Matt Barnum

Matt Barnum is Chalkbeat's ideas editor. Previously, Matt covered K-12 education for the Wall Street Journal.

Latest Posts

Ideas

Should schools replace snow days with virtual learning?

Jan 29, 2026

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7 min read

Should schools replace snow days with virtual learning?

Research suggests that a few snow days probably won’t set students back academically. If schools go virtual, teachers should be wary of introducing new material.

Matt Barnum, +1

Ideas

How will we know if new school choice programs are helping students learn?

Jan 27, 2026

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9 min read

How will we know if new school choice programs are helping students learn?

Limited testing data could leave policymakers and parents in the dark.

Matt Barnum

Ideas

Rahm Emanuel has a plan to fix schools and the Democratic Party. Will it work?

Jan 22, 2026

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9 min read

Rahm Emanuel has a plan to fix schools and the Democratic Party. Will it work?

Emanuel’s ideas are gaining traction in part because no one else is offering a clear vision.

Matt Barnum

Ideas

What’s the Trump administration’s theory of action for improving schools?

Jan 20, 2026

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6 min read

What’s the Trump administration’s theory of action for improving schools?

Officials want to close the Education Department but keep its programs. It’s not entirely clear what that accomplishes.

Matt Barnum

Ideas

Inside a legal test case that could mean more funding for religious education

Jan 13, 2026

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10 min read

Inside a legal test case that could mean more funding for religious education

A Q&A with Chalkbeat reporter Ann Schimke who has chronicled what some have called Colorado's "first public Christian school"

Matt Barnum

Ideas

Here’s what we know, and don’t know, about declining test scores

Jan 8, 2026

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10 min read

Here’s what we know, and don’t know, about declining test scores

Experts (and everyone else) have theories but no definitive answers just yet.

Matt Barnum

Ideas

A debunking debunked, affordability and schools, higher ed’s “vibecession,” and more

Jan 6, 2026

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10 min read

A debunking debunked, affordability and schools, higher ed’s “vibecession,” and more

A Chalkbeat Ideas roundup

Matt Barnum

Ideas

Charter school advocates fear their future at the Labor Department

Dec 18, 2025

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7 min read

Charter school advocates fear their future at the Labor Department

Leaked emails show the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools landed a meeting with the Labor Secretary, who assuaged short-term concerns. Long-run worries remain though.

Matt Barnum

Ideas

What Diane Ravitch has learned in her decades on both sides of the school reform fights

Dec 16, 2025

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10 min read

What Diane Ravitch has learned in her decades on both sides of the school reform fights

A Q&A with the education historian turned critic of testing and charter schools.

Matt Barnum

Ideas

What the internet backlash over remedial math at UC San Diego misses

Dec 9, 2025

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8 min read

What the internet backlash over remedial math at UC San Diego misses

It’s concerning that some students at top colleges struggle with basic math, but simply changing admissions standards could backfire.

Matt Barnum

Ideas

Would more emphasis on high-stakes testing help address America’s learning woes?

Dec 2, 2025

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11 min read

Would more emphasis on high-stakes testing help address America’s learning woes?

No Child Left Behind likely improved math scores, but it also brought about widespread frustration from teachers and parents.

Matt Barnum

Ideas

State rankings critiqued, more on the Southern surge, and education research for dummies

Nov 25, 2025

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9 min read

State rankings critiqued, more on the Southern surge, and education research for dummies

A Chalkbeat Ideas roundup

Matt Barnum

Ideas

Why Trump’s effort to dismantle the Education Department matters very little and also quite a lot

Nov 20, 2025

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9 min read

Why Trump’s effort to dismantle the Education Department matters very little and also quite a lot

The effect on schools will probably be small, but it represents something big.

Matt Barnum

Ideas

Voters still tend to trust Democrats more on education

Nov 18, 2025

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9 min read

Voters still tend to trust Democrats more on education

Yet the party faces challenges on the issue, including greater learning loss in blue states.

Matt Barnum

Ideas

We’re still fighting about pandemic-era school closures — but do they still matter?

Nov 13, 2025

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8 min read

We’re still fighting about pandemic-era school closures — but do they still matter?

We’ve got answers to that and other questions from a new tranche of state testing data.

Matt Barnum

Ideas

Is college enrollment really plummeting?

Nov 11, 2025

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9 min read

Is college enrollment really plummeting?

Reports of the death of the bachelor’s degree have been greatly exaggerated.

Matt Barnum

Ideas

MagicSchool’s founder on the potential and perils of AI

Nov 6, 2025

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9 min read

MagicSchool’s founder on the potential and perils of AI

Adeel Khan says special education teachers can do their jobs better if they use AI to draft IEPs. And he responds to concerns that AI can’t be a math tutor and is used as a shortcut for students.

Matt Barnum

Ideas

3 ways AI will (and won’t) change schools

Nov 4, 2025

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9 min read

3 ways AI will (and won’t) change schools

The cheating problem isn’t going away. More teachers will use AI as an assistant. But AI won't be a supertutor.

Matt Barnum

Ideas

The former Republican education secretary who wants to save the Education Department

Oct 30, 2025

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8 min read

The former Republican education secretary who wants to save the Education Department

Margaret Spellings, who led the department under George W. Bush, says scrapping it would be "inefficient."

Matt Barnum

Ideas

The "southern surge": What's really going on?

Oct 28, 2025

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9 min read

The "southern surge": What's really going on?

There have been some Southern success stories, though we're still figuring out what drove them.

Matt Barnum