Matt Barnum

Two decades later, retained 3rd graders were less likely to graduate and earned less money as young adults. A Texas analysis finds a short-term test-score boost after third grade retention, followed by fading gains and worse outcomes in adulthood. It’s a warning at a time when more states expand retention l...

New: There's a lot of enthusiasm for tough early-grade retention policies, modeled after Mississippi. And there's some good reason for this.

But a new study complicates matters: In Texas, retained third graders were far less likely to finish HS as a result.

www.chalkbeat.org/2026/03/10/t...

Chalkbeat A free newsletter from Chalkbeat about the big ideas changing education across America

h/t @mattbarnum.bsky.social - you should sign up for his newsletter if you haven't already! www.chalkbeat.org/newsletters/...

How much homework is too much or too little? Chalkbeat wants to hear from teachers, parents, and students. Are assignments helping kids learn — or just adding stress? Take our short survey and share what you’re seeing in classrooms and at home.

Are assignments helping kids learn — or just adding stress? Take our short survey and share what you’re seeing in classrooms and at home.

California keeps getting dragged as the counter example to the Southern surge in fourth grade reading. But in reality there has been a "California climb," which, while not as impressive as Mississippi, is still notable. Many other, better states to pick on!

‘Reimagining’ IES: A roadmap for federal education research after Musk’s DOGE cuts “Researchers have to go to educators,” said Amber Northern, author of a report on how to rebuild the Education Department’s research arm.

New @mattbarnum.bsky.social discussion with Amber Northern about her future of IES report: cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/amber-nort...

Is federal influence over schools really shrinking? Trump says he wants Washington out of education. School leaders say investigations into trans rights and race-related practices are pulling D.C. in deeper.

New–

Because of Trump's rhetoric and efforts to close the Education Department it's easy to think there's less federal involvement in schools.

And yet that's simply not the case. The Trump admin is still aggressively wielding federal power.

www.chalkbeat.org/2026/03/03/t...

@mattbarnum.bsky.social on one of the most important developments in K-12 ed politics during the last year:

- The dismantling of the U.S. Dept of Ed

AND

- The aggressive use of federal power to shape state and local decision-making, esp. on policies related to race and gender

The problem with school boards Political scientist Vladimir Kogan says school board politics often reward adult priorities. He explains why culture-war fights and off-cycle elections can leave students behind.

Read this @mattbarnum.bsky.social piece with @vkoganpolisci.bsky.social and decided to buy the book.
cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/no-adult-l...

The problem with school boards Political scientist Vladimir Kogan says school board politics often reward adult priorities. He explains why culture-war fights and off-cycle elections can leave students behind.

New-

I spoke with political scientist Vlad Kogan about his provocative new book "No Adult Left Behind." He argues that the politics of public education privilege the interest of adults over students. I tried to pressure test his arguments in this Q&A.

cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/no-adult-l...

New: Perhaps you've seen this graph showing school staffing rising in even as enrollment has fallen. Some think that's unsustainable.

But here's the same data shown as a ratio with a longer time horizon. It doesn't look quite so dramatic.

I explain more here:

www.chalkbeat.org/2026/02/24/p...

Trump wants historic sites to glorify America. Students help make sure this site tells the truth. “I think our country is strong enough to understand the history of our nation in its totality, and I think that anything less than that makes us weak,” wrote one Amache visitor.

It was 84 years ago today that FDR signed Executive Order 9066, setting in motion Japanese American incarceration. These high school students are protecting the memory of one of those incarceration sites, in a conservative part of the country, in a polarized time.

www.chalkbeat.org/2026/02/19/s...

This evidence is consistent w/ real declines in teacher performance when teachers move to schools w/ less supportive working conditions and very different student populations.

This suggests teacher effectiveness is more dynamic than often assumed & school contexts matter.

5/

Teaching as a team sport: What happens when a great teacher moves to a struggling school? New research on a federal program found that when top teachers transferred to high-need schools, their performance dropped significantly. Teacher effectiveness may not be a fixed skill.

Don't miss @mattbarnum.bsky.social's great @chalkbeat.org piece about our findings & how they fit within the broader context of research on teacher effectiveness and past/current policy efforts to raise achievement through reforms to teacher pay & evaluation.

www.chalkbeat.org/2026/02/17/t...

END

Teaching as a team sport: What happens when a great teacher moves to a struggling school? New research on a federal program found that when top teachers transferred to high-need schools, their performance dropped significantly. Teacher effectiveness may not be a fixed skill.

