Education

Technology increasingly seems to affect education. Doug Lemov’s review of Maryanne Wolf’s book about “The Reading Brain in a Digital World” was one of our top articles, as was Kenneth R. Foster’s careful assessment of the health threats of technology in schools.

Not that the education reform agenda of choice and accountability has entirely lost steam. An article by Ron Matus about “Miami’s Choice Tsunami” is on the list of our top stories. Even higher up on the list, though, was “The Achievement Gap Fails to Close,” an article by Eric A. Hanushek, Paul E. Peterson, Laura M. Talpey, and Ludger Woessmann documenting, largely, a lack of progress over a half-century of testing. Perhaps next year, or next half-century, will bring better results. Or perhaps not. In the meantime, here is this year’s full list, the Top 20 Education Next articles of 2019: