These pieces add to our "Why we have and need a Department of Education" project, where we've been examining the role of ED in a time of heightened scrutiny and politicization of the department and federal role in education:
www.brookings.edu/collection/w...
I took a look at how higher ed has been shaped by funding cuts and uncertainty - "A coordinated retreat from college access: What TRIO and GEAR UP cuts reveal"
www.brookings.edu/articles/a-c...
Alongside this check-in, we dove into specific areas where ED has significantly shifted. @rachelmarisa.bsky.social has a terrific piece on OCR - "How ED has turned civil rights enforcement into a discriminatory tool"
www.brookings.edu/articles/how...
Checking in on the Department of Education - a year(ish) into the second Trump administration and ahead of SOTU tomorrow, we looked back at what has happened to ED and what you might expect in the year ahead
www.brookings.edu/articles/faq...
🚨Sharing my newest post - A coordinated retreat from college access: What TRIO and GEAR UP cuts reveal
www.brookings.edu/articles/a-c...
A new report warns that AI poses a serious threat to children's cognitive development and emotional well-being. n.pr/4pA3kkl
It would appear I am now a columnist at Inside Higher Ed. My first piece focuses on McCarthyism, censorship, and our current moment in higher education. This is an essay I started nearly 6 months ago so I'm glad to finally share it with y'all.
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...
Addressing these questions requires a team effort. To that end, we're hiring a postdoc to start summer 2026. Please submit your materials by the end of the month and/or share the posting: postdocs.stanford.edu/prospective/...
The D.C. region saw the largest increase in home sale listings of any major metro area, according to the Brookings Institution.
2025 has changed the “trajectory of the District’s economy,” said one expert. Here's why:
This !@#$% year in review: the wrecking ball that was February 2025 brought the abrupt end to many Institute of Education Sciences contracts for data collection, evaluation and research. www.brookings.edu/articles/cut... 🧵
We first note that hand-wringing about the decline in US college enrollments has mistakenly linked such declines to the price of four-year colleges.
But the decline is entirely driven by two-year community colleges (and by for-profit colleges). The four-year sector is the dog that didn't bark.
Thankful for “good colleges with masters degrees of fine arts”
This Thanksgiving, my eight year old is thankful for quality higher ed 😂 We’ll maybe hold off on debt-to-earnings conversations until she’s a few years older…
Also this Thanksgiving season I’m grateful for the @brookings.edu GS comms team, our Brown Center team, and interns for getting this pulled together ❤️
The “professional” loan limit discourse this past week has been wild.
I wrote up some thoughts on what recent policies and neg-reg actions actually mean and what impacts on graduate studies we should be focusing on:
www.brookings.edu/articles/def...
Heat maps of estimated increase in days above 95 degree F across North Carolina. Source: https://ncics.org/programs/nccsr/.
5/5 Bottom line: extreme heat is undermining teacher productivity and reshaping learning in ways we’ve totally missed. As heat waves become more common, schools with older workforces or weak cooling systems will be especially vulnerable. Climate change is already affecting American teachers.
📢 New postdoc opportunity at Annenberg!
The Annenberg Institute is seeking a postdoctoral research associate for a 2‐year appointment to join a diverse community of scholars committed to educational equity and improvement!
More info here: annenberg.brown.edu/opportunitie...
📢 #EdWorkingPapers: Behind the scenes of student success interventions: Faculty & staff collaborate and make key changes that strengthen low-touch supports
🔍@ellenbryer.bsky.social, @catherinematah.bsky.social, @katharinemeyer.bsky.social & @linzpage.bsky.social
📄 edworkingpapers.com/ai25-1314
NEWS (?):
The formula that USDA has asked states to use to get to 50 percent of SNAP benefits *does not produce a number that is 50 percent of benefits* for any family that has net income.
Illustrative example below.
www.fns.usda.gov/snap/benefit...
This is my last week at the Wall Street Journal.
I'll be returning to Chalkbeat to launch a new section focused on the big ideas and debates in American education. More on this soon!
You can sign up to keep following my work here:
www.chalkbeat.org/newsletters/...
Haven't been on Bluesky in awhile, but popping in to say I wrote a policy piece based on my transfer paper for @brookings.edu Chalkboard! Many thanks to @econsarahreber.bsky.social, @katharinemeyer.bsky.social, & Michael Hansen for the opportunity and the editing.
www.brookings.edu/articles/com...
📢 #EdWorkingPapers: Do RCTs in higher ed risk contamination?
From a large in-person college course intervention, @catherinematah.bsky.social, @katharinemeyer.bsky.social & @linzpage.bsky.social show when individual-level randomization is preferred
📄 Full paper here: edworkingpapers.com/ai24-1083
Join us for an online @brookings.edu event Mon 9/15 @ 4PM, ET to discuss the state of the Trump administration's K-12 education agenda with education & legal scholars & civil rights attorneys.
Submit questions in advance via email or the registration form!
www.brookings.edu/events/what-...
"At a time when schools are in dire need of more resources and support, the Court has added only more challenges to their plate," says @rachelmarisa.bsky.social.
Experts on education law and policy share their reactions to some of the Supreme Court’s decisions this term.
Scatter plot comparing median program debt (x-axis, $50k-$300k) vs 10-year cumulative earnings (y-axis, $0.5M-$2M) for professional programs. Medicine MD programs (pink squares) cluster in upper right with high debt ($150k-$250k) and high earnings ($1.4M-$1.8M). Law programs (blue circles) cluster in the bottom left corner with lower debt and lower earnings, though some elite programs show medicine-level earnings and somewhat higher debt than other law schools. Veterinary Medicine (green diamonds), Dentistry (plus signs) and Pharmacy (X marks) are distributed across middle ranges of earnings, but across wide ranges of the distribution of debt, with almost all pharmacy programs having lower debt than almost all dentistry programs. Physical therapy and veterinary programs have law-like earnings (between half a million and a million over 10 years), and while PT has law-like debt as well, veterinary debt is generally much higher and closer to medical school.
New at @pseocoalition.bsky.social, @julia-turner.bsky.social & I have a new report on grad school debt & earnings over the medium term. For some key professional fields (🩺⚖️🦷💊🐾), we show the varied patterns both within & across areas of study, looking at the first decade of earnings after graduation
A+ emoji game
Lawfare is hiring!
We are looking for a new full-time senior editor. Responsibilities of the role include contributing analysis of key issues in national security law and policy and more. The ideal candidate will have a professional background in journalism, law, policy, or academia.
Graph of federal work study and FSEOG allocations to Louisiana, by sector, for the 2024-25 school year
Especially excited about our drop-down visualization of the campus-based programs (work study & FSEOG) at the state level, so you can see exactly how much cutting a program would impact different colleges in your state. Here's Louisiana as an example:
Pell grant cuts threaten state college access goals
In my latest, I explain how the multipronged cuts to federal financial aid would shift costs to states, who in turn will likely have to shift costs to students to take on more debt or forego college
www.brookings.edu/articles/pel...
And here's a Chalkboard post she wrote for @brookings.edu on her research and broader board considerations. She's a rockstar!
Terrific new WP from @isabelmcmullen.bsky.social examining the composition of higher education governing boards (pretty timely topic...).
