In a journal dedicated to U.S. schooling reform, some recurring themes in its content material are anticipated: pupil achievement, curriculum, instructor effectiveness, college selection, testing, accountability. Different matters are extra contemporaneous, reflecting the practical actuality of American education in its current context. The latter group could seize only a second in time and provides future schooling historians a glimpse at what mattered to early twenty first century reformers (and appear quaint in hindsight). It might additionally replicate prescient insights from leaders, thinkers, and students—contributions that doc the early levels of a major transformation in schooling coverage and apply (and later be deemed forward of their time).
What we are able to say confidently is that Training Subsequent revealed an excellent mixture of the basic and the up to date in 2025, simply because it has annually in its quarter century of existence. You possibly can see for your self under in our annual Prime 20 record of most-read articles, which options an assortment of writings by researchers, journalists, teachers, and lecturers.
Among the many conventional fare, readers turned to EdNext to maintain apprised of developments in classroom instruction, from studying to literacy to historical past. They wished to know if the U.S. is perhaps higher off evaluating colleges utilizing the European mannequin of inspections moderately than, or along with, pupil check scores. Amid ongoing debates in regards to the deserves of utilizing standardized assessments to gauge pupil preparation, readers had been drawn to the findings of researchers in Missouri that eighth graders’ efficiency on the state’s MAP check are extremely predictive of school readiness. Within the realm of lecturers and instructing, proponents of advantage pay acquired a lift by an evaluation of Dallas ISD’s ACE program, which was proven to enhance each pupil efficiency and instructor retention within the district.
As for varsity selection, Training Subsequent adopted successes just like the growth of schooling financial savings account applications, the proliferation of microschools, and the federal scholarship tax credit score handed by Congress as a part of the One Huge Stunning Invoice Act. However the stumbles of selection had extra of a gravitational pull for readers. There have been the defeats of private-school voucher measures in three states—persevering with a protracted string of selection failures on the poll field. There are the enrollment struggles of Catholic colleges, which researchers discovered are impacted by competitors from tuition-free constitution colleges. And simply when Catholic and different personal spiritual colleges may have gotten a shot within the arm by being allowed to reformulate as spiritual charters, the Supreme Court docket deadlocked on the constitutionality of the query, leaving the matter to be relitigated for one more day.
There was no scarcity of well timed matters that exploded onto the scene and captivated readers. American schooling remains to be grappling with the fallout from the Covid-era college shutdowns, now 5 years within the rearview. Many harbor consternation about the politics of pandemic closures, as demonstrated by the passion over a brand new guide that autopsied the choices of that period and the following guide overview that catapulted onto this 12 months’s record (an uncommon feat!). And now there’s analysis to corroborate the catastrophe closures had been for public schooling. Two Boston College students discover proof of diminishing enrollment in public center colleges, a sign that households whose youngsters had been within the early grades in 2020 are parting for the extra rigorous shores of personal selection. However the post-pandemic issues in education haven’t been uniform. In one of many most-read articles this 12 months, founding EdNext editor Paul Peterson and Michael Hartney present how, primarily based on current NAEP outcomes, studying loss was higher amongst college students in blue states that had extra extended college shutdowns than in pink states that reopened extra rapidly.
In the meantime, everybody in schooling circles continues to grapple with what to do about know-how within the classroom. Two writers did so in our personal pages, presenting reverse views on Sal Khan’s prediction that AI will quickly rework schooling with the equal of a customized tutor for every pupil. And considered one of our favourite cognitive scientists gave readers a special mind-set about how digital units have an effect on pupil consideration.
It’s maybe becoming that our most-read article of 2025 was additionally the cowl story of the final print concern of Training Subsequent. (You possibly can learn extra about our transition to a web-only publication right here.) After Donald Trump reassumed the presidency this 12 months and his administration enacted main reductions to the federal forms, a number of education-focused applications (and certainly your entire U.S. Division of Training) got here underneath intense scrutiny. One goal was Head Begin, partially as a result of Mission 2025 referred to as to get rid of this system on the grounds it’s “fraught with scandal and abuse” and has “little or no long-term educational worth for kids.” Paul von Hippel, Elise Chor, and Leib Lurie examined these claims in opposition to the analysis and located little foundation for them. But in addition they spotlight lingering questions on this system’s influence on college students’ long-term success—and alternatives to reply them with new analysis. As of this writing, the nation’s largest early-education program survives, however the sector remains to be watching and ready.
And so are all of us for what is going to occur subsequent in schooling. Some points captured by Training Subsequent this 12 months will proceed into 2026. Some will flame out. And others which can be unexpected will come up. Readers can rely on Training Subsequent to lean into all of the twists and turns that come within the 12 months forward.
The complete prime 20 record is right here:
