Matt Barnum
@matt_barnum
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K-12 education reporter @WSJ; previously @Chalkbeat; fake stats vigilante; [email protected]
Brooklyn
Joined April 2013
Last week was my last one at @Chalkbeat for a while. I'll be on leave for the next nine months on a Spencer Fellowship, exploring the past, present, and future of school funding and the debate over whether money matters for schools.
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One reason this has surprised people is because many news stories have implicitly conflated the public's views on American schools with parents' views of their own children's schools.
NEW: The conventional wisdom is that parents have grown increasingly furious with public schools. But it's actually people without school-age children who are particularly skeptical of public schools, multiple surveys show.
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Excited to share this project I've been working on for months with @lamarr_lemee: Ratings from the popular site GreatSchools steer families away from schools with more low-income, black and Hispanic students.
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A new study finds that universal free lunch in NYC improved school climate across the board — an interesting example of the upsides of a universal rather than means-tested program. via @PoojaSalhotra
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@AstorAaron it's all parents of school-age children. so this almost certainly slightly underestimates support for public schools among public school parents.
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If free college is a government takeover of a higher ed, why wouldn't school vouchers (aka "free private school") amount to a government takeover of private K-12 school
We know what “free college” means: a government takeover. Nothing is truly free & the 2/3 of Americans who don’t pursue a 4-year degree will end up footing the bill for the 1/3 who do. Those who paid back their student loans shouldn’t have to subsidize those who didn’t plan/pay.
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1/At the very least, more articles need to engage with the fact that *throughout the pandemic* parents have reported fairly high levels of satisfaction with their child's school. People find this hard to believe, but it's true!.
The *causality* presented here as to what's behind the parent revolt is utterly nonsensical and yet article after article after article rehashes the same claims
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Scoop: Last week, I started a new role at Chalkbeat as the interim national editor. Excited to play more of a role overseeing our coverage and continuing to work with @kalynbelsha! Don't worry — I'll still be writing and reporting regularly.
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@MichaelPetrilli @MCPS maybe they are persuaded by the research on the benefits of universal free meals
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Well, today I learned, via @beckpeterson's reporting, that the Emerson Collective apparently stopped funding Chalkbeat in part because they weren't happy with a couple of our stories about XQ, their big education project.
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The results of this @dynarski et al study are genuinely impressive: clearly communicating large financial aid packages to low-income students meaningfully boosts college enrollment *and* persistence
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Exciting news! I'll be joining @Chalkbeat as a national reporter, covering education research, trends across states, and federal policy.
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@The74 Takeaway: After MIT researchers found negative results in LA's voucher program, they were denied access to more data
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I humbly accept @alexanderrusso's nomination as worst journalist of the year, because it has brought out so many kind words from others, so thank you!.
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A meta-story of COVID and schools is how parent polls have stubbornly refused — over and over — to confirm the narrative that is preferred in much of the Discourse.
A new poll shows that 58% of parents are concerned about how schools are handling COVID cases. Of those, 44% say schools aren't doing enough to monitor COVID exposure, while only 34% say schools are too quick to quarantine students.
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@AlexNowrasteh @JimSwiftDC here are a couple with time series — not much evidence of declining satisfaction among parents, but some evidence for the public writ large
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Fun to FOIA for basic information in a bunch of school districts and get such varied responses. Including "here you go" (two hours later), "we'd love to provide you that info! just send us a check for $830," and "see you in 1-5 years" (namely, @NYCSchools).
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After an amazing experience @FellowsSpencer, I am back on the education beat @Chalkbeat. Excited to return to regular reporting. Send tips and story ideas!.
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Have recently been reading about how a basic misinterpretation of SAT scores in the '80s led to a panic about school performance. Fortunately we're too smart now to fall for that sort of thing again— oh.
The average score on the ACT, a college admissions test, fell to its lowest level in more than three decades
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