by Dr. Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Research Scientist There is an interesting article on the Washington Post website dated yesterday (November 18, 2025) about how race is aligned with who gets to take algebra in middle school. The thesis of the article is that early algebra is offered less to Black and Hispanic students than other students, including and especially White and Asian … Continue reading It’s All About the Math
by Dr. Watson Scott Swail, President & CEO, Educational Policy Institute I am stunned how many really bright people still want to fix college during the college years. OK, let’s back up. What do I mean? The biggest challenges with college, with regard to college access and completion, occur way, way before a student approaches matriculation. College access is fundamentally about academic preparation. All other … Continue reading Addressing our Higher Education Woes
By Watson Scott Swail, President and CEO of Educational Policy Institute and EPI International The National Council on Education & the Economy, the organization led by Marc Tucker, released a series of new reports on Tuesday called What Does it Really Mean to be College and Career Ready? The reports, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and focusing on mathematics and English, explore what is … Continue reading How Much Mathematics is Enough?
By Watson Scott Swail, President and CEO of Educational Policy Institute and EPI International On May 20, The Texas State Board of Education voted to what some people have called “whitewashing” the history and social studies curriculum in the state to counterbalance “liberal-leaning academics.” Some of the changes debated included adding and deleting current political figures from third-grade social studies standards, dismissing the “socialist” United Migrant Workers, … Continue reading Leading by (a Bad) Example
By Watson Scott Swail, President and CEO of Educational Policy Institute This past week I was privileged to speak with the faculty and Board of Governors of Fanshawe College in London, Ontario. Fanshawe College is an example of a decades-old institution that has undergone massive growth in the new millennium. Today, Fanshawe serves 16,000 full-time students and approximately 30,000 part-time students. The campus is immaculate; state-of-the-art, … Continue reading (What) to Be, or What not to Be
The Swail Letter on Higher Education 