In a battle over  — and, frankly, their futures — the Trump administration agreed this week to pause new federal rules designed to bar immigrants from Head Start and other education programs. 

My colleague Jo Napolitano reports the reprieve, through Sept. 3, applies in 20 states and Washington, D.C., after state attorneys general  designed to give undocumented preschoolers and other immigrant students the boot.

Those regulations could end up restricting educational opportunities for the youngest learners. But as Jo explains in her newest analysis, it’s just one part of a multifaceted approach to bar undocumented students from learning from cradle to career.��

—��and learn how the changes could undercut the chance immigrant youth get for a better life.��

In the news

More on Trump’s immigration crackdown: In Arizona, unaccompanied minors are facing immigration judges alone — without help from lawyers — after the administration cut off access to funding for their defense. A court order has restored the money temporarily through September. | 

• The Trump administration instructed federal agents to give detained migrant teenagers the option of voluntarily returning to their home countries instead of being confined in government-overseen shelters. |��
• Attorneys for immigrant children say youth and families are being detained in “prison-like” facilities even as the administration seeks to terminate rules that mandate basic safety and sanitary conditions for children. |��
• The Denver school district says fear of federal immigration enforcement led to a surge in student absences. A review of attendance data by The Denver Gazette suggests a more nuanced picture. |��
• Undocumented students who attended K-12 schools in the U.S. last year before getting deported share their stories. |��

Penny Schwinn, who was in line to be the Education Department’s second in command, has dropped out of consideration following critiques of her conservative bona fides, including for past support of campus equity initiatives. |��

‘Trampling upon women’s rights’:��The Oregon Department of Education is the latest agency to come under federal investigation over allegations the state allows transgender students to compete in women’s sports. |��

New Education Department guidance encourages the use of federal money to expand artificial intelligence in classrooms, which the agency said has “the potential to revolutionize” schools. |����

• The Trump administration’s “AI Action Plan” comes after the Senate failed to pass rules in the “big, beautiful” tax-and-spending bill designed to prevent states from regulating AI. Instead, Trump’s guidance directs the Federal Communications Commission to evaluate state regulations and block any “AI-related federal funding” to any states with rules deemed “burdensome.” |��

How a 45-second TikTok video portraying a campus shooting — created by middle school cheerleaders —��led to criminal charges. |��

A phishing campaign has taken advantage of mass layoffs at the Education Department by mimicking a portal maintained by the agency to manage grants and federal education funding. |��

Drones are being pitched as the next big thing to thwart school shootings — but district leaders are balking at the million-dollar price tag. |��

‘Critical gaps’:��An inspector general report in Washington, D.C., uncovered flaws in the city school system’s gun violence prevention efforts, including a backlog on repairs to security equipment. |��

Wisconsin schools are installing controversial license plate readers that have been��used by law enforcement��to track down undocumented immigrants. |��

ICYMI @The74

Emotional Support

Chompers gonna chomp.��Photo credit: 

Penny Schwinn, in line to serve as second in command of the U.S. Department of Education, has withdrawn from the nomination, Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced Thursday.

Instead, the former Tennessee education commissioner will take on a different role for the department.

“I am grateful to Dr. Schwinn for her commitment to serving students, families, and educators across the nation,” McMahon said in a statement. “Penny is a brilliant education mind and I look forward to continuing working with her as my chief strategist to make education great again.”

Schwinn, in a statement, said she gave the decision “thoughtful consideration” and said she will  “remain committed to protecting kids, raising achievement and expanding opportunity  —  my lifelong mission and north star.”

Considered a champion for improving reading outcomes and high-dosage tutoring, Schwinn was among President Donald Trump’s early picks for department posts. Many perceived her as a more bipartisan choice than others joining the administration, but among Tennessee conservatives, many who felt she was too liberal, opposition to her nomination was strong.

The timing of Schwinn’s withdrawal couldn’t be worse, according to some conservatives. 

“Her decision to remove herself from consideration to become deputy secretary hurts students, educators, and the Trump administration,” said Jim Blew, co-founder of the Defense of Freedom Institute, a think tank. “Secretary McMahon has been charged by Congress and the president with huge tasks under the One Big Beautiful Bill and several urgent executive orders.”

As head of the Education Department, McMahon is striving to turn more authority over education to the states. It’s now unclear who will step into the deputy position and take the lead on the state’s requests for more flexibility over education funding. At least two states, Iowa and Oklahoma, have already submitted requests for block grants, and is currently gathering comments from the public in preparation for a similar proposal. Kirsten Baesler, North Dakota’s long-time education chief, is currently awaiting confirmation to be assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education at the department. In February, she joined 11 other GOP chiefs in asking McMahon for greater freedom to direct education funds toward state-level needs.

Controversies and questions over Schwinn’s conservative qualifications have followed her for years. Far-right groups, including Moms for Liberty, said her past support for equity initiatives, like hiring more , was evidence that she was not a good fit for an administration determined to eliminate such programs. Others remained angry over Schwinn’s pandemic-era plan to conduct “well-being” . Even though she scrapped the plan, parents and members of the legislature considered it an example of government overreach.

More recently, Steve Gill, a conservative commentator in Tennessee, that while she was deputy superintendent of the Texas Education Agency, Schwinn recommended individuals who advocate for comprehensive sex education, including , to advise the state on health curriculum. 

Gill told ����Ӱ�� he shared his TriStar Daily about her stance on these issues with Tennessee Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, as well as the state’s congressional delegation. Blackburn, who is expected to run for governor next year, was considered a possible no vote for Schwinn.

According to Gill, Blackburn’s office “has been working tirelessly behind the scenes with the White House, Secretary Linda McMahon and Majority Leader [John] Thune to block the confirmation.”

But Madi Biedermann, spokeswoman for the department, said the agency “strongly disagrees with that characterization.”

Blew said it’s unfortunate that politics got in the way, noting that Schwinn’s experience in both blue and red states would have brought valuable expertise to the Ed Department role. In addition to her jobs in Tennessee and Texas, Schwinn founded a charter school in Sacramento and also served in the Delaware Department of Education.

“It’s sad that a handful of demagogues are standing in the way of giving Secretary McMahon the team she needs to succeed,” he said.

Others praised Schwinn’s record of prioritizing the science of reading in Tennessee schools and directing COVID relief funds toward tutoring.

“This is a setback for all who want to see Washington slashing red tape, advancing literacy and fighting for common sense values,” said Rick Hess, director of education policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

For some critics, Schwinn’s business ventures since leaving the top spot in Tennessee two years ago raised questions as she waited to appear before the Senate education committee. 

In June, a day ahead of her joint hearing with three other nominees, ����Ӱ�� reported that shortly after Trump tapped her for the job, she registered a new education consulting business in Florida, New Horizon BluePrint Group, with a longtime colleague. Before Schwinn filed ethics paperwork with the federal government, her sister replaced her as a manager on the business. 

When a reporter from ����Ӱ�� asked questions about the new project, Donald Fennoy, her colleague and a former superintendent of the Palm Beach County School District, dissolved the business.

Ethics experts say candidates for an administration post often distance themselves from new business entanglements to avoid any appearance of a conflict, but Schwinn has faced accusations of poor judgment before.

While she was in Texas, the state agency signed a $4.4 million in 2017 with a software company where she had a “professional relationship” with a subcontractor, according to a state audit. And in Tennessee, the education agency made an in 2021 , a teacher training organization where her husband was employed at the time. Lawmakers considered the deal a “”

“Ethics was a crucial concern,” said J.C. Bowman, executive director and CEO of Professional Educators of Tennessee, a non-union organization. He was among those who sent letters to the Senate, asking them to remove her from consideration. “Her personal business interests and possible conflicts could potentially influence educational decisions in ways that many found difficult to overlook.”

Clarification: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized the role Penny Schwinn will take on in lieu of serving as the deputy education secretary. Schwinn will be taking on an advisory role at the Education Department.

The committee also voted to move the nomination of Kimberly Richey to lead the Office for Civil Rights. A conservative civil rights lawyer, Richey served in the second Bush and first Trump administrations.

The votes for both nominees fell along strict party lines, 12 to 11. 

“These nominees are crucial to enacting President Trump’s pro-America agenda,” Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, who chairs the committee, said in a statement.

With the Senate focused on passing President Donald Trump’s tax bill and roughly 200 nominations awaiting a vote, it could be several weeks before both are confirmed.

