NAEP Is Expanding

A year ago, there was speculation that the Nation’s Report Card was at risk under the Trump administration.

Testing experts at the Education Department had been laid off and the board in charge of the program canceled several optional tests. But now, expansion is coming in the form of additional results that could give the public more information about how students in their states are performing.

The National Assessment Governing Board approved a new testing schedule Friday that allows for state-level results in 12th grade math and reading, eighth and 12th grade civics and eighth grade science.

Read the whole thing here.

North Carolina Opts In with Override Vote

The North Carolina Senate voted Wednesday to override Governor Josh Stein's veto of legislation opting the Tarheel State into the new federal scholarship tax credit. The NC House of Representatives had already voted to override last month. Thirty-one states have now opted in or declared an intention to do so.

Colorado Governor: Opt In or We Will Come for Your Donors

Jared Polis, one of two Democratic governors who has announced plans to opt into the new federal scholarship tax credit, recently gave fence-sitting governors some food for thought:

And if there's any states that don't opt in, we're going to go after their donors for Colorado. Because the residents of that state still get that $1700 tax credit. It just isn't deployed in that state. So, for instance, if California for some reason doesn't opt in, you can bet that I'll be going with Colorado charities to LA, San Francisco, San Diego. We'll go there. We'll do a road show and convince them to invest in Colorado kids with their $1,700.

School Choice and Educational Pluralism

A recent piece in Education Week examined the situation in Texas -- where the state was sued for denying Islamic schools participation in its new billion dollar school choice program -- and the potential for similar situations elsewhere. This is worth a read.

Louisiana ESEA Waiver Approved

The U.S. Department of Education has approved Louisiana's waiver request, allowing education officials there to consolidate their federal state activities funds through FY2029. Louisiana is the second state to receive such a waiver, with Iowa having been the first earlier in the year.

Independent School Trends

A recent article in K-12 Dive looked at enrollment trends in independent schools, and spoke with Debra Wilson, president of the National Association of Independent Schools.

"According to NAIS research released this spring, enrollment in independent schools has been stable over the past seven years. 'Steady to me is actually a really good sign, given that we are living through the demographic cliff,' Wilson said."

Read the whole thing here.

Undergrad ROI Study

From the Washington Post:

After years of public debate about the value of higher education, a study of nearly 1 million undergraduates provides fresh evidence that going to college pays off financially for most students.

But the report released Thursday found that the benefits depend greatly on the type of degree, major, quality of the institutions, demographics of the students and whether students complete the programs.

The biggest payoffs for students seeking bachelor’s degrees occurred in engineering and architecture, business and economics, and security and protective services degrees. Liberal arts, recreation and fitness studies, and social sciences students saw the lowest returns among the categories included in the report.