, released last week through the National Bureau of Economic Research, finds that charter students in the Bay State are significantly more likely to enroll in a four-year college and obtain a degree than their non-charter peers.

But an odd wrinkle emerged: Students in urban charters also experience a noticeable bump in their test scores, while those enrolled outside cities actually see their scores fall. 

The overall effects offer yet more evidence that the Massachusetts charter sector, as the highest-performing in the country, substantially improves the life outcomes of its charges. The state has long won praise for holding choice schools to high standards, shuttering programs that fall short of expectations and allowing only charter organizations with a proven record of success to open new campuses. By the 2000s, charter students in Boston had begun out-scoring children in much more affluent towns on math and English. 

But the new research seems to indicate a paradox. Unlike in Boston, charters in suburban and rural areas boost their students鈥� chances of attending and graduating from college while also dragging their test scores downwards. The divergent measures of educational achievement make it unclear exactly how the schools are working and what truly matters for kids.

Sarah Cohodes, a professor at the University of Michigan and the paper鈥檚 lead author, said her work reflects the simple reality that schools can change students鈥� lives in a multitude of ways.

鈥淭he whole premise of test-based accountability is that test-scores predict longer-term outcomes,鈥� Cohodes wrote in an email. 鈥淎nd that is likely still the case, writ large. But this situation shows it is not always the case, and other things are going on in schools.鈥� 

Cohodes鈥檚 analysis revisits the conclusions of by, among others, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joshua Angrist. That experiment showed Massachusetts鈥檚 urban charter schools significantly beating the results of nearby public schools, while non-urban charters lagged far behind local competition. 

The latest study makes use of the same sample of 15 urban charter schools and nine non-urban charter schools. It also relies on the same identifying data from the schools鈥� attendance lotteries, which include information on student race, class background, special education status, and previous scores on the state鈥檚 annual standardized test, the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS). 

Through the use of the school lotteries, which randomly assigned similar students to either receive a slot at a charter school or not, both studies are able to pinpoint the effects of enrollment. But Cohodes extended her observations further in time, capturing high school graduating classes between 2006 and 2018, and gathered further figures on college enrollment and completion from the . 

Importantly, she identified large differences between charter students based on whether or not they lived in a city. Black and Latino students made up 54 percent and 27 percent of applicants, respectively, at urban charters, while fully 90 percent of applicants to non-urban charters were white. Urban applicants were also much more likely to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch (a common proxy for poverty), and had previously scored considerably below the state average on MCAS; non-urban applicants tended to score above that average.

After two years of attending their charter school, urban students saw their scores in both math and English leap upwards compared with students in traditional public schools. By comparison, those in non-urban charters fell by somewhat smaller, though still significant, amounts.

That finding replicates both the results from the 2013 study in Massachusetts and those of , which have broadly pointed to a divide between urban charters and those in rural and suburban areas. The consistency of the result suggested to some observers that it could simply be easier to create a charter school that ; in more advantaged areas, however, newer alternatives must compete against schools where students already score fairly well.

Surprisingly, though, the same students whose scores fell in non-urban charters were also 11 percentage points more likely to enroll in a four-year college than their counterparts in traditional public schools. They were also 10 points more likely to attain a bachelor鈥檚 degree. Urban charter students also saw their college chances improve 鈥� 27 percent earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree within six years of graduating high school, compared with 23 percent of their peers in non-charters 鈥� but the effect was only about half that enjoyed by students outside of cities.

What could account for the difference? According to Jon Valant, a political scientist who leads the Brookings Institution鈥檚 Brown Center on Education Policy, charter-curious families in non-urban areas could be selecting for schools that don鈥檛 focus explicitly on raising test scores. Instead, their target schools might attempt to set themselves apart through a focus on the arts or social-emotional learning. Such an emphasis could boost chances of college completion while also leading to lower academic achievement in the short-run.

鈥淚n those areas, parents might not be looking for schools that are better at doing the same things as their local public schools,鈥� Valant wrote in an email. 鈥淭hey might be looking for schools that do something different 鈥� even if that comes at the expense of their state test scores.鈥�

That sentiment was echoed by Macke Raymond, the director of Stanford鈥檚 (CREDO), which conducts comprehensive reviews of charter school performance around the United States. While cautioning that the Cohodes study鈥檚 sample of just a few dozen schools made its findings difficult to generalize, Raymond argued in an email that suburban parents often strike a bargain when selecting charters: The alternative school model might provide academic and social resources that help their children excel in college, even while their explicit focus on core subjects falls somewhat behind that of local schools.

鈥淥ur team has seen that many non-urban charter schools across the country intentionally offer students an experience that does not focus on maximizing academic gains,鈥� Raymond wrote. 鈥淜nowing that families are well resourced, suburban charters may offer a different experience, either with thematic focus or emphasize an environment that stresses non-academic development of their students.鈥�

For her part, Cohodes said that while the correlation between test scores and later-life success is solidly established, it was important not to dismiss educational programs too hastily on the basis of setbacks on student assessments. She and her colleagues plan to conduct a follow-up study examining the practices in non-urban charters that might be contributing to their students鈥� post-secondary attainment, including smaller class sizes and college counseling.

鈥淚 think it’s important to find school models that work, and to define 鈥榳ork鈥� broadly such that it does not incorporate only test scores,鈥� Cohodes said. 鈥淎nd I think we should replicate and expand school models that work, regardless of the sector.鈥�

Turns out the perception is more true of math than science.

Senior Pew researcher Brian Kennedy put those STEM performance beliefs into context by looking at the most recent results from PISA, an international assessment that measures 15-year-old students’ reading, mathematics and science literacy in the U.S. and other industrialized nations. The U.S. is indeed lagging behind in math, his research shows, but is performing 鈥� if not the best in the world 鈥� better than average in science.

In math, U.S. students ranked 28th out of 37 countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a ranking similar to the last time the test was administered in 2018, despite an alarming 13-point drop on the exam post-pandemic. In science, however, the U.S. ranked 12th out of 37 OECD countries, following a 3-point drop in scores. In both subjects, the average U.S. score was within 15 points of international averages. 

鈥淏roadly, we鈥檙e interested in where science interacts with society 鈥� where those touchpoints are,鈥� Kennedy told 麻豆精品, 鈥渁nd one place is through STEM education. People experience STEM education in their own lives or they experience it through their children鈥檚 lives. So we think it鈥檚 important to get an understanding of how the public rates STEM education in this country.鈥�

Pew Research Center surveyed 10,133 U.S. adults from Feb. 7 to Feb. 11 this year using the Center鈥檚 American Trends Panel, an online survey panel. Kennedy noted that the findings are largely consistent with societal perceptions going back about a decade, based on by the research center. 

This year鈥檚 numbers remain mostly consistent across the political spectrum, but diverge when broken down by race, with white respondents showing the most pessimism. They were the least likely (24%) to think K-12 STEM education in the U.S. is the best or above average, behind Black respondents (31%), Hispanic respondents (37%) and Asian respondents (43%).

And fewer women (25%) than men (32%) say K-12 STEM education is at least above average, a difference Tom Jenkins, a middle school science teacher in Ohio, attributed to the historic lack of representation of women in science and math curriculum.

Jenkins, a 25-year veteran teacher in low-income urban and rural settings, also spoke to why American students may be scoring better in science than math. 

鈥淏ased on my experience with this [as an educator] 鈥� and also being a product of an inner-city school that was first-generation college and lower-socioeconomic myself 鈥� I really think a lot of it has to do with the way that we teach math and the way we teach science and how there鈥檚 different expectations for both subjects,鈥� he said.

Historically, there鈥檚 an expectation in science classes that students will be highly engaged with hands-on, experiential learning that鈥檚 connected to real-world issues, he said, adding that those same expectations don鈥檛 necessarily exist in math classes. This is 鈥渦nfortunate because there are so many teachable things [in math] that we could use in a hands-on, practical way that’s culturally relevant, that鈥檚 project-based.鈥�

Amid precipitously declining math scores post-pandemic, Jenkins is not alone in his urgent call for a shift in the way math is taught. 

It鈥檚 important when students walk into his 鈥� and all 鈥� classrooms, he said, that they know they鈥檒l be learning skills that are going to help them not only better understand the academic content but also prepare them for a wide variety of careers. 

鈥淚f we really want to have an impact in math and science and STEM subjects,鈥� he said, 鈥渁nd we want to get it to stick with our lower-socioeconomic or traditionally under-represented groups in STEM, then we really need to make it have some relevance.鈥� 

In reflecting on American students鈥� PISA performances he added, 鈥淚 do think that while [the] middle is not the worst 鈥� I do think it鈥檚 very important that we understand that while this acknowledges that we鈥檙e doing well 鈥� we still have a long way to go and we have a lot of disenfranchised groups or historically underrepresented groups that we鈥檙e not鈥� impacting well enough in STEM subjects.鈥� 

Education advocate Talia Milgrom-Elcott echoed this point, noting there鈥檚 no reason American students should be in the middle of the pack. Milgrom-Elcott is the founder and executive director of Beyond 100K, a national network focused on ending the STEM teacher shortage with a particular focus on Black, Latino and Indigenous communities.

She also noted that average scores often mask disparities, which is especially true in STEM.

鈥淎 lot of us have an outdated 鈥� what should be an outdated 鈥� idea about STEM that only some people are good at it, that only some people will ever excel in it, and often that they look a certain way 鈥� are a certain gender, race, income level, etc. And so there’s something in our gut that鈥檚 not activated when we see a lot of kids at the bottom.鈥� 

She said that if the U.S. hopes to move up in the ratings, there must be a commitment to eradicating these disparities.

