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Jill Barshay

@jillbarshay.bsky.social
4.1K followers 832 following 305 posts

I write about education for The Hechinger Report. Sign up for my once-a-week (always free) newsletter: hechingerreport.org/proofpoints

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Reposted by Jill Barshay
Morgan Polikoff @mpolikoff.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
The impact of cell phone bans will not be measured by any one study. Here's a nice review of the evidence from @jillbarshay.bsky.social at Hechinger, highlighting the variation in findings across diverse studies hechingerreport.org/global-resea...
hechingerreport.org
Inside the latest global research on school cellphone bans
First wave of studies raises questions about other digital distractions and cellphones at home
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Reposted by Jill Barshay
Cara Jackson @carajackson.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
“not one of the recommendations was a new idea to NCES,” said Peggy Carr. “Many had already been implemented or we were working on when the center was dismantled." Great reporting by @jillbarshay.bsky.social hechingerreport.org/proof-points...
hechingerreport.org
Some in the Trump administration are pushing to rebuild IES
After DOGE gutted IES, the education and statistics agency inside the Education Department, some in the Trump administration are trying to rebuild it. A new report of ideas on how to do that was relea...
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Q: Which teaching specialty is the lowest paid? A: Math. Learn why and 3 more surprising facts from an education finance course I took in today's newsletter. hechingerreport.bluelena.io/index.php?ac...
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
*Correction: The $160,000 lifetime loss is not per student, but for all the students who were taught by that teacher that year. Per student, the income loss ranges between $42 and $133 per year.
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Correction: The $160,000 lifetime loss is not per student, but for all the students who were taught by that teacher that year. Per student, the income loss ranges between $42 and $133 per year. h/t @dynarski.bsky.social
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
oh my goodness. thank you for that correction! i misunderstood during the presentation. I will correct that right now.
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
$160,000 -- That’s the effect of a single teacher, in a single year. If a student encounters several grade-inflating teachers, the income losses add up. Read more in my story, "Easy A's, lower pay: Grade inflation's hidden damage" (3/3) hechingerreport.org/proof-points...
hechingerreport.org
Easy A's, lower pay: Grade inflation’s hidden damage
Analysis of more than a million high schoolers
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
.@jeffdenning.com estimates when a teacher doles out grades that are inflated (0.2 or more points on a 4-point scale, the difference between a B and almost a B-plus), a student in that class loses about $160,000 in lifetime earnings, measured in present dollars. (2/3)
bsky.app
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Grade inflation has real costs. Researchers documented a chain of harm to students, from lower test scores to higher failure rates in the future. Lower high school graduation rates, lower college going. And ultimately lower earnings in the workforce (1/3)
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Fascinating anecdotes... sobering lessons. Similar (perhaps worse) upheaval and trauma compared w/Covid. But colleges were unable to help students recover academically or psychologically. Instead they "aged out of it" and waited for replacement students. (2/2) hechingerreport.org/proof-points...
hechingerreport.org
When the Spanish flu upended universities, students paid the price
Higher education leader Arthur Levine analyzes the history of a lost generation
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
History buffs: @brandeisuniversity.bsky.social U president Arthur Levine did a deep dive into how universities weathered the Spanish Flu a century ago in his forthcoming book, “From Upheaval to Action: What Works in Changing Higher Ed." 🧵(1/2)
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Bottom line: This is a high stakes data collection that could trigger investigations and law suits and the early going is very messy. (10/10) hechingerreport.org/proof-points...
hechingerreport.org
Trump's admissions data collection strains college administrators
Universities must report student demographics, grades and test scores by March 18
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
One tiny indication that this was a rush job is in the Federal Register notice. Both enforce and admissions are misspelled in a proposal that’s all about admissions enforcement. Those words are spelled “admssions” and “enforece.” (9/10)
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Federal education data collections typically take years to design, with multiple rounds of analysis, technical review panels, and revisions. This one moved from announcement to launch in a matter of months. (8/10)
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
6. College need to submit 7 years worth of data, going back to 2019. But prudent data retention policy is sometimes to purge unneeded sensitive student data. Some colleges delete data for students who never enrolled after 1-3 years and so years of data may not exist. (7/10)
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
5. Even tiny, not very selective colleges must do this OMB estimates the admistrative burden will be 200 hours per college -- and 2,200 colleges must comply. That adds up to 440,000 hours -- or 50 years worth of additional federal regulatory compliance. (6/10)
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
4. Male or female are the only choices for sex. Colleges, however, may collect sex or gender information using additional categories, such as nonbinary. But there's no "unknown" or "other" option on the spreadsheet they need to upload. (5/10)
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
3. Family income is missing for students who don't complete financial aid forms -- about 45 percent of all students. (4/10)
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
2. Many students don't report test scores with test optional admissions. That's more missing data. (3/10)
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
1. They have to "unweight" inflated GPAs onto a 4.0 scale, which is difficult or impossible. So they'll have to type in "unknown" for many, if not most students. (2/10)
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
The Trump administration is demanding colleges hand over their admissions data to enforce the ban on affirmative action. Due date: March 18. Just a few problems that colleges are dealing with as they dig through the numbers and try to comply. (1/10) 🧵
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Over 2,000 universities, incl those that have never practiced affirmative action, are scrambling to meet a March deadline to submit data on admissions to the Trump administration. Everything from sex and race to GPA and SAT is problematic to answer. Details here: hechingerreport.org/proof-points...
