Go broad or go deep? I’m on the record suggesting the education field is tilting too far in the direction of specialization. If you’re interested in this question, I strongly recommend this podcast conversation between Patrick O’Shaughnessy and David Epstein. Epstein’s new book Range also looks promising.

Make sure to read Lauren Camera’s deep dive on the Census, and how including a citizenship question on the 2020 Census would affect schools.

Over at The Line, Andy Rotherham writes about America’s “crisis of purpose,” and what we can reasonably ask schools to do to resolve some of society’s thorniest problems.

Max Marchitello on a wonky but important story out of West Virginia. The state’s pension system is massively under-funded, biting into education budgets and teacher paychecks, and yet the state’s efforts to reform its pension plan didn’t go well. Max dives into what happened and what we can learn from it.

Smarter than the average ____? This is an interesting article on the intelligence of bears.

–Guest post by Chad Aldeman