Top 50 Education Policy Blogs

In the United States, most people spend at least 13 years in education, and many spend much more. However, not everybody gets the same quality education, or even the same amount. Changing education to better serve more people is a pressing issue for many people; President Obama just awarded money to states with what he considered to be the best plans for school reform through his Race to the Top program. 

Like everything else that interests people, education policy has its own Internet community, dedicated to discussing, debating, and sometimes arguing over the best way to run an educational system. Here are 50 excellent blogs for anyone interested in learning more about education policy. 

Our Top Five – The Rest of the Best

Our Top Five

1. A Passion for Teaching and Opinions: Written by a California teacher who goes by the name Coach Brown, A Passion for Teaching and Opinions presents a view of education policy from the ground floor: the teacher's perspective. Much of the content of the blog is personal and regional—in particular, the budget woes in California that leave Brown praying his overhead projector bulb does not burn out, since the district can't pay for a replacement.
   
   • Why We Like It: This is a very entertaining blog, but Coach Brown also manages to provide an intriguing insight into life inside the classroom.
   • Check This Out: Musings of my Tenth Year, week one.
2. Education Policy Blog: This blog is a large, multi-author blog with an emphasis on academic research that relates to education and how education policy relates to that research. However, it doesn't just analyze research directly related to education, but often branches out into related academic disciplines, like psychology.
   
   • Why We Like It: It cuts through the chaff of talking points and opposing sides and gives academic data to support its claim.
   • Check This Out: Problems with the use of Student Test Scores to Evaluate Teachers.
3. College Bound: Education does not stop with high school, and College Bound is a blog dedicated to that part of the educational system—the college years. Run by Education Week and written by Caralee Adams, this blog posts on the issues of higher education—costs, preparedness, and succeeding in a new academic environment.
   
   • Why We Like It: College Bound does a good job of covering many of the pressing issues in college today, including community colleges—one of the biggest sectors of higher education. 
   • Check This Out: Community Colleges Worry About Being Swept Into Proposed Gainful-Employment Regulations.
4. Freedom to Learn: Peter Grey, a psychology professor, writes this blog for Psychology Today about the psychological impacts of modern education policy. In particular, he blogs about how modern education works counter to human psychology, particularly the human psychology of learning. Grey takes issue with compulsory education, and his blog is a good read for anyone who wants to reconsider education policy from the ground up.
   
   • Why We Like It: Grey takes a few unusual stances in public education, and comes at education from a fairly unusual point of view. His analysis is interesting and likely to promote rethinking educational structure.
   • Check This Out: School Bullying: A Tragic Cost of Forced Schooling and Autocratic School Governance.
5. Gender and Schooling: Hosted by Psychology Today, Gender and Schooling is a blog written by Elizabeth Meyer, a psychology professor, with a focus on gender and bullying and schools. Unlike many other school policy blogs, its focus is on the social aspects of school policy, especially the gender-based social aspects, instead of the academic side of schooling.
   
   • Why We Like It: School is not just about academics, and this blog covers some of the most pressing issues outside of academic scores (though we can't imagine bullying makes academics any easier).
   • Check This Out: Hazing and high school – gendered rites of group membership.