hechingerreport.org
Trump's admissions data collection strains college administrators
Universities must report student demographics, grades and test scores by March 18
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Reposted by Jill Barshay
Gail Cornwall @gailcornwall.com · 15/01/2026
“Two-parent households do not confer … academic advantage [for low-income kids]…. Those who live w/ both parents scored a 199. Those who live w/ just mom scored 200.” Money matters far more than family structure. @jillbarshay.bsky.social for @hechingerreport.org hechingerreport.org/proof-points...
hechingerreport.org
Conservatives see married parents as a solution to low student achievement. It's not that simple
NAEP data suggests that family structure affects student performance mostly in wealthier households
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Thank you. I didn't know about this book.
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
I expected low-income children to be most affected by having only one parent at home. But the data show the opposite. High-income children suffer the largest academic penalty for living in a single-parent household. Not much difference in test scores for low-income kids. (2/2)
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Project 2025 claimed that data on achievement by student family structure isn't publicly available. That’s not true, though you need expertise to extract it. I did. And the results surprised me. (1/2) hechingerreport.org/proof-points...
hechingerreport.org
Conservatives see married parents as a solution to low student achievement. It's not that simple
NAEP data suggests that family structure affects student performance mostly in wealthier households
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
The lesson here isn't that teachers should use more math terms in their lessons. But that if you're a principal and you want a leading indicator or a sort of biomarker of a good math teacher, you should pick one who regularly uses math words and understands them. (4/4)
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
If a teacher with weak conceptual understanding of mathematics suddenly started using more math terms, or handed out worksheets of math vocab, I wouldn't expect her (or his) students to improve on the annual math assessments. (3/4)
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
The researchers were unable to prove that mathematical vocabulary is causing student achievement to rise. It may be all the other good things that math-talking teachers are doing that's the active ingredient. (2/4)
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
I'd like to address an important misunderstanding about my piece hechingerreport.org/proof-points... that I'm seeing on social media. (1/4)
hechingerreport.org
Talk nerdy to me: Teachers who use math vocabulary help students do better in math
Using words like ‘factors,’ ‘denominators’ and ‘multiples’ may be part of a constellation of good math teaching practices
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Chilling. I used to work on Portland Ave, where this reported ICE shooting took place.
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Many public schools are losing students, but some are gaining. Great data crunching from Burbio showing "winners" and "losers". My hot take: several unrelated trends happening at once. Declining birthrates. Shifting migration within US. Some exodus from public schools.
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
My story today, "Talk nerdy to me," explains why. (4/4) hechingerreport.org/proof-points...
hechingerreport.org
Talk nerdy to me: Teachers who use math vocabulary help students do better in math
Using words like ‘factors,’ ‘denominators’ and ‘multiples’ may be part of a constellation of good math teaching practices
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
That’s why I was eager to dig into a new study by researchers at Harvard, Stanford, and UMD on math vocab and student math achievement. Some skepticism was confirmed. But more fundamentally, I was wrong. (3/4)
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
I questioned the time spent on math vocab. Students memorized terms like “domain” and “range,” divorced from real problems. Do you really need to define “addend” to add? (2/4)
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
When I tried teaching high school math more than a decade ago, I was struck by the importance of math vocabulary in the algebra curriculum I was following. There were so many more words and definitions than when I had studied math. 🧵(1/4)
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Which college degrees are worth it? @mitzkow.bsky.social crunched the numbers from the latest @usdeptofed.bsky.social data dump. Fascinating. in 14% of all programs, or 4,441 of them, graduates earned least $50,000 more than typical high school graduates within 4 years. That's 435,722 students.
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
Careful newsletter readers this morning may notice that my counting skills aren't what they once were. If you're hunting for the missing #5 it's in today's story on our website. Click below: hechingerreport.org/proof-points...
hechingerreport.org
In a year that shook the foundations of education research, these 10 stories resonated in 2025
Special education, reading instruction, cellphones and… AI
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Reposted by Jill Barshay
Jen Jennings @jenjennings.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Jessica Brown also found that NYC UPK "reduced the capacity for children younger than 2 years old at private child care centers by 2,700 seats, and this decline was not offset by an increase in provision in the home day care market. The entire decrease in capacity occurs in areas with high poverty"
“Does Public Pre-K have Unintended Consequences on the Child Care Market for Infants and Toddlers?”
