Can you believe it’s been a year since I reflected on my biggest wishes for the 2024-2025 school year? Last year, my wish list included school districts using up all their Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, specifically investing in high-impact academic recovery interventions, and a consistent focus on school attendance.
Let’s revisit some of my wishes:
Use all the ESSER funds: When I wrote my wish list last year, data from July 2025 showed that about 80% of ESSER funds had been spent nationwide. Months later, by the end of January 2025, approximately 97% of ESSER funds had been spent. I’d call that a success. After some back-and-forth at the federal level, it was decided that states that previously submitted waivers to receive reimbursements for ESSER expenses past the original deadline will continue to be eligible for reimbursements through early 2026.
Community focus on consistent school attendance: As I wrote in last year’s wish list and in other pieces about absenteeism, chronic absenteeism skyrocketed during the pandemic, from 15% to 28%. In the 2022-2023 school year, it had decreased to 25.4%, a number that further decreased in the 2023-2024 school year to 23.5%. It’s progress, though, not as much as I had hoped. To further commit to curbing absenteeism, 15 states have officially adopted a goal to cut 2022 absenteeism rates in half by 2027, which will require them to double-down on decreasing absenteeism beginning with this school year.
With the new school year starting, I developed another wish list for the 2025-2026 school year. Here it is:
1. Transformational, scalable high school redesign
There are great examples of schools, districts, and community-led coalitions that have transformed the high school experience by integrating meaningful work-based learning opportunities and civics education for students. Moving forward, I hope to see more high schools try this approach and modernize what teenage students experience before heading off to college or the workforce. What works in one school or district may not translate directly to another community, but communities can learn from one another to develop programs that will work in their context.
This year, I hope to see more research on what type of innovation is necessary for transformational change, and more flexibility for high schools to be creative in preparing students for post-high school success. This is already happening in some places; for example, Indiana’s updated graduation requirements seek to provide more flexibility in the school day and help students prepare for enrollment in college, employment, or enlistment in the military.
2. Honest state assessment scores
When states have different standards of grade-level proficiency, it makes it hard to compare how students in Alabama are faring academically compared to students in Wyoming. While ambitious, aligning state standards with the proficiency expectations set by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) allows for this important type of comparison. Unfortunately, a February 2025 analysis by the Collaborative for Student Success shows that in 42 states, the gap between the state and NAEP proficiency scores was 10 percentage points or more in at least one subject and grade level, meaning that the state-reported proficiency levels were notably higher than those reported by NAEP.
This type of proficiency mismatch is a disservice to all parties: Parents do not receive an accurate picture of how their student is doing, employers and postsecondary educational institutions are less aware of the competencies their future workers and students have coming out of high school, and state and federal education agencies struggle to compare results to know where intervention may be most needed.
Some states have made progress in the right direction over the last year, and I hope to see more of that in the next. For example, Oklahoma returned to its previous, higher definition for proficiency this year after lowering standards in 2023, and the Virginia Board of Education is in the process of adjusting its proficiency levels.
3. Outcomes data from all schools that receive public funding
With the passage of so many private school choice laws this year, by the 2026-2027 school year, about half of students in the United States will have access to private school choice options. We believe that like public schools, any private school option receiving public funds should be accountable for student outcomes, which are vital to the health of the future workforce.
Many of the 30 states and D.C. that offer some sort of private school choice program have some sort of assessment requirement for such programs. However, not all assessment requirements for private school choice programs are created equal. Several state private school choice programs allow private providers to choose from a list of “nationally normed-referenced tests” that are not directly comparable to the assessment the public schools administer. Only two — Iowa and Indiana — hold private schools to the same standards as public schools in administering the statewide assessment, reporting the results to the state and parents, and publishing the results in state data reports. This year, I hope state policymakers will prioritize transparency and accountability by requiring private schools that receive public funding to report on outcomes.
Whether your school district has already returned to school or is about to do so, this time of year presents a ripe opportunity to think critically about the district’s goals for the year and whether their actions are aligned to meet them. My hope is that more educators, parents, and policymakers alike see this moment as a chance to work together toward a system that truly delivers for every student.
Read more from the Commerce Meets Classroom series.
About the author
Kyle Butler
Kyle Butler is senior manager of K-12 education programs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
