded in the budget, securing $141 million to provide the ESA scholarships to 22,000 eligible students.
Opening learning through afterschool. After discovering through the Educational Opportunity Survey that Georgia leads the nation in the gap between high- and low-income families in access to afterschool opportunities, the team worked to inform lawmakers of the issues and delivered $12.5 million in the budget for grants for afterschool programs.
Laying the groundwork to be a top state for talent. SB237, the Top State for Talent Act, recommends that the Professional Standards Commission work with state education agencies to develop recommendations for career pathways and internships, laying the groundwork for future legislative action to expand access to a clear path to a career.
Each of these policies individually will make a positive impact in the lives of Georgia’s students, but working together they will do even more to usher in a new era of education in the Peach State. Congratulations to the GeorgiaCAN team for the continued forward progress in 2025.
- The task this week is to learn from GeorgiaCAN about the role of a strong, unified vision of change in pursuing multiple goals that work together to drive life-changing gains for kids.
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Follow what's next for Virginia
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It’s an exciting time in Virginia, with Governor Glenn Youngkin appointing Emily Anne Gullickson to be Secretary of Education. Those who followed her work in Arizona know Emily Anne to be a vigilant, dynamic leader who consistently puts the interests of students and families first. We’re thankful Secretary Gullickson made the time to sit down with the Roundup to answer a few questions on her new role.
At 50CAN, we recently released new polling focused on Virginia, as a purple bellwether state. What did you take from the numbers from Virginia voters?
Emily Anne Gullickson: Virginians are ready for change! This is our “yes and” moment. Governor Youngkin has invested over $7 billion new money into K-12 education – with more on the horizon in this year’s budget. Voters – including independent voters – are clear: we need more than just “more funding.” Voters want better reforms and principals and superintendents want more flexibility and autonomy to deliver on student outcomes. Legislative changes over the past two years make this truly possible and our job at the Department is to create the right learning networks, toolkits, and resources to help educators who want to redesign learning models and build student-centered education options be successful.
Congratulations on your appointment. What do you see as the most pressing opportunity or problem to solve that you’re going to take on first?
EAG: We are excited to take the lead on K-12 education innovation and utilize flexibilities provided by USED. Virginia has been leading over the last year on alternative teacher licensure, transportation modernization, seat time flexibility, and rolling back regulatory hurdles stifling innovation. Now the Department must have a mindset shift from compliance to strategic thought partnership and implementation support with and for our local school divisions.
As Chief Deputy Secretary, what was the biggest lesson that you learned that you’re carrying into this new role?
EAG: Never underestimate the possibility of bipartisanship when the policy solutions are kids-first. This has been my leadership style since before I arrived in Virginia. All our biggest legislative wins in Virginia under this Administration have received support from both parties. Now more than ever we must stand firm in decisions, policy levers, communication efforts, and supports for the field on what will move the needle most for students. With kids at the center, we can do a lot together in the next 10 months despite it being an election year in the Commonwealth.
- The task this week is to extend congratulations to Secretary Gullickson and follow her progress as she takes the reins of the education system in the Commonwealth.
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Transform Education Now Executive Director Nicholas Hernández was the guest on the Boardhawk Podcast where he discussed Denver’s upcoming school board elections, the potential extension of the superintendent’s contract and local power struggles in the Mile High City.
50CAN National Voices Fellow Anahit Baghshetsyan is off to a quick start, penning an op-ed for Nevada Business magazine on expanding opportunity scholarships in the Silver State.
 Louisiana Kids Matter’s Executive Director Kelli Bottger is monitoring enrollment in the LA GATOR Scholarship a year after its initial passage. “Over 80% of GATOR applicants are from households at or below 250% of the federal poverty level. Not only do the facts run counter to a common narrative, but they show just how desperate Louisiana’s most impoverished families are for opportunities as to where their child is educated,” she told us.
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A new report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools outlines key 2024 state legislative changes affecting charter schools – from boosts in funding and facilities support to new authorizing provisions.
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American Enterprise Institute advocates for a renewed federal school choice agenda via a tax-credit scholarship program, arguing that the approach offers the best chance to expand choice to all 50 states without increasing federal spending or bureaucracy.
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EdWorking Papers publishes new research that finds that in one district’s opt-in, on-demand tutoring program, only 19% of students – and even fewer struggling students – ever used the service, but that sending reminders to both parents and students boosted participation by 46%.
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Brookings analyzes the fallout from expired pandemic aid, finding K–12 districts facing budget cuts and tough staffing choices that could impact teacher quality.
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Urban Institute explores how states can use strategic, sustained funding to expand apprenticeships as an alternative to college.
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Fordham Institute spotlights a new analysis of campus political diversity, revealing that while most elite colleges skew liberal, a handful of these selective schools have a nearly even balance of liberal and conservative students: Washington & Lee, Notre Dame, University of Miami, Boston College and Wake Forest.
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“You know it’s the final week of the legislative session when there’s a marching band working their way through the Senate,” GeorgiaCAN Outreach Director Steven Quinn shared with us. Students from Columbia High School in Decatur, GA performed last week after being honored by legislators at the Capitol.
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