The Delta Issue #59
The things we’ve bookmarked.
Hi y’all, Jessica here.
With a million things flying around right now, we’re taking a step back to look at what’s been on our desks and in our group chats.
We’ve pulled together a list of pieces that caught our eye, a mixed bag of K–12, higher ed, and policy perspectives.
So grab a coffee and dig in. Here’s what we’ve been reading.
What We’re Reading
- Kids at the Bottom Are Sinking Faster — @Chad Aldeman, @The 74
There’s a growing divergence between higher- and lower-performing kids, and it’s only getting worse. We saw it with 4th and 8th graders, and now it’s clear with 12th graders too. @Chad Aldeman and I talked back in February about what the latest NAEP scores really mean and what we can learn from them, catch the webinar recording here. And if you want to see how your state stacks up, check out our NAEP dashboard.
- Tutoring Didn’t Fail. Half-Measures Did. — @Kevin Huffman on @The Hechinger Report’s tutoring study
Kevin argues that high-dosage tutoring, like so many other good ideas in education, hasn’t gotten its fair shot. Launches are exciting, but without the follow-through or vision to sustain these efforts, we’re left with results that mirror the half-measures we put in. The story here isn’t that tutoring failed; it’s that kids haven’t gotten nearly enough of it to deliver on the promise.
We talked about this in our Delta on the Southern Surge: real gains come when leaders stay the course.
- Credential Chaos — @Patrick O’Donnell, @The 74
More students than ever are earning career credentials, but it’s not helping them land a job. Meanwhile, the credentials employers actually want are in short supply. This @The 74 piece nails why this mismatch is such a lost opportunity, and why states need to get a lot smarter about steering kids toward credentials that pay off in the labor market.
If you’re interested in this topic, The Daily recently covered a similar story in computer science, where students told to “learn to code” for six-figure jobs are now finding the market isn’t there.
- The Dawn of the Post-Literate Society — @James Marriott, Culture Capital
This piece is hooky, provocative, and uncomfortably close to what we’re seeing in classrooms. Marriott’s core claim — that we’re living through a counter-revolution where screens crowd out deep reading — is an interesting theory as to why we’re seeing declining literacy, shrinking attention, and weaker background knowledge.
- FAFSA Fights Back — @Jennifer Pahlka, Eating Policy
After a disastrous rollout that left millions of students shut out from financial aid, the FAFSA team fixed a broken system by refusing to keep doing the same things that broke it. @Jennifer Pahlka tells the story of how shifting from project to product saved federal student aid. The Government Accountability Office may still be stuck in a 20th-century mindset, but FAFSA’s results show what modern government tech should look like.
- College Numbers Down, Degrees Up — @Gad Levanon, @Joe Winkelman, and @Mels de Zeeuw, @Burning Glass Institute
At first glance, the college enrollment declines feel like another “sky is falling” story. But this piece makes the case for a more nuanced read: degree attainment hasn’t collapsed with enrollment, largely because completion rates have improved — especially at community colleges. That’s an important reminder that who enrolls, and how well we support them to finish, matters as much as the raw numbers. The challenge ahead is what to do about the growing share of young adults opting out altogether.
Big news in ed reporting: @Matt Barnum is headed back to @Chalkbeat to launch a new section on the big ideas shaping education. Congrats, Matt! You can sign up to his newsletter here to keep following his work.
Let’s Get Muddy
- Candidly, this week’s list is a far cry from feel-good news. (If you’re looking for lighter fare, check out our Summer Reading List).
- What articles have you been reading this week? Share in the comments.