Media: CityLab, EdSurge, The 19th, NBC, The Upshot (x2), New Republic, City Journal

Abstract: I estimate the impact of public pre-kindergarten for 4-year-olds on the provision of private child care for younger children by considering New York City’s 2014 Universal Pre-K expansion. Private child care facilities often care for children from infancy or toddlerhood through pre-K. A public option for older children could therefore affect availability, prices, or quality of care for younger children. This effect could be positive or negative depending on the structure of the child care market, the design of the public pre-K program, and parent preferences. I use a panel dataset covering all licensed child care facilities in New York City and a difference-in-differences strategy that compares changes over time for neighborhoods with more versus fewer new public pre-K sites. I estimate that the public pre-K program reduced the capacity for children younger than 2 years old at private child care centers by 2,700 seats, and this decline was not offset by an increase in provision in the home day care market. The entire decrease in capacity occurs in areas with high poverty. In complementary analysis, I find a within-center increase in public complaints and inspection violations for day care centers that are closer to new public pre-K sites, suggesting a potential decrease in quality due to the increased competition from public pre-K. A back-of-the-envelope calculation indicates that for every seven 4-year-olds who shifted from day care centers to public pre-K, there was a reduction of one day care center seat for children under the age of 2.
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Important tale from California for those who care about public policy. Fix one problem, and you can inadvertently start another. "One state made preschool free. Then dozens of child care centers closed in its largest city" hechingerreport.org/proof-points...
hechingerreport.org
One state made preschool free. Then dozens of child care centers closed in its largest city
Universal preschool promised equity but benefits went to the wealthy
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Reposted by Jill Barshay
Public Schools First NC @publicschoolsfirstnc.org · 01/12/2025
The current administration is destroying the research foundation that helps Americans know what is and isn't working in education policy. For example, the funding that helped MS achieve remarkable reading gains were cancelled in February. #nced #ncpublicschools hechingerreport.org/proof-points...
hechingerreport.org
How Trump 2.0 upended education research and statistics in one year
Decades of carefully built infrastructure aimed at improving and tracking how American children learn vanished in an ideological attack
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
The shortest (and best) hot take.
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
A lot has happened this year. If you'd like a recap of what's happened to education research and statistics, here's my attempt. This might be a good one to listen to on your commute today. (Audio play button below headline. 16 minutes long.) hechingerreport.org/proof-points...
hechingerreport.org
How Trump 2.0 upended education research and statistics in one year
Decades of carefully built infrastructure aimed at improving and tracking how American children learn vanished in an ideological attack
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Reposted by Jill Barshay
Christopher Huffaker @huffakingit.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
interesting Proof Points column on male teachers seemingly not making a difference in elementary school hechingerreport.org/proof-points...
hechingerreport.org
Do male teachers make a difference? Not as much as some think
A teacher's gender doesn’t matter for young boys, national study shows
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Reposted by Jill Barshay
Liz Willen @lizhech.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
A new national analysis finds no evidence that boys perform or behave better with male teachers in elementary school. This challenges a widespread belief: hechingerreport.org/proof-points... via @jillbarshay.bsky.social
hechingerreport.org
Do male teachers make a difference? Not as much as some think
A teacher's gender doesn’t matter for young boys, national study shows
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
It might seem that the federal education stats agency could easily be transferred to another cabinet dept if ED is closed. But not so straightforward. Why a move could degrade the quality of higher ed data. hechingerreport.org/proof-points...
hechingerreport.org
Advocates warn of risks to higher ed data if Education Department is shuttered
But new hires and fresh research grants hint at a quiet rebuilding effort
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Reposted by Jill Barshay
Liz Willen @lizhech.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
Even many critics of the Department of Education want its data collection efforts to survive — just somewhere else: via @jillbarshay.bsky.social: hechingerreport.org/proof-points...
hechingerreport.org
Advocates warn of risks to higher ed data if Education Department is shuttered
But new hires and fresh research grants hint at a quiet rebuilding effort
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
I just started adding an AI audio player to my weekly column Proof Points. Curious if any readers have clicked on the play button and what they think. Ok, terrible? (The actual button is at the top of the story under the headline. hechingerreport.org/proof-points... )
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
In my story (linked to in the first post of this thread), Shanahan suggests ideas for explicit reading comprehension instruction (4/4)
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Jill Barshay @jillbarshay.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
Teachers often cite the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky’s “zone of proximal development” to justify giving students books that are neither too easy nor too hard. But Shanahan says that’s a misunderstanding of Vygotsky’s work. (3/4)
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