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Articles by Matt Barnum

Matt Barnum is a senior staff writer at The 74.

Who Gets Access to School Data? A Case Study in How Privacy, Politics & Budget Pressures Can Affect Education Research

Exclusive: Too Hot to Learn: Records Show Nearly a Dozen of the Biggest School Districts Lack Air Conditioning

74 Interview: Harvard Researcher David Deming Takes the Long View on Head Start, Integration

To Test or Not to Test: As Tax Credit Scholarships Expand, Questions About Accountability and Outcomes

Even After Colorado’s Teacher Evaluation ‘Revolution,’ Fewer Than One in 1,000 Rated Ineffective

The 74 Interview

The 74 Interview: Ulrich Boser on Understanding the Science of Learning

The School Discipline Revolution: How Policy and Rhetoric Outstrip Hard Evidence

New Studies Suggest Choice of Curriculum and Textbooks Can Make a Big Difference for Students

New Study: D.C. Scholarship Students Scored Worse in Math, Particularly in Elementary School

Report: 5 Ways to Address Teacher Shortages — Where They Really Exist

New Study: 3 Ways to Tell If a Charter School Will Struggle Before It Even Opens Its Doors

A Form of Professional Development That Research Shows Might Actually Help Teachers: Coaching

5 Things We Now Know About Teacher Diversity: What Researcher Constance Lindsay Has Found About Race in School

The Power of One: New Research Shows Black Students See Big Benefits From a Single Black Teacher

School Equity Lawsuits Face Setbacks: Have Judges Closed the Courthouse Door to Students?

New York Times Misuses Their Data When Linking School Quality to Home Prices, Researchers Say

The Political Parallels and Contradictions of the School Choice, Food Choice — Er, Food Stamps — Debate

Where Education Research, Politics & Policy Intersect: 3 States Reveal How Data Help Shape Their ESSA Plans

New Research May Build Discrimination Case for Widely Used Principals Exam

Impact of Weaker Unions in Wisconsin and Other States Much Clearer for Teachers Than Students

Could the Every Student Succeeds Act Break the Link Between Poverty and Bad School Ratings?

Exclusive Data: City Schools vs. Suburban Schools, See Where Security Officers Outnumber the Counselors

Analysis: Charter Schools Spend More on Administration — but It Might Not Be Bad for Kids

Kansas Supreme Court Rules School Funding System Unconstitutional — Again

The 74 Interview

The 74 Interview: Houston Chronicle Reporter on How He Uncovered the Year’s Biggest Education Scandal

Trump Doubles Down on School Choice, but Plan Likely Faces Uphill Battle in Congress

February 28, 2017

Online Charter Schools Have Poor Track Record, but They Can Reach Places Other Schools Can’t

February 27, 2017

Hard to Game, Easy to Use: Chronic Absenteeism Gains Ground as New ESSA Measure of Student Success

February 22, 2017

Study: Weakening Tenure in Louisiana May Have Caused Thousands of Teachers to Quit

February 22, 2017

The Certification Maze: Why Teachers Who Cross State Lines Can’t Find Their Way Back to the Classroom

February 15, 2017

What If Every Struggling Student Had a Tutor? It Won’t Be Cheap, but It Might Be Worth It

February 13, 2017

The 74 Interview

The 74 Interview: Kirabo Jackson on the Importance of School Spending, ‘Soft Skills’ and Teacher Quality

February 13, 2017

The 74 Interview

The 74 Interview: Denver Schools Chief Talks ‘Trump Effect,’ School Closures and Teacher Performance Pay

February 2, 2017

From a Sea of Senate Questions: 6 Key Takeaways in Betsy DeVos’s Answers

January 31, 2017

8 Lingering Questions to Confront After the Failure of Obama’s $7B School Turnaround Plan

January 26, 2017

Teachers Have to Wait 25 Years to See Pension Benefits, New Study Says, But Is the Fix Really Better?