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The Rest of the Best

• The Public Schools Insights Blog: Run by the Learning First Association, this is a large, multi-author blog dedicated specifically to public schools and the educational philosophy surrounding them, with an emphasis on how to improve public schools. Since it is a larger blog, there are contributers with different points of view on topics like single-sex education.
• The Educated Reporter: The author of this blog, Linda Perlstein, is an editor for the Education Writer's Association, and consequently much of her blog content analyses how the media present education. However, she also has more posts on higher education than many other education policy blogs.
• Assorted Stuff: Assorted Stuff is an educational technology blog written by Tim Stahmer, an instructional technology specialist. In particular, Assorted Stuff concentrates on how education policy effects (or interferes with) the use of technology in the classrom. Stahmer is a proponent of massive changes in the educational system geared towards having more creative, more technologically-skilled graduates.
• Charter School Insights: This blog focuses on a fairly narrow subset of education policy surrounding charter schools. However, much of the comments—especially those on the budget challenges facing a school—apply to more traditional schools as well. The author, Dough Hering, is a CFO at a charter school. 
• Politics K-12: Also run by Education Week, Politics K-12 is a blog devoted to the politics behind education policy, particularly at the budgetary levels. One of Alyson Klein's more surprising posts reveals how governors in multiple states are using money federal funding dedicated to education for other purposes.
• National Journal Expert's Blog: Education: This blog has quite an unusual format: Every post is a question, and the commenters—carefully-chosen experts in education policy—respond, meaning that every post contains multiple answering viewpoints. It is a good blog to get a range of opinions on topics.
• The Quick and the Ed: This is another multi-author blog, sponsored by an education think-tank called Education Sector, which focuses on education policy changes. It has posts not only on K-12 education, but also on college education, in particular the lack of information about the benefits of higher education.
• Thoughts on Education Policy: Written by former teacher and current PhD-candidate Corey Bower, Thoughts on Education Policy focuses on issues affecting high-poverty schools as well as minority students, and how education policies help and hurt those populations. She also writes about meta-issues, like how to distinguish blaming teachers from being anti-teacher. 
• The Education Optimists: This blog is written by a husband-and-wife team involved in education theory and policy, and concentrates on both news and research in education policy. The pair posted a series of articles reporting and analyzing the recent Race to the Top competition. 
• On Special Education: Hosted by Education Week and written by Christina A. Samuels, On Special Education includes special education news as well as analyses of special education policy. 
• Journal of Educational Policy Blog: This blog aims to foster conversation and debate between people interested in education policy. It also posts on material outside of the journal. 
• Teacher Beat: Yet another Education Week blog, Teacher Beat, run by Stephen Sawchuck, follows the news of education policy that affects teachers. In consequence, the blog has a strong focus on how education policy affects teaching and teachers.
• Thoughts on Public Education: TOP-Ed is a multi-author blog about California public education policy, with a particular focus on reporting news about policy changes. Unlike other blogs, its posts are organized not just by date, but by contributer.
• Class Struggle: Written by Jay Matthews and hosted by the Washington Post, Class Struggle is an education blog with an emphasis on high school and college. It also analyses media coverage of education.
• Curmudgeon: Curmudgeon is a blog written by a slightly grumpy math teacher who posts his opinions on school policy. The content has a bias towards math and the everyday realities of teaching.
• Rational Mathematics Education: Written by Michael Paul Goldenberg, this blog is another mathematics blog, but one written with a strong focus on how to teach math. Other posts target media portrayals of education, but all tend towards a mathematical perspective. 
• The EdNext Blog: Run by Education Next, a journal on educational reform, this blog has many different contributers with various backgrounds, including a school board member. It has a mix of research, political, and media analyses as well as personal stories. 
• Linking and Thinking on Education: Run by Joanne Jacobs, who has a background in journalism, this blog analyzes education news from lawsuits to classrooms without air conditioning. Many of the posts focus on community colleges.
• The World View: Hosted by Inside Higher Education and written by Damtew Teffera, The World View analyzes and criticizes the world of higher education from a global perspective. In particular, Teffera posts on how higher education is becoming—or not becoming—more global. 
• Digital Tweed: Digital Tweed is also hosted by Inside Higher education, and is written by Kenneth Green. It analyzes technology issues on college campuses, including textbook publishing problems. 
• This Week In Education: Written by Alexander Russo with periodic guest bloggers, This Week in Education has short posts on a wide range of topics. Russo periodically interviews others and puts the results up on the blog. 