Schwinn would oversee K-12 policy. During a June confirmation hearing, she expressed support for a more hands-off approach from Washington while also strengthening reading instruction based on science.

A week after the hearing, she participated in at a Nashville charter school with Education Secretary Linda McMahon to promote one of the Trump administration’s top priorities — school choice. The visit came as the department has increased funding for charters while proposing over $4 billion in cuts to other programs. 

If confirmed, Richey would take over a civil rights office with a much leaner staff following mass firings in March and recommendations from McMahon for further reductions. She vowed to continue the department’s actions against schools that permit antisemitic demonstrations and allow trans students to use facilities or compete in sports consistent with their gender identity. 

Those views have drawn opposition to her nomination from civil rights groups that advocate for LGBTQ students. In advance of Thursday’s vote, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, along with 45 other organizations, sent senators saying Richey “has not demonstrated a willingness and ability to enforce civil rights law and protect all students in our country from discrimination.”

Some hope she’ll prioritize disability complaints. As acting assistant secretary for civil rights during the pandemic, she into districts that failed to provide students with disabilities services written into their individual education programs.  

“She was responsive during the first Trump term and pushed through the COVID complaints,” said Callie Oettinger, a special education advocate in Fairfax County, Virginia.

‘She has Linda McMahon’s ear’

While Richey’s track record fits squarely within the Trump administration’s ultra-conservative agenda, many education insiders view Schwinn as a moderate who largely avoided culture war clashes while holding schools and students accountable for progress in reading. 

Unlike McMahon, Schwinn has always worked in education. The California native founded a charter school in Sacramento in 2011 and held top positions in Delaware and Texas before Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee appointed her commissioner in 2019. 

“Penny has the strongest literacy chops of any state supe I’ve known, and she has Linda McMahon’s ear and trust,” said Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. 

But tends to follow her. Under her leadership in Tennessee, was higher than normal. Conservatives who calling on senators not to confirm Schwinn argue that she holds progressive views on educational equity and proposed an unpopular effort to conduct “well-being” checks on students during the pandemic. 

Others question her judgement, pointing to incidents in which and directed no-bid contracts to companies where Schwinn had personal connections, including her husband, Paul Schwinn.

But those complaints didn’t sway Republicans on the committee, and Pondiscio dismissed the backlash to Schwinn as “B.S.” In a February commentary, he that her “conservative critics want a culture warrior, not an administrator focused on competent governance and delivering results.”

���’s who hope her confirmation brings more attention to core education issues.
“If you see the secretary spending her time on curriculum and instruction,” he said, “that will be Penny’s thumbprint.”

Though Democrats probed where she stands on President Donald Trump’s plan to shutter the department, the former Tennessee education commissioner appeared to answer questions to their satisfaction. 

Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire homed in on the administration’s move to end grants to train and hire K-12 school mental health professionals — part of a that passed with bipartisan support. 

“Do you think that what the department did helps or hurts the communities that were counting on the funding that they were promised?” she asked. “If confirmed, do you commit to reigning in the chaos and operational failures that we are seeing at the department?” 

Schwinn said the department will open a new competition for those grants and promised to “have an efficient, effective and outcomes-oriented department.”

She voiced support for Trump’s ultimate goal to eliminate the department and repeatedly said states and local communities are in the best position to make decisions about education. As a charter school founder who served in the Delaware and Texas education agencies before leading Tennessee’s for four years, Schwinn has a reputation for working . She pushed for and using pandemic relief funds to implement a statewide tutoring program. A vote on her confirmation is expected in the coming days.

“What we need to do is ensure that we’ve created a system that is going to drive outcomes,” she told GOP Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana. “That is not going to happen from the federal government, whether there’s a Department of Education or not.”

At the same time, Schwinn implied that there is a role for the department in ensuring states intervene in their lowest-performing schools. 

“There must be a commitment to ensuring that our most struggling schools improve because our students deserve that,” she said.  

A from the Government Accountability Office found that less than half of states are meeting those requirements under the Every Student Succeeds Act. Schwinn’s tenure in Tennessee, for example, included overseeing a state turnaround effort known as the Achievement School District. Considering it a failure, the state legislature and will try another approach. 

“There’s real tension there,” Thomas Toch, director of FutureEd, a think tank at Georgetown University, told ����Ӱ��. “Will the Trump administration make a meaningful commitment to school improvement? Or will [Education Secretary Linda] McMahon and her team dodge that responsibility in the name of local control?”

Some observers have called Schwinn a smart pick for her focus on and her attempts to avoid some of the more divisive culture war debates of the post-pandemic era. But to others she has a troubled track record that includes contracts with vendors that gave the of interest. On Wednesday, ����Ӱ�� reported that after Trump nominated her, she registered a new business in Florida with a longtime colleague. While the venture was ultimately dissolved, Schwinn’s sister replaced her as a manager a few weeks before the nominee submitted her financial disclosure documents. 

Some parent groups have vehemently opposed her nomination, viewing her as more left-leaning than most Trump nominees. 

“It amazes me that President Trump would consider Penny Schwinn conservative,” said Tiffany Boyd, a homeschool advocate who opposed Schwinn’s plan to conduct well-being checks on students during the pandemic. Schwinn nixed the idea after strong backlash. Boyd also cited a that focused, in part, on attracting more teachers of color — efforts that the department now says push “illegal diversity, equity and inclusion.”

But none of that surfaced during the hearing. Even Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who has the “left’s indoctrination of students,” opted to skip direct questions to Schwinn and said he would submit them in writing. 

The committee interviewed Schwinn as part of a panel, along with Kimberly Richey, Trump’s choice to lead the Office for Civil Rights, and two Department of Labor nominees. In that format, the senators focused on issues most important to them — for example, Chairman Bill Cassidy emphasized better serving students with dyslexia.

“As the Department of Education streamlines educational funding, how can we ensure that resources are there to identify and address an issue, specifically speaking of dyslexia?” he asked.

Schwinn touted Tennessee’s move to include “characteristics of dyslexia” as a disability category in its state education funding formula and ramp up screening of students’ early reading skills. The federal government, she said, could do a better job of guiding states on this issue and sharing lessons from states that have posted the greatest gains in literacy, like and Louisiana.

Some advocates are eager to have an educator who prioritized reading instruction at the department. 

“We love her track record of improving student outcomes in Tennessee and talking a bit more technically about literacy and the science of reading — which we think having leadership on the federal level around is going to be key,” said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Foundation. 

But she stressed that it was , now at risk under the Trump administration, that informed those improvements.

“The research and the funding for all these ‘state miracles,’ ” she said, “come from regional and federal efforts — which I think a lot of folks are forgetting.” 

The business venture never got off the ground, but the arrangement could raise ethical issues for Schwinn as she heads before the Senate education committee for confirmation Thursday.

The colleague with whom she co-founded the business, Donald Fennoy, told ����Ӱ�� in an interview that the enterprise, named New Horizon BluePrint Group, was intended to combine their expertise as education leaders. Fennoy, the former superintendent of the Palm Beach County School District, was to consult with districts, while Schwinn, who has experience in Delaware, Texas and most recently as Tennessee’s education commissioner, would focus on state leadership. The pair have known each other for a decade, Fennoy said, meeting when they were part of the 2015-16 class of the Broad Academy, an education leadership program.

But the business does not appear among financial ties outlined in mandatory disclosure documents Schwinn submitted to the Office of Government Ethics on March 24. One reason could be that three weeks earlier, Schwinn’s sister, , replaced her as manager of the business, according to state documents. Sully, a former assistant principal at a Texas charter school, has far less educational experience than Schwinn or Fennoy.

On Friday, as ����Ӱ�� began asking Schwinn and the department questions about the venture, Fennoy dissolved the company, documents show, listing “business never started” as the reason.

“Right when we were securing the name, she got a phone call,” Fennoy told ����Ӱ��, referring to the nomination. The plan, he said, was to bring in at least one more leader with district experience and build a team to do work “nationally and internationally.”

On Jan. 18, Trump announced his pick of Schwinn to be the department’s deputy secretary, citing her “strong record of delivering results for children and families.” The LLC wasn’t registered until Feb. 18. 

But pressed for details about why Schwinn registered the business after her nomination, Fennoy appeared confused about the timeline. “This is on what day?” he asked in response to a reporter’s question. He did not respond to additional questions sent by email.

