Dear John,
It is week 300 of our new reality and, in our last Roundup of the year, we’re taking a moment to reflect on what we have accomplished together and what we need to do in 2026 to make the greatest difference for kids.
There is a lot to be proud of this year. As we detail below, across the 50CAN network we secured 29 policy wins, from enacting a package of science of reading reforms in Georgia to expanding afterschool programming in Colorado to allocating millions of dollars for literacy coaches in New Jersey.
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At the core of this policy work is an evidence-based vision that a better education is possible for every child. Last January, we announced our policy goals to accomplish that alongside essays from Jay Artis-Wright, Kevin Huffman, Justin Dent, Marguerite Roza and Governor Jeb Bush and in this Roundup we will report back on how we did.
This year we also made a special effort to share what’s working. 50CAN VP of Policy Liz Cohen released her book, The Future of Tutoring, and published a policy report on the future of math instruction entitled Mathways. At our annual summit in New Orleans, we put the focus on the policy ideas that powered Louisiana to record student achievement gains. And in our recently released oral history of 50CAN’s first 15 years, we helped uplift the inside stories of what we have learned along the way.
Last but not least, we have also strived this year to welcome new voices into the network, with a record 100 fellows connected and trained across our seven programs. Together with our staff, board and volunteers, the people who make up our network have never had more reach, or been better positioned, to make a difference in their communities and in the country.
On behalf of everyone at here at 50CAN, we hope you have a safe and warm holiday season and we look forward to continuing the conversation in the new year about how to put our kids first.
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Make 2026 the Year of the Next Step in Implementation of Literacy Reforms
Spurred by falling literacy proficiency across the country and the work of journalists and thought leaders like Emily Hanford, 2025 was a year of literacy wins across the states. In the 50CAN network, seven states passed literacy reforms aligned with the science of reading, from high quality instructional materials to teacher preparation program reforms.
With over 44 states and Washington, D.C. having passed laws to strengthen literacy, 2026 must be a year of literacy implementation. As former Mississippi State Superintendent Carey Wright told EdWeek about her current work as the state chief in Maryland, “It’s really drilling down further into the classroom. How do we help classroom teachers implement those lessons? How do we better help them diagnose concerns they have initially? And what are the practical applications of this in a literacy classroom? How much time do they spend on literacy?”
Superintendent Wright’s questions are as important for advocates as they are for school leaders and state officials, and there are countless stories in education of ideas that started as promising new policies but ultimately never moved the needle due to poor implementation.
Over the past several months, our executive directors have been asking the hard questions about these reading reforms:
- Are more kids actually reading high-quality texts and full-length books?
- Do teachers have the ongoing support and professional development they need?
- Do parents have the right information and programmatic opportunities to support their kids when they’re struggling?
- Do states and districts have a plan to offer literacy support when they need a boost, and how effective are those plans?
Additionally, we also know that while we’ve put a major focus on ensuring that students have the tools and support they need to learn to read, we know that a successful literacy shift will be one that results in significantly more students reading to learn. As literacy advocates Karen Vaites, Robert Pondiscio and others have argued, and the New York Times’ Dana Goldstein covered last week, the books that students are reading matter. How can we do better at supporting kids in building the background knowledge they need to access books across a diverse array of subjects and genres?
In 2026, we’ll be working to ensure that the expectation of these new laws match the actual experience that kids are getting each and every day.
Make 2026 the Year of Math
While we’ll need to be vigilant on literacy implementation over the coming year, readers of the Roundup will know that as concerning as the post-pandemic drops of literacy have been, math is even more of a problem, and that it is equally longstanding.
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You’ve likely read how severely off track students were in the NAEP math results, and stories of wide remediation at UCSD and grade inflation at Harvard have broken through to a broader audience that, largely, has expressed confusion and concern (the San Diego Union-Tribune called the UCSD report, “Stunning”).
Parents, educators, and researchers are finding agreement on the idea that kids need better foundational math instruction in elementary school, and access to middle and high school math instruction that is significantly more relevant to careers. As Liz Cohen wrote in Mathways: Every Kid is a Math Kid earlier this year, Alabama, Louisiana and Kentucky are states with an early lead. From their efforts, a policy playbook is beginning to emerge that assembles the best practices for providing students with targeted support and better math instruction.