鈥淎nd 鈥榰p in the rating,鈥� by the way, is not in itself a goal,鈥� she added. 鈥淚t鈥檚 only a goal because being competitive in math and science 鈥� having more kids having those classes and that knowledge and those opportunities 鈥� is going to drive social mobility, economic mobility. It鈥檚 going to drive global competitiveness. It鈥檚 going to help the United States continue to be an innovation factory to solve the most pressing challenges.鈥�

But the social scientists who authored the research argue that federal dollars could have been spent in ways that would have helped scores bounce back faster. The per-dollar returns of ESSER, the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, measure up poorly in comparison with those of previously studied efforts to boost achievement, from reducing class sizes to implementing more rigorous curricula.

Dan Goldhaber, the lead author of and the director of the , said he believed the crisis conditions of the pandemic made it 鈥渉ard to spend the ESSER funding in thoughtful, effective ways.鈥�

By his own estimate, 35% of the math recovery achieved during the 2022鈥�23 school year was directly attributable to ESSER funding. Fully 87% of English recovery was credited to ESSER, though he found that gains in that subject were statistically insignificant. Still, he said, that upward movement was limited. 

“Candidly, I think the impact was small, and there are some reasons why it wasn’t larger,鈥� Goldhaber said. 鈥淥nly 20% of ESSER money was even earmarked for learning loss, and I don’t think there was a lot of oversight of whether that 20% was well spent.”

The findings offer a split verdict on the post-COVID academic recovery, while somewhat strengthening the case that putting more resources into schools can elevate their results. The advances measured in both studies are virtually identical not only to one another, but also to earlier, wide-ranging estimates of the impact of additional money on schools.

ESSER was one of the best-known and longest-lasting pillars of Washington鈥檚 pandemic response. Years after stimulus checks and free nasal swabs stopped arriving in the mail, many districts are still spending down the aid they received through the program. The last of the supplemental aid will not expire until this September, four years after schools first began to reopen for in-person instruction.

Notably, however, both papers project that American students will not have returned to their pre-COVID learning trajectories by then, and that the cost of a full restoration could amount to hundreds of billions more. With no sign of any further assistance coming from Congress, that bill will need to be picked up by states 鈥� if it is paid at all. 

In the meantime, ESSER鈥檚 backers can point to real, if incomplete, progress.

Stanford sociologist Sean Reardon helps lead the , which released a second study on Wednesday. In an interview, he noted that the federal cash injection was the equivalent of of the country鈥檚 annual K鈥�12 spending, spread over multiple years. While it might have been used more efficiently to stem further learning loss, he added, both national and state leaders were simultaneously focused on goals like reopening schools and alleviating the severe emotional distress that many children are still facing.

鈥淥ne can certainly imagine ways to spend the money that would lead to even more learning gains,鈥� Reardon said. 鈥淏ut that wasn’t entirely what was on policymakers’ minds when they sent out the money.”

鈥楢 huge missed opportunity鈥�

To pinpoint the impact of additional money on COVID-era learning, the two studies take advantage of differences in how the federal funding was awarded to individual districts.

The total ESSER expenditure was fueled by three laws setting aside $13 billion in March 2020, $57 billion in December of that year, and a further $122 billion the following March. Because there was no data showing where learning loss was most concentrated at that time, dollars were allocated to school districts based on their pre-pandemic grants from Title I, the Department of Education鈥檚 main program benefiting disadvantaged children.  

But not all districts received comparable amounts, even if they served similar numbers of needy students. Instead, governing Title I 鈥� including rules that ensure small states receive minimum allotments, as well as larger sums being granted to states with higher per-pupil spending 鈥� introduced significant spending gaps between different schools. Those disparities were significantly magnified as each new emergency funding bill was passed, said Harvard economist Thomas Kane, Reardon鈥檚 co-author. 

“With the second two ESSER packages, the federal government was essentially pushing $175 billion through pipes that were meant to handle $16 billion in Title I,鈥� Kane said. 鈥淪o what might have been a $500 or $600 difference per student in Title I dollars became a $5,000 or $6,000 difference in ESSER funding per student.” 

Both Goldhaber and the Education Recovery Scorecard team accessed standardized test results from the Stanford Education Data Archive, which compiles student scores from different local exams to allow for cross-state comparisons. In each of their studies, $1,000 in ESSER spending per student was found to raise math scores by 0.008 of a standard deviation (a scientific measure showing the distance from a statistical mean).

In the world of education research, an improvement of that size is considered small: something like one-tenth of a medium-sized effect. But the average conceals substantial variation across different states, and many school districts received much more than $1,000 per student. 

As an example, Reardon, Kane, and their collaborators identified 704 districts in which over 70% of students were eligible for free and reduced-price lunch 鈥� a commonly used proxy for poverty 鈥� then compared the results for those that received unusually large ESSER allocations (more than $8,600 per pupil) to those that received much less (less than $4,600 per pupil). 

The differences were striking. The working-class district of Brockton, Massachusetts was awarded $3,224 per student from the second and third ESSER funding bills, and its students鈥� math achievement improved by the equivalent of .06 grade levels between 2022 and 2023; but in Dayton, Ohio, per-pupil funding increased almost three times as much ($11,444), and math scores jumped by a factor of 10 (.65 grade levels).

Goldhaber argued that figures like those cast considerable doubt on the proposition that the U.S. government鈥檚 emergency relief to schools was mostly wasted.

鈥淥ne of the ideas that’s out there is that we spent $190 billion and got nothing,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 don’t think that’s the right answer.鈥�

Yet he also voiced disappointment that neither Washington nor states had directly measured what kinds of ESSER spending (tutoring programs or school renovations, improved ventilation or increased staffing) were correlated with higher performance. Despite its huge cost and high stakes, Goldhaber concluded, ESSER was simply 鈥渘ot designed to learn from what districts do.鈥�

鈥淭o my mind, that makes it a huge missed opportunity. We can see that there are pretty big differences across states and districts in the degree of catch-up.”

鈥榃ho鈥檚 going to pick up the reins?鈥�

While the studies can shed little light on the most successful aspects of ESSER, they will be collectively seen as a major contribution to the research on school finance reforms. This is true both because of the scale of the government鈥檚 intervention 鈥� perhaps the single greatest natural experiment on the effects of windfall cash on schools that has ever been attempted 鈥� and the consistency of the papers鈥� results. 

Not only do the findings of both studies mirror one another, they also hew closely to those of , published in January, that gathered the results of dozens of previous experiments in increased school funding. That paper also pointed to an average test-score increase of about .032 standard deviations per $1,000 spent over four years, or roughly .008 annually.

Marguerite Roza, head of Georgetown University鈥檚 finance-focused Edunomics Lab, called the coinciding findings 鈥渞eassuring.鈥�

Yet she also noted the 鈥渨ildly expensive鈥� cost of sending operating aid to states that was not specifically dedicated to learning recovery. According to Goldhaber鈥檚 calculations, the government would need to spend an additional $450鈥�$650 billion to fund a full return to levels of academic achievement last seen in 2019; Reardon and Kane tallied a likely cost of just over $904 billion. 

Whether or not those figures represent the true price tag, Roza said, states that intend to replace federal dollars should be more consistent in disbursing them and more stringent about what they pay for.

鈥淲hy repeat the same strategy given how unevenly the dollars were distributed and how uneven the effects were on districts and states?鈥� Roza asked. 鈥淕iven what we know now, any new federal dollars for recovery should probably be structured differently.鈥�

But in Kane鈥檚 view, that recommendation may be too optimistic. With just a few months left before the deadline to spend ESSER funds, he observed, too few state authorities had even committed to picking up the torch of learning recovery. 

鈥淚n most states, there hasn’t even been a discussion started about what the state role will be now that the federal money is running out,鈥� he said. 鈥淥ur results are basically saying that there was a positive effect, but it wasn’t enough. Now who’s going to pick up the reins?鈥�

Timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Supreme Court鈥檚 landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education to end legal segregation in public schools, the research offers further evidence that integration hit its peak during the 1980s, only to recede somewhat in the time since. But it also poses questions about the true scale of that backsliding nationally, as well as the solutions that could be reasonably embraced to counter it.

Notably, the trend toward isolation has been underway even as Americans of different races and national origins are living in increasingly close proximity to one another. Ann Owens, a professor at the University of Southern California and one of the co-authors of the analysis, said that public policy was 鈥渦ndoing the decline in residential segregation.鈥�

鈥淲hile it’s true that school segregation is higher in places where residential segregation is higher, it can’t explain the increase over the last 30 years because residential segregation has not been increasing over that time,鈥� Owens said.

Owens and her co-author, Stanford professor Sean Reardon, have spent years chronicling demographic changes in school through the lenses of both race and class. Their latest study has not yet been made public, though its findings were presented at a conference at Stanford in early May. The duo has also unveiled a new interactive data tool, the , which allows users to investigate patterns of segregation across schools, districts, cities and counties.

Using data from the National Center for Education Statistics, the analysis measures children鈥檚 exposure to peers of different racial backgrounds, comparing the average African American student鈥檚 proportion of white classmates with the average white student鈥檚 proportion of African American classmates in the same district. The difference between the two figures, measured on a 0鈥�1 scale, is deemed the district鈥檚 鈥渟egregation level.鈥� 

As previous historical studies have shown, after falling dramatically in the wake of federally led integration efforts in the 1960s and 鈥�70s, school segregation began creeping back up in the late 1980s. Between 1991 and 2019, Owens and Reardon calculated, the segregation level rose by over one-third in the 541 U.S. school districts that enroll at least 2,500 African American students. 

But Owens cautioned that, even accounting for that shift, schools are vastly more racially mixed than in the days before Brown. When examined over the last half-century, the growth in segregation is much harder to perceive. The total increase in segregation levels amounts to less than five percentage points since the presidential administration of George H.W. Bush.

Brian Kisida, an economist at the University of Missouri, said that it was critical to monitor changes in cross-racial exposure over time. In his view, however, existing evidence did not constitute 鈥渁nything that sets off alarm bells compared with the history of this issue.鈥�

“I think segregation is an incredibly important problem, and one we’ve had terrible trouble with in this country,鈥� Kisida said. 鈥淏ut I don’t know if I would look at the trend from 1990 to 2020 and characterize that as ‘resegregation.’鈥�

The charter factor

Kisida added that the paper鈥檚 evidence of charter schools鈥� role in driving racial isolation made for a 鈥渧ery solid finding鈥� that dovetailed with his own prior work.