January 26, 2017

Some Private Schools That May Benefit From Trump’s Voucher Plan Are Weak on Discrimination Rules

January 18, 2017

Barnum: The Growth vs. Proficiency Debate and Why Al Franken Raised a Boring but Critical Issue

January 18, 2017

Barnum: Obama’s Education Legacy Mirrors the Rest of His Presidency — Accomplished but Polarizing

January 17, 2017

Fact-Checking the DeVos Hearing: What the Data Shows About Michigan’s Charter Schools

January 17, 2017

3 Big Problems in How Schools Hire Teachers — and What Research Says About How to Solve Them

January 10, 2017

Inside the Fight to Save Detroit’s Schools: Betsy DeVos’s Campaign for Choice Over Local Control

January 8, 2017

Barnum: Education Myths to Leave Behind in 2016 — 8 Dearly Held Beliefs That Aren’t Necessarily True

December 26, 2016

Yes, Poor Students Get Worse Teachers, but That Doesn’t Explain Most of the Achievement Gap

December 12, 2016

Betsy DeVos Promises to “Make Education Great Again” — but When Was It Great?

December 12, 2016

Is School Segregation Getting Worse? By Some Measures, No — but It’s Not Getting Any Better

December 11, 2016

Building Integrated Classrooms

12 Things to Know About School Segregation — and How Integration Helps Students

December 8, 2016

The 74 Interview

74 Interview: Louisiana Schools Chief John White on ESSA, School Closures and Local Control in NOLA

December 6, 2016

Oklahoma’s Teacher of the Year Makes Just $35,419 — and He Won’t Get a Big Raise Anytime Soon

December 5, 2016

The Cult of Finland: What American Schools CAN’T Learn From International Comparisons

December 4, 2016

Betsy Devos, Trump’s EdSec Pick, Promoted Virtual Schools Despite Dismal Results

December 1, 2016

The New White Flight: Research Shows Some North Carolina Charters Are Making Segregation Worse

November 28, 2016

Analysis: How Betsy DeVos Could Scramble the Ideology and Politics of Education Reform

November 27, 2016

Vouchers Could Be the Big Winner in Trump’s School Choice Plan, but Is That a Victory for Students?

November 17, 2016

Work Inside President Trump’s Ed Department? No Way, Say Some Policy Experts and Advocates

November 16, 2016

The Real Threat to Common Core May Come Not From a Trump White House but From Many Statehouses

November 14, 2016

Trump’s Education Paradox: Return Schools to Local Control — By Expanding Federal Power?

November 10, 2016

Oklahoma Voters Reject Initiative to Raise Teacher Pay

November 9, 2016

Eleven Things You Might Not Know About Teacher Retention and Turnover — but Should

November 2, 2016

Black Kids in Michigan Often Stuck in Classes With More Than 40 Kids, New Study Reveals

November 1, 2016

‘Best’ High Schools May Not Be as Good as You Think — What That Means for Parents, Policymakers

October 24, 2016

What Research Says About Mass. Charter Cap Debate: From Graduation Rates to School Funding

October 20, 2016

Research Shows Students Can Benefit When a School Closes — but Only If There Are Better Ones to Attend

October 17, 2016

50 Years Later, What America Still Hasn’t Learned From the Coleman Report

October 16, 2016

The 74 Fact-Check: Are Teachers Really Burning Out Because of Tougher Tests and Evaluations?

October 12, 2016

The Yale Study on Pre-K Teachers and Bias Didn’t Find What You Think It Found

October 5, 2016

The 74 Interview

74 Interview: Jeb Bush — Yes on Choice and Standards, No on Trump and Clinton

October 2, 2016

Analysis: Hillary Clinton Is Right About Head Start

September 27, 2016

Three Incredibly Obvious Reasons Fewer People Want to Be Teachers: Study

September 26, 2016

New Research: Chicago Teacher Eval Pilot Moved Out Struggling Teachers, Kept Stronger Ones

September 20, 2016

The 74 Interview

74 Interview: Former L.A. Superintendent John Deasy Previews New Initiative to Rethink Juvenile Prisons

September 19, 2016

Reality Check: Are the Education Changes Demanded By Connecticut Judge Even Possible?