While we’ll reveal details early next year, we’re excited to share that seven states across the 50CAN network have set math goals in 2026. Their efforts will be multiplied by the 50CAN Math and Data Science fellows, who will work to bring public attention and energy in order to push policy change further, faster.
As we move forward and learn, we’ll be working with partners to continue to build out and share this policy playbook, so that math gets a similar lift to the reading reforms passed over the past several years.
Make 2026 the Year of Making Education Relevant to the Political Conversation
Next November, 36 states will elect a new Governor, up from just 11 in 2024 and only two this past year. Those 36 seats are currently held by both political parties equally, with Democrats and Republicans each holding 18 seats. Will they all run on clear education platforms?
Only if we insist on it. Education advocates have work to do to ensure that parents and voters are informed on the state of schools and the spotlight is put firmly on how candidates plan to address their desire to increase kids’ access to educational opportunities.
To support those efforts, 50CAN will be releasing the next iteration of the Educational Opportunity Survey early next year, with over 23,000 parents surveyed and a representative sample for every state and Washington, D.C. These results create an indispensable fact base, equipping advocates to jumpstart conversations grounded in the real voices of parents in their states.
- The task this week is to explore these three themes for 2026 and think about the path forward for advancing solutions in your states.
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As 2025 comes to a close, we are thrilled to share that the state campaigns of the 50CAN network achieved 29 policy victories over the course of the year, with each goal bringing us closer to our Believe In Better vision for the education all kids deserve. |
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The Education That's Right for You
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ConnCAN cemented funding for charters and magnet schools, preventing a series of cuts that had been proposed in the state budget.
DelawareKidsCAN fought and won approval for a new dual language charter school in Sussex County: Las Américas ASPIRA.
GeorgiaCAN incentivized local school districts to approve high-quality charter school petitions, resulting in the first new district-approved charter schools in seven years.
GeorgiaCAN also launched the state’s Georgia Promise Scholarship ESA program, fully funding it to the tune of $141 million in its first year.
Louisiana Kids Matter created a charter school revolving loan program.
NewMexicoKidsCAN defeated a constitutional amendment that would have brought back an elected school board, which would have had ramifications for quality charter school authorizing.
NewMexicoKidsCAN ensured a new charter school was created in Las Cruces, a community with limited school options, and ensured that three additional high-performing charters could expand their seatcount.
CarolinaCAN secured over $400 million to move every student off the waiting list for the state’s Opportunity Scholarship.
TennesseeCAN obtained additional financial resources for charter schools, including $5 million for an Equitable Facilities Fund and $20 million for additional charter school facilities.
TennesseeCAN expanded education options for families by enacting the Tennessee ESA, securing $143 million for 20,000 seats in the first year.
Battle Born Kids Matter created an open enrollment program in Nevada that will allow students to attend a public school outside their designated attendance zone.
Battle Born Kids Matter passed a provision that allows an increase in the enrollment cap for charter schools if they serve students who are zoned for schools labeled as low-performing, persistently underperforming or overcrowded.
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Tutoring and Care for All
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ConnCAN expanded on their literacy reform work by securing advanced literacy training for 500 K-12 teachers each year.
DelawareKidsCAN increased funding for literacy coaches by securing an additional $1 million in the state budget.
DelawareKidsCAN ensured that the students’ demographics will be a weighted factor in the student-funding formula as the final recommendation of the Public Education Funding Commission to the legislature.
GeorgiaCAN passed a package of literacy reform bills, including a ban on three-cueuing, funding and training of literacy coaches, and more aligned supports for students with dyslexia.
GeorgiaCAN also passed the Distraction-Free Education Act, a bill restricting cell phone usage by K-8 students during the school day.
JerseyCAN acquired an appropriation of $6 million in the state budget for literacy coaches and coordinated a state deployment and instructional coherence strategy.
NewMexicoKidsCAN ensured all educator preparation programs will include science of reading instruction, as well as pre-service training in the field to practice instructional skills.
CarolinaCAN removed the Praxis as a requirement for alternatively certified and lateral entry educators.