In 2019, he examining the same phenomenon, incorporating an even wider swath of data than Owens and Reardon. That study showed that charters exerted a meaningful, if modest, impact on the racial composition of the surrounding districts; eliminating the charter sector entirely would lead to a 5 percent decrease in the segregation of Hispanic and African American students, they found. (Kisida added that the effect was substantially counteracted by charters鈥� propensity to draw students into more integrated environments than their residentially zoned school, lessening segregation between districts.)

The newer research estimates that total growth in segregation would have fallen between two and three percentage points 鈥� from around 19 percent on their exposure index to a little under 17 percent 鈥� had charter schools not rapidly expanded after the year 2000. 

Another, smaller factor in pushing back integration, the authors argue, was the gradual eclipse of desegregation orders that began in the 1990s. As federal courts from injunctions requiring them to evenly balance racial groups across schools, campuses became about 1 percentage point more segregated than they otherwise would have been. 

Boston College professor Shep Melnick, who published last year on the halting efforts toward desegregation that began in 1954 with Brown, said that the lifting of injunctions accelerated during the early 2000s, eventually releasing more than half of the districts that had previously been under court oversight. In some instances, though, local enforcement 鈥� or even awareness 鈥� of the orders was so paltry that their sunsetting would not have made much difference.

“Some of these schools that were formerly under court order didn’t even realize they were under court order,鈥� said Melnick. 鈥淪o the effects of the orders in those cases probably were not that great.鈥� 

Melnick and Owens agreed that the public needed to be conscious of the differing definitions of racial segregation that underlie research studies. For example, multiple waves of immigration from Asia and Latin America have made the U.S. population significantly more diverse than it was in the middle of the 20th century. Efforts to quantify desegregation simply as the exposure of African American students to white classmates must account for the fact that white students represent a much smaller share of the total student body.

鈥淲hen you say, ‘Black students attend school with fewer white kids than they did 50 or 60 years ago,’ that’s true,鈥� Owens concluded. 鈥淏ut it’s also true that white kids attend school with fewer white kids 鈥� because there are fewer white kids around.鈥�

During that same period, about 11% of 12-grade students reported using a lesser-known product, delta-8-THC, a psychoactive substance typically derived from hemp. It can produce a fuzzy, euphoric high similar to 鈥斅燽ut typically milder than 鈥斅爐he THC effects delivered in cannabis.聽

Delta-8-THC is of particular interest because despite health risks, it鈥檚 still widely considered to be legal at the federal level after the 2018 farm bill from the list of controlled substances. It鈥檚 legal in 22 states and Washington, D.C. with limited regulation, and in a number of states 鈥� including Illinois and New Jersey 鈥� there are no age restrictions at all on purchasing it. Concerns are compounded by the fact that it can be found in kid-friendly products, like gummies and chocolates, and can be bought online or from easily accessible vendors, like gas stations.

The results on pot and delta-8-THC use came from the newly released , which annually surveys teens across the U.S. and is conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan. The study, which was the first to report the extent of delta-8-THC use, included 22,318 surveys given to students enrolled in 235 public and private schools across the country between February and June 2023. Questions about delta-8-THC were administered to a randomly selected one-third of 12th-grade students, or 2,186 seniors in 27 states.

鈥�(Eleven percent) is a lot of people 鈥� that鈥檚 at least one or two students in every average-sized high school class who may be using delta-8. We don鈥檛 know enough about these drugs, but we see that they are already extremely accessible to teens,鈥� National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Nora Volkow said in 鈥淐annabis use in general has been associated with negative impacts on the adolescent brain, so we must pay attention to the kinds of cannabis products teens are using, educate young people about potential risks, and ensure that treatment for cannabis use disorder and adequate mental health care is provided to those who need it.鈥� 

The latest study adds to the understanding of how young people are using cannabis and related products at a time when legalization is far reaching and overwhelmingly favored 鈥�  now live in a state where marijuana is legal for either recreational or medical use and for those two purposes, according to two Pew Research Center analyses released over the last month. 

Ryan Sultan, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University and a cannabis-use expert, said the current climate calls for a more nuanced approach to marijuana鈥檚 effects.

鈥淭he narrative of cannabis as a 鈥榬eefer madness鈥� and ruining everyone’s life 鈥� that one was a lie,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd the narrative that cannabis is a magical, natural, benign panacea for everything 鈥� that one is also not true.鈥�

At the same time, Sultan warns that young users remain particularly vulnerable. 

鈥淭he biggest consequence that we think about in the field of child development 鈥� is that using substances that are potentially psychoactive and addictive and have effects on development 鈥� the younger you are, the more problematic they might be,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd cannabis is included in that.鈥�

A number of teenagers believe that marijuana is helpful for anxiety and depression, which doesn鈥檛 appear to be true in the long term, Sultan said. 鈥淭he problem is that chronic use seems to not do that. Chronic use seems to actually result in a worsening of that symptomatology.鈥� 

Cannabis today is far more potent than it was decades ago, allowing it to bind to receptors in the brain more effectively. So when you stop using it, you end up with even worse symptoms, according to Sultan. 

Sultan published a last year showing that adolescents who recently used cannabis but did not meet the criteria for a marijuana use disorder had two to four times greater odds of major depression, suicidal ideation, difficulty concentrating, lower GPA and a number of other negative outcomes. These results reinforce those of earlier as well. 

Sultan analyzed responses from 68,263 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health between 2015 and 2019.

He noted, though, that the study did not demonstrate causation: it鈥檚 not clear that the marijuana use directly led to these mental health issues and other outcomes.

鈥淚t鈥檚 more like a cycle,鈥� he said, in which people who are depressed and anxious are more likely to use cannabis in the first place to self-medicate their symptoms but this can end up 鈥渟pinning out of control.鈥�

鈥淪o rather than which came first, the chicken or the egg? They both came and they鈥檙e both happening and they鈥檙e both interacting with each other.鈥� 

Yet, most adolescents don鈥檛 think of weed as harmful: Over the past decade, the perceived risk of harm decreased by nearly half, while use for people 12 and over increased from about demonstrate that they think of edibles, in particular, as less harmful, failing to account for concerns around potency, regulation and delayed effects. 

A at UC Davis Health and the University of Washington, which surveyed teens over a six-month period, found that they get high for enjoyment and to cope. Those who used it to forget their problems typically experienced more negative consequences like difficulty concentrating. Lead author Nicole Schultz noted that understanding teens鈥� motivation for getting high is an important first step in developing strategies to intervene early. 

Post-pandemic, marijuana remains one of the three substances used by adolescents, along with alcohol and nicotine vaping. 

In 2022, the percentage of young adults 19 to 30 years old who reported marijuana use reached record highs, according to a National Institute of Health-funded : About 44% of those surveyed reported use in the past year 鈥� a significant increase from the 25% who reported the same in 2012. Young adults also reported a record-high use of marijuana vaping in 2022: 21% up from 12% in 2017, when the measure was first added to the study.

A published in 2020 found that adolescents and adults who vape nicotine were also more likely to also use alcohol and marijuana. In adolescents, the relationship was much stronger: those who vaped were 4.5 to six times as likely to report alcohol and marijuana use and were particularly likely to report binge drinking.

According to a , vaping has emerged as one of the two most popular methods for teens to get high, despite its unclear long-term health implications. In fact, it may actually be associated with greater risk than smoking for lung injuries, seizures and acute psychiatric symptoms. 

Vaping is also a more accessible and discreet way to consume marijuana, allowing teens to use it in more settings, including schools, without getting caught. New York City teachers and students have more and younger students are coming to school high and are smoking throughout the day, with hypothesizing that kids are using weed to blunt residual pain and anxiety from the pandemic. 

This harder-to-detect delivery method puts a lot of pressure on individuals to manage how often they鈥檙e using it, according to Sultan, which is particularly challenging for adolescents who may struggle with impulse control.聽

Ultimately, though, much of the research that exists on cannabis generally is outdated because it鈥檚 based on weaker strains of the substance from years ago, Sultan said: 鈥淲e are behind the eight ball on cannabis.鈥�

Since the mid-20th century, the town of Highland Park has resisted annexation and today operates a separate, roughly 6,700-student school district that is surrounded on all sides by the 139,723-student Dallas Independent School District. Student demographics between the two school systems 鈥� and the services they鈥檙e able to offer 鈥� are markedly different, from New America鈥檚 Education Funding Equity Initiative, which explores how school district borders across the U.S. create racial and economic segregation 鈥� often intentionally. 

Included in the report is that allows users to explore school district segregation by race and class in their own communities. 

In Dallas, students of color comprise 94% of enrollment and in Highland Park,  just 18%. Such segregation extends beyond race. In Highland Park, less than 4% of students live in poverty. In the Dallas school system, a quarter of kids are impoverished, with some of the city鈥檚 most underserved neighborhoods just a stone鈥檚 throw from Highland Park. 

Such jarring school district disparities, which create real-world gaps in learning opportunities for students, exist across the country. America鈥檚 patchwork school district borders carry serious consequences for communities and children鈥檚 academic outcomes, according to the report by New America, a left-leaning think tank based in Washington, D.C. Nationally, about 30% of school funding is generated by local property taxes, a reality that creates haves and have-nots between property-wealthy districts and those that serve predominantly low-income families. 

Much of the disparities can be blamed on inequitable housing policies, such as redlining and , which were explicitly implemented to segregate neighborhoods along race and class lines, ultimately showing up 鈥渘ot just in residential patterns but also in school budgets,鈥� said Zahava Stadler, a project director at New America who shared the findings of her research during a workshop last week at the SXSW EDU conference in Austin, Texas. 

