Author: Nola Jones

You’ll notice something subtly strange if you stroll through the corridors of the majority of American community colleges today. For the early summer, the staff is busier than anticipated. Advisors are gathered around bulky policy documents. Marketing teams are making quick films, carefully selecting words, and steering clear of anything that sounds overly scholarly. There’s a sense of urgency, but to be honest, there’s also some confusion. The cause is a change in policy that hasn’t yet gained widespread recognition. Americans who wish to enroll in short-term job training programs—not four-year degrees or even two-year associate programs—will have access to…

This week, a Catholic school in Evergreen Park, Illinois, made a covert announcement that it will not be reopening in the fall. No grandiose press conference. No forum for the community. Families who had spent years—some of them their entire childhoods—inside those walls received a letter on Monday morning. After the 2026–2027 school year never starts, Queen of Martyrs School, which has been in operation since the 1950s at 3550 West 103rd Street, will permanently close. Losing a local institution causes a specific kind of grief. The kind of slow, resigned grief that comes after you’ve suspected the conclusion for…

American education reform is plagued by a sense of déjà vu. Somewhere, a teacher discovers something amazing, such as a novel strategy for keeping struggling ninth-graders interested in algebra or a reading strategy that reaches children who had virtually vanished into their own apathy. Word gets around a bit. A principal notices. Perhaps a story appears in the local newspaper. The thought then silently fades away. The instructor steps down. Districts are moved by the principal. The process never extends beyond the corridor. This is not an accident that happened at random. According to recent research from Stanford’s Hoover Institution,…

When Jonathan Vasquez announced that he would be leaving the Little Lake City School District at some point during the summer, it appeared to be a low-key, planned departure—the kind of administrative change that hardly ever makes the local press. In any case, that was the plan. The plan was entirely altered by the end of April. In the midst of a teachers’ strike that had already taken up almost two weeks of the academic year and showed no signs of abating, Vasquez rescheduled his departure for Monday, April 28. It’s difficult to ignore the timing. After 94% of union…

Teachers carry around a certain kind of frustration. Something more subdued, almost philosophical, rather than the kind that results from challenging pupils or unrealistic schedules, though those are real enough. It’s the sensation of having discovered something that actually works, seeing how your students react in ways that even surprise you, and then realizing that learning ends as soon as it leaves your classroom. It doesn’t go anywhere. No one is able to scale it. It is absorbed by the system in the same way that sand absorbs water. Hoover Institution researchers have been grappling with that issue for some…

The phrase “We just don’t have the data” has been a recurring theme in American education policy hearings for decades. In Senate subcommittees, it is stated. In think tank panels, it is stated. Every time someone advocates for increased federal funding for early childhood education and care, this statement is made. The implication is always the same: ambitious policy is a leap of faith that no one in Washington is willing to take in the absence of solid, globally comparable evidence. The data is now arriving, which is a recent change that has happened quietly and without much fanfare. And…

Last September, a group of third graders attended a lecture on artificial intelligence in a computer classroom in the province of Gansu. They were perhaps seven or six years old. Around the same time, a teacher in an Ohio school district was likely given a memo regarding whether or not students could type their essays into ChatGPT. That seemingly insignificant and easily disregarded difference may end up being more significant than most people currently recognize. An “AI+ Education” action plan that leaves little room for interpretation was released in early April by China’s Ministry of Education and four other government…

Most British homes have a drawer where important documents discreetly collect dust, somewhere between old utility bills and a forgotten charger. Typically, passports reside there. Mostly adult ones. If there are any children’s versions, they are usually applied for two weeks prior to a summer flight and are regarded as merely a formality. It’s a sensible strategy until all of a sudden it isn’t. Something changed in February 2026. The UK quietly implemented new passport requirements under its Electronic Travel Authorization system without the kind of public fanfare you might anticipate. Dual nationals, or British citizens who had become accustomed…

A certain type of legislation doesn’t come with a press conference or a ton of coverage on cable news. It gradually gains support in committee rooms and hallways, gaining the support of groups that most Americans are unaware of but that subtly influence the formulation of national policy. The proposed legislation pertaining to childcare worker compensation, which is reportedly receiving support from OMEP and the thoughtful consideration of three U.S. senators, sounds exactly like that type of legislation. Silent. methodical. possibly important. Here, the larger context is important. Cost and access have dominated the American child care discourse for years.…

Twelve-year-olds in a Birmingham classroom are drawing water cycle diagrams based on observation instead of copying them from a whiteboard. They’re not adhering to a manual. They are sketching what they actually see while gazing out the window at a drainage ditch following a downpour. It sounds almost charming. Researchers connected to Cambridge’s education reform circles also claim that it may be one of the most serious approaches to climate education in years. For a while now, the phrase “think like Da Vinci” has been used in progressive education settings. It is typically used as a cozy source of inspiration,…