Thomas Toch is FutureEd’s director. He is a former senior partner at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and director of the foundation’s Washington office. Toch is a founder and former co-director of the think tank Education Sector, a former guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, and he has taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Toch helped launch Education Week, as a writer and co-managing editor. He served for a decade as an education correspondent and editor at U.S. News and World Report and has contributed to The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Post MagazineThe New Republic, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, The Wilson Quarterly, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Monthly. He is the author of two books on American education, In the Name of Excellence and High Schools on a Human Scale.

Work by Thomas Toch

A New, Bipartisan Agenda for Raising Student Achievement

This piece originally appeared in Washington Monthly. Amid Donald Trump’s campaign to dismantle the Department of Education, a recent report from one of its…

Medicaid Cuts Would Put Students At Risk

This piece originally appeared in The Hill. The nation’s schools, already reeling from plunging test scores and culture war controversies…

A New Blueprint for State Standardized Testing

This piece originally appeared in Education Next. Statewide standardized testing has played a central role in education policy for decades…

The New NAEP Scores Highlight a Standards Gap in Many States

One of the most striking features of today’s troubling report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) on student achievement in public and…

A Cautionary Tale About School Closings

As commentators have warned, a perfect storm of financial trouble — declining enrollment, outdated buildings and the end of federal pandemic-relief funds — is…

Could Tutoring Be the Next Big Bipartisan School Reform?

This piece originally appeared in Washington Monthly. For most people, the lesson of pandemic schooling was that remote learning was an unmitigated disaster for…

None of the Above: A New Vision for State Standardized Testing

A blueprint proposing a new role for state standardized tests that aims to promote high standards, enhance transparency for policymakers and parents, and strongly emphasize teaching and learning.

Testimony: How to Retain Teacher Talent in the District of Columbia

FutureEd Director Thomas Toch presented written testimony to the Council of the District of Columbia on December 8, 2023, addressing principal and teacher…