Contacted by ����Ӱ��, Schwinn referred the matter to the Education Department. Madison Bidermann, a department spokesman, declined to address why Schwinn moved forward with a business venture after her nomination and said the nominee “​​worked with the relevant ethics officials and resolved any conflicts.”

Sully did not respond to attempts to contact her over email.

The Florida LLC would have been just one of Schwinn’s many business interests, detailed in the disclosure filed with the federal government. She stated in May that if confirmed, she would divest or resign her positions at multiple companies. 

Historically, potential business conflicts could raise red flags for senators vetting a potential nominee. As deputy secretary, Schwinn would be tasked with overseeing federal policy and a vast network of K-12 programs — the same policy and programs that districts might seek help from a consulting firm to navigate. 

She would also enter the department at a crisis point, as Education Secretary Linda McMahon drastically cuts staff and cancels funding to reach Trump’s goal of eliminating the department. The proposed 2026 budget slashes over $4 billion from K-12 programs, raising concerns that officials won’t be able to carry out their congressionally mandated duties 

‘This administration is unique’

The period between nomination and confirmation is typically a time when candidates distance themselves from financial entanglements and potential conflicts of interest. 

“Once you’re nominated, the typical rule of thumb would be that you kind of slow down,” said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, interim vice president for policy and government affairs at the Project On Government Oversight, a nonprofit focused on government accountability. “You probably wouldn’t establish a new LLC, for example” 

But Schwinn is not a typical nominee, and this is not a typical administration.

Trump reportedly held an exclusive dinner on May 22 for investors in his , a form of cryptocurrency. As president, he of his business empire. In the midst of negotiations with over punishing U.S. tariffs, for example, the country approved the development of Trump hotels and golf courses. Previous reporting revealed that FBI Director Kash Patel from a Chinese “fast fashion” company, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s wife in companies that contract with that department.

It’s not unusual for administrations to run into trouble with officials who have close ties to the industries they oversee, Hedtler-Gaudette said. In 2022, his group filed a complaint about a in charge of digital services who had investments in the tech industry.

“But this administration is unique,” he said, “and just doesn’t seem to take any of that into consideration.”

Schwinn is also an unusual choice. She has fans among GOP moderates and Democrats. The former and earned respect for toward academic recovery in Tennessee and implementing far-reaching instruction. 

For a Trump nominee, she has also faced a high degree of conservative ire. Some of that is due to her past support for the kind of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives the Trump administration wants to eliminate from schools, like . But accusations of conflicts of interest and other ethical lapses have followed her for years.

They include a $4.4 million that the Texas Education Agency signed in 2017 with SPEDx, a Georgia software startup, despite what a state audit called Schwinn’s “professional relationship” with a subcontractor for the company. At the time, she was a deputy superintendent of the state agency.

Critics also point to an in 2021 that the Tennessee Department of Education signed with TNTP, a teacher training organization where her husband was employed at the time. The state’s procurement office approved the contract and Schwinn agreed to distance herself from the project, but some lawmakers still considered the deal a “”

“ ‘Drain the swamp’ is a phrase coined by President Trump, signifying the removal of corruption and special interests from government,” said J.C. Bowman, executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, a non-union association. “Many conservatives oppose Penny Schwinn’s nomination as deputy secretary of education, believing she embodies the interests they want to eliminate from the agency.” 

Others say she left the state better off. She pushed requirements that districts screen students for reading difficulties and use a phonics-based curriculum. After the state passed a in 2021, roughly 30,000 teachers received in the science of reading. The investments paid off. Tennessee was among the first to see test scores bounce back after the pandemic. Results from show students continue to make gains. 

To many education advocates, she represents the best chance to shift the national department’s focus away from culture war issues and toward bipartisan priorities like improving literacy and maintaining accountability. 

“I certainly wholeheartedly hope she gets approved, and think members on both sides would be gratified by her performance in office,” said Rick Hess, director of education policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. 

Yet dozens of have sent senators letters outlining why they think she’s wrong for the job. They list, for example, her affiliation with Chiefs for Change, made up of left-leaning district and state officials, and cite about her support for they say has elements of critical race theory, which holds that racism in America is systemic.  

Several that Ruby Bridges’ children’s book about being the first Black child to integrate a white elementary school referenced “a large crowd of angry white people.” a first grade book about seahorses was inappropriate because it explains how males carry the eggs.

While never implemented, her plan to conduct “well-being” home visits during the pandemic parents who consider it an example of government overreach.

If the committee advances Schwinn’s nomination, Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican who is running for governor, is expected to vote against her, multiple sources told ����Ӱ��. 

“She’s a Democrat, through and through,” said Elizabeth Story, legislative chair for the Tennessee chapter of Moms for Liberty, the conservative advocacy group that opposes progressive ideas in school about race, sex and gender. “We need President Trump to withdraw her.”

Just after her nomination, she met with anti-DEI activist Chris Rufo in an apparent effort to reassure the Trump administration she would be a good fit. According to on X, she promised to “shut down the terrible programs at the Department of Education, fight critical race theory, gender cultism, and DEI in America’s schools, and support new initiatives on school choice and classical education.”

If she loses the support of some conservatives, she may have to lean on Democrats to secure her nomination.

To Leslie Finger, an assistant political science professor at the University of North Texas, that would be an appropriate finale to a nomination that has veered far from the typical Trump playbook.

“In many ways, she seems opposed to the Trump administration’s education agenda,” she said. “One might think it was meant to show that they want to reach across the aisle on education issues, since she would be supported by bipartisan education reform types. But when has the Trump administration taken actions to signal bipartisanship?”

Since leaving her post as Tennessee commissioner, Schwinn has invested in and been involved with companies at the forefront of education, her disclosure forms show. Those include , an AI reading curriculum program; , a vendor that manages education savings accounts in multiple states; and , an online curriculum and assessment company. She’s also a board member for Really Great Reading, a literacy program used in , and a consultant for , a lobbying firm.

Blake Harris, former communications director for Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, founded BHA, where Schwinn served as chief operating officer until February. Two other LLCs she owns would cease operations, she wrote in a letter to the Education Department. 

John Pelissero, a government ethics expert at Santa Clara University in California, said her financial ties deserve a closer look.

“What she puts down on her disclosure form for her confirmation is always kind of an important starting point for how transparent she will be,” he said. “Scrutiny should be given to whether she has the capacity to demonstrate that she’ll act in the public interest.” 

‘A pragmatist’

Schwinn isn’t the first Trump nominee to face opposition from Republicans. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the former majority leader from Kentucky, Hegseth and Health and Human Services Secretary But those objections focused more on the nominees’ qualifications, said Jonathan Collins, an assistant professor of education and political science at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Conservatives’ concerns about Schwinn, “seem like more of a test — or critique — of her loyalty to the new Republican culture war coalition,” he said. “She’s as moderate as it gets. She’s a pragmatist who in no way pushes far-left progressive policies.” 

Under McMahon, the department required states to sign a certification saying they wouldn’t implement DEI programs. The Office for Civil Rights has also prioritized investigations into state and district policies allowing transgender students to in school sports. 

Not all parental rights advocates are opposed to her nomination. 

Moms for America, founded in 2004, is a conservative, Christian organization that shares many of the same values as Moms for Liberty. Last year, the group presented Trump with its .

The organization, however, said Schwinn would make “an excellent choice” for deputy secretary, citing her “extensive experience as an educator, innovator and state leader.”

As the department’s number two, she would oversee K-12 initiatives, which McMahon has said will prioritize the science of reading, school choice and giving states more control over education. 

“She has a proven ability to improve student outcomes, champion school choice, and navigate crises like the pandemic,” the organization said in a statement to ����Ӱ��. “We stand by her candidacy for nomination as deputy education secretary and wish her the best in that role.” 

Disclosure: According to financial disclosure documents filed with the Office of Government Ethics, Penny Schwinn earned $250,000 as a consultant and adviser to the Walton Family Foundation. The foundation provides financial support to ����Ӱ��.

“Even if the feds decide that they’re not going to require statewide assessments, that is not something that I’m going to buy into,” she said. “The moment you lower standards, you do kids a disservice.”

With President Donald Trump on a path to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education and revert power back to the states, Wright’s words gave urgency to a burning issue state leaders have been wrestling with for months.