September 18, 2016

The 74 Interview

The 74 Interview: Harvard Education School Dean Jim Ryan Talks School Funding, Vergara and Ed Research

September 14, 2016

8 Things We Learned From a Big New Texas Study on Charter Schools and Students’ Future Income

September 13, 2016

If It Cannot Be Wise, It Must Be Sensible: Judge’s Withering Words on Connecticut’s Public Schools

September 8, 2016

Connecticut’s Critical Deadline: Judge Says State Must Fix Public Education in Six Months

September 8, 2016

The Problem With Homework: Not Much Evidence on Whether It Works

September 1, 2016

The 74 Interview

74 Interview: Researcher Susan Dynarski on Boston Charters, Student Poverty, and Data in Education

August 31, 2016

When Public Charter Schools Are Private: Labor Rulings Highlight Often Blurred Line

August 30, 2016

Why Teacher Pay Matters: Recruitment and Retention Can Improve Results

August 22, 2016

New Study Shows Ohio Virtual Schools Are Failing Their Students — Even as Thousands More Enroll

Researchers: No Consensus Against Using Test Scores in Teacher Evaluations, Contra Democratic Platform

Does Trump Nomination Mean End of GOP In School Reform? It’s Complicated

Review: Paul Tough’s Impoverished Agenda for Helping Children Succeed

Exclusive: Amendment Adds Imaginary Testing Standard to Democratic Education Platform

Putting the ‘Achievable Over the Ambitious’: The Problem When Teachers Grade Themselves

Which Comes First, Good Teachers or a Good School? Researchers Say Yes

Ohio Study Latest to Show Poor Voucher Results: 7 Theories Dissect The Trend

Several HS Math Textbooks Not Aligned With Common Core, Ratings Group Finds

Christie Plan for Funding NJ Schools Widely Criticized; Cami Anderson Warns of ‘Devastating Impact’

California in the Age of ESSA: Can Schools Be Held Accountable Without Real Consequences

The Purge: California Leaves Researchers (and Policymakers) in the Dark by Gutting Education Data

How California Gov. Jerry Brown Fought the Federal Government on Education Policy — and Won

Analysis: Charter Groups Call for Reforms of Underperforming Virtual Schools

A Teacher Satisfaction Gap? New Study Shows Teachers of Color Less Happy in Their Schools

The Exit Exam Paradox: Did States Raise Standards So High They Then Had to Lower the Bar to Graduate?

Study: The Real Reason Some People Don’t Like ObamaCore, Er, Common Core

What Happens When a School Gets a Failing Grade? It Gets Better

New Map: School Funding Inequality, Often Measured By State, Is Far Worse Nationally Than You Think

Mississippi, Desegregating: What the Research Shows About the Academic Value of Integrating Schools

Study Shows New Orleans Students More Likely to Stay in Same School After City’s Education Reforms

NY Teacher Wins Court Case Against State’s Evaluation System, But May Appeal to Set Wider Precedent

12th-graders’ Federal Tests Scores Dip in Math and Reading While More Manage to Graduate

Study: No Child Left Behind Improved Teacher Attendance in Struggling Schools

The Merit Pay Myth: Why the Conventional Wisdom About Paying Teachers Is Wrong

In New York City, Teachers Cheated to Help Students Graduate — and it Worked

The 74 Interview

The 74 Interview: Prof. Matt Delmont on How Northern Whites Used Busing to Derail School Integration

The Research Missing From the L.A. Charter Debate? 3 Key Studies Show Gains for Students

Washington State’s Schools Chief Is So Fed Up About Underfunded Schools He Might Run for Governor

Clinton Says She Wouldn’t Opt Out, But Her Common Core Critique Hints at a Rebuke of Obama, Duncan

Are Charter Schools a Cause of — or a Solution to — Segregation?

Report: Career and Technical Education Programs Can Boost Graduation, Wages

VIDEO: New Research Shows True Toll Cheating Scandal Took on Atlanta’s Most Vulnerable Students

Chicago Public Schools 101: The Politics, Passion and Hopeless Financials Behind a System in Crisis

Matt Barnum & Naomi Nix

Chicago Public Schools 101: The Politics, Passion and Hopeless Financials Behind a System in Crisis

Matt Barnum & Naomi Nix

5 Key Lessons from the Successes (and Failures) of President Obama’s Teacher Evaluation Reforms

Connecticut School Funding on Trial: After A Decade, Equity Gets Its Day in Court

Exclusive: Education Cities and GreatSchools to Admit Flaw in Statewide Rankings of School Inequality

Exclusive — Data Shows 3 of the 5 Biggest School Districts Hire More Security Officers Than Counselors

New Research Shows How a Federal School Turnaround Program Backfired in North Carolina

The 74 Interview

74 Interview: Nate Bowling, WA’s Teacher of the Year, on the Surprising Reaction to His ‘Conversation’ Essay

John Kasich’s Education Record: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

UCLA Report on Charter School Discipline Makes Important Points — But Has Some Important Limitations

Feeling Confused by The Bern? 4 Theories on What Sanders Actually Thinks About Charter Schools

From Common Core to Cheating Scandals, 5 Studies that Can Help Improve Education Policy

Group Pushes Broader Approach for Helping Kids — But Can it Build a Broad Coalition?

