Advancing Equity With Policy
How to build fairer schools through smarter policy

Blog Posts
Jean-Pierre Jacob, M.Ed., MS, is a freelance policy writer and AP Biology Teacher.
Tag: equity
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Vermont offers a useful case study for policymakers, as its school finance system is often cited as one of the clearest examples of how court intervention can fundamentally reshape how public education is funded. Today, Vermont spends nearly $27,000 per pupil on education, second only to New York. For context, Vermont spends more than twice…
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As discussed in my previous blog post, New York State is currently facing challenges with a high teacher turnover rate and a decreasing supply of new teachers. As seen in Figure 1, teacher retention is the lowest it has been in about a decade except for 20+ year teachers. This data matches up with the…
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While public discourse often frames the teacher shortage as a post-pandemic crisis, two decades of empirical evidence tell a very different story. In short, New York has struggled to recruit, prepare, and retain qualified math teachers for more than twenty years. This teacher shortage is the product of long-standing structural conditions, labor-market dynamics, and policy…
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In my last post, I showed that New York’s Grade 8 math performance has declined over the last 8 years. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the average Grade 8 math score for New York public school students in 2024 was 271, with only 26% of students scoring at or above NAEP…