鈥淭hese are policy choices that are being made not just in the way we鈥檝e designed school funding systems, but also in the way we actively maintain school funding systems year to year,鈥� she said. 鈥淎ll of those things are policy choices that are being made by state policymakers every single year.鈥�  

In total, researchers analyzed more than 13,000 school districts across the country, along with more than 25,000 pairs of neighboring school district borders, to identify how such arbitrary divisions work to generate inequality. Nationwide, they found that, on average, enrollment of students of color fluctuated by 14 percentage points between neighboring school districts. Along the 100 most racially segregated school district borders, however, the average difference was 78 percentage points. In other words, in one school district, students of color comprised 2% of the total enrollment while, in a district directly next door, they accounted for 80% of the student body. 

Economic segregation was similarly stark. On average, the enrollment of impoverished students fluctuated by 5.2 percentage points between neighboring school districts. Yet along the 100 most economically segregated school district borders, researchers found the average divide was roughly six times that, at 31 percentage points. One example, the Utica, New York, school district where 33% of students live in poverty, compared to the neighboring New Hartford district where 5% do. 

While school district border changes have been used by communities interested in concentrating their affluence, Stadler said the opposite 鈥� district consolidation 鈥� should be viewed as 鈥渁 tool in the toolbox of creating more equitable school districts,鈥� establishing schools that are more diverse while ensuring that all students have fairer access to educational resources. 

But local context matters. Simply merging school districts to eliminate racial and economic segregation isn鈥檛 always the most equitable solution, the report argues, as each area has its own individual policies and contexts. In South Dakota, for example, researchers observed striking racial and economic segregation between the predominantly white Custer School District and the neighboring Oglala Lakota School District, located on the high-poverty Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Indigenous students represent 96% of enrollment on the reservation and less than 4% in Custer. 

An influx of federal and state dollars has left the Oglala Lakota County Schools among South Dakota鈥檚 best-funded, but they remain among its lowest-performing. These high levels of funding 鈥渄o not ensure our children a rich education,鈥� Diana Cournoyer, executive director of the National Indian Education Association, argues in the report. Along with historical challenges and the scars of trauma and colonialism, Cournoyer said, the reservation鈥檚 schools also have to contend with bureaucracy and limitations on how they can spend those government dollars. That creates barriers in how they can use funds 鈥渢o address the unique needs of Native students, which results in inequitable access to opportunities.鈥� 

Despite the imbalance in school resources, Cournoyer notes that students on the reservation benefit from cultural and language support 鈥� something they could miss if they attended schools in Custer, even with its 鈥渘icer facilities and more advanced technology.鈥� The city and its school district were named for George Armstrong Custer, a U.S. commander who fought and killed Indigenous people on the Great Plains before his defeat at Little Bighorn. 

鈥淭hey would not be in a school environment that reflects or values their native culture,鈥� Cournoyer wrote. 鈥淭hey would be isolated, away from the protection of their family and tribal leadership. They would be more likely to encounter racism and stereotyping, making them less comfortable with expressing their Native identity.鈥�

Outcomes are starkly different for those who have that opportunity. High-achieving Black, Latino and lower-income students who do gain access to advanced math classes in high school have better academic outcomes across multiple measures: stronger high school graduation rates, higher GPAs and greater college admission and persistence rates. They were also more likely to attend a highly selective college and earn more STEM credits there, a pathway to landing lucrative jobs in those fields.

Just Equations and The Education Trust released their report Thursday. Together, they analyzed eight years of data following 23,000 ninth graders from 900 private and public schools throughout the country, information collected by the National Center for Education Statistics. The study group was tracked through high school and college starting in 2009. 

Both Ed Trust and Just Equations advocate for educational equality with a focus on children who have been traditionally underserved. Earlier research cited in the report shows Black, Latino and impoverished students, regardless of their capabilities, are less likely to be assigned AP math courses, enroll in STEM majors or attend top-tier colleges than their wealthier, white or Asian peers.

鈥淭his study challenges the notion that access to advanced math courses is purely the byproduct of talent and academic achievement,鈥� said Melodie Baker, national policy director at Just Equations. 鈥淥ur analysis confirmed that all too often, factors such as race, wealth and privilege 鈥� rather than students’ aptitude and proficiency 鈥� can be hidden prerequisites for access to courses that lead to STEM and college opportunity.鈥�

While 46% of high-achieving Asian students, 19% of white students, and 29% of students from high socio-economic backgrounds took college-level AP/International Baccalaureate calculus by the end of high school, just 10% of Black, 15% of Latino and 11% of lower-income high-achievers did the same. 

Race and income disparities in high school graduation rates appear to level off for this high-achieving, underrepresented group when they take advanced math courses: 99% of Asian and white students, 98% of Black students, and 96% of Latino and lower-income students graduated in four years. Four-year high school graduation rates declined among all high-achievers who did not take advanced math classes and gaps opened up along racial and socioeconomic lines, although the drop in graduation rates was starkest for Asian students and least-felt by affluent students.

鈥淲e know that it is so important for students to feel engaged and that their learning experiences are relevant,鈥� said Ivy Smith Morgan, EdTrust鈥檚 director for P12 research and data analytics. 鈥淲hat this conjures for me is the anecdotes about students who are so smart but stop paying attention in class because they are not challenged. They are not getting the opportunities that align with their ability.鈥�

Smith Morgan noted U.S. students’ performance in mathematics as compared to their peers internationally has been highly scrutinized for years, with last week’s release of the latest PISA scores showing unprecedented 13-point declines for American students and an average 15-point loss globally. The U.S., still reeling from COVID learning loss, along with other countries, now ranks 26th in its math scores. Smith Morgan said a failure to mine students’ talents will have dire economic implications. 

鈥淲hat we are talking about is losing a future workforce with the skills, training and technical knowledge we need to fill all of the STEM jobs that will exist 鈥� not the ones we have right now, but the ones we have not even thought of yet,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e are shooting ourselves in the foot.鈥� 

The study notes the disparity in opportunity starts well before students enter high school: Just 24% of Black students, 34% of Latino students, and 25% of students from low-socioeconomic backgrounds took Algebra I or higher in eighth grade, compared with 39% of white children, 64% of their Asian peers and 57% of students from higher income backgrounds. 

鈥淎nyone who is paying attention knows that our mathematics education systems are deeply inequitable,鈥� said David Kung, director of strategic partnerships at The Charles A. Dana Center in Austin. 鈥淏lack, brown and poor students get shafted when it comes to access, teaching and advising.鈥�

The Dana Center, which seeks to ensure all students have access to excellent math and science education, has been working with several states across the nation as part of its to revamp mathematics curriculum, making equity and student interest a top priority.  

鈥淭his report is another reminder that whenever there are decisions to be made 鈥�  to take algebra in 8th grade, to enroll in an advanced math class, to apply to college, to choose a STEM path 鈥� equity gaps open,鈥� Kung said. 鈥淲e must reform our systems so those critical transitions are smoother, especially for students from groups we have historically under-supported.”

The new study found, too, that high-achieving underserved students who took more challenging high school mathematics coursework often had math teachers who established clear goals and school counselors who set high standards. Such positive influences may have aided in their success. 

Researchers say 74% of Black and 81% of Latino high-achieving students who were enrolled in advanced high school mathematics courses went on to follow a standard process of getting into and staying enrolled at college after high school. 

Not so for those who did not: Only 58% of Black students and 53% of Latino high-achieving students who did not take these classes had that same outcome. Results were similar for students from lower-income backgrounds: 77% of those who took advanced math courses experienced standard college enrollment and persistence versus 53% who did not take more challenging courses.  

The study showed Black and Latino high-achieving students who took advanced math courses in high school had better first-year college GPAs: roughly 0.5 points higher. Lower income students had a 0.6-point gain. 

EdTrust and Just Equations recommends Congress support and incentivize state and district leaders to greatly expand access to challenging coursework in all topics, including math. 

They said, too, that the government should increase funding for whole-child support services that would allow districts to hire an appropriate number of well-trained restorative justice coordinators, school counselors, psychologists and nurses. 

States and districts should also boost professional development efforts and coaching with the goal of reducing bias and incorporating anti-racist mindsets. 

They can also automatically enroll students in higher-level math courses, like the Dallas school system, which moved from an opt-in model to an opt-out policy in the 2019-20 school year. The followed that example: Gov. Abbott, earlier this year, signed that requires the automatic enrollment of children in advanced math based on their test scores, not on a recommendation. 

The Commit Partnership, a Dallas-based nonprofit focused on education, applauded the move. Chelsea Jeffery, its chief regional impact officer, said she looks forward to other districts doing the same, not only changing their policies but providing students with the support necessary to graduate high school ready for college and the workforce. 

鈥淲e celebrate Dallas ISD for their innovative approach to this critical subject area and to policymakers for passing legislation that will benefit our students and community,鈥� she said. 

The study classified a student as high-achieving if they passed 鈥� with an A, B, or C 鈥� Algebra I or higher in middle school. Others who made the cut scored in the highest one-fifth on a math assessment given to students in ninth grade. 

Disclosure: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provides financial support to Just Equations, The Education Trust, The Charles A. Dana Center and 麻豆精品.

Announced Tuesday morning, the scores represent more proof of steep learning loss in math during the pandemic and its aftermath. But they also provide the first international context for COVID鈥檚 impact on American children, indicating that many students abroad 鈥� including in countries that have previously ranked among the world鈥檚 top performers 鈥� may have experienced even worse setbacks.

Eighty-one countries participated in PISA in 2022, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the intergovernmental authority that administers the test. Among that group, average scores fell by 15 points in math and 10 points in reading since 2018, while science scores were not significantly changed. 