The 74 Interview

74 Interview: Denver’s Mayor on Testing, Hillary Clinton and America’s Fastest-Growing Urban School District

From Arne Duncan on Down: 23 Critical Education Questions for the Presidential Candidates

Carolyn Phenicie & Matt Barnum

February 24, 2016

Opinion: Where Linda Darling-Hammond’s Bold Claims on Testing, Teachers, and New Orleans Go Wrong

February 23, 2016

New Research: States That Chose (or Were Forced) to Spend More Money on Poor Schools Saw Student Gains

February 22, 2016

The Happiness Factor: Research Moves Beyond Test Scores to Find Strongest Teachers

February 18, 2016

Don’t Humiliate Teachers… But Fire the Worst: Does David Denby Realize He’s Agreeing With Reformers?

February 16, 2016

Have We Built a Better Test? 9 Ways ‘Next Generation Assessments’ Are Different — and the Same

February 11, 2016

Twice as Many Schools Pushing Integration, Versus 10 Years Ago — Based on Class Rather than Race

February 9, 2016

The Fact-Check: Not Every State Takeover of a Troubled School District Deserves an F

February 4, 2016

Research Suggests D.C.’s Tough Teacher Evaluation System Helped Students. 7 Big Lessons for Other Cities

February 3, 2016

A Radically Sensible Proposal for Training Teachers: Make it Easier to Enter, Harder to Stay

February 2, 2016

“A National Disgrace”: Explaining the Past, Present, and Future of Detroit Public Schools

January 28, 2016

EdBuild: How a New Player in the Ed Reform Game Is Skipping the Usual Battle Lines to Focus on Funding

January 24, 2016

New Research: 3 Insights Into Molding Better Student Teachers

January 19, 2016

The Detroit ‘Sick-Out’ Makes a Valid Point: Crumbling Schools Shown to Hurt Learning

January 14, 2016

New Center for American Progress Report: Tougher Standards Strengthen Student Achievement

January 14, 2016

No, Gov. Cuomo Didn’t Kill Test-Based Teacher Evals. In Fact, His ‘Moratorium’ Could Fuel More Testing

January 7, 2016

School Choice Advocates Celebrate as Department of Justice Closes Investigation of Milwaukee Vouchers

January 5, 2016

Ohio Fixed Its Scandal-Plagued Charter Schools, Right? Not So Fast

January 4, 2016

New York Times Gives Credence to Conservatives’ Common Core Delusion

December 21, 2015

We Asked the Experts: 8 Common (but Worthless) Education Phrases That Are Banned in 2016

December 17, 2015

The Duncan Era: Assessing a Tenure That Drove Swift Change — and Sharp Backlash

December 16, 2015

The Fact-Check: Why John Merrow’s Misleading DC Rant Ignores Facts, Research and the Full Truth

December 10, 2015

What Economic Recovery? Analysis Finds Many States Spending Less on Schools Than Before Recession

December 10, 2015

Denver Study Shows Simplifying Enrollment Drove More Disadvantaged Students to Sign Up for Charter Schools

December 10, 2015

New Report Grades Best (and Worst) Cities for School Choice. Where Does Your Town Rank?

December 9, 2015

Boston Charters Post Huge Test Gains, But Discipline Debate Could Hinder Expansion

December 1, 2015

Q&A: State Senator (and Former Principal) Mike Johnston, on Advancing Colorado Education Reform

November 22, 2015

Closing Bad NYC Schools Helped Next Generation of Students: 5 Takeaways from Groundbreaking Report

November 20, 2015

On the Campaign Trail

Hillary Clinton Reality Check: With NCLB Rewrite, Next President’s Education Platform Is Likely Irrelevant

November 18, 2015

2 New Reports Show That We Really Don’t Have a Great Way to Evaluate Teachers

November 17, 2015

Fact-Checking Clinton on Charter Students: She Misses the Big Picture — but Also Has a Point

November 13, 2015

The Milwaukee GOP Debate: In the Birthplace of School Choice, Will Free Market Talk Extend to K-12?