• Edspresso: Edspresso calls itself "your daily addiction for breaking news, commentary, and debate on real education reform." It focuses on the political nature of school reform in the United States. 
• insideschools.org: This blog is a local blog about New York City public schools; many of its posts detail the local-level impacts of school policy, like the change how standardized tests are graded. It includes a feature called "Ask a School Counselor" where readers can send their questions.  
• Special Education Law Blog: Exactly what it says on the tin, this blog analyzes education policy in special education as effected by the laws in the United States. It is run by Jim Gerl, an educational consultant.
• Academic Aesthetic: Academic Aesthetic is written by a computer arts middle school teacher, and many of the posts handle the minutia of everyday classroom policy. However, the blog also deals with the author's personal teaching philosophy. 
• Notes from the School Psychologist: Notes is a very interesting blog written from an unusual perspective: that of a school psychologist in an urban school district. Author Rebecca Branstetter approaches many of the usual concerns of education policy—achievement gaps, special education—from the point of view of a psychologist. 
• Eduflack: Written by Patrick Riccards, a communications specialist, Eduflack concentrates on analyzing educational communication. As well, it has a focus on analyzing current news in education policy. 
• Sherman Dorn: Sherman Dorn is a professor whose academic interest is in United States education policy. In particular, he and his blog follow the ways in which U.S. education policy is unstable and counterproductive.
• Ecology of Education: Ecology of Education is a multi-author blog with the tagline "exploring the ecosystems of education," and which claims that its contributers "represent a wide range of niches related to teaching and learning". However, much of the content comes from the perspective of opinionated teachers. 
• Principal's Policy Blog: Hosted by the National Association of Secondary School Principals, this analyzes news in the education policy world from the perspective of a principal. Most posts are written by Mary Kingston. 
• Early Ed Watch: Run by the Early Education Initiative of the New America Foundation, this blog analyzes early education policy and reiterates the initiative's ideas about policy changes. It focuses on pre-kindergarten to third grade. 
• Higher Ed Watch: Run by the same overall organization as Early Ed Watch, Higher Ed Watch critiques and analyzes policies in the world of higher education. In particular, the blog takes interest in the loan and other financial policies the federal government has in respect to higher education. 
• A Better Education: A former teacher and current mother, Tracy Stevens takes a hard look at current test-based education policy. Stevens promotes education that is individual, interesting, and creative as the only way to truly increase learning. As well, the blog posts on her daily life. 
• For The Love of Learning: Written by teacher Joe Bower, For the Love Of Learning combines posts on general classroom life with analyses of national education policy. Bowers likes to challenge traditional schooling, and has therefore limited grading as much as he can, as well as adopting other unusual teaching strategies. 
• Spencer's Scratch Pad: Spencer's Scratch pad is another teacher's blog, which focuses more on the philosophies of teaching and classroom life than on national policy. The writer is also a parent, so that perspective on the educational system also comes into the blog. 
• Keeping Kids First: Keeping Kids First is a teacher's blog with a focus on how to successfully integrate technology into the classroom. However, the posts often go into education policy as it affects teaching school—for example, the test anxiety caused by high-stakes testing. 
• District Dossier: Hosted by Education Week and written by Dakarai A. Aarons, District Dossier posts on local education policy, usually at the district level. As well, general education reform topics are posted. 
• Why Boys Fail: Another blog hosted by Education Week, Why Boys Fail analyzes news on one of the achievement gaps in public education: the gender gap between boys and girls. It is written by Richard Whitmire. 
• Flypaper: Flypaper is the blog of the Fordham Institute, and so is a large, multi-author blog. Its focus is on national and general trends in educational reform. 
• Edurati Review: With the tagline "where policy meets pedagogy," Edurati Review is a multi-author blog devoted to examining and providing examples of innovative teaching styles—the basic level of education policy. It also posts on how to encourage school reform. 
• Curriculum Matters: Curriculum Matters, written by Erik Robelen and Catherin Gewertz, is devoted to the issue of curriculum—what is actually taught in schools. It is hosted by Education Week. 
• EdWize: Edwize is a large, multi-author blog devoted to education news and analysis. As well, Edwize also does meta-analysis of school reform debates. It is affiliated with labor unions. 
• Unwrapping the Gifted: Hosted by Education Week, Unwrapping the Gifted is devoted to analyzing education policy as it applies to gifted students. For example, one post critiques the idea of age-based grade groupings. It is written by Tamara Fisher, a gifted education specialist. 
• Science Teacher: Written by Michael Doyle, a current science teacher, this blog explores his personal experience in life and the classroom. In particular, Doyle dislikes the influence of corporations in education. 

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