As in several other standardized tests conducted since COVID鈥檚 emergence in 2020, those declines are unprecedented; over 20 years of PISA testing, average math and literacy scores have never moved by more than four or five points between consecutive assessments. Peggy Carr, commissioner of the U.S. Department of Education鈥檚 National Center for Education Statistics, told reporters on Monday that even highly developed countries across Europe and Asia 鈥渟uffered tremendously鈥� from the learning disruptions triggered by the pandemic.聽

鈥淭hese results are another piece of evidence showing the crisis in mathematics achievement,鈥� Carr said. 鈥淥nly now can we see that it is a global concern.鈥�

But while American students鈥� 13-point drop in math fell within the international average, their relative stasis in PISA鈥檚 other testing domains of reading and science (minus-one and minus-three points since 2018, neither of which is considered statistically significant) provide surprisingly positive news. Indeed, while U.S. scores slumped across all three subjects, the ranking of the United States among PISA participants actually improved since 2018: from 29th in mathematics to 26th, from eighth in reading to sixth, and from 11th in science to 10th.聽

Those shifts in relative performance result from even greater COVID-era slides in other countries. Among those seeing especially large reversals in math were Iceland (minus-36 points), Norway (minus-33 points), Poland (minus-27 points), and Slovenia (minus-24 points). Fifteen-year-olds in Finland, which has built for top performance on exams like PISA, saw a 30-point drop in reading skills over the last four years. 

In a somewhat curious turn, the index of four Chinese provinces where students have traditionally taken the PISA (Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang) did not report scores for the 2022 round. In previous administrations of the test, those students on all three subjects 鈥� although those results were also criticized by international observers for allegedly being 鈥渃herry-picked鈥� from China鈥檚 wealthiest and highest-achieving areas.

According to the OECD, the four provinces participated in the 2022 test, but their performance couldn鈥檛 be measured because schools were closed during the intended data collection period. Impressive scores were posted by students in the Chinese jurisdictions of Hong Kong and Macau, though these will likely also be considered atypical of learning across that country鈥檚 vast mainland. 

Among PISA鈥檚 top-scoring nations in math were East Asian participants like Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), and Korea. Singapore, Ireland, Estonia, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan boasted the strongest readers.

‘I would have expected a larger drop.’

The scores will undoubtedly be used as an indicator of how learning was affected by COVID. Two-thirds of participating countries reported that they closed schools for longer than three months for the majority of their students during the pandemic. Students in countries that experienced briefer periods of closure did see smaller drops in math scores, the OECD reported, but Carr said the statistical correlation was 鈥渨eak.鈥�

A wealth of research conducted since 2020 has drawn close connections between virtual learning and academic harm. But prior standardized testing releases, such as that of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, have shown that states that kept schools open also endured significant learning damage, muddying the argument over the ultimate impact of shuttered schools.

In surveys accompanying the test, large numbers of American students reported that they’d experienced particularly lengthy school closures. Twenty percent said their school building had been closed between six and 12 months over the previous three years (compared with 15 percent of respondents across all OECD member nations), while another 20 percent said their school had closed for over a year (compared with just 12 percent of respondents across the OECD).

Tom Loveless, a researcher who previously headed the Brookings Institution鈥檚 Brown Center on Education Policy, said that America students鈥� math decline, while significant, was not 鈥渆normous.鈥�

鈥淐ompared with the other OECD countries, we definitely had schools closed for a longer period of time,鈥� Loveless said. 鈥淚f you take this as a pre- and post-pandemic indicator, I would have expected a larger drop.鈥�

Other learning observers were more bearish on the Americans鈥� showing, especially compared with comparable youths in countries far poorer than the U.S. Sal Khan, founder of the online learning platform Khan Academy, argued that the international averages concealed significant disparities between the highest- and lowest-achieving test takers.

鈥淭he results are disappointing, but not surprising, and consistent with all of the other data we’ve seen post-COVID,鈥� Khan added in an email. 鈥淚n general, I think the state of math education is pretty bad globally 鈥� but there is less of an excuse in wealthy countries like the United States.鈥�

Whatever the prevailing trends in other countries, some in the K鈥�12 policy community will agree with that glum appraisal. Overall, 34 percent of American test takers demonstrated only basic or below-basic math skills 鈥� slightly higher than the OECD average of 31 percent. And while their reading and science scores held their ground during the COVID era, they are also not measurably improved from the years when PISA first assessed those subjects (2000 and 2006, respectively.)

The findings also raise the question of how school leaders in the United States and other countries will boost student performance in the long run. Local and state test data in the U.S. confirm that many students are still performing substantially worse than children of the same age four years ago. And with the imminent expiration of federal emergency funds that have underwritten extra staffing and programs over the last several years, authorities will need to move fast to effect a turnaround.

Bob Hughes is the director of K鈥�12 learning programs at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has launched school reform and improvement efforts across the U.S. for over two decades. Last year, the organization over $1 billion to improve math instruction by making the subject more engaging and relevant to students.

While calling the PISA scores 鈥渦psetting news,鈥� Hughes added that schools and school districts could jump-start significant progress in math by employing a host of evidence-based strategies: high-impact tutoring for struggling students, improved professional learning for teachers, and more rigorous curricular materials (the 鈥淪ingapore math鈥� approach, which has shaped elementary math instruction in that country since the 1980s, has spawned a legion of fans in the U.S. as well). 

鈥淲e actually have much better data than we’ve had in the past, and we have a clearer view of what the interventions need to be,鈥� Hughes said. 鈥淲e just need to get to the business of doing it rather than spending a lot of time wringing our hands.鈥�

Disclosure: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provides financial support to 麻豆精品.

Not only is the program 鈥� called 鈥� targeted to students who to learn remotely during the pandemic, but the study was conducted by experts who typically advocate for in-person tutoring.

鈥淚 was nicely surprised,鈥� said Susanna Loeb, a Stanford University education researcher and leader of the , which has been tracking efforts to expand high-dosage tutoring. 鈥淭he trick is to get [tutoring] to as many students as we possibly can. Being able to do it virtually could really help in the scaling and expansion of this kind of intensive, individualized attention that many students need.鈥�

The evaluation, conducted in 12 Texas elementary schools as part of the Uplift Education charter network, found that over 1,000 K-2 students in the program scored higher on literacy tests than students without the extra support. The results translated into 26 extra days of learning in letter sounds for kindergartners and 55 extra days on decoding for first graders with a one-on-one tutor. Second graders did not benefit as much from the intervention.

While the virtual program was still less effective than in-person tutoring, the model could be a breakthrough for schools in rural areas and those that have struggled to recruit tutors, Loeb said. Districts’ pandemic recovery efforts have sometimes fallen short because they can鈥檛 find trained educators or volunteers to do the job. And and others has found that only a fraction of students who need extra help take advantage of on-demand virtual tutoring programs. 

OnYourMark Education, a nonprofit, is a contrast to the virtual models that researchers like Loeb have long criticized. It鈥檚 offered four times a week during the school day. The tutors, which include college students, retired educators and those who have worked for other virtual tutoring companies, receive training in the science of reading.

鈥淲e’ve put a stake in the ground that our focus as an organization is to really support students to become proficient readers by the time they reach third and fourth grade,鈥� said Mindy Sjoblom, a former Teach for America middle school teacher and principal who founded OnYourMark in 2021. 

But when the program started with Uplift as a pilot, she wasn鈥檛 sure if the tutors would be able to form strong relationships with young children remotely. 

鈥淲e had to get the timing right,鈥� she said. The 30 minute-blocks they started with didn鈥檛 work well. 鈥淗onestly, that was too long to expect a 5-year-old to sit and attend to anything, not to mention be in front of a screen.鈥�

Twenty minutes, she said, has proven to be the 鈥渟weet spot,鈥� allowing tutors to have informal chats with students 鈥� about what they had for dinner last night, for example, or how their basketball game went 鈥� before diving into a solid 15 minutes of work on decoding and fluency. 

OnYourMark now works with 22 schools in seven states, and Sjoblom said she expects to add more students before the end of this school year. Last fall, Accelerate, an organization funding effective tutoring programs, $250,000 to support the research effort. The organization is also a semifinalist for the , a $1 million award that recognizes successful education providers.

鈥楢 great option鈥�

Loeb鈥檚 team used two common assessments to evaluate the impact of the program 鈥� Dynamic Indicators of Basic Literacy Skills, or DIBELS, and MAP Reading Fluency from NWEA, a testing and research organization.

Kindergartners randomly assigned to OnYourMark recognized 3.5 more letter sounds per minute than students who didn鈥檛 receive tutoring. First graders鈥� mastery of sounds and decoding skills also improved.

Loeb said while the one鈥搕o-one model is clearly stronger, the program is still effective when students work in pairs with a tutor. 

鈥淭his is a great option when staffing is hard,鈥� she said, alleviating the need for tutors to commute and get acclimated to a school. 

The results among second graders were not significant. Sjoblom sees a few reasons for the disappointing outcomes. First, last year鈥檚 second graders were in kindergarten during the 2020-21 school year, when many schools were closed for the pandemic. They didn鈥檛 master a lot of the foundational skills that most kids get in kindergarten and first grade.

Older students struggling to read, she added, get embarrassed and have a harder time staying engaged with tutors remotely.

But Loeb said to get such results from a startup is still impressive. Yasmin Bhatia, the CEO of Uplift, added that future research will focus on the specific skills tutors should focus on with second and third graders.

OnYourMark, she said, has met the network鈥檚 needs in a few ways. First, it鈥檚 hard to find tutoring companies even willing to work with younger students. Most, she said, focus on the 鈥渢ested grades鈥� 鈥� third and higher. School leaders, she added, are 鈥減utting their best talent in those upper level grade levels.鈥�

Uplift, she added, serves a high-poverty population that typically would be unable to afford a private tutor. And when the network offered at-home virtual or afterschool tutoring, participation was inconsistent. Bhatia called OnYourMark 鈥渁nother way to support parents鈥� and ensure young readers are getting the extra help they need.

鈥淲e view it as such a high priority,鈥� she said, 鈥渢hat we made it a part of the school day.鈥�

Disclosure: Overdeck Family Foundation provides support to OnYourMark Education and 麻豆精品.

the U.K.鈥檚 secretary of state for education, the new guidance builds on controls already in place in many schools across the country, most of which take explicit aim at both online bullying and student inattention during lessons. But it may have the further effect of encouraging advocates, both at home and abroad, to pursue further-reaching policies limiting children鈥檚 access to tech and social media. 

