Social Mobility Elevators

By James Murphy Higher education remains an important driver of social mobility in America. Everyone benefits when low-income and working-class students enroll in and complete postsecondary training. Those with postsecondary degrees earn more, are more likely to be employed, and pay more in taxes. Racial inequities in employment and income increasingly even out where there

“Pandemic Pods” For All: The Promise of High Dosage Tutoring

By Nicholas Munyan-Penney and Charles Barone With more than half of U.S. K-12 students enrolled in districts providing no in-person instruction, and many more districts considering moving to all-remote learning due to spiking COVID-19 infection rates—including recent closures in NY, CO, and CA—pressures are mounting on parents to find ways to guide, support, and supplement

Innovative Assessment Pilot: Louisiana’s LEAP 2025 Humanities Assessment

By Nicholas Munyan-Penney and Charles Barone Read the full report here. ———————————– Louisiana is one of the first four states to be approved to participate in the Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority (IADA) under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Districts participating in the state’s pilot are free of federal requirements that the same summative assessments

NH and NC Forge Ahead with Innovative Assessments Amid the Pandemic

By Nicholas Munyan-Penney Since releasing our briefs outlining innovative assessment pilots in New Hampshire and North Carolina earlier this year, the pandemic has upended assessments with states cancelling spring 2020 testing. These cancellations had the potential to seriously impede the progress of developing and scaling up new assessment systems being conducted under the Innovative Assessment

ERN CT – Aug. 2020 Primary: Social Pressure RCT + VBM Preliminary Results

Social Pressure RCT Education Reform Now implemented an experiment to test the ability of social pressure GOTV text messaging to increase the turnout of eligible voters in the CT Primary, held on Aug 11, 2020. The full universe comprised approximately 198,000 registered in CT who did not vote in the 2018 Primary and registered before

Pell No! New Data on Colleges That Under-Enroll Talented, Working Class Students

By James Murphy The Department of Education has released new data on college enrollment, including the number of undergraduate students at each university who received a Pell Grant. In 2018-19, almost 7 million college students received a Pell Grant, which typically goes to individuals from households earning less than $65,000 per year. That’s almost half

Opinion: Expand college students’ role in voting

Note: This op-ed first appeared on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Voter suppression efforts continue in Georgia and beyond. Last month, Georgia’s flagship university, funded by a Republican state legislature and governor, announced it was closing campus polling places ostensibly due to concerns about COVID-19 transmission. But the university made clear football games would go forward, because

Murphy: Half in favor of college rankings

By James Murphy Murphy is a Senior Policy Analyst with Education Reform Now, a non-partisan, non-profit think tank. Alert the marketing department! Email the alumni! The 2020 U.S. News and World Report Best College ranking list is out. Let the criticism begin! The annual ranking, intended to be a tool for students and families, has

Words and Deeds: University of Virginia

By: Katlyn Riggins  The University of Virginia (UVA) is no stranger when it comes to the fight for racial justice.  The infamous “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville left a scar on the university’s campus. The violence in Charlottesville accelerated the removal of Confederate statues from several U.S. cities, and UVA’s Board of Trustees voted

ERN DC Renews Commitment to Equity in Education

We are living in a time where transparency is critical for every organization. As we continue to learn from our past and strive for growth, we recognize that we must reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that public education is just and equitable in Washington, DC. So today, after engaging in many conversations with our community,