While Education Secretary Linda McMahon has declared it’s “absolutely” necessary to continue the National Assessment of Educational Progress — which allows the public to compare student performance across states — she’s so far been silent on federal requirements for state testing and the need to identify low-performing schools for extra support. The lack of a plan has left some wondering if sending education “back to the states,” as Trump is fond of saying, means abandoning what has been a mainstay of education policy for more than 20 years.  

“This is one of the discussions that the department, the administration, the Senate and House need to talk through,” said Jim Blew, co-founder of the Defense of Freedom Institute, a right leaning think tank that supports Trump’s agenda. 

A department official during the president’s first term, he argues that the Every Student Succeeds Act, the law that spells out federal requirements for testing and accountability, has had little impact on holding students to high standards. 

“States that do not want to be transparent about their testing results simply aren’t,” he said. “If you don’t believe me, just go and try and find the results for any state.”

As the president’s plan takes shape, some Republicans are trying to remove those annual testing and accountability requirements altogether. Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota reintroduced last week that would not only eliminate the education department, but also repeal ESSA. In exchange for a federal block grant, states would be required to submit student data to the Treasury Department, complete an annual audit and follow civil rights laws — but not conduct annual tests.

The rationale is clear, said Charles Barone, senior director of the Center for Innovation at the National Parents Union: Maintaining some federal authority over testing and accountability could imply there’s still a role for the department.

“Sen. Rounds’ bill simply has federal programs as money streams,” he said. “No policy attached.”

Since the pandemic, a handful of states, like Oklahoma, and , have rolled back expectations for passing state tests. The changes are likely to result in more students reaching grade-level targets even if they haven’t learned more. The trend has revived debate over the “honesty gap” — the discrepancy between NAEP’s higher standard for proficiency and the often lower bar set by states. 

Others, like and education Secretary Aimee Guidera are phasing in tougher assessment and accountability systems. To Blew, that shows the federal government should just stay out of the way. 

“At the end of the day, states are going to determine this,” he said. “Let’s give them the freedom to do that.”

Passed a decade ago, ESSA requires states to test all students in third through eighth grades in reading and math, to assess students once in high school and to ensure at least 95% of students participate in testing. States also have to break down results by race and for different student groups, including those in poverty, English learners and students with disabilities. 

The major components meet the threshold of what Barone describes as the “” for accountability. 

Testing every student allows parents to get assessment results for their own children, which can then be used to determine where students are struggling or if they need more challenging work. 

Disaggregating the results shines a light on how districts serve historically marginalized students — data that is especially important to policymakers and advocacy groups. Finally, a common test allows for apples-to-apples comparisons across schools and districts. 

“Over the years, a consensus has formed that you want certain guardrails in place,” Barone said.  

‘A federal backstop’

Observers don’t expect Rounds’ bill to get very far. But some call it a harbinger of a return to the days , the strict accountability law that preceded ESSA. In the 1990s, just a fraction of states tested students every year and many imposed no consequences for failing schools. 

“I think accountability is already at a pretty low point,” said Cory Koedel, an economics and public policy professor at the University of Missouri. “If things go back to the states even more formally, I would just expect that unwinding to complete itself.”

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who chairs the education committee, is expected to introduce another proposal to eliminate the education department and revamp the role of the federal government in education. Blew said that bill could be weeks away. 

Democrats and some state leaders warn that dumping federal testing and accountability requirements and issuing block grants would allow states to turn their backs on the neediest students.

“If you get rid of accountability, you’re just essentially giving [states] a blank check,” said Stephanie Lalle, communications director for the Democrats on the House education committee. Federal mandates, she said, are how you push them to “not discriminate and incentivize them to close the achievement gap.”

At a February conference on assessment and accountability in Dallas, Virginia ed secretary Guidera shared data showing how her state’s performance on NAEP steadily improved between 2003 and 2013 — the NCLB years. 

The landmark education law, which set strict testing and accountability requirements in exchange for Title I funds, passed in 2002. Data shows the policy led to nationally, but it quickly became highly unpopular. The law set ambitious goals for all students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014, but drew considerable pushback from critics who said it led schools to teach to the test. But even if states continue their own testing and accountability systems, Guidera doesn’t want Washington out of the picture.

“We need the federal backstop,” she told ����Ӱ��. “We have to have high standards, and we need to be honest with ourselves about where every child is.”��

‘A rallying cry’

Opposition to standardized testing comes from both the left and the right. Educators grumble that it eats up too much class time and that results from spring tests come back too late to help students or make adjustments for the fall. Others, , say state tests offer a narrow view of student learning. 

The question is what states would do if the federal government were no longer in the picture. In his conversation with Wright and other experts earlier this month, Scott Marion, executive director of the Center for Assessment, leaned on a handy metaphor: a motorcycle cop holding a radar gun. 

“What if nobody was checking your speed?” he asked.

State leaders have been thinking about the possibilities.

Rep. Robert Behning, an Indiana state legislator, said he “would be willing to look at other options, like sampling” — giving tests to a random, representative group of students instead of everyone. can be less of a drain on teachers’ and students’ time and still give the public district and school-level results. But the tradeoff is that most parents would be left in the dark about their children’s performance.  

Other state leaders like the idea of spreading assessments rather than building up toward one big test.

“We’ve got better assessments that tell us more about our students,” Eric Mackey, Alabama state superintendent, said during a in March.  

But research shows there are with arriving at a final score for the year and the model might not reduce testing time.

Marion giving state exams every other year, which would allow more time in the intervening years to employ innovative methods like asking students to complete a project to demonstrate their learning.

Marianne Perie, an assessment expert who advises states on test design, said she wouldn’t be surprised if Oklahoma completely stopped giving statewide assessments. In March, state Superintendent Ryan Walters questioned the integrity of the 2024 results, even though they were included in for districts and schools.

But in other states like Tennessee and Mississippi, annual tests have been “a rallying cry” for parents and policymakers, said Emily Oster, a Brown University economist who tracks states’ . 

Such states “have championed their gains in the last few years,” especially in English language arts, she said. 

Tennessee, for example, was among the first to bounce back from pandemic-era learning loss. At the same time, the fact that roughly 60% of third graders still scored below grade level in reading was worrisome enough to lawmakers that they passed a law requiring students to be retained or get extra help over the summer and retake the test. 

Remote learning during the pandemic and in-depth reporting on poor literacy instruction has also motivated more parents to push for improvements.

“Parents are increasingly demanding accountability from their educational system, which will make sunsetting these assessments more complex,” Oster said.

Roughly value state assessments and think they should be used to guide support for struggling schools and students, according to a National Parents Union poll.

‘Come up with something better’ 

If the federal government does hand more control over assessment and accountability to states, Barone said it’s far more likely to happen through waivers from McMahon than legislation. 

ESSA allows the secretary to excuse states from annual assessments. That’s what former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos did in 2020 during the pandemic. She waived the accountability provisions for both 2020 and 2021. Barone sees no reason why McMahon wouldn’t do the same. 

A former Democratic staffer in the House, he thinks it would be hard to improve on the existing testing regimen. But even he agrees that the accountability side of the equation hasn’t led to measurable progress in how states support — and attempt to turn around — their most troubled schools. 

The law requires states to identify the lowest-performing 5% of schools, analyze why they’re struggling and adopt a proven , like coaching teachers or changing leadership. But a report found that less than half of states were complying with those requirements.

“There’s not a lot of evidence that even those that are doing it are doing it well,” Barone said. Maybe Trump’s planned overhaul of the federal role in education, he said, is an opportunity to “come up with something better.”

She ensured that all K-3 teachers were trained in the “Science of Reading” and hired literacy coaches at schools that had the highest percentage of low-achievers. 

To guide the effort, Wright turned to the , based at Florida State University, one of nationwide. Little-known even among many educators, the labs, created by Congress in 1965, work with states and school districts to implement research-based practices.​

By 2019, Wright and her colleagues had pulled off what is now known as the “Mississippi Miracle,” with students in this deep red state making greater literacy gains than in any other. Fourth-graders in Mississippi rose from 49th in the nation to 29th — adjusting for demographics, it now ranks near the top of the U.S. in both fourth-grade reading and math, behind just Florida and Texas, according to the .

“They were huge partners with us,” Wright said of the lab in an interview this week. “It’s just this amazing group of researchers and content-area specialists.” 

But that distinction wasn’t enough to save the Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast — or the nine other RELs, as they’re called. On Thursday, the U.S. Education Department announced that it had $336 million in contracts with the labs, saying auditors had uncovered “wasteful and ideologically driven spending not in the interest of students and taxpayers.”

It cited one lab’s work advising schools in Ohio to undertake “equity audits,” but provided no other examples.

The move has left researchers and literacy advocates shaking their heads. A director at a top research firm with many federal contracts, who asked not to be identified to avoid retaliation, said she got the sense from the sudden, broad cuts that “no one went in and took a really careful look at where the RELs were being helpful.”

While some lab projects likely haven’t led to improvements in practices or student outcomes, she’s doubtful that department officials even pored over such data. “Someone decided that this whole program needed to go.”

An Education Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Since the centers are mandated by Congress, the department has said it will offer contracts to new bidders, but several observers said they were skeptical of this claim.

Understanding early literacy

While Mississippi’s 2013 law mandated that Wright implement research-supported teaching, as state superintendent “you can’t really be in every classroom making sure that’s happening,” said Rachel Dinkes, CEO of the , an advocacy group that pushes for evidence-based policy.

That’s where the lab came in: It developed tools that allowed Wright to gather data about what was actually happening in classrooms, tell lawmakers about its effectiveness and ask for more money to continue the work.

It focused primarily on helping teachers learn about the Science of Reading, implementing a survey that evaluated their knowledge of early literacy skills — as well as instructions for literacy coaches to observe classrooms. 

Together, these allowed Wright to track teachers’ engagement with students and identify where teachers needed improvement.

“They helped us develop resources that our teachers could use, that our leaders could use,” Wright said. “If there was something that we wanted to have evaluated programmatically, they would come in and evaluate that for us to inform our decision making. I mean, I can’t say enough about how important they were.”

Wright also implemented tough reforms that weren’t always popular, such as a policy of retaining students in third grade as a “last resort.” In 2019, third-graders, or more than one in four, failed the state’s literacy promotion test, also known as the “third-grade reading gate.”

In a 2023 op-ed in ����Ӱ��, Wright and co-author Kymyona Burk, a senior policy fellow for early literacy at , said previous research is clear that students who aren’t reading at grade level when they enter fourth grade “are not prepared for a critical transition — reading to learn — and have dramatically lower odds of succeeding in school or even graduating.”

A from the lab found that teachers’ understanding of early literacy skills rose substantially, from the 48th percentile of teachers to the 59th. In schools that Wright targeted for extra help, average teacher ratings on instructional quality also rose, from the 31st percentile to the 58th. 

The lab also connected Mississippi educators to others in the region, Wright said, offering “a chance for us to learn from each other, share what we were doing — share strategy, share resources and kind of help each other grow.”

Though Wright hesitated to credit REL Southeast for this achievement, several observers have noted of late that states in the Deep South now in improved literacy. In this year’s NAEP report, released last month, four Southern states — Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina — turned in the largest gains in fourth-grade reading from 2019 to 2024. All four are member states of REL Southeast.

In all, Wright said, she worked with lab personnel for nine years, until she left Mississippi in 2022. She called them “a group of expert partners” ready to help and beloved by her staff, who relied upon them heavily. 

“Imagine having content experts at your beck and call for no charge,” she said. “They were really, I thought, just gems of somebody’s creation.”

Losing the labs, Wright said, is “a huge disappointment” for states focused on evidence- and research-based practices. “To not have a reliable partner is a real loss for a state chief.”

The move to zero out funding for the labs may also stand in opposition to a few priorities of the Trump administration itself. In a 74 op-ed last July, Wright, along with Penny Schwinn, a former Tennessee education commissioner, praised RELs as centers that stand ready “to generate and apply evidence to improve student outcomes,” even if too few leaders take advantage of them. 

Schwinn now awaits Senate confirmation as deputy secretary of education.

Driven by community needs

Last week’s move has thrown several major research organizations into turmoil. 

In a statement, Jannelle Kubinec, CEO of the research group , which runs two RELs, said the cancellation halts a project in Alaska to support student mental health, one in Nevada that addresses chronic absenteeism, another in Oregon that works to strengthen literacy instruction and one in Utah to address early-career teacher attrition.

The research organization , which runs two RELs, said cancellation of the contracts shuts down support for “a wide range of evidence-based work” requested by state and local education leaders, including a project helping teachers in Nebraska improve differentiated math instruction, one helping teachers in New Jersey use evidence-based practices for writing instruction, and one in Maryland that helps educators prepare high school students with disabilities to transition to adult life.

Mathematica also said its labs have worked with South Dakota and Wyoming to combat teacher shortages in rural districts via apprenticeships.

Dinkes noted another instance in which a REL had a huge impact: In Michigan, state leaders turned to their regional lab to find out why so many certified teachers were no longer teaching. It undertook a survey of 60,000 teachers and that they wanted, among other things, higher salaries, better promotion opportunities and more access to full-time jobs. They also wanted smaller class sizes and student loans, as well as easier, less costly ways to renew their certification.

The state tweaked laws affecting several of these factors and expanded the number of certified teachers who opted to teach. 

Several observers noted that the RELs are, in a sense, a response to long standing GOP complaints about federal education policy’s top-down focus: They actually help local educators apply research to problems they themselves identify as crucial.

“The REL work is driven by the state’s or the community’s needs,” said Dinkes. “It is not directed by the Hill.”

Many states don’t have the research capability to undertake big projects like remaking literacy on their own, said Sara Schapiro, executive director of the , a coalition of non-profit, private and philanthropic organizations that advocate for more R&D investment. “The RELs were really set up as the infrastructure to help them do that.”

She said the labs “are a really good example of this notion of returning responsibility of different functions to the states,” where local leaders can drive a research agenda. 

Several people with knowledge of the situation also said it’s ironic that the RELs would get caught up in a battle over DEI and “woke” ideology, since much of their equity work is driven by states and school districts “seeing disparities and outcomes for their students,” said the research director who asked not to be named. “They’re trying to figure out how they can best address those disparities, and so they’ve come to the REL team with requests for help in that area.”

Dinkes, the Knowledge Alliance CEO, said the impact of the labs’ work is “not abstract — it has a direct impact on schools, communities and what parents know.” She said the way the federal contracts were severed, in the fourth year of a five-year cycle, in most cases, “derails years of work” that was having a direct impact on students. 

Wright, who now leads Maryland schools, was until last week planning to partner with the about essentially recreating the literacy and math work she did in Mississippi. 

Reached by phone after a legislative hearing in Annapolis, Wright said she had just begun developing a relationship with the Mid-Atlantic lab, led by Mathematica, when word of the cancelled contracts came down. 

“We were thinking, ‘This is great. We can establish another partnership with another REL.’ But that is not going to be the case now. It’s a real shame.”

When Penny Schwinn resigned as Tennessee’s education chief in 2023, she acknowledged that culture war battles over race and gender had interfered with efforts to catch students up after the pandemic.

“I see it as extraneous politics, and my job is to educate kids,” she told ����Ӱ�� at the time.

Now she’s up for the second highest education post in the Trump administration, and advocates hope she’ll keep the spotlight on student achievement, particularly literacy — even as the new president promises to amp up conflicts she’s previously sidestepped.

Already, questions about her conservative bonafides prompted an on X Tuesday from right-wing activist Chris Rufo. Rufo said he met with members of Trump’s education team Monday and asked Schwinn to address “criticisms circulating on the Right” about her tenure in Tennessee. In an attempt to shore up support for the nominee, he posted that she vowed to “shut down the terrible programs at the Department of Education, fight critical race theory, gender cultism, and DEI in America’s schools, and support new initiatives on school choice and classical education.”

Among supporters, Schwinn is primarily known for pushing the academic needle forward following the devastating effects of pandemic lockdowns in Tennessee. As commissioner under Republican Gov. Bill Lee, she used COVID relief funds to launch a statewide tutoring program and has been credited with revamping instruction to incorporate the science of reading. 

“This gives me hope that the Trump Administration wants to play a constructive role in addressing learning loss and improving our schools,” said Michael Petrilli, president of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

Unlike Linda McMahon, Trump’s pick to lead the department, Schwinn has been a teacher and also held top education positions in Delaware and Texas. Supporters call her a smart pick at a time when student performance hasn’t fully recovered from the pandemic.

Jim Blew, who co-founded the conservative Defense of Freedom Institute and served in the education department during the first Trump administration, called her “hardworking, very well-informed and savvy,” and said her experience would be a “complement to Linda McMahon’s strengths.”

