The Trump administration ripped up civil rights agreements. Could it spark a chain reaction for schools? Conservatives say the federal government is finally interpreting Title IX correctly. But some legal experts say tearing up old agreements is not only virtually unprecedented — it could have a chilling...

Terminating civil rights agreements could have ripple effects far beyond those cases or even transgender students as a group. “Once you open that door to something that is unprecedented, where does it end?" one longtime OCR employee asked. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/04/14/t...

How the US Department of Education has turned civil rights enforcement into a discriminatory tool | Brookings

In a new Brookings piece, I wrote about how the US Department of Education has turned civil rights enforcement into a tool to promote segregation and discrimination.

www.brookings.edu/articles/how...

Join ELC on March 2 for “Making the Grade: Advocating for Fair School Funding in the States.” Access the report + register for the webinar here: edlawcenter.org/making-the-g...

Informational flyer for the Ascendium Postsecondary Scholar Award. Application deadline is February 13, 2026. Eligible applicants include active AEFP members who are PhD students or professionals with research focused on postsecondary or workforce development. Preference is given to applicants presenting at the conference who have limited resources to attend.

Thanks to Ascendium Education Philanthropy, the Ascendium Postsecondary Scholar Award supports researchers in postsecondary ed & workforce development attend #AEFP2026. Applications are due TODAY. Learn more: aefpweb.org/ascendiu...

The Paradox of School Choice? Experimental Evidence on Choice Architecture, Anxiety, and Satisfaction - Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, Huriya Jabbar, Fatima Varner, Gloria Stout, Kathleen Holloway, 2026 School choice policy is often touted as offering more choices to families whose school options are limited by traditional zoning. However, too many options or t...

This study started with a convo over coffee w/ Huriya Jabbar in 2017! We wrote two unsuccessful grant proposals, finally got internal funding, and then struggled through 4 journals to get the null findings published. Persistence and great colleagues for the win! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

After 60 Years, a Louisiana District Fights to Exit Federal Desegregation Order St. Mary Parish is on the frontlines of a legal battle to end ongoing school desegregation cases dating back to the civil rights era.

After 60 Years, a Louisiana District Fights to Exit Federal Desegregation Order: St. Mary Parish is on the frontlines of a legal battle to end ongoing school desegregation cases dating back to the civil rights era.

For context, this drop in attendance rates related to the measles outbreak (about 93% to 90%) is almost as large as the initial drop in TX attendance rates from pre-pandemic to post-pandemic (95% in 2018-19 to 91% in 2021-22).

(TX attendance trends over time here: www.aei.org/research-pro...)

🚨There is a lot of policy movement to expand career & technical Ed but little evidence of what to expect from such expansion. Our WP provides evidence from MA on take up & ➕impacts in the first 5 yrs after HS. #cte

The biggest consequence is that 1.5 million public school students continue to have their constitutional rights violated because lawmakers are failing to adhere to the court order calling on them to fully fund the Leandro Plan.

It's unclear why @dawnbvaughan.bsky.social forgot this.

#ncpol

Join the Policymakers & Practitioners Community Group tomorrow at 2 PM ET for an engaging forum on dual enrollment research. Register today: aefp.zoom.us/meeting...

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Navigating Declining Enrollment. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting. Join us to hear about how declining student enrollment poses unique challenges for school districts. It increases budget pressures in our already underfunded public schools. As pressures from declinin...

Join me on Zoom Thursday 10/16 to hear about my report on declining school enrollment

Event Details:
📅 Date: October 16, 2025
⏰ Time: 12 – 1 PM
📍 Location: Via Zoom – Registration link below

Come work with us! We’re really excited about our research on attendance and chronic absenteeism. And we’d be really excited to work with you! Reach out if you have any questions.

Detroit-based preferred, but remote might be possible. Start as early as Dec 2025 or later in Spring/Summer 2026.

PSA: Our department of Curriculum & Instruction is hiring for an open-rank position in secondary literacy! illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Not *my* department, but my College. So come work with me! (Or let me know if you want to talk about UIUC [which is great]!)

🍎🦡 I'm recruiting a PhD student in Ed Policy (fall '26) at @uwmadison.bsky.social! Come work with me on college access, admissions, & fin aid in our top-ranked, fully-funded program. I’m especially excited for this student to immediately join our direct admissions RCT team.

NC Senators push 'mini budget' spending plans, but deals appear elusive North Carolina Republican lawmakers, unable to reach a state budget deal, are attempting to pass smaller and more targeted spending plans.

