Patrick Wolf

In honor of New Years, I'm counting down my 12 scholarly products released in the past 2 years, usually w/ help from colleagues & students, oldest to newest. 1st up is our finding that more education freedom is correlated with higher NAEP score gains. dx.doi.org/10.1080/155821…

STUDY ALERT: "#CharterSchools show higher average ELL performance in English language arts & mathematics, though differences vary by state & subject." @charteralliance @DeAngelisCorey @marcportermagee @Dyrnwyn @NeeravKingsland @RonZimmer8 @ErikaDonalds tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…

A new working paper out of the University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform explores the regulatory constraints on private schools in school choice states. @ua_edreform @mistygallo2 @colynritter24 @FlowTap1 edre.uark.edu/_resources/pdf…

New and updated for 2026, this essential report covers every school choice program in America. And you’ll find Arkansas ranks highly for its universal program! edchoice.org/research/the-a… #SchoolChoice #Research #LEARNSworks

Great essay by George Weigel: "The #SchoolChoice made possible by this federal tax credit scholarship program is a genuine social justice issue, and U.S. Catholics should bend every effort to ensure that every state opts in." @marcportermagee @Dyrnwyn @afcpress @NCEATALK @PioneerBoston @MNThinkTank Doing Justice While Making Catholic Schools Affordable firstthings.com/doing-justice-…

Terrific piece by @jasonrileywsj . My fav? "The argument that #schoolchoice diverts education resources has always been a red herring. To the extent that students leave traditional public schools for a charter school or private school and take the per-pupil expenditure with them, it’s true. But it also means their former school has fewer students to educate, and public schools don’t immediately lose funding when enrollment declines. Moreover, school spending and staffing has increased dramatically in recent years even while enrollment has steadily declined, meaning traditional public schools now have even more money to educate fewer students." wsj.com/opinion/school… via @WSJopinion

Arkansas Secretary of Education Jacob Oliva is terrific in this episode of @educationgadfly. Give it a listen! You'll be glad you did. Can Arkansas make teaching great again? open.substack.com/pub/educationg…

Wisdom from @rickhess99: Don’t mistake initial wins for lasting victories; Resist drinking the Kool-Aid; Listen with a purpose; Money is a mixed blessing; & Recognize that six-sevenths of the iceberg is out of sight. There, now you know! educationnext.org/five-lessons-f…

STUDY ALERT: Working paper on the effects of regulations on private school supply with @mistygallo2, @colynritter24 & me. We find that less regulation generally predicts more private schooling supply, with paperwork burdens & curricular mandates the most supply-restrictive. Available Space… The Final Frontier edre.uark.edu/_resources/pdf…

STUDY ALERT: My @ua_edreform colleagues Bob Maranto & Nathan Honeycutt just published this study in a top psychology journal. The most effective psych treatment, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, is grounded in human agency & therefore clashes with the victimology worldview of many young therapists. @IanVRowe sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

My @ua_edreform colleague @hpatrinos kills it slapping the bass for the rock band The Faction in this 1986 YouTube video. Glad he decided to give up musical stardom for the much more glamorous life of an academic department head! youtube.com/watch?v=B0eD3t…

And Indy charters achieved that performance advantage while being funded well below traditional public schools in the city, as Alison Johnson, @jbmcgee, Jay May, Larry Maloney & I reported. bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/wordpressua.ua…

STUDY ALERT: @RonZimmer8 & colleagues find "During the 2020–21 school year, #CharterSchool students performed similarly to traditional public school peers in mathematics and modestly outperformed them in English/language arts. In post-pandemic years, charter school students experienced greater achievement growth in both subjects, with moderate effect sizes." edworkingpapers.com/ai26-1477

@alexanderrusso They all copied me. 😉

Congrats -- and there were lots of folks who knew and said that it was going to be hard for blue states to turn down the dough.

Excellent post by @ua_edreform alum @mlueken2 & @colynritter24. Using NCES data, "The facts show that in states that adopted private #SchoolChoice, real public school spending per pupil rose after launch, & public school enrollment was modestly higher 5 years later." So much for the ubiquitous "drain claim." open.substack.com/pub/informedch…

This quote from July 2025 certainly aged well: “I suspect some of these blue and purple states will participate and take the free federal money, and that would mean an expansion, a geographic expansion, of access to private #SchoolChoice,” Wolf said. @afcpress @edchoice @Dyrnwyn @marcportermagee @DeAngelisCorey @JeanneAllen @alexanderrusso @ErikaDonalds @educationweek @EF_Institute

Big win for the Wolves!

I offer dozens of roses to all the heroic mothers on X on this #MothersDay

@GenTXer2 Dang, just spun it on the turntable three hours ago. Spooky

My Top 70 Albums Of The 70s ⭐️⭐️#1⭐️⭐️ Bruce Springsteen: Born To Run (1975) ⭐️39 minutes ⭐️8 glorious songs ⭐️perfect opener (Thunder Road) ⭐️perfect closer (Jungleland) ⭐️perfect in-betweens Ranked #21 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time.

The teachers unions are among the most politically powerful groups in the country, but in America’s 250th year, parent voices are getting louder. And some Democratic leaders are finally listening, writes @Tommy_USA on.wsj.com/4tnEllW

Winner of the 2026 Patrick Wolf Best Paper Prize, a terrific empirical study finding: "Classroom-based #CharterSchools serving high proportions of low-income students at all grade levels have lower chronic absenteeism rates than traditional public schools when controlling for key student and school characteristics." goo.gl/scholar/x4rJHe #ScholarAlerts