November 9, 2015

Fact-Check: Hey Education Pundits, Stop Writing Early Obituaries for School Improvement Grants

November 5, 2015

New Report Highlights Teacher Eval Paradox: High Ratings Across the Board, But Growing Backlash

November 5, 2015

The War Over Evaluating Teachers—Where it Went Right and How it Went Wrong

November 3, 2015

Study: Online Charter Schools Not Making the Grade

October 27, 2015

Obama Vows to Reduce Testing — But Doing So May Be Harder than it Seems

October 25, 2015

Beware the NAEP Overreactions: 4 Reasons Why Education Pundits Should Rein in the Rhetoric This Week

October 22, 2015

How Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and the Far Right’s Bizarre NCLB Strategy May Actually Save Federal Education Role

October 16, 2015

Why Arizona Parents Are Legally Not Allowed to Opt Their Kids Out of Testing

October 15, 2015

Research Shows That … Education Journalists Don’t Always Use Research All That Well

October 15, 2015

John King’s Common Core Education: What Getting Schooled in NY Will Mean for His Tenure as Ed Sec

October 11, 2015

Ohio Legislators Push Through Charter Reform Law, But Fixes Hinge on Troubled Ed Department

October 8, 2015

New Report: Schools Pay a Premium for Experienced Teachers But It May Not Boost Teacher Quality

October 6, 2015

Ohio’s Charter School Disaster: How Big Profits and Pay-to-Play Operators Have Derailed Reform

October 1, 2015

What if No Child Left Behind Worked and Nobody Realized it? Blame the Media.

September 30, 2015

Resisting School Integration: A Brooklyn Case Study in Scared Parents and Bad Data

September 28, 2015

Fact-Check: Are Washington’s Charters Harming the State’s Traditional Public Schools?

September 22, 2015

A Nashville Charter Showdown Over a Book Assignment Sparks a Social Media Frenzy

September 9, 2015

New Research: Telling Parents Their School Is Bad Doesn’t Help If They Don’t Have Better Options

September 9, 2015

Fact-Check: Just How Many Tenured Teachers Are Fired Each Year Anyway? (Hint: Not Many)

September 8, 2015

A NYT Contributor Attacks the ‘Myth’ of New Orleans’ School Progress After Katrina. She’s Wrong

August 25, 2015

Separating Fact from Fiction at the Education Summit: What Research Confirms (and Disproves) About the Rhetoric

August 24, 2015

NOLA Schools — 10 Years After Katrina

Q&A: New Orleans Education Expert Doug Harris Walks Through His Research Showing a Decade of Student Gains

August 21, 2015

The 2015 NH Education Summit

NH Summit: Carly Fiorina Decries Federal Education Bureaucracy, Says It’s Killing School Innovation

August 19, 2015

Actually, Key and Peele, We Need to Treat Pro Athletes More Like Teachers

August 11, 2015

New study: Ignoring teacher performance in layoffs hurts kids

August 10, 2015

Inside New Hampshire’s Common Core Showdown: Will Gov. Hassan’s Veto Embolden the Critics?

Fact-Checking All Those Charter Critics Who Snatched Defeat from Jaws of New Orleans’ Victory

Inside the New TNTP Research: Is Teacher Training Just An Expensive Waste of Time?

“I Didn’t Deserve My Diploma:” One Brave New York City Teen Blows the Whistle on Her School

Normandy High, By the Numbers: Inside Michael Brown’s School, a Snapshot of Staggering Inequality

Video: Dr. Howard Fuller Talks School Choice, New Orleans and the Future of the Reform Movement

New Site Grades 70,000 Schools Using Same Standards. Want to See How Yours Ranked?

On the Campaign Trail

Opinion: AFT Backs Hillary More on Hope than on Hard Evidence

The Fact-Check: No Vox, All the Good Schools Are NOT in Rich Neighborhoods

Arne Duncan’s Wrong Turn on Reform: How Federal Dollars Fueled the Testing Backlash

Raising The Bar Might Bar Too Many When It Comes To Teacher Certification Tests

New Report Details Why More American Charter Schools Don’t Offer Pre-K (and How to Change That)

Why the NAACP Is (Mostly) Right to Champion No Child Left Behind

Too Many States Don’t Fund Schools Fairly – and That’s a Big Problem

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