Cell phones and other personal devices have become a constant presence in schools, raising concerns about disruptions to student learning. As a result, lawmakers in Kansas, Missouri, and other states across the country are taking a closer look at policies that limit student access to devices during...

This post continues our series on literacy policy and practice. Earlier entries traced how reading instruction evolved in the U.S. and why the science of reading has regained prominence. Here, we turn to what the data shows in Kansas and Missouri—and why both states have stepped up efforts to...

On Monday, October 27, Kansas joined the increasing number of states seeking to waive certain requirements of federal education law. Specifically, the waiver seeks to make a unified accountability system, merging the current state and federal systems into one within four years. This move comes at a...

This post is the second in a series exploring literacy within education policy and practice. In the first blog , we introduced the major methods of teaching reading in the U.S. — phonics, whole language, balanced literacy, and sight word memorization. Here, we look at how those methods developed and...

This blog post is the first in a series exploring literacy within education policy and practice. Here, we introduce the major methods of teaching reading and the debates surrounding them. Understanding these approaches — what they are, how they work, and why they matter — helps set the stage for...

This opinion piece originally appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch . By Eric Syverson, Director of Policy & Research, Aligned. Across the nation, skepticism toward statewide assessment is rising. Teachers and families increasingly question whether traditional testing supports learning or just...