Essays and investigations.
CEP’s long-form writing, organized into series. New pieces run in the newsletter first and are collected here.
CEP · A series
Theories of Progress
4 features
What education is for, and why excellence is the point — the ideas underneath everything else we publish.
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Schools Should Pursue Excellence Fifty years of education policy has chased one goal: closing the gaps between students. The case for a different one — raising the ceiling, and letting every child climb as far and as fast as they can. -
Freddie deBoer is Wrong and Education Reformers Must Care about Learning Moving beyond anti-capitalism in education policy -
Exceptionally Gifted Children Miraca Gross followed 60 children with IQs above 160 for 20 years. Those allowed to accelerate thrived; those held back with age peers did not. -
Anarchy and Overregulation in American Education The administrative state reshaped every American institution, schooling included. Thomas Briggs on a system that manages to be overregulated and ungoverned at the same time.
CEP · A series
Attacks on Excellence
4 features
Case studies in leveling down: the programs dismantled, the courses removed, and how it happens.
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The Algebra Gatekeepers Tens of thousands of high-scoring North Carolina students were never enrolled in advanced math. When districts finally looked at who got in, test scores turned out to be the least of it. -
Dropping the Ball The expert behind New York's bad plan to improve math instruction doubled down. We do, too. -
A Brief History of San Francisco's Middle School Algebra Mess In March 2026, the Board voted for a plan that only pretends to restore access to middle-school algebra classes in the district. -
Hobson v. Hansen and the Decline of D.C. Schools Washington, D.C. once had three of the finest predominantly black public schools in the country. How the 1967 ruling that ended tracking in the District helped unmake them.
CEP · A series
The Schoolhouse
1 feature
Practical guides for parents and teachers working the system their kids are actually in.
The books and papers behind the arguments.
An annotated shelf of what shaped our thinking — in progress, and growing as we publish. Until it's complete, the newsletter archive is the fullest record.
Our Education Reading List
An ongoing map of useful efforts to address excellence within education.
Browse →
Collected Essays: 2025–2026
Twenty essays from the Center's first two years — the case for excellence, the policy fights, and the classrooms proving it — gathered into a single readable edition.
Browse →CEP · Model policy
Model Policy
1 proposal
The policy series — numbered proposals translating the pro-excellence framework into language authorities could adopt as written. The citable copies live in Research.