Thomas Toch

Washington, D.C., United States

Education Writer at Freelance

Director, @FutureEdGU at Georgetown U's McCourt School. Former Brookings, Carnegie. Clips: Atlantic, NYT, WaPo, WSJ, Newsweek, USN, TNR...

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Articles

Opinion: What’s the Best Way to Measure a School’s Quality? 5 Factors to Consider

1 week ago | yahoo.com | Lynn Olson |Thomas Toch

What’s the best way to measure a school’s quality? It depends on whom you ask. Parents, educators, employers and policymakers hold many different opinions about the goals of education and, therefore, about how to judge school performance. Yet virtually every educational aim rests on the same foundation: giving students a strong academic grounding and developing the knowledge and habits of mind that allow them to think critically, communicate effectively and acquire knowledge and skills over time.
A new, bipartisan agenda for raising student achievement

1 month ago | datiak12.io | Thomas Toch

Amid Donald Trumpâ€™s campaign to dismantle the Department of Education, a recent report from one of its most respected agencies, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, revealed that more than a third of the nationâ€™s students struggle to read after being in school for eight years. The finding was the latest sign of crisis in the nationâ€™s elementary and secondary schools. There are many others.
A New, Bipartisan Agenda for Raising Student Achievement

2 months ago | future-ed.org | Thomas Toch

This piece originally appeared in Washington Monthly. Amid Donald Trump’s campaign to dismantle the Department of Education, a recent report from one of its most respected agencies, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, revealed that more than a third of the nation’s students struggle to read after being in school for eight years. The finding was the latest sign of crisis in the nation’s elementary and secondary schools. There are many others.
Medicaid Cuts Would Put Students At Risk

2 months ago | future-ed.org | Thomas Toch

This piece originally appeared in The Hill. The nation’s schools, already reeling from plunging test scores and culture war controversies, now face another major hurdle — an $880 billion cut to the federal Medicaid program, the source of health care coverage for as many as 40 percent of the nation’s students. House Republicans approved a budget resolution last Tuesday that would reduce by about 11 percent the federal-state partnership that provides health coverage for nearly 80 million Americans.
Education Reforms that Can Strengthen the Nation's Schools

2 months ago | washingtonmonthly.com | Thomas Toch

Amid Donald Trump’s campaign to dismantle the Department of Education, a recent report from one of its most respected agencies, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, revealed that more than a third of the nation’s students struggle to read after being in school for eight years. The finding was the latest sign of crisis in the nation’s elementary and secondary schools. There are many others.
Medicaid cuts and their impact on students' health and education

Mar 4, 2025 | thehill.com | Thomas Toch

The nation’s schools, already reeling from plunging test scores and culture war controversies, now face another major hurdle — an $880 billion cut to the federal Medicaid program, the source of health care coverage for as many as 40 percent of the nation’s students. House Republicans approved a budget resolution last Tuesday that would reduce by about 11 percent the federal-state partnership that provides health coverage for nearly 80 million Americans.
Opinion - Medicaid cuts risk children’s health care and academics

Mar 4, 2025 | aol.com | Thomas Toch

The nation’s schools, already reeling from plunging test scores and culture war controversies, now face another major hurdle — an $880 billion cut to the federal Medicaid program, the source of health care coverage for as many as 40 percent of the nation’s students. House Republicans approved a budget resolution last Tuesday that would reduce by about 11 percent the federal-state partnership that provides health coverage for nearly 80 million Americans.
Opinion - Medicaid cuts risk children’s health care and academics

Mar 4, 2025 | yahoo.com | Thomas Toch

The nation’s schools, already reeling from plunging test scores and culture war controversies, now face another major hurdle — an $880 billion cut to the federal Medicaid program, the source of health care coverage for as many as 40 percent of the nation’s students. House Republicans approved a budget resolution last Tuesday that would reduce by about 11 percent the federal-state partnership that provides health coverage for nearly 80 million Americans.
Standards Gap: Why Many Students Score Proficient on State Tests But Not on NAEP

Feb 14, 2025 | the74million.org | Thomas Toch |Bella DiMarco

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter A version of this essay appeared on the FutureEd blog. One of the most striking features of the troubling results from the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress is the much lower percentage of students scoring proficient on NAEP than on many states’ own 2024 standardized exams.
Which of the Following Approaches to State Testing Works for U.S. Schools?

Feb 11, 2025 | educationnext.org | Lynn Olson |Thomas Toch |Chad Aldeman |Dale Chu

Educators and policymakers agree that state standardized testing needs improvement. Student scores had been slipping for nearly a decade even before the Covid-19 school closures generated unprecedented drops in student learning. Apart from a pandemic-induced pause in spring 2020, state testing systems remained in place throughout that stretch—but failed to halt the decline.