Explore commentary and stories from Chad Aldeman, K-12 policy and school finance expert, on the evolving landscape of educational recovery and progress.
On Wednesday, August 27th, I’m going to be moderating a panel for The Collaborative for Student Success on, “Filling the Void: Setting the Academic Research Agenda for Education.”
Every two years, the “Nation’s Report Card” reports on how well students are performing in reading and math.
Gender gaps in math start have been growing in recent years. A recent report from NWEA found that, from 2021 to 2024, boys have steadily pulled away from girls in both math and science. Importantly, this story is not about the averages but about the highest-performing boys pulling away from the highest-performing girls.
Work-based learning seems like a nice intersection of classroom learning with on-the-job training. But what is it exactly, and how should policymakers think about expanding high-quality work-based learning opportunities? To find out, I reached out to Bellwether Senior Associate Partner Kelly Robson Foster. Robson Foster co-authored a comprehensive review of state work-based learning policies back […]
When my dad took us on long road trips as a kid, he would give my brother and I what he called “can problems.” Iowa used to have, and still has, a bottle deposit law where each returned soda can or bottle was worth a nickel.
As of late last year, 40 states and DC had passed “science of reading” laws setting requirements around evidence-based requirements for teaching kids how to read.
As of late last year, 40 states and DC had passed “science of reading” laws setting requirements around evidence-based requirements for teaching kids how to read.
A new brief from Elizabeth Huffaker at Stanford University dives into the research around Algebra I. Published by the Annenberg Institute at Brown Institute, its central question is what evidence-based policies promote Algebra 1 access and improved student achievement.
There’s no large, new financial investment coming over the horizon for America’s public schools. And yet, students still have a lot of unmet need.
For the last couple years we’ve been banging the drum on the need for states to process their test results much faster in order to provide timely information to parents and educators. Did you know states have actually gotten worse over time? The chart below compares the timing of when states released their school-level results […]
At 5:03pm Friday evening, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon officially called “time” on the COVID recovery effort. Whatever federal funds that hadn’t been spent yet would now go back to the Treasury. If your school district still had outstanding contracts or receipts, well, too bad!
Last month I wrote about how American public education is entering a new era, and that demands needs a new playbook. For the next few years, policymakers should look for no- or low-cost reforms, that have a strong evidence base, and which are relatively simple to implement.
Chad Aldeman is a nationally recognized expert on education policy, including school finance; teacher preparation, evaluation, and compensation; and state standards, assessment, and accountability. Chad has worked at the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University, Bellwether Education, and the U.S. Department of Education during the Obama Administration.
He has published reports on K-12 and higher education accountability systems; school choice; student enrollment; and teacher preparation, evaluations, and compensation. His work has been featured on CNN and NPR and published in the Washington Post, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal. Chad holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa and a master’s of public policy from the College of William and Mary. Chad is also the founder of ReadNotGuess.com, a program to help parents support their child’s early reading skills.
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