The second season of ‘Sold a Story,’ a podcast about education, opens in 1966 in an Illinois classroom. The teacher is a former Chicago marketing executive named Siegfried Engelmann. Before him sit seven Black children. He calls out arithmetic questions and they answer together, as is the norm in direct instruction, the teaching method Engelmann pioneered. The lesson moves on to algebra. The children keep pace. Then the creator and host of the podcast, Emily Hanford, cuts in. The children, she notes, are in preschool. Sixty years later, we have UC Berkeley math teaching professor Zvezdelina Stankova complaining, in a San Francisco ‘Standard’ op-ed that went viral this summer, that students at the University of California’s flagship campus were struggling with “fractions and basic algebra you would expect students to learn in middle school.” What happened? A year after Engelmann showed off his method in a recorded half-hour lesson, President Lyndon B. Johnson instructed education officials in his administration to evaluate the best way to teach poor children. They landed on Engelmann’s direct instruction — but it was never implemented nationwide. The reason was Engelmann’s “militaristic” approach to education, as the education writer Alfie Kohn explained in his criticism of direct instruction, which he said is today favored by “right-wing activists” who “wanted to make sure that learning itself is conceived as a fundamentally passive process.” Engelmann’s supporters’ politics were off, which meant his ideas were bad. And since Kohn gave this assessment in 2022, it seems that little has changed. Read more about how we’ve forgotten the art of teaching kids math, from the second season of ‘Sold a Story’: nymag.visitlink.me/1BaDzx

Heartbreaking, Christians are literally being buried alive in Congo. Despite Muslims making up just 1.5% of the population, Islamic gangs are trying to take over the country. They are also setting Christian villages on fire, kidnapping women, and beheading innocent people. But since they are not Palestinian or Muslim, the media remains silent. x.com/karinganire_has/status…

In a new edition of "Talking Choice," @rickhess99 talks with @BernerEd, Director of @JHUEdPolicy, about whether, and how, a "blue wave" in the midterm elections would impact education choice policies. edweek.org/policy-politics/o…

1. I admire how you kept a (mostly) straight face as she was talking. 2. Your intro line was 🔥! 😂

Count me in.

Instead of asking “Does school choice work?”, a better question is: Under what institutional arrangements does autonomy generate better outcomes? That shifts the debate from ideology to design And toward the interaction of competition, autonomy, accountability and information. A useful discussion today at Harvard’s Emerging School Models Conference. Thanks to @eric_wearne for great moderating and @hmatthewlee for a fascinating paper. My paper is forthcoming next week.

I'll be presenting some research on #SchoolChoice regulations at the PEPG conference later this week. Looks like some friends will be around! @AngelaRWatson @hadleyonfire @marshalldavidt2 @eric_wearne @BernerEd @hamlind1 @pauldiperna @colynritter24 @RonMatus1 @ClarkRimsza

We organized the National Civics Bee — it’s where to start if you want better workers fortune.com/2026/09/13/natio…

I often wish this great man was still with us, to lead us through ever darkening times. Let us honour his memory by fighting the scourge with everything we have, for the sake of humanity.

Test scores aren’t everything, but they’re not nothing either. If you’re pro-choice, these numbers are hard to defend—and dropping the state test just blinds the families we’re trying to empower.

What the International Debate Over School Choice Can Teach Us at Home @BernerEd & I discuss new principles of “educational pluralism” and why they matter. At @EducationWeek. edweek.org/policy-politics/o…

This hasn't gotten much media attention but Gov. Spanberger is trying to quietly delay the implementation of more rigorous proficiency cut scores in Virginia from the beginning of 2026-27 to 2029-30 (when she will be finishing her term) This vote could happen by August