Matt Chingos

Chair Cassidy Requests Information on Improving Transparency in Higher Education, Lowering Costs for Students | The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, requested...

This morning, Chair Cassidy released a Request for Information on how to increase college cost and value transparency for students and families.

Please share with your networks and consider submitting a response by the October 24 deadline: www.help.senate.gov/rep/newsroom...

Starting on Monday, I will be on leave from Urban for a year to serve as a fellow with the Senate HELP committee (majority staff).

I don't expect to post much on here. To keep up with Urban's education work, follow @maggiereeves1.bsky.social & @kblagg.bsky.social!

Conference room full of people

It was incredibly energizing to get the Student Upward Mobility Initiative’s first cohort + friends together in DC! Follow along as we learn from researchers, field leaders, and practitioners on our blog www.tfaforms.com/4644066/?tfa...

How Many Students Would Lose Access to Free Meals under House Republicans’ Proposed Changes to the Community Eligibility Provision? Congressional Republicans are reportedly considering spending cuts to balance the cost of extending the tax cuts they enacted in 2017.

Read the full analysis and get data by state and congressional district here: www.urban.org/research/pub...

More than 70% of ALL students in Mississippi and West Virginia would lose CEP in their schools under this proposal.

Increasing the identified student percentage (ISP) threshold from 25% to 60% would take CEP away from at least 21,000 schools serving 11.4 million students.

An additional 18,000+ non-CEP schools (with 9.4 million students) would lose the ability to sign up for the program.

How Many Students Would Lose Access to Free Meals under House Republicans’ Proposed Changes to the Community Eligibility Provision? Congressional Republicans are reportedly considering spending cuts to balance the cost of extending the tax cuts they enacted in 2017.

House Republicans are reportedly considering changes to which schools are eligible to provide free meals to all students through the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP).

Urban's Emily Gutierrez runs the numbers on how many students and schools would lose CEP: www.urban.org/research/pub...

🌟 Did you know that most federal education data are archived in the @urbaninstitute.bsky.social Education Data Explorer? It's a great resource for research and analysis - and there's even a full API version linked in thread. 🌟

#EduSky #EdPoliSky #EduSkyECEC
educationdata.urban.org/data-explorer

On further reflection, I think the adjustment does a reasonably good job of getting roughly the right low-income number at the state level. So maybe downgrade the grain of salt for Oregon's adjusted score to medium-sized!

States’ Demographically Adjusted Performance on the 2022 Nation’s Report Card

See the discussion in the report linked here: www.urban.org/research/pub...

A quick word of caution on Oregon -- I would take their numbers with a big grain of salt (moreso than any other state) because the free lunch data are very wonky. They reported 99% eligible in 2022, which we tried to fix via imputation but may have went too far the other way.

The Role of State Policy in Supporting Students Experiencing Homelessness and Former Foster Youth in Higher Education

In 2022, the Florida legislature expanded college tuition exemptions for homeless students and former foster youth.

Did these policies reach the intended beneficiaries? Carrie Henderson and Katie Grissom look at newly available data in a recent Learning Curve essay: www.urban.org/research/pub...

States’ Demographically Adjusted Performance on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress Earlier today, the federal government released the 2024 scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

How did your state's students score on the 2024 NAEP compared to demographically similar students nationwide?

Get the data here: www.urban.org/research/pub...

America's Gradebook How does your state stack up?

Massachusetts has long done well on our adjusted rankings, but Louisiana and Mississippi were nowhere near the top 10 years ago.

Historical data and rankings (through 2019) are available here: apps.urban.org/features/naep/

In 2024, the highest adjusted NAEP scores on three out of the four NAEP tests were achieved by Mississippi's students.

Three states ranked in the top 5 on all four tests: Mississippi, Louisiana, and Massachusetts.

To facilitate better comparisons, my team at @urbaninstitute.bsky.social publishes adjusted scores that capture how well students in each state score on the NAEP compared with demographically similar students around the country.

Comparing states’ NAEP scores is misleading for many purposes because states serve very different student populations (e.g., more than 20 percent of children live in poverty in Alabama and Mississippi, compared with less than 10 percent in New Hampshire and Vermont).

Earlier this week, the federal government released the 2024 NAEP scores, which are the only nationally comparable measure of student achievement that is reported for every state on a regular basis.

States’ Demographically Adjusted Performance on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress Earlier today, the federal government released the 2024 scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

How does your state really stack up on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)? www.urban.org/research/pub...

States’ Demographically Adjusted Performance on the 2022 Nation’s Report Card

The free lunch data are really funky. See more here: www.urban.org/research/pub...

States’ Demographically Adjusted Performance on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress

Demographically adjusted 2024 NAEP scores, hot off the presses! www.urban.org/research/pub...

@kblagg.bsky.social was the one burning the midnight oil to get these calculations done ASAP!

Demographically adjusted NAEP scores for 2024 coming later this morning!

Opportunities for the New Administration to Improve Americans’ Well-Being As the Trump transition team prepares for the incoming administration, Urban experts offer several recommendations where our work may be relevant to the new administration’s policy goals.

The full memo includes evidence-based recommendations from our @urbaninstitute.bsky.social colleagues on apprenticeships, housing, TANF, AI, and more: www.urban.org/research/pub...

We also recommend that @usedgov.bsky.social write regulations that stop wasting taxpayer dollars trying to collect old "zombie debts." This can be done in a much more targeted and responsible way than what the Biden admin attempted.

We recommend that @usedgov.bsky.social finally implement the FUTURE Act (signed by President Trump in 2019) so that students who fall behind on their loan payments can be automatically enrolled in income-driven repayment.

Opportunities for the New Administration to Improve Americans’ Well-Being As the Trump transition team prepares for the incoming administration, Urban experts offer several recommendations where our work may be relevant to the new administration’s policy goals.

Urban's transition memo to the Trump Administration includes recommendations from Sandy Baum, Jason Delisle, & me on fixing student loan repayment: www.urban.org/research/pub...

The call you should most fear is being asked to serve as president-elect.

How Public PK3 Mitigated School Enrollment Declines during the Pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted student learning and the delivery of public education. Across the United States, most public K–12 schools saw widespread enrollment declines during the 2020–21...

The latest Learning Curve essay looks at how DC's prek program for 3-year-olds mitigated school enrollment declines during the pandemic.

Read more from @anikaalam.bsky.social @ericahgreenberg.bsky.social & colleagues: www.urban.org/research/pub...

Since I throw shade when the government posts years-old education data, have to give props to NCES for getting the 2023-24 CCD posted in 2024: