Ethan Hutt

Sooooolo happpy!!! For Ange. For Son (who doesn’t look like he has much left). For this whole team and fanbase!

Great thread on yesterday’s oral argument. Delighted that at least one justice (Gorsuch) read our brief. But, as Cam points out in detail and with receipts that was a…weird and disappointing argument full of blind alleys and imprecise questions and answers.

Contributor: Tax dollars for religious schools? Conservative justices could be the roadblock The current court has deemed history and tradition to be central to the interpretation of our constitutional rights. Two centuries of history on this topic is clear.

“If the court ignores a clear historical record merely because it is inconvenient for a political cause favored by its conservative members, it will move one fateful step closer to losing its public legitimacy.” @ehutt.bsky.social and Aaron Tang

Late update, but excited to share I successfully defended my dissertation on April 1–and no one’s said April Fools yet.

Big thanks to my advisor Dr. Lauren Sartain and committee @drconstance.bsky.social @ehutt.bsky.social @danielklasik.bsky.social & Steve Hemelt for their support the past 5 yrs!

Proud to sign this amicus brief for the OK religious case.

W/ @ehutt.bsky.social @scribnerumcp.bsky.social & Steven K. Green.

The history's clear: The Founders believed "funding religious instruction would foment civic strife and damage school administration."
www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24...

Rethinking Chronic Absenteeism A call for community-based approaches to reducing the barriers that prevent regular attendance in K-12 schools In Rethinking Chronic Absenteeism, Sarah Winc...

"Given the persistence of chronic absenteeism, this book should be on the shelf of every principal, school administrator, and policymaker in the country.” —@ehutt.bsky.social on RETHINKING CHRONIC ABSENTEEISM by @sarahlenhoff.bsky.social and @jeremylsinger.bsky.social‬ https://bit.ly/3ZKYXbk

This Monday (3/31) at 12 PM ET, be sure to join HEP authors @sarahlenhoff.bsky.social and @jeremylsinger.bsky.social for a free, Monroe C. Gutman Library-hosted book talk on RETHINKING CHRONIC ABSENTEEISM! This event will be moderated by @ehutt.bsky.social. Register here: https://bit.ly/4k1uuyI

Wonderful thread on the history of federal education data collection

...if for no other reason than it undercuts one of the virtues of federalism & local control: the possibility of learning from a pluralistic approach to schooling. We can empower states & local communities while leaving intact our ability to learn from that variety. 12/x

Off the Mark — Harvard University Press Amid widespread concern that our approach to testing and grading undermines education, two experts explain how schools can use assessment to support, rather than compromise, learning.Anyone who has ev...

I say this as someone who has been plenty critical of the quantification of schooling and learning: crippling ED's ability to collect and disseminate stats about our schools makes all states and districts worse off.... 11/

www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Same is true of early federal longitudinal data sets. The first ones were bloated, cumbersome, (and some how still omitted key variables like race!), and didn't produce much insight. But those efforts begot HSB, NELS, ELS, HLS, etc.... 10/

Granted, even w/ ED trying to coordinate thousands of school districts in the US, it took a very long time to get the standard data reporting practices we have. Efforts in the 1950s toward a "common core" of data were a mess but led to: HEGIS (1966); IPEDS (1986) CCD (1986) 9/

For a contemporary ex of the babel of ed statistics, districts/states have very different definitions of what counts as having "attended" school for the day. This was especially challenging during Covid! Does virtual access mean you're always present?! 8/

That's the thing about the quantification of schooling: it's not self-evident what or how (or how often) you should count/measure things in schools. A lot of different ways make sense! So you need coordination and uniform definitions! 7/

"...but the records of so many single experiences, incapable of being aggregated or contrasted with each other, and so their chief value is lost; especially is this true of educational statistics in this country." -Eaton "Educational Lessons of Statistics" (1872) 6/

Here's 2nd Commissioner of Ed, John Eaton (1872), "It too often happens when the thought of keeping records occurs, the workers in a given field adopt methods so diverse and incomplete that they form..." 5/

This history is significant but the argument doesn't/shouldn't turn on the fact that this was an old practice. It should turn on the basic insight embedded in the practice. i.e. why we thought *centralized* collection and dissemination of statistics was important in the first place 4/

You can argue that we need to reduce or "turn back" federal overreach in education. Fine. But I'm not clear how that argument can include eliminating the collection and dissemination of information about the nation's schools. That's been there since the beginning. 3/

Federal data collection in education goes back to 1867, which means it is basically as old as American school systems. Yes there was schooling before 1867, but only MA/VT/DC had compulsory school laws at the time. Schooling was largely informal & voluntary. 2/

Nice to see all the education research orgs put out a joint statement calling for Congress to safeguard the (Congressionally established) IES and NCES I would have liked to see them underscore the historical dimensions a bit more (surprise!) 1/ www.aera.net/Portals/38/E...

On Monday, 3/31 at 12 PM ET, join @sarahlenhoff.bsky.social and @jeremylsinger.bsky.social for a virtual talk on their book, RETHINKING CHRONIC ABSENTEEISM. This event is hosted by the Monroe C. Gutman Library, moderated by @ehutt.bsky.social, and is free to attend! https://bit.ly/4k1uuyI

cc: @ehutt.bsky.social @johannneem.bsky.social @nrooks.bsky.social @adamlaats.bsky.social @ansleyerickson.bsky.social @hyres376.bsky.social @redheadmenace.bsky.social @scribnerumcp.bsky.social @rgoransdotter.bsky.social

To my historian followers: do you have any favorite resources you share with students doing archival work for the first time?

Agreed that this is a great post. Cancelling data collection is terribly stupid and goes against the aim of federal involvement in education going back to 1867 (and to 1950s for longitudinal data)…

Is there a database where someone can see IES funding by location of the research site. As people try to communicate how widespread the reach of this research is it would be useful to point to concrete examples.

Easy, DOGE. IES matters. The federal role in education dates to 1867 when President Andrew Johnson signed legislation creating the first “Department of Education” for the purpose of:

I disagree with Checker Finn far more often than i agree with him, but this one he has spot on: fordhaminstitute.org/national/com...

Was It Cake? “It’s not cake!” my wife screamed as the cleaver split the thermostat in our foyer. I pushed past her and sank my chef’s knife into the Ethan Allen...

If you need a good laugh: www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/was...

The Crisis in Education is an excellent (and short) essay, worth your time. I just taught it to my undergrads and we had a good discussion about what it means to preserve the revolutionary potential of youth…

And if you enjoy this essay, you should know @scribnerumcp.bsky.social has a substack open.substack.com/pub/campbell...

A superb meditation on moral education.
“Romantic educators are not wrong to celebrate children’s creativity and potential. Rather, their mistake is to pull those qualities away from the existential commitment & moral seriousness that give them meaning & in which the soul takes root.”