Again, if your story on NCGA budget negotiations fails to mention that state leaders are under an open court order to fully fund the Leandro Plan, then you're ignoring a massive constitutional crisis and the biggest issue in the biggest part of state government

#ncpol

New Parent Research Helps Explain Causes of Post-Pandemic Absenteeism Crisis Though chronic absenteeism has declined from its post-COVID peak, too many students are still missing too much school. Research shows that absent students fall behind academically and are more likely…

NEW from me and Amie Rapaport at @futureedgu.bsky.social: New Parent Research Helps Explain Causes of Post-Pandemic Absenteeism Crisis // www.future-ed.org/new-parent-r...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

New paper! Using data from NC, we estimate that getting attendance rates back to pre-pandemic levels in 2023-24 could have improved state math achievement by 0.017-0.025 SDs in this year, or 13-19% of what would be needed for a full academic recovery. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Through October 3, free access to Urban Education special issue marking the 70th anniversary of the Brown v Board of Ed. decision, including our article:
journals.sagepub.com/topic/collec...

with
@janellescott.bsky.social @edebray.bsky.social @sarahmccollum.bsky.social @talialeibovitz.bsky.social

Screenshot of policy brief that reads: This delay (or outright refusal) to compile a robust COE weakens our nation’s ability to accurately assess the current condition of education and the progress we have made. Policy actors such as the Congressional Research Service use Digest tables. Scholars leverage the COE to explain in policy briefs the effects of K-12 class-size reduction policies or whether an “enrollment cliff” actually looms for higher education. The press also uses this data to help the public understand issues like the rise in total cost of attendance at colleges and universities or challenges in the teacher labor market in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Morning! I did a lil analysis and turns out that, when ED employees are illegally fired and contracts are canceled, ED is unable to fulfill its congressional mandate to publish national statistics on the condition of education.

Why does that matter? Well...

www.brookings.edu/articles/the...

#Econsky check the Economics Department at the University of Arkansas is hiring two open-rank Economics professors, including an opening in public economics and public policy.

Public Economics/Public Policy:
lnkd.in/eQTEgPM9

Macroeconomics:
lnkd.in/ewxxNSh8

I'm hiring a postdoc to assist with creating a longitudinal dataset of state charter school funding laws. More info in the position description. Please share!

This is a great resource! @rachelmarisa.bsky.social @brookings.edu

NC Board of Education chairman names ‘biggest issue’ facing state’s public schools “Somewhere along the line, somebody decided that it’s good for our state to discredit and attack our public school system,” Eric Davis told the Hood-Hargett Breakfast Club Tuesday.

While we applaud Chairman Davis's efforts to lift up the amazing work going on in our public schools, we respectfully disagree that anti-public-school myths are a bigger issue than the unfortunate reality: legislators continue to violate the constitution by under-funding our schools

#ncpol

Glad to see this out—brief describing our research findings to date on dual immersion schools and strategies for promoting equity. Please share widely. With @lucasantibanez.bsky.social & others not on here.

Can anyone explain why Leandro has been memory-holed despite being an ongoing scandal and constitutional crisis?

If you’re a journalist, please let me know, why aren’t you covering this issue? Is it not a big deal that 1.5 million children are having their basic rights violated? Is it not a major scandal that the General Assembly has been openly violating a court order for the past 1,283 days? Are we not in the midst of a constitutional crisis when legislators argue that they can simply ignore the parts of the constitution they disagree with? If the answer to any of those questions is “yes” then I implore you to start centering Leandro in your reporting.

I'd love to hear from #ncpol journalists on these questions

@dawnbvaughan.bsky.social @raleighreporter.bsky.social @keunghui.bsky.social @bryanranderson.bsky.social @rebeccanoel.bsky.social @timboyumnews.bsky.social @lauraleslie.bsky.social @kyleingram.bsky.social @lucillesherman.bsky.social

Leandro is a big deal so why won’t the mainstream media acknowledge it? • NC Newsline From January through May, the word “Leandro” has shown up in just one news story in North Carolina's two largest newspapers

Leandro is a big deal. It's an incredibly juicy story. So why won't the mainstream media cover it?

My latest on @ncnewsline.com

#ncpol

Breaking into Education Consulting: Exploring Independent Career Paths [Webinar] YouTube video by Association for Education Finance & Policy

Here's the recording of the event I organized focused on how to become an ed consultant. There's lots of really useful, practical information regardless of your subject area, but I obviously had my colleagues who've recently lost their jobs in mind.

youtu.be/50hWMIyR6bw?...