Publications: Education Policy and Policymaking

students walking down a school hallway with security officer looking on

Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place? Disentangling the Intersections of Student Behavior, School Discipline, and School Safety in the Post-COVID Era

Policy Brief

Richard O. Welsh and Kathryn James McGraw

May 20, 2025

NEPC Review: Testing Theories of Why: Four Keys to Interpreting US Student Achievement Trends (American Enterprise Institute, January 2025)

NEPC Review

Chris Domaleski

April 25, 2025

Let’s Stop Asking Whether Teachers Are Professionals. Let’s Ask What Kinds of Professionals We Want Teachers to Be

Policy Brief

Emilie Mitescu Reagan and A. Lin Goodwin

March 11, 2025

picture hanging on school fence saying "school closed"

NEPC Review: Underachieving and Underenrolled: Chronically Low-Performing Schools in the Post-Pandemic Era (Thomas B. Fordham Institute, September 2024)

NEPC Review

Sally Nuamah

January 29, 2025

What Would It Mean if President-Elect Trump Dismantled the US Department of Education?

Resource Document

Kevin G. Welner

December 12, 2024

picture of Brown v Board of Education National Historical Park sign

NEPC Review: School Segregation on School Report Cards: Who Are We Grading Anyway? (Urban Institute, September 2024)

NEPC Review

James Noonan

December 10, 2024

picture of Asian little girl taking online class

NEPC Review: Learning Systems: Shaping the Role of Artificial Intelligence in Education (Bellwether, September 2024)

NEPC Review

T. Philip Nichols

November 27, 2024

picture of two school buses on city street

The Fiscal Impacts of Expanded Voucher Programs and Charter-School Growth on Public Schools: Recommendations for Sustaining Adequate and Equitable School Finance Systems

Policy Brief

David S. Knight and David E. DeMatthews

November 21, 2024

picture of young students assembling a model vehicle

NEPC Review: The Broken Pipeline: Advanced Education Policies at the Local Level (Thomas B. Fordham Institute, April 2024)

NEPC Review

Eunice S. Han

July 18, 2024

picture of children doing schoolwork around large global map

NEPC Review: Spark & Sustain: How All the World’s School Systems Can Improve Learning at Scale (McKinsey & Company, February 2024)

NEPC Review

Clara Fontdevila, Antoni Verger, and Adrián Zancajo

June 13, 2024

The Potential for Land Use and Housing Reform to Address School Segregation and Educational Opportunity

Policy Brief

Genevieve Siegel-Hawley

February 13, 2024

The Conflict Over Parents’ Rights

Policy Brief

Vivian E. Hamilton

January 16, 2024

Cultivating the Soils of Change: Policy Contexts for Just Schools

FYI

Ann M. Ishimaru

October 13, 2023

Evaluating Research That Alleges Funding Disparities Between Charter and District Schools

Policy Memo

Mark Weber

September 12, 2023

Section 504 Plans: Examining Inequitable Access and Misuse

Policy Brief

Maria M. Lewis and Raquel Muñiz

June 8, 2023

NEPC Review: The Economic Cost of the Pandemic: State by State (Hoover Institution, January 2023)

NEPC Review

Clive Belfield

March 7, 2023

How Charter Schools Undermine Good Education Policymaking

Policy Memo

Helen F. Ladd

November 10, 2022

NEPC Review: The Effect of Constitutional Provisions on Education Policy and Outcomes (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, April 2021)

NEPC Review

Bruce D. Baker

June 22, 2021

Making Early Literacy Policy Work: Three Considerations for Policymakers Based on Kentucky’s “Read to Succeed” Act

Policy Brief

Amy Cummings

June 3, 2021

NEPC Review: Youth Engagement in Collective Impact Initiatives: Lessons from Promise Neighborhoods (Urban Institute, December 2020)

NEPC Review

Dana L. Mitra

March 30, 2021

The Price of Opportunity

Resource Document

December 15, 2020

An Agenda for Restoring Civil Rights in K-12 Federal Education Policy

Policy Memo

Janelle T. Scott, Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, Elizabeth DeBray, Erica Frankenberg, and Kathryn McDermott

November 24, 2020

Education Interview of the Month: Christopher Saldaña Interviews Jennifer Jellison Holme and Kara Finnigan About Educational and Urban Politics and Policymaking

FYI

Christopher Saldaña, Jennifer Jellison Holme, and Kara Finnigan

February 18, 2020

Education Interview of the Month: Christopher Saldaña Interviews Katherine Schultz About Distrust in Educational Change

FYI

Christopher Saldaña and Katherine Schultz

October 24, 2019

Education Interview of the Month: Christopher Saldaña Interviews Dirk Zuschlag and Kristine Bowman About State Intervention in School District Finances

FYI

Christopher Saldaña, Dirk F. Zuschlag, and Kristine L. Bowman

September 26, 2019

States’ Intervention in School Districts’ Finances

Research Brief

Dirk F. Zuschlag and Kristine L. Bowman

September 5, 2019

Funding Special Education: Charting a Path that Confronts Complexity and Crafts Coherence