Battle Born Kids Matter required teachers to complete coursework in foundational literacy and aligned teacher preparation programs with the science of reading.
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A World of Open and Connected Learning
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Transform Education Now found a permanent home for Denver’s innovative MySpark afterschool program, with the city council approving an additional $1 million.
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A Family's Right to Know What's Working
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DelawareKidsCAN passed legislation requiring that school report card data is easily accessible on the state’s website, with additional data points that weren’t previously available to parents.
TennesseeCAN protected the state’s framework for assessment and accountability after it was targeted legislatively by anti-accountability groups.
Louisiana Kids Matter ensured that as a portion of the evaluations of career programs, the programs will be assessed on their alignment to state workforce needs.
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A Clear Path to the Career You Choose
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GeorgiaCAN helped to enact the Governor’s Top State for Talent Act, which included an evaluation of high demand careers and created a system to determine the ROI, for both the state and the student, of career pathway programs in relation to high demand careers.
GeorgiaCAN supported an expansion of the state’s need-based financial aid program, which provides students who are at-risk of lapsing on college tuition payments with the assistance to complete their degrees.
HawaiiKidsCAN created an inter-agency working group to build a new cradle-to-career data system in Hawaii, which will enforce data sharing at the state level, track students beyond high school and assess success in placing them in high-demand jobs that better enable them to afford living in Hawaii.
Louisiana Kids Matter passed the career pathways return-on-investment analysis bill, which allows for the collection of data critical to evaluating the relationship between industry-based credentials and careers.
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Our favorite resources from 2025, one from each month of the year:
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January: John Bailey believes in the power and potential of AI Tutoring, John Warner thinks it’s all hype. The two discussed their disagreements in a conversation over Sal Khan’s new book in Education Next.
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February: Available To All reported on strict residential assignment policies in Missouri’s public schools, arguing that such practices limit access to educational opportunities for middle- and lower-income families.
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March: A study published by EdWorkingPapers finds that non-degree credentials and certifications can provide substantial financial benefits in less time compared to traditional degrees.
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April: Urban Institute explored how states can use strategic, sustained funding to expand apprenticeships as an alternative to college.
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May: Chad Aldeman highlighted Virginia as a potential nation-leading state in getting families their state assessment results back quickly, with legislation that requires results be returned to parents and schools within 45 days of the end of the test taking window.
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June: Lauren Camera of The 74 reported on a study that argues that afterschool programs are “far more important than policymakers and parents likely realize.”
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July: Stéphane Lavertu and Tim Rosenberger in Fordham’s Flypaper argued that post‑pandemic growth in charters, vouchers, ESAs, homeschooling and AI tools has opened a window for education dynamism, but warned efforts could stall without strong school autonomy and transparent data.
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August: A Walton Family Foundation poll of 1,300 Gen Z students and parents found only 46 percent feel very prepared for post-high-school paths, and the majority of students use their parents as the primary source of advice for career opportunities.
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September: At The 74, Greg Toppo captured the “grim” NAEP results, showing that “a larger percentage of the Class of 2024 scored in the tests’ ‘below basic’ level in both math and reading than in any previous assessment dating back decades.”
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October: Monica G. Lee and colleagues’ study published at EdWorkingPapers found that a high-impact tutoring initiative in Washington, D.C., reduced student absenteeism on days when tutoring was offered.
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November: AEI’s report on student attendance suggested that attendance patterns have changed without a single, primary driver, finding that absences increase as students extend holidays, weekends and vacations during the school year.
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December: At New America, Lisa Guernsey and Elise Franchino announced a two-year National Commission on Learning Ecosystems, where participants will look at the wide variety of learning environments in a community, from libraries to rec centers to career centers, to explore new models that expand student opportunities to learn.
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In a season of giving back, students in Sioux Falls, South Dakota are creating fleece blankets for kids in need through “Project Warm-Up.” Initially created in 2006, the program has since crafted over 43,000 blankets that are picked up by nonprofit organizations and distributed to students facing poverty, illness or recovery from natural disasters. Looking to volunteer with your own family this holiday season? Idealist.org maintains a list of volunteer opportunities across the country.
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