Still, some have their doubts. Democrats dislike her strong support for charter schools, while some Republicans pointed to a pandemic plan to conduct well-being checks on children in their homes as an example of government overreach. 

Schwinn directed an interview request to a department spokesperson, who said she wouldn’t be available to reporters prior to her confirmation. 

Thomas Toch, director of FutureEd, a Georgetown University think tank, called Schwinn a “pragmatic Republican” who was able to navigate “relationships with deep-red state leaders frequently more interested in leveraging education for political purposes than improving opportunities and outcomes for students.” 

“She supports school choice,” he said. “But she recognizes that school choice policies should include creating high-quality choices in public education — where 90% of the nation’s students attend school.”

Those who think Trump is serious about closing the Education Department might find themselves disappointed, Toch added. He said it’s unlikely Schwinn would be interested in the job if that was the objective.

Among many positions she’s held since leaving her post as commissioner, Schwinn has served as an unpaid fellow for FutureEd. In late 2023, she participated in by the organization, calling her work in Tennessee addressing stagnant reading scores “a moral imperative.”

The state requires districts to screen students for reading difficulties and use a phonics-based curriculum. After it passed a in 2021, roughly 30,000 teachers received in the science of reading. 

Amid pushback, Schwinn implemented follow-up legislation that requires third graders to meet state reading expectations or risk being held back. Facing opposition from parents and advocates, Gov. Lee later to let parents and educators decide whether students should be retained.

Recent state test data shows Tennessee students continue to . Thirty-eight percent of students met expectations in reading last school year, continuing to exceed the pre-pandemic level of 34%. 

“Superintendents are growth,” said Sonya Thomas, executive director of Nashville PROPEL, a parent advocacy group focused on literacy. “That wouldn’t have been possible if they didn’t have Penny pushing school districts to change the way that they were delivering literacy instruction.”

Results of the state’s tutoring effort, meanwhile, have been mixed. In the Nashville district, tutoring accounted for only a small increase in reading scores and had no effect on math performance, . 

‘Questionable behaviors’

Critics of Schwinn’s record in Texas and Tennessee point to state contracts and said she doesn’t exemplify Trump’s promises to downsize government and protect parental rights. 

While she was a deputy under Commissioner Mike Morath from 2016 to 2019, the Texas Education Agency signed a $4.4 million, no-bid contract with SPEDx, a Georgia software startup, despite Schwinn having a “professional relationship” with someone at the company, according to a . With the goal of improving services, the agency gave the company records on hundreds of special education students for analysis without parents’ consent.

The state ultimately , lost $2 million and had to pay another $200,000 to who was after filing a complaint about the deal. Citing “questionable behaviors,” a on special education resurfaced the matter in 2023, calling it an effort to “data-mine” private student information. In Tennessee, lawmakers questioned another for the state’s voucher program.

Regarding SPEDx, Schwinn said at the time that she “deeply believed” the company was the only one offering the service, and in Tennessee, she said she was in a rush to roll out the state’s voucher program when she granted the contract to ClassWallet without seeking other proposals.

Local and attacked a state , never executed, to check in on kids during pandemic school closures. “Our children were where they had always been. Homeschools were not closed down,” said Tiffany Boyd, who runs Free Your Children, a Christian homeschool organization. “We thought that she was a threat to Tennessee then. We now think that she’s a threat to the entire United States.” 

But the idea with public school parents either. Tennessee Rep. Mark White, a Republican, was among the lawmakers who fielded complaints from those who worried officials would second-guess their parenting decisions.

Even though the state issued a  announcing “monthly child well-being calls,” Schwinn told Rufo she never endorsed the plan, according to his tweet. About a week after unveiling it, she  that she “missed the mark on communication” and  there was no “big brother intent.”

Despite the problems, White has no reservations about Schwinn joining the Trump administration. In an email to ����Ӱ��, he said she had his “complete endorsement” and is “grateful that Tennessee has a direct connection with the federal Department of Education.”

For someone whose resume has only grown over the past 18 months, joining the administration could be limiting. Schwinn holds high-level positions with an and a , and had a brief stint at the . In May, she told ����Ӱ�� in an email that she was working to launch a nonprofit focused on “urgency around student outcomes.” She’s also listed as for the conservative Heritage Foundation’s program to train future school board members. 

As deputy, “she will help improve the implementation” of the policies Trump and McMahon push for, said Dan Goldhaber, director of the . He noted her “good reputation,” but said she “isn’t likely to change the direction” of the department.

But with National Assessment of Educational Progress scores set for release next week — and many — Toch said her background will be valuable.

“The administration is going to have to address them. Blaming the Biden administration is going to work for only so long,” he said. “Given Schwinn’s experience and expertise, she’s going to have a voice … on education issues.”

But anyone interested in learning how the district spent that hefty sum might be left scratching their heads.

Until a few weeks ago, a devoted to the district’s management of the historic windfall contained a link purporting to offer a detailed breakdown of how it used the funds. But clicking it took users to an error page with an illustration of a smiling aviator in a red prop plane, with text reading, “I’m afraid you’ve found a page that doesn’t exist.”

In December, a district spokeswoman said the page wasn’t updated properly and that staff were “working to get everything going smoothly.” But nothing happened until June 11, when the district after a 74 reporter asked an official about it. 

The scenario offers a fitting metaphor for the district’s unwieldy approach to the federal aid amid a season of scandal and other miststeps.

last year after an investigation showed he had affairs with at least two women he supervised. A for a new chief — described by one observer as a “game of thrones,” with the interim and deputy chief vying for the job — has dominated school board meetings. Other distractions, notably a move to from board meetings, has eroded trust between leaders and families, and hindered transparency about the biggest pot of federal money the majority Black district has ever received.

“They are going through a lot right now,” said Krista Johnson, founder and executive director of ALLMemphis, a nonprofit that provides literacy training and coaching to teachers. She described her interactions with the district as “swimming upstream”: Emails to officials aren’t returned for weeks, and communication with principals is poor. 

Johnson said the problems hit home recently when she learned that her first grader in the district is a year behind in reading — despite getting A’s on weekly tests and making the principal’s list. As an educator, Johnson understands that it’s harder for a student to do well on a standardized test than a weekly spelling quiz. But she thinks the district could do a better job of explaining these issues to families.

“Nothing works well without strong leadership, and we just don’t have strong leadership now,” she said. “It’s just not an emergency to anyone, and that is shameful.”

With the attention on crisis management, oversight of relief funds has suffered. 

last year showed the district overspent relief funds on HVAC systems — sometimes six times as much — in a rush to beat other districts competing for the same vendors. Prior to the federal windfall, the average HVAC project cost $1 million; afterwards, it jumped to $6 million. 

The district fired its last July after an internal probe showed he approved purchases from a business in exchange for that firm doing work with his own company. 

After a January found “significant deficiency” in the district’s handling of contracts, officials hired FORVIS, an outside accounting firm, to examine its use of relief funds. Both the district and a FORVIS spokesman declined to comment on the status of the audit.

Sheleah Harris, who abruptly resigned from the school board earlier this month, has cast further doubt on how the district has handled the money. In an email to reporters, she alleged that board members and administrators “have directly benefited from certain contracts.” While she didn’t offer specifics, she accused Board Chair Althea Greene of “mishandling” funds. 

The district, which has in relief funds yet to spend, pointed to the audit and its own “” as proof of efforts to prevent impropriety. Greene denied the accusations and said she carries her “responsibility with the utmost integrity.” 

‘Skin in the game’

The litany of flare-ups has tried the patience of parents eager to see results from the federal investment. “We need to know where this money is going,” said Sarah Carpenter, executive director of Memphis Lift, a leading advocacy group. “The board isn’t talking about it.”

On a weeknight, she gathered with parents at the organization’s headquarters — a one-story white bungalow with orange trim in north Memphis, a predominantly Black community. The converted house serves as a gathering spot for families to discuss pressing issues, like a new curriculum or school choice options.

That evening, as children played in another room, at least a dozen parents and grandparents sat around a long table, shared dinner and voiced frustrations about classrooms without certified teachers and student data portals with no grades.

They described themselves as only vaguely aware of how much money the district received in relief funds and how officials were using it. 

“The district has not been very informative,” said Charles Lampkin, a pastor with six children in the Memphis-Shelby schools, from 3 to 13. “I’ve got a lot of skin in the game.”