Policy Brief

Tammy Kolbe

June 25, 2019

Organizing and Managing Instruction in US Public School Districts: Considerations for Families, Communities, and States

Policy Brief

Donald J. Peurach and Maxwell Yurkofsky

September 27, 2018

Reviews Worth Sharing: An Impact Analysis of North Carolina's Opportunity Scholarship Program on Student Achievement (June 2018)

Reviews Worth Sharing

Kristopher Nordstrom

July 12, 2018

Education Interview of the Month: Greg Smith Interviews Linda Molner Kelley and Adam York on Schools of Opportunity

FYI

Gregory A. Smith, Linda Molner Kelley, and Adam York

January 17, 2018

NEPC Review: School District Reform in Newark (National Bureau of Economic Research, October 2017)

NEPC Review

Mark Weber and Bruce D. Baker

December 14, 2017

Education Interview of the Month: Greg Smith Interviews Faith Boninger on Student Privacy

FYI

Gregory A. Smith and Faith Boninger

September 21, 2017

Our Children Deserve Better: A Call to Resist Washington’s Dangerous Vision for U.S. Education

FYI

Education Deans for Justice and Equity

September 6, 2017

Asleep at the Switch: Schoolhouse Commercialism, Student Privacy, and the Failure of Policymaking

Research Brief

Faith Boninger, Alex Molnar, and Kevin Murray

August 15, 2017

Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2017

Research Brief

Alex Molnar, Gary Miron, Charisse Gulosino, Christopher Shank, Caryn Davidson, Michael K. Barbour, Luis A. Huerta, Sheryl Rankin Shafer, Jennifer King Rice, and David Nitkin

April 11, 2017

Lifting All Children Up

FYI

Kevin G. Welner

March 21, 2017

Making the Most of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) – Helping States Focus on School Equity, Quality and Climate

FYI

William R. Penuel, Elizabeth J. Meyer, and Michelle Renée Valladares

January 4, 2017

Making the Most of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) – Helping States Focus on School Equity, Quality and Climate

Policy Memo

William R. Penuel, Elizabeth J. Meyer, and Michelle Renée Valladares

November 15, 2016

Research-Based Options for Education Policymaking - 2016 Collection

Policy Brief

William J. Mathis

August 23, 2016

Access and Equity for African American Students in Higher Education: A Critical Race Historical Analysis of Policy Efforts

Resource Document

Shaun Harper, Lori D. Patton, and Ontario S. Wooden

May 26, 2016

Virtual Schools Report 2016: Directory and Performance Review

Research Brief

Gary Miron and Charisse Gulosino

April 20, 2016

Lifting All Children Up

Policy Memo

Kevin G. Welner

March 21, 2016

International Test Score Comparisons and Educational Policy: A Review of the Critiques

Policy Brief

Martin Carnoy

October 30, 2015

NAEPscuses: Making Sense of Excuse-Making from the No-Excuses Contingent

Policy Memo

Kevin G. Welner

October 28, 2015

Investing in Equal Opportunity: What Would it Take to Build the Balance Wheel?

Policy Brief

Jennifer King Rice

September 15, 2015

Silver Linings Casebook: How Vergara’s Backers May Lose by Winning

Resource Document

Kevin G. Welner

June 3, 2015

NEPC Review: Measuring and Understanding Education Advocacy (Brookings Institution, March 2015)

NEPC Review

Robin Rogers and Sara Goldrick-Rab

April 16, 2015

Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2015: Politics, Performance, Policy, and Research Evidence

Research Brief

Alex Molnar, Luis A. Huerta, Michael K. Barbour, Gary Miron, Sheryl Rankin Shafer, and Charisse Gulosino

March 10, 2015

NEPC Review: New York City's Children First: Lessons in School Reform (Center for American Progress, March 2014)

NEPC Review

Randall Reback

June 3, 2014

The Lost Opportunity of the Common Core State Standards

Resource Document

Kevin G. Welner

March 26, 2014

Seeing Past the “Colorblind” Myth of Education Policy

Policy Brief

Amy Stuart Wells

March 20, 2014

Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2014: Politics, Performance, Policy, and Research Evidence

Research Brief

Alex Molnar, Luis A. Huerta, Jennifer King Rice, Sheryl Rankin Shafer, Michael K. Barbour, Gary Miron, Charisse Gulosino, and Brian Horvitz

March 4, 2014

Review of The Lessons of No Child Left Behind

NEPC Review

Bruce Fuller

August 27, 2013

Review of Report Card on American Education

NEPC Review

Christopher Lubienski and T. Jameson Brewer

May 9, 2013

Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2013: Politics, Performance, Policy, and Research Evidence

Research Brief

Alex Molnar, Gary Miron, Luis A. Huerta, Jennifer King Rice, Larry Cuban, Brian Horvitz, Charisse Gulosino, and Sheryl Rankin Shafer

May 2, 2013

Reform Florida

Policy Brief

Alex Molnar, Douglas N. Harris, Lisa Abrams, Madhabi Chatterji, Mary Lee Smith, Sherman Dorn, Tim Hacsi, and Victoria-Maria MacDonald

January 1, 2004