New–

A great teacher might not stay great in schools with less supportive learning environments. This is an important wrinkle on the "teachers are the most important in-school factor" line. It's more like: teachers + context.

www.chalkbeat.org/2026/02/17/t...

Teaching as a team sport: What happens when a great teacher moves to a struggling school? New research on a federal program found that when top teachers transferred to high-need schools, their performance dropped significantly. Teacher effectiveness may not be a fixed skill.

Nice @mattbarnum.bsky.social piece describing an important new study on whether really effective (85th%ile) teachers who have a big change in school context continue to be really effective. They don't: they continue to be effective (66th%ile), but not top tier.

www.chalkbeat.org/2026/02/17/t...

Grade inflation and remedial math: Who belongs at selective colleges? Two education writers debate the trade-offs of admissions standards.

New–

Should top colleges only admit the very top students?

Kelsey Piper, of The Argument, and I discuss this here.

cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/selective-...

Are America’s top colleges letting in more students from low-income backgrounds? Some press releases have touted major progress, but in aggregate there hasn’t been much change.

"Schools ... have recently touted a record share of students who receive Pell grants [for lower-income families]." But Pell rules changed. "[T]op colleges are still filled largely by students from advantaged backgrounds." @mattbarnum.bsky.social for @chalkbeat.org www.chalkbeat.org/2026/02/10/t...

New:

There's been some suggestion recently that top colleges are finally taking economic diversity seriously. Look at their soaring Pell numbers! Except the Pell definition has shifted.

In reality, these schools are still dominated by advantaged students.

www.chalkbeat.org/2026/02/10/t...

The case for snow days One or two missed days for everyone might be better than virtual learning where attendance and engagement is low.

New–

We all know that virtual instruction is not ideal, but surely it's better learning than a full snow day off, right?

Actually this is less obvious than it seems. Holding class when engagement is low can set everyone back.

www.chalkbeat.org/2026/01/29/s...

Is college enrollment plummeting? Reports of the death of the bachelor’s degree have been greatly exaggerated.

Stat is from here: hechingerreport.org/value-polici...

More context here: www.chalkbeat.org/2025/11/11/i...

Latest data here: nscresearchcenter.org/final-fall-e...

This oft-cited stat on is accurate but keep in mind two things.
1) the drop is almost entirely among two-year colleges. Yet inexplicably the discourse has focused on disillusionment with four-year degrees.
2) this data is now outdated after two straight years of surging college enrollment.

another way of framing the question is it's about whether vouchers are the contracting out of a public service (in which case accountability measures seem obvious) vs. an individual benefit programs (where such measures are less consistently applied)

Are private school choice programs helping students? Researchers say it may prove difficult to answer this question.

New: How will we know if new private school choice programs are working?

This will prove difficult to answer in the short term because publicly funded private schools don't typically take the same tests as public schools.

cbnewsletters.chalkbeat.org/p/are-privat...

though I would add that the level of oversight varies a lot among different taxpayer-funded programs (eg social security, child tax credit, pell grants, public schools).

thank you!

Are private school choice programs helping students? Researchers say it may prove difficult to answer this question.

Really nice and approachable piece from @mattbarnum.bsky.social about the challenges of evaluating new school choice programs (which I happen to especially like because I'm just finishing this chapter of my book!) www.chalkbeat.org/2026/01/27/a...

Can Rahm Emanuel fix schools and the Democratic Party in one fell swoop? Democrats need to embrace reform-minded education policies and pivot away from race and gender issues, the former Chicago mayor says.

New: Rahm Emanuel has stepped into a void in the Democratic party on education — but some of his key claims are questionable. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/01/22/r...

because he's one of the only prominent national Democrats who is treating education as deserving serious attention

The Trump administration is trying to close the Education Department but keep its biggest programs Officials want to close the Education Department but keep its programs. It’s not entirely clear what that accomplishes.

New: Taken on its own terms, the Trump administration's case for closing US ED is a bit vexing. Officials suggest this will boost student learning by getting the feds out of the way. But they're also saying that major federal programs will be preserved.

So what exactly will change for schools?

‘He has not been afraid to touch the third rail’: Meet Kamar Samuels, NYC’s schools chief Zohran Mamdani said he selected Samuels because of his knowledge of the city’s school system and track record of seeking ambitious changes.

“He has not been afraid to touch the third rail and have difficult conversations."

Great profile of NYC schools chancellor Kamar Samuels, who has a tough job in front of him. via @alexzimmerman.bsky.social and @amyzimmer.bsky.social

www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2026...