Latest Articles
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Testimony: Protect Funding for the Advanced Technical Centers
FutureEd Director Thomas Toch presented written testimony to the Council of the District of Columbia on May 7, 2026, addressing the Council’s proposal to eliminate funding for Advanced Technical Centers in District of Columbia high schools. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Thomas Toch. I am the director of FutureEd, a…
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Threats over DEI Weaken Local School Leaders McMahon Says She Wants to Empower
By Maureen Tracey-Mooney & Thomas Toch Proposal would make federal grant applicants bend the knee to Trump administration interpretations of what is discrimination. This post originally appeared at The 74. Late last month, Education Secretary Linda McMahon celebrated what she called the Trump administration’s “unprecedented progress in reducing the federal education footprint” and “giving education back to…
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How Democrats Can Win on Education Again
Centrist and progressive Democrats can’t stop fighting over how to fix America’s crisis-ridden K-12 schools. Truth is, each side has part of the answer. If they would compromise and combine forces, they could trounce Republicans, who have given up even trying to improve public education. This article originally appeared in Washington Monthly. The state of…
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Podcast: Choice, Competition, and the Future of Public Education
This podcast episode originally appeared on Community Connection. Education debates are often framed in binaries—public versus private, charter versus traditional, choice versus systems—but the reality is far more complex. FutureEd Director Thomas Toch joins the Community Connection podcast to unpack how today’s education landscape took shape, what history reveals about school choice and reform, and what policymakers and…
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What’s the Best Way to Measure a School’s Quality? 5 Factors to Consider
By Lynn Olson & Thomas Toch More than test scores, a comprehensive set of research-based metrics would provide a richer understanding of a school’s success. This post originally appeared on The 74. What’s the best way to measure a school’s quality? It depends on whom you ask. Parents, educators, employers and policymakers hold many different…
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A New Blueprint for State Standardized Testing
This piece originally appeared in Education Next on February 11, 2025. It is part of a two-part forum.
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Standards Gap: Why Many Students Score Proficient on State Tests But Not on NAEP
By Thomas Toch & Bella DiMarco In three-quarters of the states, there were gaps of at least 15 points on 4th- and 8th-grade exams. In some, they were even greater. This post originally appeared on The 74 and Future-Ed.org. One of the most striking features of today’s troubling report from the National Assessment of Educational…
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A Cautionary Tale About School Closings
This piece originally appeared in The 74.
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Could Tutoring Be the Next Big Bipartisan School Reform?
This piece originally appeared in Washington Monthly on June 23, 2024.
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None of the Above: A New Vision for State Standardized Testing
Statewide standardized testing has played a central role in public education for three decades, providing insights into school performance and driving improvement. But state testing, mandated by federal law, has become increasingly divisive.