Elizabeth Setren, a Tufts economist, has spent years tracking students who participated in Metco, the voluntary integration program that buses students from Boston to predominantly white suburban schools. Her new study compares students who got a seat with similar students who applied and didn't. Test scores rose modestly. College graduation went from 26% to 38%. Adult incomes rose by several thousand dollars a year. Setren told Chalkbeat's Matt Barnum it is "very rare to see an intervention years later still have this large of an effect."

Findings like that require sustained research and funding that lasts long enough to follow students into adulthood. Two stories today are about the federal systems that pay for that kind of research, and what happens to them next.

Education Week's Sarah D. Sparks reports that the Education Department's proposed rewrite of EDGAR, its grant regulations, would let the department delay funding to projects "for convenience" and change how it defines research quality. The proposal drew at least 5,510 comments by the Sept. 23 deadline, overwhelmingly critical. AERA, the Association of American Universities and the Friends of IES want it withdrawn. Researchers warn that the changes could make funding decisions more political and interrupt studies already underway.

The department is also encouraging states to strengthen their own research capacity. In September, it released a learning agenda playbook based on pilots in eight states. The Alliance for Learning Innovation, a coalition of more than 150 research and development groups, participated in the working group that developed it. Heather Boughton, ALI's associate director of state policy, told Sparks that the federal changes have increased the urgency of building state research systems that can last across administrations. Boughton, who previously supervised research at Ohio's education department, cautioned that many states face a steep learning curve. Education, she said, has historically lacked the R&D infrastructure found in medicine and other scientific fields.

The second story is smaller and starts sooner. Beginning Nov. 1, every Education Department grantee must provide a written justification, 255 characters or fewer, each time it draws down funds that were already approved. Murray Bessette, the acting assistant secretary who signed the memo, told K-12 Dive it is "a common sense measure that doesn't really require much on the part of the grantees." A department official pointed to the Labor Department, which has processed 7,600 payments worth $2 billion for the department's career, technical and adult education programs since September 2025 under a similar system. Only six required further explanation. AASA's Sasha Pudelski counters that the requirement duplicates existing oversight and adds work for states and districts. The National Association of State Directors of Special Education warns that payment delays could interrupt services students with disabilities are legally owed.

Chad Aldeman, writing in The 74, asks what philanthropy could build. He draws on Sarah Cone's essay about why today's billionaires give to existing institutions rather than create new ones, as Carnegie did with libraries and Julius Rosenwald did with Booker T. Washington to build more than 5,000 schools for Black children across the South. Aldeman proposes free, independent math mastery exams students could take whenever they're ready, paired with teacher-supported Math Labs in high-poverty schools. Students would advance based on what they know. He points to encouraging research on combining tutoring with software, while acknowledging that his proposed model would need its own rigorous evaluation.

That would require someone willing to fund the experiment and report what happened, including results that disappoint. Setren's study shows what that patience can yield: a fuller account of what happened to students long after they stepped off the bus.

— Thomas

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