The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Stuart Foundation are pleased to co-sponsor this series of diverse essays on the purpose of public education. The authors write from different vantage points, but each takes seriously a core question: In a time of widespread change, what is public education for, and how can it evolve to meet its promise?
Scaling proven solutions to the early childhood skills gap requires building a market for parenting interventions.
Children can be taught to identify false health claims online, and the benefits can spread to their parents.
The Spring 2026 cover story examines how to invest in human flourishing in the age of AI. Plus: two important critiques of contemporary philanthropy and a new academic editor.
Large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination, not the isolated intervention of individual organizations.
American educators, policymakers, and philanthropists are overselling the role of the highly skilled individual teacher and undervaluing the benefits that come from teacher collaborations.
Both human-centered and systems-thinking methods fit within an effective design approach, and can work in conjunction to address social challenges.
Research from the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and its partners shows how to help children learn amid erratic access to schools during a pandemic, and how those solutions may make progress toward the Sustainable Development Goal of ensuring a quality education for all by 2030.
How standardized testing, gentrification, school choice, and economic downturn have widened inequality to create an existential threat to democracy.
