Blog - Yorktown Foundation

February 21, 2025

NAEP Scores Show Immediate Need For Aggressive School Options

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has been providing a national standardized assessment of learning since 1969. Nicknamed “the Nation’s Report Card“, NAEP scores are widely and deeply used, not only to assess learning trends, but also to analyze and adjust education practice and policy. The data are rich and complex, but the gist […]

July 30, 2024

We Endorse NAS’ Franklin Standards For Science Curriculum

Readers of a certain vintage will remember Thomas Dolby’s hit ’80’s song “She Blinded Me With Science”. It’s a zany, catchy tune, but it captured something of a zeitgeist when it comes to science. My memory of the time–your humble correspondent was newly into the double digits when the song was released–was that science was […]

June 12, 2024

School Choice Policies Have Economic Benefits

*whew* Yorktown’s first paper has dropped. Our visiting fellow, Patrick Tuohey, has done fantastic work pulling together the literature on how school choice policies can have positive economic benefits, and. . .well, why don’t we let him summarize: “Recent research suggests school choice itself drives economic development by allowing families to cross district boundaries without […]

May 12, 2023

Should School Boards Run Schools?

It seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it? I mean, that’s what school boards do. But there may be no other governance that is currently attracting the attention school boards do–from questions surrounding curriculum to what books should be in libraries to how sex and gender education should be handled to what role parents have in the […]

February 20, 2023

The Mother Of Presidents Is The Mother Of Liberty

There is so much to love about Virginia. Start in her deep southwestern Blue Ridge mountains where sunsets are burnt in purple and orange and pink. Travel north and east into the Shenandoah Valley with its rolling meadows and horse farms. Move further east and pick your poison: Do you want to go to Virginia […]

January 31, 2023 associations education microschools tocqueville

Microschools Are Innovative–And Very Traditionally American

There’s an old saw that goes something like this: A group of Englishmen need a school built, so they go to the aristocracy: “Build us a school, m’Lord.” A group of Frenchmen need a school built, so they go to their government: “Education is our right, and we demand you build us a school.” A […]

associations education microschools tocqueville

January 28, 2023

School Choice And Economic Development

Better educational outcomes. A healthier pluralistic society. More parental authority and autonomy. Happier kids. Less politicized institutions. At this point in the school choice debate, these are all familiar arguments in favor of greater educational freedom. But one argument deserves more attention, especially in Virginia: The likelihood that school choice is good for economic development. […]

January 10, 2023 curiosity education

Gas Caps and Schoolrooms

I took a road trip to South Carolina this weekend and, as you would expect, filled up before hitting the road. The port to my gas tank doesn’t have a cover, but I do have a locked gas cap. (Confession: This isn’t because I worry someone is going to steal my gas. This is because […]

curiosity education

January 6, 2023 education microschools Reformation Yellowstone

“Yellowstone”, the Protestant Reformation, and Microschools

The 16th century Augustinian monk Martin Luther didn’t intend to start a theological revolution. When the German Catholic posted his ninety five points of debate on the castle doors in the university town of Wittenberg in 1517, it was with the express purpose of reforming the Roman Catholic Church–hence, the name “Protestant Reformation”. Bureaucratized institutions […]

education microschools Reformation Yellowstone