The communication breakdown is notable given the school system’s place among urban districts nationally, where it experienced some of the in reading and math on last year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress. Math scores fell 12 points in fourth grade and 14 points in eighth grade. In reading, there was an eight-point drop in fourth and a six-point decline in eighth.

Considering the dismal results, Carpenter wonders whether leaders have made the best use of the money. “When we look up and the money’s gone, will our kids be in the same shape?” she asked. “I’m afraid so.” 

Before the NAEP scores were released, former state education Commissioner Penny Schwinn met with Williams, the interim superintendent, and other leaders in downtown Memphis to brace them for the results.

Memphis-Shelby, she said later, hadn’t “rigorously” communicated with families of students at risk of repeating third grade this fall due to a new state law requiring proficiency in reading. 

The showed that 42% of third graders scored below expectations — the same as last year. 

“Our concern is we will have thousands of kids, predominantly Black children in Memphis, who will be retained — not because they had to be, but literally because there isn’t a structure,” Schwinn said. Officials “are wanting to do all the right things. The implementation is where there’s a lot of struggle.” 

She said district leaders could have spent relief funds to hire a public relations firm to explain the options for students who didn’t reach proficiency. “Outsource it. It’s allowable,” Schwinn said. 

The district held a series of Facebook live sessions on the results, but declined to comment to ����Ӱ�� on steps teachers took to inform parents of their children’s performance. shows 95% of those eligible to retake the test in late May did, but of those, just 8% became proficient.

‘When the storm comes’

Meanwhile, Greene, the board chair, pushed back on the idea that district scandals have caused relief efforts to falter.

“We didn’t get off track. We had and we stuck to it,” she said in an interview. She thinks the board earned the community’s respect when it put former superintendent Ray on leave and ultimately negotiated his resignation. “We didn’t have a manual to say this is what you do when the storm comes.”

Far from fumbling its message, she insisted the district “over-communicates” about relief funds.

“We have a website,” she said in December. As evidence, she pointed a 74 reporter to the site with the error message and bouncing airplane. Contacted again on June 11, she said the site had been updated. The change, it appears, was to remove the link altogether, leaving the public without a breakdown of how the district has spent the funds. The rest of the site remains stuck in the earlier days of relief fund implementation: It features a video with former superintendent Ray and its most recent spending report is from February 2022.

In June, a spokesperson said the website isn’t the primary vehicle to communicate to families about relief-funded programs. She pointed to a , but a review of several issues shows it’s a roundup of calendar items, awards and other updates without any mention of how the district is using the money.

Several parents and community leaders said they were unaware of recent efforts to communicate how the funds have been spent. Terence Patterson, president and CEO of the Memphis Education Fund, voiced concerns that the district was allocating too much — over $400 million — on facility upgrades and deferred maintenance and not enough on academic recovery. Records show the district has spent almost $127 million on “building improvements” and architects. In addition to new HVAC systems, include painting, renovating athletic fields and stadiums, and installing water filling stations and new fire alarms. 

Williams, the interim superintendent, defended those actions. 

“We are a district that’s been around for quite some time. We have over 200 facilities and those facilities are really aging,” she said. “This was a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Tutoring efforts

The ongoing turmoil has tended to obscure what leaders say are important milestones toward getting more students on grade level. 

The district has spent over $40 million on tutoring this school year, reaching 13,300 students, officials said. Only a few schools had waitlists and the majority of parents who requested tutoring received it. Attendance at tutoring sessions averaged 89% and students who participated in at least half were more likely to meet the district’s growth goal each quarter, officials said.

“There are folks who keep the ball rolling,” said Cortney Robinson, CEO of the Peer Power Foundation, a nonprofit that has received almost $3.9 million in relief funds to train high school students as tutors. He called Deputy Superintendent Angela Whitelaw and Shawn Page, chief of academic operations, “heroes” who haven’t let the tensions interfere with academic recovery.

Another $89 million is paying for 750 “specialized classroom assistants” in K-2. They lead small groups of students for practice on specific skills, monitor students’ work while teachers are leading lessons and provide backup in the early grades. 

Jessica Rodriguez, who has a first grader at Willow Oaks Elementary, took the position because she worried about the pandemic’s effect on her son’s learning. 

“I just really wanted to be a support,” she said. “I have a better connection [to the school] than I had before.” 

Williams told ����Ӱ�� the district will evaluate its tutoring and K-2 initiatives to determine if it wants to continue them when relief funds expire. 

“You do not sustain $776 million overnight,” she said. “You have to be more strategic in your thinking on what is really working for students.”

But during a May 9 meeting, Whitelaw, the district’s deputy chief, said the district can’t yet determine whether hiring the classroom assistants was a wise use of relief funds. Some of the assistants led classrooms on their own this past school year because of staff shortages and haven’t been used to “their fullest potential,” she said.

At the same meeting, Harris thumbed through the district’s spending plan. She bluntly called the district “top, top, top heavy, heavy, heavy” and said it was unclear whether the 1,163 positions hired with relief funds supported academic goals. Experts warned districts against using the money to hire staff because after next year, they’ll either have to let them go or find another way to pay them.

She said district officials ought to tell parents in “community-friendly language” where the relief funds are going. Harris thinks that message, three years after the pandemic began, should answer a fundamental question: “Does this tie into making sure our children can read on grade level or above?”

This continuous work and improvement has been built on two very solid foundations — strong, sensible K-12 and higher education policies — that have been championed and led by governors from both political parties, multiple commissioners of education, legislators, and district and school leaders. We are proud that this commitment to bold, student-centered reforms has endured across changes in leadership.  

Today, Tennessee is once again at one of those transitions as Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds replaces Penny Schwinn as the state’s next top leader for K-12 education.

The Tennessee way has always been about finding what’s working and then doing more of it; or “finding the good and praising it,” as Tennessean Alex Haley (and former Sen. Lamar Alexander has often quoted).  

And I’m proud that since 2020, when I last wrote in ����Ӱ��, Tennessee has taken even more bold and praiseworthy steps on behalf of students.

I’m pleased to report that not only did Tennessee quickly recognize the educational crisis that accompanied the pandemic, but as a state, we stepped up for students and families in some new and bold ways.

Because of the actions of Gov. Bill Lee, state policymakers and advocates, and with Schwinn at the helm of the state Department of Education, Tennessee was one of the first states in the nation to comprehensively address and invest in summer programs and tutoring statewide to help combat the pandemic’s persistent impacts on student learning. 

We also learned a lot from our Mississippi neighbors and codified the science of reading into state law, while ensuring future teachers are trained well to teach early literacy.  

Tennessee also comprehensively overhauled K-12 funding, moving to a weighted formula that doubles investment in economically disadvantaged students — both by increasing the base amount of per-pupil funding they generate and adding a premium if they attend a school that has concentrated rates of poverty. This is in addition to putting in place one of the highest base funding amounts for K-12 education in the South.

Finally, we created opportunities and innovative school models for the highest-needs students and families through the growth of more high-quality public charter schools.

But none of this matters if we are not moving the needle on student learning — and early results from 2023’s show that focused attention and effort in reading, in particular, are having an impact.

First, the good news: Newly released data show 40% of third graders are now reading on grade level, which is the highest proficiency rate since Tennessee strengthened academic standards nearly a decade ago. 

This year also marked the largest single-year increase in , a decrease in the number of students in the lowest performance category and a rise in the number of students in the highest performance category. 

But the not-so-good news: Tennessee’s 2022 also show a widening gap between the highest and lowest performers among both fourth- and eighth-graders, consistent with pre-pandemic trends. Higher-achieving students are driving most of the gains in the state, while those who are struggling continue to fall further behind. 

Significant achievement gaps also persist between student groups, with a Black-white performance gap of more than 20 percentage points and a Hispanic-white performance gap of 15 points. In short, white students are three times more likely to be proficient in reading and four times more likely in math than Black students, according to our 2022 NAEP data.

Looking ahead to the next phase, and to a new commissioner who will lead that work, the data makes clear that much still needs to be done. Less than half of third-graders reading proficiently is not good enough.

So where do we go next?

First, Tennessee’s schools, districts and leaders need stronger, more consistent and more focused support. Great implementation must be a top state priority — an effort that includes the state’s new K-12 funding model, high-dosage tutoring and coherent systems of instruction and intervention that accelerate learning for students who are furthest behind.

