Policy

Schools across the United States have been shut down since March, with no obvious reopening date in sight as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt everyday life for citizens around the globe.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began to take hold in the United States in spring 2020, many school districts switched to distance learning seemingly overnight. Now, education experts are weighing the nature and impact of the transition on students and teachers, along with potential ways to address the resultant upheaval. The...

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, much of the country's workforce is grappling with a new normal that has no clear end in sight. In the education sector, the massive and abrupt shift to remote learning received extensive media coverage as educators transitioned from in-person classroom instruction to teaching...

Alarm bells are ringing in school communities across the country due to the upheaval wrought by the COVID-19 crisis. For many, a particular area of concern centers on students with special education needs.

Since 2015, federal education policy has been guided by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which emphasizes a necessary but often misunderstood element of learning: research. More specifically, ESSA guidelines encourage local and state-level education agencies to use “evidence-based interventions” to help ensure students and teachers can access strategies solidly...

Where do the billions of dollars allocated for K-12 education in the United States each year actually end up? A new mandate borne of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) aims to answer this question by requiring the addition of state-by-state data points to each state’s annual report card....

It has been four years since the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed into law on December 10, 2015, some eight years after the federal education policy law was due for updating. By putting pen to paper, then-President Barack Obama authorized the long-awaited revamp of ESSA’s predecessor, the No...

The recent #RedforEd movement has underscored the importance of public education and drawn attention to the critical role educators play in shaping public policy. Since 2018, the movement has sparked successful community requests for the government to reinvest in public education, and it also made an historic impact on the...

Taking an extended break from school during the long, hot months of summer has been an American tradition for generations. Across the United States, schools and communities plan around the summer break—which often lasts more than two months—with many parents and guardians saving their vacation days for special activities during...

The mention of rural America may conjure up nostalgic images of wide-open land, quiet farms, and charming—or desolate—small towns that time has forgotten. Among the millions of children who grow up in non-metro areas, many face a variety of challenges that include high rates of poverty and decreased access to...