The Delta

Mississippi and Louisiana have become the poster children for the “Southern Surge” in academic achievement. But we think there’s another state that deserves a spot in the conversation: Arkansas. Arkansas passed the ambitious LEARNS Act in 2023, and since then, state leaders have been hard at work making it real in classrooms. Now, they’re starting to see results: Student performance improved in ev...

Mississippi’s literacy gains have become one of the biggest education success stories of the last decade. But as Dr. Kymyona Burk explains in this week’s The Delta , those gains didn’t happen overnight. They were the result of years of sustained work to turn good policy into better instruction in classrooms. Watershed CEO Kunjan Narechania sits down with Dr. Burk, Mississippi’s former State Litera...

There are fewer kids in public schools. But in many places, there aren’t fewer schools. Closing schools is never a conversation leaders are eager to have—but keeping half-full schools open can mean less for the things that make kids and teachers excited about school, from sports and arts to advanced courses and support staff. In this week’s The Delta , Jessica Baghian sits down with Gabriela Fighe...

Starting in 2027, Americans will be able to receive a federal tax credit of up to $1,700 for donating to a nonprofit that administers education scholarships. It’s called the Education Freedom Tax Credit, and it has the potential to change how money flows into K-12 education. In this edition of The Delta, Kunjan Narechania sits down with Deborah A. Gist, former Commissioner of Education in Rhode Is...

For more than 40 years, every child in America has had the right to attend public schools regardless of immigration status. In this week's Delta, Jessica Baghian sits down with Hanseul Kang to talk about pending legislation in Oklahoma, Texas, and Tennessee that would require schools to verify students' immigration status at enrollment. Hanseul has held some of the most demanding jobs in public ed...

Most teachers are women. So why aren’t most superintendents? We’re continuing our Women’s History Month series with Dr. Julia Rafal-Baer , CEO of ILO Group and Women Leading Ed , to take a closer look at what’s driving the gender gap in education leadership. We’ve made significant strides to close the gap in recent years, and more women than ever are stepping into education leadership, but the pat...

The education field talks a lot about preparing students for the future. But what do students think they need to be prepared? In this week’s Delta, Kaya Henderson, Executive Vice President and Executive Director at the Aspen Institute’s Center for Rising Generations, shares what she’s learning from young people—and how different the conversation looks when they’re brought in as partners, not just...

In this week’s Delta, Jessica Baghian sits down with Heather Peske, President of The National Council on Teacher Quality, who puts it plainly: If we are serious about improving outcomes for students, we have to be equally serious about the experience of the adults who make those outcomes possible. This conversation takes a deep dive into the day-to-day decisions teachers are making—from housing to...

In this Women’s History Month conversation, Kunjan Narechania sits down with Frances Messano, CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund, to talk about why this is not a moment for small adjustments in education. Drawing on Frances’ recent manifesto,  Building Anew, Not Rebuilding , the two explore why the traditional K–12 model no longer fits the world young people are entering, what AI and a shifting labor...

Watershed Advisors President Jessica Baghian sits down with Lindsay Fryer, President of Lodestone DC and former senior advisor on federal education policy, to unpack what’s changing in Washington—and what it means for states and education leaders.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall in Louisiana on August 29, 2005. As we reflect on this defining moment for Louisiana and the country, we’re sharing our first-ever podcast edition of The Delta. Join Kunjan Narechania and Jessica Baghian for a conversation about lessons learned from the disaster recovery and what has changed in the 20 years since Katrin...

Cell phone use in schools has become one of the most persistent, and complicated, challenges educators are navigating right now. In this episode of the Delta, Kunjan Narechania sits down with Angela Duckworth to discuss early insights from Phones in Focus, a national survey capturing what tens of thousands of teachers are seeing in classrooms across the country. The conversation explores why some...

When the internet entered classrooms, leaders had to learn new tools and build guardrails for their students at the same time. We’re in a similar moment with AI, and state leaders are once again being asked to make policy at a moment of rapid technological change. In this episode of the Delta, Jessica Baghian sits down with John Bailey , former Director of Educational Technology at the U.S. Depart...