Parents, teachers, and education leaders across the United States have entertained similar proposals in recent years as devices have increasingly become a fixture in students鈥� daily lives. The near-ubiquity of electronics in American homes (a from the nonprofit Common Sense Media showed that 43 percent of children aged 8鈥�12 personally owned a smartphone), as well as their potential links to worsening mental health for young people, moved U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy to warning against excessive social media use. 

Still, it is doubtful whether similar prohibitions can be attempted in the U.S. Unlike in most other Western countries, K鈥�12 education in America is administered at the state and local level, leaving decisions about school management and culture mostly up to district boards. In addition, fears of school shootings and other on-site emergencies mean that some parents want to remain in contact with their kids at all times 鈥� even as most research shows that the presence of phones in classrooms tends to harm academic achievement. Among older students, the removal of cell phones during courses is correlated with lower anxiety and higher levels of course understanding, while adolescents engage in more physical play when phones are barred from recess.

Doug Lemov is a well-known educator and expert on classroom practice whose book has become an international bestseller and a highly influential text among both novice and veteran teachers. He has also against the use of phones in school, arguing that they meaningfully hamper instruction and prevent children from forming real-world relationships. 

Bans such as the one proposed in the United Kingdom might be difficult to enforce, Lemov acknowledged, given kids鈥� attachment to their devices. But clever methods of evasion are no reason not to seriously contemplate restrictions on phones in schools, he said. 

鈥淚f a kid feels like he has to sneak off to the bathroom and hide in the stall to use his cell phone, it’s still a win. Because it means that in 99 percent of the places in the building, people are walking around without their cell phones out, they are concentrating in class, and they’re having fully present relationships with one another.鈥�

Effects on academics, exercise

The United Kingdom isn鈥檛 the first country to impose restrictions on phones in school. According to released this summer on education systems in roughly 200 countries, about one-quarter have enacted comparable rules. But some of the most compelling research on the effects of cell phone bans comes from England.

In , academics Louis-Phillipe Beland and Richard Murphy found that across the large English cities of Birmingham, Leicester, London, and Manchester, dozens of high schools that instituted bans on mobile phones saw significant improvement in scores on high-stakes tests. The increase was especially large for the lowest-performing pupils, who saw a jump in scores more than twice as large as the average student. 

Overall, the authors argued, the greater effects on these students of banning mobile phones 鈥� roughly equivalent to adding an hour to each school week 鈥� suggested that their higher-achieving classmates were better able to ignore distractions and focus on their work. The lure of texts and apps, therefore, might be expected to increase achievement gaps over time. 

Play and exercise are also linked to the use of electronics. A published in 2021 showed that a four-week ban on phones during recess significantly increased both the frequency and intensity of physical activity of children aged 10鈥�14. And the consequences of a lack of movement can be strongly negative: In of nearly 25,000 U.S. teenagers, about 20 percent used screened devices (smartphones, tablets, or video games) more than five hours per day; that group was 43 percent more likely to be obese than participants who experienced less screen time.

While comparatively few studies have been conducted on the impact of information technology on K鈥�12 learning, some have focused on its presence in university settings. One paper, , studied cell phone use and texting in a large sample of college students, ultimately finding that they were associated with relatively lower grades and higher levels of self-reported anxiety. Relatedly, subjects who texted and used their phones less experienced higher 鈥渟atisfaction with life.鈥�

Far beyond its measured influence over grades or test scores, huge public concern has increasingly been directed at the effects of phone and internet use on adolescent mental health. Psychologists like and have pointed to the recent explosion of screen time (generally pegged to the widespread adoption of home internet access and the emergence of smartphones) as a key culprit in and anxiety.

The chorus of critics gained a powerful new voice in May, when Murthy issued his cautionary guidance on the use of social media. While stopping far short of recommending a blanket ban on youth access to apps like Instagram and Snapchat, the document struck a distinctly foreboding note.

鈥淭he current body of evidence indicates that while social media may have benefits for some children and adolescents, there are ample indicators that social media can also have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents,鈥� the surgeon general wrote.

Whether the advisory will exert any influence on local authorities 鈥� and whether it is widely interpreted as a warning about phones as well as social media 鈥� is difficult to tell. Districts attempted to curb the use of phones in school throughout the 2000s through a variety of means, most unsuccessful: New York City implemented a full-on ban in 2005 under then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, only for it a decade later by his successor, Bill de Blasio. In Spokane, Washington, one high school to keep students from texting during class (the experiment was quickly abandoned when its legality was called into question). 

Some jurisdictions have a at restrictions over the past few years, however. This spring, Massachusetts鈥檚 state board of providing grants to districts that tightened their policies.

鈥楤ans do not stop bullying鈥�

Good reason exists to doubt the efficacy of strict prohibitions. According to , during the 2019鈥�20 school year, 77 percent of public schools said they disallowed the non-academic use of phones during school hours. But released earlier this year revealed that 97 percent of children aged 11鈥�17 used their phones during the school day, suggesting that the restrictions were not widely observed. 

Those figures were a stark reflection of the pre-COVID penetration of cell phones into school spaces. But students and families became even more accustomed to relying on technology during the pandemic, when instruction shifted online for months at a time. School districts loaned out thousands of devices and rushed to bring internet connectivity to students who lived in remote areas so that their learning would not be interrupted.

By most indicators, the migration online led to significant learning losses. But students also reported that during the worst stretches of isolation, social media helped them stay in touch with their friends and teachers 鈥� in cyberspace, if not real life. Many are reluctant to let go of their phones even with the return to in-person learning. 

American parents, too, have come to appreciate the convenience of having their children accessible during the school day. Many to be able to stay connected in the event of extreme events, including mass shootings, that have seized national attention in recent years. (Notably, security experts on the benefits of phones during emergencies, with some arguing that trapped students would be better off directing their attention solely at teachers and administrators.)

Liz Kolb, a clinical professor of education technologies at the University of Michigan, said that while cell phones represent an undeniable source of distraction in academic settings, barring them from schools could also curtail opportunities to role model their constructive use. 

鈥淏ans do not stop bullying, harrassment, [fear of missing out], feelings of depression or suicide, or accessing harmful content,鈥� Kolb added in an email. 鈥淪o schools that ban cell phones need to be explicit about still addressing these issues, even if they are not seeing phones every day.鈥�

Lemov said that while some pushback from students was to be expected, most would likely change their minds in response to academic and social environments improved from the lack of phones. And while strict bans might be particularly challenging to implement, schools could also like Yondr pouches, which allow schools to collect and seal away phones during the day, but selectively offer students access to them if necessary. 

Lemov, who said his own daughter鈥檚 school district used Yondr pouches, said they might help assuage parents鈥� worries about safety. Looking past methods of restriction, he encouraged schools to go further by proactively building a more engaging social and educational space; seductive objects should not only be removed, but replaced with opportunities for kids to learn, interact, and have fun, he argued.

“We have to eliminate an engine of distraction and disconnection, but we have to make sure we do it really well,鈥� Lemov said. 鈥淚t’s not just about banning cell phones, but also building vibrant student culture to make sure skeptics buy in.” 

Now, as that restructuring has come under increasing scrutiny from local opponents, researchers say that it led to some of the most significant learning gains ever measured. A by scholars at the University of Colorado Denver finds that over a little more than a decade, the city鈥檚 schools transformed from one of the worst districts in Colorado to one that outperforms more than half the districts in the state. Four-year high school graduation rates leapt from 43 percent to 71 percent during the same period, and the progress was shared by a diverse array of student demographics.

The results offer powerful evidence in favor of the so-called 鈥�,鈥� an educational strategy that began to take hold in major urban school systems in the mid-2000s. Deliberately conceived as an alternative to the traditional methods of American school governance, the approach emphasizes greater autonomy for educators while focusing district authorities on centralized functions like enrollment and transportation.

Denver was among the cities that fully embraced the model, experts have argued, making its successes particularly notable in education policy circles. Douglas Harris, an economist at Tulane University who has spent years studying reform efforts in New Orleans and elsewhere, said the new study had demonstrated proof of significant growth in Denver schools.

鈥淭he effects are clearly large,鈥� Harris said. 鈥淛ust as a loose approximation, if you leapfrog that many districts, clearly you’ve seen a lot of improvement.鈥�

But that improvement was accompanied by fierce opposition among many Denver families, teachers, and public school advocates, many of whom spent years protesting the course pursued by district leaders. While the closure of dozens of low-performing schools engendered the greatest controversy, the detractors have also claimed that top-down direction from the superintendent and school board generally eroded the community鈥檚 faith in the system. Those complaints eventually cascaded into a successful campaign to 鈥渇lip the board,鈥� replacing reform-friendly members with a new majority that has viewed the portfolio strategy much more skeptically.

Parker Baxter 鈥� the study鈥檚 lead author and an energetic advocate of the Denver reforms 鈥� said that the central finding in his work was 鈥渟imple and profound鈥�: that learning undeniably increased for the average Denver student over the 11 years he studied, and that no group was harmed.

鈥淭he debate is framed in terms of whether these reforms helped or hurt the district overall, and this [study] provides the opportunity to evaluate that,鈥� said Baxter, who worked at Denver Public Schools from 2008 to 2011. 鈥淭he evidence we have is that students benefited from these reforms, even if they were not personally impacted by them.鈥�

鈥楻emarkable鈥� range of positive results

To get at the impact of the portfolio shift, Baxter鈥檚 study dives into test score data from 2008 to 2019 鈥� a period that encompasses most of Denver鈥檚 reform era.

That phase began a little earlier, of Superintendent Michael Bennet. Now a U.S. senator, Bennet spent three and a half years attempting to change a school system that ranked among the worst in the state. Under Bennet and his successor, Tom Boasberg, the portfolio model took shape.

