2025: Year in Review

We are winding down ABPTL for 2025, so let’s look at some of the top news from the year.

Every year The 74 releases a story (December 9, 2025) focused on the top educational news from the past year. Here are highlights from that story:

Immigration enforcement worsened absenteeism in our public schools. In California’s Central Valley, five school districts experienced an increase of 22% in student absenteeism. That correlates to 700,000 lost days of student learning.

Districts still lag pre-COVID achievement. A February report from the Education Recovery Scorecard found that just 6 percent of American elementary and middle schoolers live in school districts where average math or reading levels have returned to the levels seen in 2019.

K-12 learning was stagnant in this country before COVID. Everyone seems to think our public school system started their struggles in 2020. The truth is that our K-12 system has been struggling mightily for a while – especially when it comes to educating black, brown, and poor kids.

Education savings accounts lift private school enrollment – and tuition. There’s no doubt who has cashed in on red state love for vouchers. It’s the American private school system. And with their increased enrollment, private schools are making more money than ever after raising tuition to take advantage of their newfound popularity.

Cell phone bans boost student performance. 37 states now have either laws to curb phone usage in K-12 schools or required school districts to adopt their own policies to similar effect. Researchers have found that schools with cell phone bans show slightly improved standardized test scores (1.1 percentile) that those schools allowing phones to be used during the school day.

I don’t know if a 1.1% increase in test scores could be considered a “boost” in student performance.

Interest in teaching is lower in adults who are men and non-white. So the group that could help serve as role models for those kids struggling the most in our K-12 system, is the group that has no interest in becoming classroom teachers. Sad.

Vaccination rates are lower. Potentially this could be the story of the year, especially when the next pandemic hits the country. Oh, and it’s going to happen – somewhere, some day.

Finally, for those who haven’t been exposed to enough news on the current state of learning in America through the daily ABPTL, here are some articles The 74 writers and editors picked out as their favorite non-74 reporting:

100 Students in a School Meant for 1,000: Inside Chicago’s Refusal to Deal With Its Nearly Empty Schools (ProPublica)

After Child Care Worker is Detained by ICE, a Community Is Left Reeling (The 19^th)

Where Kids Put Down Their Phones and Pick Up the Correct Fork (The New York Times)

Pass or Fail? Midwest Families and Districts Are Learning From the 4-Day School Week (Iowa Public Radio)

Transit Nightmare: Thousands of Baltimore Kids Can’t Get to School on Time (The Baltimore Banner)

She Wanted to Keep her Son in His School District. It Was More Challenging Than It Seemed (The Associated Press)

A Teen in Love With a Chatbot Killed Himself. Can the Chatbot Be Held Responsible? (The New York Times Magazine)

This Is a Teenager (The Pudding)

Trump Attacks on DEI May Hurt Men in College Admission (The Hechinger Report)

Bedbugs, Lounge Chairs and “Absolutely Nothing” To Do: Tales from Inside Philly Schools Rubber Room (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

How Black Barbershops Are Helping Boys Fall in Love With Reading (NBCU Academy)

These Activists Want to Dismantle Public Schools. Now They Run the Education Department (ProPublica)

One State Tried Algebra for All Eighth Graders. It Hasn’t Gone Well (The Hechinger Report)

A Family Opened a Town’s First Bookstore. A Bathroom Bill Is Driving Them Away (The Washington Report)

Heinous, Heartbreaking – and Expensive, California Schools Face Avalanche of Sex Abuse Claims (Calmatters)

A Photographer Captures Life Inside Chicago Public Schools (NPR)

He Died at a School for Disabled People. Decades Late, His Brother Sought Answer (The New York Times)

As “Bot” Students Continue to Flood In, Community Colleges Struggle to Respond (Voice of San Diego)

One Photo, a Deluge of Threats: Inside the Arizona High School Turned Upside Down by Right-Wing Activists (NBC News)

There. That should keep all of ABPTL’s readers busy over the holidays.

Friday News Roundup tomorrow, and then vacation! Til tomorrow. SVB