Is blue state ed reform hopeless?
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Gerrymandering
15 min read
The article explicitly mentions 'radical gerrymandering' as a key factor making legislative seats uncompetitive and pushing politicians toward their base rather than centrist voters. Understanding the history, methods, and legal battles around gerrymandering would help readers grasp why education reform dynamics differ so dramatically between states.
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Science of reading
19 min read
The article references Massachusetts reformers working to pass 'a science of reading bill' and later mentions 'knowledge-rich, book-rich ELA instruction' behind the 'Southern Surge.' This is a specific pedagogical movement with decades of research behind it that readers may not fully understand.
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Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
14 min read
The article specifically mentions Chad Aldeman arguing for 'a second Thomas Jefferson high school' in Fairfax County. This elite magnet school has been at the center of major debates about gifted education, admissions policies, and equity - directly relevant to the article's themes about education reform battles.
Hi friends. Thanks for all the kind words last week. I hope to see many of you today at JebFest, a.k.a. the ExcelinEd annual summit, in New Orleans. I’ll be moderating a great panel on phone-free schools this morning at 9:30 a.m. in Empire A, along with Ellen Weaver, David Figlio, and Melanie Hempe. Come say hello!
Today in SCHOOLED, I ponder whether education reform is hopeless in Democratic-run states, plus round up recent posts by Jorge Elorza, Ashley Berner, Liz Cohen, Jean Twenge, Paul DiPerna, Chad Aldeman, Joanne Jacobs, Marty Lueken, Marc Porter Magee, Nathan Sanders, Karen Vaites, and Robert Pondiscio. Plus, Charlie Barone and Melissa Tooley chime in about teacher pay.
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As I said up top, today I’m at JebFest in New Orleans, gathering with hundreds of state legislators and other policymakers, plus policy wonks from far and wide. Though there will surely be left-of-center folks there, the group does lean rightward and will no doubt celebrate big wins in recent years in red states on a wide array of issues—not just school choice—and plot what’s next.
Contrast that with the sad (I mean it: truly sad) state of affairs in blue America. As my good friend Van Schoales wrote for the Fordham Institute over the weekend, reformers faced another big loss in the recent Denver election, with union candidates winning all four contested school board seats in Van’s adopted hometown. This is on top of the unions flipping the Albuquerque school board, too.
In the Denver case, Van blames some tactical mistakes on behalf of the local reform “harbormaster,” but acknowledges that the environment is just really tough.
National politics also played a role. Though all candidates were Democrats, union-backed contenders appeared more authentically progressive. Reformers’ associations with Republican donors—however tenuous—hurt them in a deep-blue city where Trump-era polarization still looms large. The union candidates benefited from being perceived as “true blue.”
…When Denver voters were asked to choose between “teacher lite” and “teachers union,” they chose the true-blue teachers union candidates.
Center-left reform groups could be playing perfect baseball and still strike out right now, given today’s politics.
No doubt, y’all are doing your best to make lemonade out of lemons. Kudos, for example, for
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