Second, we have to reinvent high school-to-work pathways to ensure that more students are up for success. This means reimagining our system for measuring college-and-career readiness, to better capture and incentivize the work of high schools to prepare students for the workforce through opportunities like job-based learning and apprenticeships. It also means state agencies, school districts, colleges, and nonprofits that are advising and coaching students must take an “all hands on deck” approach to collaborating and using student data across to identify better ways to support a seamless transition from school to meaningful careers that enable economic independence.

Third, we have to prioritize the creation of even more new and innovative public school models that meet parent and family demands, as well as workforce needs. In recent years, Tennessee has embraced dual language instruction, nature-based learning and single-sex educational environments. These provide the highest-needs students and families with unique and innovative options. But we can and must do more, like incubating and launching career- and workforce-centered public schools and providing opportunities for students to earn degrees and/or credentials of value while still in high school.

Finally, we have to think and act differently to ensure more students receive a postsecondary credential and are better prepared for work – particularly at Tennessee’s open-access community colleges. This might require changing the outcomes-based funding model for postsecondary education, to incentivize greater workforce readiness for students and to hold colleges accountable for student success — not just on campus, but also in the workforce.

New leadership brings new energy and new ideas. I am confident that together, Tennesseans will continue to create even more positive opportunities and outcomes for students and families, employers and communities, all across our great state.

Tennessee education chief Penny Schwinn, one of the nation’s most high-profile state superintendents, who worked to expand tutoring and revamp literacy during the toughest days of the pandemic, will announce today that she is stepping down, effective June 1.  

In addition to launching the to curb learning loss, Schwinn shepherded through the legislature and positioned Tennessee as the first state with a federally registered . At the same time, she told ����Ӱ�� in an exclusive interview last week, she weathered distracting culture war battles over the way race and gender is taught in the state’s classrooms.

“I see it as extraneous politics and my job is to educate kids,” she said. “I knew that my charge, first and foremost, was to move our state forward.”

A Republican, Schwinn faced criticism from Democrats and GOP leaders alike for issues ranging from the teaching of American history to her support for charter schools.

Last fall, she told Republican Gov. Bill Lee that she didn’t plan to stay through his second term. Lee will appoint Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds, a school choice advocate with experience in state and federal policy, to be her successor. 

Currently vice president of policy with nonprofit ExcelinEd — which has been instrumental in the rapid expansion of education savings accounts in Republican-led states — Reynolds said she plans to pick up where Schwinn left off. 

“It’s an absolute joy to be tapped for this role and to continue this work,” she said.

A former Teach for America leader from California, Schwinn held high-level positions in the Delaware and Texas education agencies before Lee appointed her commissioner in 2019. She had a rocky start in Tennessee, initially facing criticism from lawmakers for being an outsider. Even though she’s a Republican, her policies were by more conservative members of her own party. But under her leadership, the state won praise from for requiring districts to use a , training teachers in those methods and providing free curriculum resources.

“Dr. Schwinn has successfully executed a culture and curriculum shift to the science of reading that no other Tennessee state commissioner could do,” said Sonya Thomas, executive director of Nashville Propel, a parent advocacy organization. “Under her leadership, we have become a national leader in literacy reform.”

Julia Rafal-Baer, founder of ILO Group, a consulting firm focused on leadership opportunities for women in education, added that Schwinn has had a “seismic impact” as commissioner, inspiring other women in the profession. On Friday, Schwinn addressed members of of women superintendents, where she spoke in part about the importance of navigating politics in the top job.

“I said to keep kids as your north star because that’s common ground,” she said. “Ignore the distractions and get a thick skin because everything in education is personal, but you can’t take it personally.”

Tennessee has been in the spotlight not just for post-pandemic recovery efforts, but also for a legislative proposal to phase out federal funding, as well as controversies over and the state’s ban on receiving . 

In 2021, a state Moms for Liberty chapter their complaint about the Williamson County district’s use of an elementary reading curriculum, which includes the children’s book “Ruby Bridges Goes to School: My True Story.” The autobiography recounts Bridges’s experience as the first Black student to desegregate an all-white school in New Orleans. But some to the book’s use of words such as “injustice” and “unequal” and references to “a large crowd of angry white people.”

The complaint focused on lessons during the 2020-21 school year. Schwinn largely sidestepped the issue, responding that the law requiring the state to investigate possible violations didn’t kick in until the following year.

From Democrats, she’s faced criticism for her ties to charter schools (she founded one in Sacramento) and questions about possible conflicts of interest involving her husband, Paul Schwinn, a leadership coach for TNTP. The nonprofit, which works in districts to improve teacher quality, with the state as part of its reading initiative, but Schwinn received approval from the state and promised to distance herself from the agreement.

“Whichever side you’re on or whichever kind of philosophy you have, there’s always another push that is frankly very distracting,” Schwinn said. “It can come from the left or the right, and I think it has really decimated our leadership nationally.” 

Of the 38 states where superintendents are appointed and not elected, Tennessee will be the 17th to have since January 2022 — a mark of the widespread leadership turnover in the profession since the pandemic.

But John Bailey, a consultant and visiting fellow for the conservative American Enterprise Institute, noted that Schwinn had a longer run than some state chiefs. , appointed Virginia education chief by Gov. Glen Youngkin in January 2022, recently stepped down after just a year. She previously spent eight years leading Wyoming’s education department.

Schwinn’s “superpower,” Bailey said, has been her ability to “bridge differences that are sometimes political and sometimes just normal policy tensions.”

‘Foundation of success’

Schwinn noted, for example, last year to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to highlight the state’s grow-your-own teacher preparation program.

“I have a great relationship with that administration as I serve very loyally my own,” she said, calling Lee “unwaveringly supportive” during her tenure. “He said, ‘Penny, go do your job, and your job is to make sure our kids are accelerating faster than ever before.’ ” 

Schwinn and Lee worked together to gather public input on how the state funds schools. On top of a base amount for each student, the new system provides additional funding for students with greater needs as well as ongoing funding for tutoring, early literacy and career and technical education.

In a statement Monday, Lee said, “Penny has played a key role in our administration’s work to ensure educational opportunity for Tennessee students and secure the next generation of teachers, while navigating historic learning challenges.”

Last year, Schwinn showing Tennessee students had largely recovered from pandemic-related declines, which leaders attributed partly to recovery efforts like tutoring and summer school. But those wins quickly were overshadowed by sharp declines in math and reading performance on the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress, especially in the . The mismatch is not unusual. State tests more closely cover state standards than the national test. Students also took NAEP before tutoring efforts were widely implemented.

Meanwhile, the state’s effort to turn around performance in many Memphis schools has been a disappointment, Schwinn said.

Since the Achievement School District began a decade ago, the schools involved , academic gains. The state is now , reducing the number of charter school operators running schools. But Schwinn added, “I regret that we didn’t move faster on that. The kids deserved us to move faster.”

She also regrets not spending more time on students’ mental health. She called on the issue — which lists suicide as the third leading cause of death among 14- to 18-year olds — “frightening” and said the state still needs “a really clear, tight and well-articulated plan” to respond to students in crisis. 

Early in the pandemic, she took heat from GOP state lawmakers for a plan to use $1 million in federal COVID relief funds for districts to conduct “well-being checks,” particularly for students who didn’t participate in remote learning while schools were closed.

House Education Administration Committee Chair Mark White, for example, he received calls from parents concerned about government intrusion. And Rep. Scott Cepicky suggested Schwinn was more concerned with her own agenda and didn’t consult with those “elected by the people of Tennessee.”

“I think there’s still a huge lack of communication to the General Assembly and to [local] superintendents and school boards,” Cepicky said Monday. “I think that was one of the pitfalls of Commissioner Schwinn and her regime.”

Schwinn declined to say what she’ll be doing next, but said she has “quite a few good opportunities” and expects to make a decision in about a month.

Reynolds, her successor, said her first priority will be ensuring eligible families can take advantage of the state’s targeted ESA program. It’s currently open to students in Shelby and Davidson counties, which include Memphis and Nashville, respectively. This year, , which encompasses Chattanooga.

“ESAs are the most flexible form of school choice,” Reynolds said. “I’m excited to take the work we’ve done nationally [at ExcelinEd] and implement our ESA program in Tennessee.”

She’ll also oversee the next phase of academic recovery efforts and lead the state through  the financial challenges expected as federal relief funds run out in 2024. 

“The good news is that she gets to build on this foundation of success,” Bailey said. “She has a lot of momentum.”