Over 60 new schools were created in the decade that followed, while nearly 40 closed their doors permanently. Parents were presented with a bevy of novel school options, including a quickly expanding sector of charter and 鈥渋nnovation鈥� schools. Those new offerings were integrated into a unified, district-wide application system that allowed students to freely select among different choices. 

Boasberg, who left the district in 2018 after nearly a decade to take on leadership of the Singapore American School, said that each of those alterations was an ingredient in the success of the reforms, but that the indispensable factor was far simpler: a focus on attracting and retaining better instructional talent to schools, whatever their particular type.

Ideological heat around school choice and accountability tends to obscure the single-minded focus on quality during the implementation of the reforms, Boasberg added.

鈥淭here’s a lot of political ideology around governance models,鈥� he argued. 鈥淲e really didn’t care about that. We were about: Are you a good school, and do you serve all kids? The governance model was not important to us.”

To what degree Denver鈥檚 improvements were attributable to the portfolio reforms can be debated, but their scale is impressive. Before the 2008鈥�09 school year, Denver was one of the 10 lowest-performing school systems in Colorado on both math and reading tests, performing below the 5th percentile of districts statewide. In 2018鈥�19, it had risen to the 60th percentile in reading and the 63rd percentile in math. In comparison with a group of similarly low-performing districts in the state, Baxter and his coauthors found, the reforms triggered growth equivalent to between 1 and 1.5 extra school years over the period studied.

That general progress spilled over into secondary areas, such as district enrollment, which increased by nearly 20,000 students between 2004 and 2019. While white children saw the largest gains overall, results were also positive for African American students in literacy. Hispanic and low-income students saw positive results in math and English, though they were not large enough to be considered statistically significant.

Baxter called the range of positive results, across both subject areas and racial categories, 鈥渞emarkable.鈥�

鈥淭he fact that we see significant positive results for students with disabilities, or for African American students in math 鈥� we would not necessarily expect a reform, even one that had such a positive impact systemwide, to also have these positive impacts for the most vulnerable subgroups.”

Denver Public Schools declined to comment for this story.

Model 鈥榟asn鈥檛 gotten very far鈥�

Whatever the good news from the last decade of school governance, however, the next decade is much in question.

After the successful 2019 effort to flip the school board 鈥� replacing members who had largely backed Bennet and Boasberg鈥檚 approach with a new group that enjoyed more support from the local teachers鈥� union 鈥� a pronounced change in direction has taken place in the district. Superintendent Susana Cordova, a veteran of the reform regime who stepped in , soon left town herself after a brief tenure marked by poor performance reviews. The board鈥檚 new majority also voted to that had drawn criticism from educators. 

Nevertheless, three years into what might be deemed the 鈥減ost-reform鈥� period, many of the hallmarks of the portfolio model remain in place. The pace of school closures has slowed almost to a halt, but schools of choice still enroll a substantial portion of Denver students, and charter and innovation schools maintain wide autonomy in terms of hiring, curriculum, and scheduling. Boasberg said that the interlocking reforms embedded during his time in office would be difficult to do away with 鈥� if only because they remain broadly popular.

“The pieces do fit together, and that’s a really important part of it,鈥� Boasberg said. 鈥淲hy would you want to change the funding system to give less money to poor kids? Why would you want to have charters serve fewer English language learners and kids with special needs? Why would you want to take choices away from families?鈥�

The future for the portfolio approach is perhaps murkier. After reaching a high point in the middle of the 2010s, school reform in major districts has stalled due to both political pressure and internal exhaustion. The model鈥檚 exemplars 鈥� New Orleans, which largely swept away the pre-reform landscape following Hurricane Katrina, is perhaps the prototypical example 鈥� have achieved substantial gains. But a large group of cities that attempted the portfolio pivot, from New York to Chicago to Washington, D.C., never completed the transformation.

Harris observed that, after years of hype and advocacy, the portfolio vision 鈥渉asn鈥檛 gotten very far.鈥� That said, he added, its central ideas of expanded choice and unified district functions have left their mark in systems enrolling millions of students.

鈥淢aking structural changes in the education system is a very slow-moving enterprise, and the fact that we do have this idea 鈥� call if portfolio, call it what you will 鈥� that has infused a large number of urban districts, even in an impure form, is significant.”

Teachers said they had to skip over classic texts like To Kill a Mockingbird and avoid historical figures like famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass out of concern for parental complaints and possible legal blowback. One high school science teacher who the study quoted anonymously described an atmosphere of 鈥渇ear and paranoia鈥� around simply covering the content laid out within state standards.

The , which was published by the Rand Corporation on Wednesday, surveyed over 8,000 educators from across the country. It asked whether officials had passed policies limiting the teaching of topics related to race and gender and, if so, how those rules had impacted their instructional decisions.

Confusion was so widespread, researchers found, that roughly one-quarter of teachers said they didn鈥檛 know whether they were subject to restrictions. Among teachers working in states that had enacted classroom censorship bills, less than a third actually knew that the laws were in place.

鈥淎t times there is that confusion about, 鈥榃hat am I allowed to say in the classroom, what am I not allowed to say?鈥� 鈥� lead researcher Ashley Woo explained.

In Florida, where the state鈥檚 censorship bill also extends to higher education and the workplace, and where Gov. Ron DeSantis recently a forthcoming Advanced Placement course on African American studies, the state Department of Education rejected the idea that their law might be unclear to teachers.

鈥淚f educators are confused about what can and cannot be taught in Florida schools, the blame lies solely on media activists and union clowns who purposefully sow confusion and mislead the public,鈥� spokesperson Alex Lanfranconi wrote in an email to 麻豆精品.

Classroom censorship bills began to proliferate in 2021 as right-wing politicians advocated that schools overstepped in the measures they enacted in the wake of George Floyd鈥檚 murder. As some districts added more books written by Black, Indigenous, Hispanic and Asian authors to their curricula and educated staff about how racism operates in society, predominantly white parents in many districts pushed back on the changes, calling them critical race theory.

Critical race theory is an academic framework used to examine systematic racism and is taught mostly in graduate school rather than K-12 classrooms. The term has become a GOP catch-all for lessons related to race. Americans largely support teachings that address racism, but support wanes drastically when the critical race theory label is applied, shows.

Since 2021, legislation has been proposed in 42 states to curtail race- and gender-related teachings. In 18 states, the measures have passed into law, according to an . In at least six states, the rules include penalties for educators or schools that do not comply.

Terrance Anfield teaches English as a second language in Kennesaw, Georgia, where a state law bans teachers from covering 鈥渄ivisive concepts.鈥� 

鈥淭he very concepts that will allow the development of our students to become well-rounded, inclusive members of society are being omitted from the classroom for fear of offending the wrong person or committee. This should not be an issue that has involved the districts of Georgia because CRT is typically taught at the collegiate level,鈥� he wrote in an email to 麻豆精品.

In the aftermath of those changes, 1 in 4 teachers nationally said their school or district leaders told them to limit discussions of political or social issues in class, a previous found in August.

The non-partisan think tank鈥檚 most recent report now shows that a similar proportion of teachers, 24%, have altered their curricular materials in response to the controversy 鈥� regardless of whether or not they live in states that have classroom censorship laws on the books. Even in states with no rules limiting teachings on race and gender, 22% of instructors said the nationwide pushback influenced their selection of books and worksheets. 

鈥淭he limitations are not just originating from state policies, they’re also coming from other places,鈥� said Woo, the Rand researcher, explaining that educators frequently reported re-designing their offerings because of complaints from parents or 鈥渋mplicit鈥� and 鈥渦nspoken鈥� messages from district leaders directing them to sanitize lessons.

Colin Sharkey, executive director of the Association of American Educators, emphasized that parents do have a right to transparency over what their students are learning. But at the same time, districts should avoid policies that have a 鈥渃hilling effect鈥� on educators, which can make schools 鈥渘ot a healthy place for learning,鈥� he said.

In the face of pushback, some teachers still expressed resistance to censorship policies. The survey included a free response section completed by about 1,450 educators. Nearly 1 in 5 said they are continuing to include lessons related to race and gender, and made no mention of efforts to make the teachings less contentious. 

鈥淢y students are more important than any board policy. If I get in trouble, then it would be worth it,鈥� one educator wrote.

In a profession whose stress levels are , navigating the supercharged climate has made educators鈥� jobs 鈥渆ven more difficult and less attractive,鈥� in the words of one survey respondent, who teaches elementary school.

School staff may have their hands tied, caught between what is legal and what they think is right. A middle school science teacher said the school鈥檚 LGBTQ students are 鈥渒nowingly suffering and there is nothing I can do about it without risking my job.鈥�

In some cases, districts now require teachers to search for new classroom materials, go through cumbersome approval processes for new curricula or even run lessons by parents before leading them in the classroom, Woo explained. All those steps represent more work for teachers at a time when staff shortages already plague many states and districts across the country, she said.

鈥淎ll of these things are potentially adding more to teachers鈥� plates in a time when we know teachers have already experienced a lot of stress,鈥� she said.

Moms for Liberty, a national organization that supports school board candidates pushing for limitations on race- and gender-related lessons, did not respond to requests for comment on whether these policies could worsen teacher burnout.

To district leaders, Woo said, one clear takeaway from the study should be that educators need additional support to comply with a changing legal and political landscape.

鈥淭eachers cannot and should not have to shoulder these challenges on their own.鈥�

In a new survey released Tuesday by , a Massachusetts-based think tank focused on public engagement, respondents ranked preparation for college or university nearly at the bottom of their priorities for schools: 47th out of 57 overall.

As recently as 2019, prepping for college ranked No. 10 nationwide, just below learning 鈥渇rom exposure to different ideas and beliefs.鈥� That priority also dropped a bit, to No. 27.

Instead, the findings show, Americans now want something very different from K-12 education: a concentrated focus on 鈥減ractical, tangible skills鈥� such as managing one鈥檚 personal finances, preparing meals and making appointments. Such outcomes now rank as Americans鈥� No. 1 educational priority.

Top 10 Purpose of Education Rankings

鈥淚 think the takeaway is: The American public wants ‘different,’ not just ‘better’ from education,鈥� said Todd Rose, a former Harvard University scholar and Populace鈥檚 CEO and co-founder. 鈥淚t’s pretty clear that there’s a different set of outcomes that they are expecting.鈥�

While college prep should be an option, he said, the data show that 鈥渋t certainly can’t be the point鈥� of K-12 education going forward. 

Part of that shift comes as Americans realize the diminishing economic value of both a high school diploma and a college degree, Rose said.

A college degree, he said, has always been viewed as a key path to a better, more high-paying career. 鈥淚t’s not clear that that value is there from college anymore. So then when you pile on the outrageous cost 鈥� and the debt you’re incurring, it’s just not true. The value proposition isn鈥檛 there anymore.鈥�

So it鈥檚 natural for the public to look to K-12 schools for other, more practical priorities, he said.

To be fair, this particular set of skills, with its real-world focus, has sat atop the Populace scale since 2019, along with aspirations that students learn to think critically, 鈥渄emonstrate character,鈥� and do basic reading, writing and arithmetic.

But the precipitous fall of college prep is significant 鈥� and widespread. Actually, respondents with college degrees were nearly as likely as high school graduates or even dropouts to give college prep a low priority score: It ranked 48th for college graduates, vs. 49th for high school graduates and dropouts. The figure was slightly higher 鈥� 39th for those with graduate degrees.

To Rose, that finding suggests a 鈥渂roader zeitgeist shift鈥� about college, one coming even from its graduates, who believe that in its current state, 鈥淭his thing is untenable. It鈥檚 just too expensive.鈥�

The survey of 1,010 adults was conducted Sept. 12-30. Pollsters also surveyed 1,087 parents separately. Researchers asked participants to imagine rebuilding our K-12 education system 鈥渆ntirely from scratch based on the purpose of education as you define it.鈥� Then it set out pairs of priorities that participants ranked.

The data on college preparation suggest that the drop is driven largely by attitudes about higher education among one large group: White respondents, who placed it 46th overall in 2022. By contrast, Black and Hispanic respondents both placed it near the middle of the pack, 22nd out of 57 priorities. Asian respondents placed it relatively high at 9th place.

Even before the pandemic, attitudes about college-going were beginning to fray, research suggests. In 2019, the found that only half of American adults believed colleges and universities 鈥渁re having a positive effect on the way things are going in the country.鈥� Nearly 4 in 10, or 38%, said colleges were having a negative impact, up from 26% in 2012.

Rising college costs are, of course, a big factor: At public four-year colleges in 2020, average tuition and fees were than in 2010, according to the U.S. Education Department. 

The rise in negative views, Pew said, arose 鈥渁lmost entirely鈥� from Republicans and independents who lean Republican, with 59% saying colleges have a negative effect on the nation.

Overall, undergraduate between 2009 and 2020, according to the department, from 17.5 million students to 15.9 million. But it鈥檚 expected , to 17.1 million students by 2030.

Rose said even the oft-invoked culture wars over 鈥渋ndoctrination鈥� of college students may actually be a function of higher education鈥檚 larger failures. 鈥淚f college was still delivering on the value proposition, of the kind of careers that make for your little slice of the American dream, I don’t know that anyone cares鈥� about indoctrination, he said.

More Rankings of Note

As for priorities in the Populace survey broken down by race, the results reveal a few interesting details: White respondents鈥� top priority was for schools to teach 鈥減ractical, tangible skills鈥� 鈥� managing finances, preparing meals and the like. In that sense, they basically track with mainstream priorities.

By contrast, Black respondents鈥� No. 1 priority was thinking critically, while for Hispanic respondents it was allowing students to advance in school 鈥渋f they meet minimum grade requirements.鈥�

Asian respondents鈥� top priority: Giving all students 鈥渢he option to choose the courses they want to study based on interests and aspirations.鈥� That indicator actually fell in importance overall, from No. 2 in 2019 to No. 9 in 2022.

Another big change since 2019: Americans now 颅颅largely distrust standardized tests, prioritizing how a student ranks against others on such exams even lower than college prep: 49th out of 57 priorities. They鈥檙e much more likely to prioritize teacher-administered exams, projects or 鈥減erformance in real-world applications,鈥� according to the survey.

And they have a new-found appreciation for mastery learning: The idea that 鈥淪tudents advance once they have demonstrated mastery of a subject鈥� jumped from 30th out of 57 priorities in 2019 to 7th in 2022.

Part of that is doubtless due to the forced homeschooling that millions of families found themselves taking part in during the spring of 2020, Rose said. That changed families鈥� priorities about the purpose of schooling, almost overnight. 

鈥�The pandemic affected our experience with education,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t put kids back in the home, with parents who watched their kids learn online, if at all. And like most public shocks to systems, it tends to lead to a rethinking: 鈥榃hat is it that matters to us?鈥欌��

For these families, the experience taught them, 鈥淚t’s not simply, 鈥楬ow do we get kids better test scores and get them into college?鈥欌�� Going forward, Rose said, 鈥淭hat is not going to be good enough.鈥�

Disclosure: Walton Family Foundation and Stand Together Trust provide financial support to Populace and 麻豆精品.

First circulated as a working paper before the pandemic, the article was accepted for publication at the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. Its conclusions are difficult to ignore after both schools and the arts world were rocked by COVID-19, with to the creative economy totalling millions of jobs and tens of billions of dollars lost in 2020 alone. Arts education in some states had to be sustained through the infusion of emergency funds from Washington.

The study will also inform public policy decisions as school systems look to get back on their feet. Just a week before its publication, voters in California approved a ballot initiative that will provide nearly $1 billion annually to increase access to arts and music programs in schools. The sizable new appropriation, which isn鈥檛 funded by new taxes, amid advocacy by celebrities like Dr. Dre and Katy Perry.

Brian Kisida, a professor at the University of Missouri鈥檚 Truman School of Public Affairs and one of the paper鈥檚 co-authors, said that its results showed that the arts are a kind of 鈥渟ecret sauce鈥� in keeping young students interested and involved in school. Particularly as schools try to lead a revival after years of lost, delayed, or incomplete learning, he added, arts instruction shouldn鈥檛 be cast aside in favor of core subjects like math and English.

鈥淭he key question is, how do you keep students engaged in their own learning in such a way that they are intrinsically motivated to want to go to school 鈥� and when you present them with the idea of going to college, it doesn’t sound awful?鈥� said Kisida, who acted as a technical consultant to backers of California鈥檚 Proposition 28 campaign.

The study examined the impact of participation in Houston鈥檚 Arts Access Initiative, a coalition of more than 50 cultural institutions, philanthropies, and other local organizations dedicated to providing more arts resources in schools that previously lacked them. One of the initiative鈥檚 earliest priorities was conducting a comprehensive audit of the Houston Independent School District 鈥� one of the largest in the country 鈥� that revealed that roughly 30 percent of the city鈥檚 209 elementary and middle schools offered neither a full-time arts specialist nor any arts programming outside of school hours.

Given the widespread gaps in availability, it came as no surprise that demand for the program outstripped its initial resources, with 60 schools applying to fill just 21 slots for the initiative鈥檚 initial rollout. Kisida and co-author Daniel Bowen, a professor of educational administration at Texas A&M, worked with the district to follow two groups of schools randomly selected to either participate in the initiative or act as a control group. In all, just over 10,000 children from grades 3鈥�8 participated. 

Among those that took part, results were strong. Compared with the control group, they experienced about five additional 鈥渟chool-community partnerships鈥� (a broad category encompassing everything from a half-day trip to the Houston Ballet or the Museum of Fine Arts to a semester-long collaboration with a full-time artist) each year. The learning opportunities represented a hugely varied sample of workshops, residencies, and excursions: 54 percent related to theater, 12 percent to dance, 18 percent to music, and 16 percent to visual arts.

Those experiences generated significant academic and social-emotional rewards. Participants earned significantly higher scores in writing on Texas鈥檚 standardized test, with particular gains in expository writing. They were also 3.6 percentage points less likely to be involved in a behavioral infraction. In accompanying surveys, elementary students also showed higher levels of emotional empathy (as measured by agreement with statements such as, 鈥淚 want to help people who get treated badly鈥�) and demonstrated more engagement in school and interest in potentially attending college. 

Those effects are broadly similar to those detected in other research on the effects of arts education, much of which has focused on field trips to cultural institutions like museums and theaters. But Bowen said the Houston study offered particular value in emphasizing experiences that predominantly occur within school buildings, the way most K鈥�12 students tend to encounter the arts. 

鈥淰irtually all of these experiences were happening during the regular school day and in their regular school environments,鈥� Bowen said. 鈥淲e’re hoping this will provide research that tells us more about the impact of the arts in more typical learning environments.鈥�

The findings also contribute to public understanding of school-community partnerships, which are an increasingly common strategy to bring creative opportunities to schools where they have traditionally been in short supply. Over the past decade, such partnerships 鈥� which typically enlist a wide range of cultural partners to write grants and provide staff to school art programs 鈥� have sprung up in large districts like New Orleans, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, and Seattle. 

A similar study conducted by Kisida and Bowen on behalf of found that participants in Boston Public Schools鈥� Arts Expansion Initiative were less likely to be absent from school and more engaged with their studies. Parents also reported higher levels of engagement with their children鈥檚 education.

Even for districts located far from major urban centers, resources abound for potential collaborations with local museums and dance troupes. According to , American museums devote roughly $2 billion each year to educational programming, with roughly three-quarters going to K鈥�12 schools. That funding is like low-hanging fruit for schools and districts that have trouble financing their own arts offerings, Kisida said.

鈥淚t’s a policy development that is very rich and may be flying under the radar for a lot of education policy folks,鈥� he argued. 鈥淲hat makes this such a unique opportunity for schools is that they are able to tap into the passion that already exists in these mission-driven nonprofits to supplement their services.鈥