FYI from BSF, 7.26.24

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Summer Reading

The past four summers you would have read about how school districts were addressing pandemic learning loss.  Many of those initiatives have gone away as rising high school students have fallen most behind.

Gaps are growing in state spending in education, but that is not necessarily driving achievement gaps.

“Universal” preK is not as universal as one thinks - access and actual hours of school vary widely by state.  Lots of data - some surprising - here.

One new coalition contends that efforts to address attendance and chronic absenteeism could be a new bipartisan effort.

There is much hope about the positive impacts of free community college in Massachusetts.  One of the potential negative externalities: even lower demand for Massachusetts state  universities, which also have declined in enrollment.

Still, may be worth it, given that community college has become a drag on higher education enrollment in Massachusetts.