Explore commentary and stories from Chad Aldeman, K-12 policy and school finance expert, on the evolving landscape of educational recovery and progress.
As March Mathness kicks off this week, I’m excited to be teaming up with the Collaborative for Student Success, Jocelyn Pickford, and Dale Chu to look for the most promising interventions to get kids back on track.
President Joe Biden released the last budget of his first term this week, and it’s not enough. It’s just not ambitious enough to re-engage students, get them back in classrooms, and continue recovery efforts.
Not a math person, you say? If you’re one of the millions who embrace the wild and intense excitement of the NCAA basketball tournament each March, then I beg to differ.
Disclaimer: I am not Joe Biden. Congress did not ask me to give this year’s State of the Union address. But if I were Joe Biden, here’s what I would say about the state of K-12 education:
When federal COVID relief funds expire at the end of this year, school districts may have to scale back on promising education recovery efforts.
According to a new study, Tennessee students who “consistently” used the Zearn math platform made big gains in math. The same is true for regular users of programs like ST Math or Khan Academy.
The Biden Administration’s new “Improving Student Achievement Agenda” would have been great... if it came out in March 2021 instead of January 2024.
In the wake of the pandemic, the percentage of kids who were considered chronically absent—who missed 10% or more of the school year for any reason—nearly doubled. Those rates have come down somewhat as the immediate health crisis recedes, but they remain extraordinarily high, especially in large urban areas.
COVID-19 laid bare just how important schools are for student learning, especially in math. With student attendance rates and academic performance still far below normal, it’s a good time to reconsider how policymakers can help. I sat down with Elliot Regenstein from Foresight Law and Policy to talk through these issues.
When schools closed for in-person learning in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was math achievement scores that declined the most.
We’re now in the final year for districts to spend their share of the $190 billion in federal relief funds. By this time next year, other than some outstanding contracts, districts will have to return to their normal spending levels.
The nation is struggling to help students re-engage in school and recover lost learning time. Reformers have seized on tutoring as one promising solution. Tutoring has a strong research base, but only if done well. When implemented poorly, tutoring can even deepen equity gaps (because students who don’t necessarily need tutoring are also the most likely to use it). Opt-in programs in particular can struggle with participation, let alone quality issues.
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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