Spring Reset: What’s Next for K-12 and Higher Ed
From funding volatility to grade inflation debates, education leaders are navigating a season of recalibration. Here’s what’s driving decisions, and where momentum is building across K–12 and higher ed.
The Ed5: Spring’s Stories, Stats, and Shifts
Federal Funding Chaos & Policy Uncertainty – While Congress preserved most federal education funding, agency staffing changes, regulatory shifts, and new compliance priorities continue to create operational uncertainty for districts and colleges. From research funding scrutiny to evolving civil rights enforcement and accreditation reform discussions, institutions are navigating policy turbulence even without dramatic budget cuts.
0to5 Insight: The biggest risk in 2026 isn’t funding loss, but unpredictability. Leaders who build flexible budgets, strengthen data transparency, and plan for regulatory shifts will be best positioned to weather continued uncertainty.
- The Enrollment Reckoning – Enrollment pressure is intensifying across sectors. In K-12, public districts are actively recruiting students, and school closures are rising in some regions. In higher education, while overall enrollment is up in some
categories, tuition discounting, and sustainability concerns persist. Dual enrollment continues to grow as families seek cost-effective pathways.
0to5 Insight: Enrollment is a trust and value story. Institutions that clearly articulate outcomes – academic growth, career pathways, and student support – will outperform those relying on legacy reputation alone.
- Workforce Realignment: CTE & the AI Economy – Demand for skilled trades and AI-adjacent roles is accelerating as infrastructure, data centers, and advanced manufacturing expand. Momentum is building behind Workforce Pell Grants, career and technical education, apprenticeships, and industry-aligned credentials, challenging the traditional four-year college dominance narrative
0to5 Insight: The cultural hierarchy of postsecondary pathways is flattening. Schools and colleges that integrate academic rigor with workforce alignment will lead the next phase of economic mobility.
- Grade Inflation & the College Readiness Question – GPA averages continue to climb in many districts and high schools, even as national assessments show uneven academic recovery. At the same time, many colleges remain test-optional or test-blind, while others
are reinstating standardized testing requirements. The result: families, admissions offices, and employers are grappling with how to interpret transcripts, assess readiness, and distinguish achievement in an era of compressed grading scales.
0to5 Insight: As grading standards blur and testing policies shift, institutions will need clearer signals of mastery, whether through competency-based transcripts, performance assessments, or stronger alignment between high school outcomes and college expectations.
- Academic Recovery Meets Mental Health Reality – Chronic absenteeism remains elevated, literacy recovery is uneven, and counseling shortages persist. At the same time, early-warning attendance models and proactive family engagement strategies are showing measurable impact. Student performance and well-being are increasingly viewed as inseparable.
0to5 Insight: Recovery in 2026 is less about new mandates and more about earlier intervention. The institutions seeing improvement are those using data to drive empathetic outreach, turning insight into timely action before challenges compound.
Research and Data
New research is offering fresh insight into some of the most important issues in education today. Below are several recent findings shaping strategy across K–12 and higher education.
- The 74 reports that a new survey of 23,000+ parents finds nearly 1 in 4 U.S. students has received tutoring since the pandemic, with 60% strongly supporting free tutoring for struggling students. Support for Education Savings Accounts is also rising, while enthusiasm for annual standardized testing has fallen,
with just 29% expressing strong support.
- In a recent survey of 1,250 Gen Z respondents, 6 in 10 said they plan to pursue skilled trades such as construction, electrical work, or manufacturing, reflecting a growing shift toward careers offering stability and reliable pay over traditional white-collar paths.
- A new analysis from SchoolStatus of attendance data from 1.17 million students across 146 districts finds continued improvement in student attendance, with chronic absenteeism dropping to 18.98%—more than two points lower than last year. Notably, socio-economically disadvantaged and homeless students showed some of the strongest gains, helping narrow long-standing attendance gaps as districts adopt more proactive family engagement strategies.
- A new Lumina–Gallup study finds a disconnect between public perceptions of higher education and student experiences: national confidence in colleges fell from 57% in 2015 to 36% in 2024, though it rebounded to 42% in 2025. Yet the vast majority of students say their degrees are preparing them for careers and worth the investment, with 93% reporting confidence they are learning job-relevant skills.
Ed5 Pulse
Introducing Ed5 Pulse: One question, multiple perspectives. A quick look at how leaders across education are interpreting the signals shaping student success today. This issue, we asked:
What signal about student success is most misunderstood right now?
“The most misunderstood signal of student success is the graduation rate because we constantly confuse a systemic output – getting a diploma – with an actual educational outcome – real-world readiness. We have to stop assuming that simply pushing a student through the system means they are truly prepared for what comes next.” – Katie Clark, Senior Director of Marketing at YouScience
“An F is a story about something that already went wrong for a student. A second absence or tardy in a short window is a story still unfolding. Reach out early, with care, and you can help write a happy ending.” – Dr. Kara Stern, Director of Education, SchoolStatus
"One thing that is potentially misunderstood about student success is how it is measured. I've been tracking parent perceptions of their students' progress in school, and it is often a more positive or "they are doing just fine" perception that doesn't match indicators like state assessments or national results from NAEP. I think more focus needs to be placed on how that gap between parental/student understanding and other metrics, like assessment and teacher feedback, can be closed so everyone is on the same page when it comes to student progress."
– Simona Beattie, Communications Director, NWEA Division of HMH
#EdWatch: What Reporters Are Sharing
What’s driving the education conversation right now? In this edition of #EdWatch, we’re highlighting recent posts from reporters across the education, tech, and policy beats.
The 74 K–12 reporter Amanda Geduld spoke with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani about a proposal to launch the nation’s first universal 2-K program. The plan, called “2-Care,” would build on NYC’s free pre-K and 3-K programs and reflects a broader push to treat early childhood education as a public good rather than a privilege.
“The LMS helped colleges adapt to the internet. The question now is whether it can adapt to AI.” In a recent Future U podcast, education journalist and best-selling author Michael B. Horn joined NYT best-selling author Jeff Selingo and Matthew Pittinsky, the founder of Blackboard, to explore how generative AI could reshape one of higher ed's most entrenched technologies.
A new federal tax credit program created by last year's tax and spending bill is putting Democratic governors in a bind, says Laura Meckler, national education reporter for the Washington Post. But the nation's first federal program is making an offer that may be too hard to refuse. States that opt in could direct federal tax dollars toward private school vouchers. If they say no, their states will lose out on a potentially large stream of federal funding that could help public school students, too.
Spotlight: Coverage That Made an Impact
Here are a few top education placements secured by 0to5 this past quarter — plus a look behind the scenes at how the stories came together.
A Wall Street Journal feature looks at white-collar professionals who have switched careers midlife, including a Concorde Career Colleges graduate who left a banking job to train as a cardiovascular sonographer. Her story highlights how short-term training and continuing education programs are helping adults pivot into in-demand healthcare roles without returning to a traditional four-year degree.
The Hill covered new NWEA research finding that nearly six years after the pandemic, highlighting uneven academic recovery nationwide and the need for targeted support for schools still behind; the story was also widely syndicated to additional outlets. 0to5 pitched the research to ed policy reporter Lexi Lonas Cochran, leveraging a relationship built over time and a strong understanding of the data-driven policy stories she covers.
To mark National School Choice Week, Zer0 to 5ive secured a LiberatED podcast interview for Laurel Springs School, a leading private online academy, where host Kerry McDonald spoke with Head of School Alyssa Tormala about the growing demand for private online education and why families around the world are choosing Laurel Springs.
