Reforming K-12 Education
Boosting Student Achievement
An industrious team of education-focused scholars at Hoover produced several impactful books and research reports about the state of K–12 education in the United States in 2024. Efforts by Hoover scholars this year focused on three main aims: enacting whole-of-system reform in America’s elementary and secondary school system; highlighting important research that makes the case for charter schools as a means of offering stronger-quality instruction to average families; and working to track and reverse the decline in education outcomes observed across the system since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Whole-of-System Reform
Education Futures Council Releases Landmark Report
Hoover’s new Education Futures Council released its first report, Ours to Solve, Once—and for All, on October 22, describing urgent reforms needed in America’s public education system to respond to a “matter of public emergency” regarding outcomes in schools.
The report proposes a comprehensive new operating system for American public education—one that flips US K–12 education from top-down to bottom-up, organizing for results centered on students, especially those from disadvantaged populations. The report advances solutions that focus on, among other components, minimizing mandates and embracing incentives, as well as cultivating and rewarding professional mastery in the education workforce.
Release of A Nation at Risk + 40
In the Hoover Institution’s anthology A Nation At Risk +40 released at the end of 2023, education policy experts assess the impact of various school reforms enacted since the release of the seminal education report A Nation at Risk in 1983. The chapters in this report each tackle a distinct area of school reform that emerged in response to the needs described in A Nation at Risk. Each chapter provides background and context, describes the evidence of impact, draws conclusions, and makes recommendations for policymakers.
An Education Reform Self-Assessment
Following the release of A Nation at Risk + 40, Hoover scholars released a self-assessment tool designed to help education policymakers determine how well positioned they are to advance new policy ideas. By evaluating how well they are tackling a series of six key reform challenges, they can plan their next steps and be better positioned for policy success.
Hoover’s Michael Hartney Wins the American Political Science Association’s Award for Best Book on Education Politics and Policy
Hoover fellow Michael T. Hartney is the 2024 recipient of the American Political Science Association (APSA) prize for the best book on education politics, a prize awarded annually by APSA’s Education Politics and Policy Section.
At APSA’s 120th Annual Meeting, which took place September 5–8, 2024, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Hartney was recognized for his first book, How Policies Make Interest Groups: Governments, Unions, and Education (University of Chicago Press), which critically assesses the power and influence of teachers’ unions in American politics and education. APSA’s Education Politics and Policy Section award committee unanimously and enthusiastically selected Hartney’s monograph for its top prize in a crowded field that included fifteen other books.
Article
Once a Hedgehog, Now a Fox
Ten lessons from six decades in the struggle to improve schools
Essay
Ours to Solve - Once, and For All | Securing the Outcomes Our Students Need
The Education Futures Council (EFC) has released its report, “Ours to Solve, Once - and For All,” to address the public education crisis in America. The report outlines a new framework for revitalizing public K–12 education across the nation.
Book
How Policies Make Interest Groups: Governments, Unions, and American Education
A critical, revelatory examination of teachers unions’ rise and influence in American politics.
Reversing the Decline in Education Outcomes
Eric Hanushek Charts Cost of Pandemic-Era Learning Loss on US Pupils
In a paper published for HESI, Eric Hanushek and Bradley Strauss analyze standardized math test scores from teens in 81 countries. They note that US results fell in comparison with those of foreign peers between 2018 and 2022, but there was a vast discrepancy between the best- and worst-performing states. They point out that student achievement declined in most of the world because of school closures related to the COVID-19 pandemic but that the United States has been slow to rebound. They estimate the US could lose up to $31 trillion in aggregate GDP growth through the rest of the twenty-first century if this learning loss is not addressed soon. Compared to peer countries, the US ranked just below the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) average for math scores in 2022, with Malta just ahead and Slovakia just behind.
Hoover Scholar Finds Chronic Absenteeism in US Schools Still Stubbornly High
Chronic absenteeism among US public school students edged down but remains much higher than it was before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a full quarter of pupils missing at least 10 percent of the 2022–23 school year. According to data compiled by Thomas S. Dee, Barnett Family Professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, the number of students chronically absent from school fell from 28 percent of pupils in 2021–22 to just above 25 percent of students in 2022–23.
International Math and Science Survey Finds Striking Difference Between US and Sweden
Writing for Education Next, Senior Fellow Paul E. Peterson comments on the latest release of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), which shows US elementary math and science test scores took a nosedive between 2019 and 2023, likely due to prolonged school closures in most states—something Senior Fellow Jay Bhattacharya, Trump’s nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health, warned us about. Meanwhile, Sweden, which kept its younger grades in school in person for much of the same period, saw increases in its math and science scores. “The size of the leap off the math cliff by US students exceeds that in nearly every other industrialized country,” Peterson writes. “Only in Israel, Portugal, and Chile does the 8th grade drop exceed that of the United States.”
Congressional Testimony
Margaret E. Raymond On Proven Results: Highlighting The Benefits Of Charter Schools For Students And Families
Hoover Institution fellow Margaret E. Raymond testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education. Read the testimony.
Article
Condoleezza Rice Makes a Brilliant Case for School Choice
It boosted productivity and restrained wage growth. But now the Fed has to finish the job.
Event
Surveying the School Choice Landscape: A Hoover Institution Webinar For National School Choice Week 2024
Remote work is not going away any time soon, with significant implications for the productivity and social dynamics of the workplace as well as large swaths of the global economy.
Click here to learn more about Hoover’s institutional focus on reforming K-12 education.
Senior Fellow Eric Hanushek speaks on February 26, 2024, about the cumulative economic impact of US learning losses caused by COVID-19 school shutdowns. (Eric Draper)
Distinguished Research Fellow Margaret (Macke) Raymond speaks about K–12 education reform and the role of charter schools in Hauck Auditorium on February 26, 2024. (Eric Draper)
Senior Fellow Eric Hanushek speaks on August 13, 2024, about the relative decline of US standardized math test scores from 2010 to present day. (Patrick Beaudouin).
Bruni Family Fellow Michael T. Hartney speaks about K–12 education reform at Hoover’s annual spring retreat in Scottsdale, Arizona, on April 25, 2024. (Eric Draper)