Top stories from December 18-January 4:

📌 DISTRICT DYSFUNCTION: The Post’s Perry Stein and Laura Meckler combined for a look inside the mess that DCPS and many other school systems and teachers unions have made of school reopening so far in 2020-2021 (above). 

📌 SURPRISE NOMINEE: On Democracy Now!, Diane Ravitch described EdSec nominee Miguel Cardona as a surprise pick, which he most certainly was. I’m still hoping that the details of his selection (and the Biden-Harris school testing program) will soon emerge.

📌 COVID RELIEF: EdWeek’s PK-12 team described the last-minute COVID relief deal providing $57 billion in funding for K-12 schools as “victory without joy,” which seems like a fair description of what happened. 

📌 REMOTE, REMOTE: The NYT’s Juliana Kim wrote an intense story about how some English languages learners are at risk of losing their language skills, regressing academically the way parents are reporting kids regressing socio-emotionally. 

📌 JOURNALISTS AS PARENTS: If you clocked out a little earlier than the rest of us, you might have missed Noreen Malone's much-debated December 18 feature in Slate about the conflict among Brookline (Mass.) parents, educators, and government officials over whether or not it's safe to let some kids attend school in person. WBUR public radio host Meghna Chakrabarti plays a key role. 

Some newsroom comings and goings you may have missed:

🚨 Jen Calfas is the WSJ’s new national K-12 education reporter, replacing the irreplaceable Tawnell Hobbs, who was promoted to the investigative team last year.

🚨 New York Times veteran Jim Dao will be continuing to help coordinate the paper's national education coverage, as he's been doing since August. 

🚨 Washington Post veteran Kathryn Tolbert hasn’t yet formally been named the permanent editor of the education team, but I’m told the announcement is coming soon (maybe even today).

🚨 EdSource executive director Louis Freedberg surprised everyone when he announced that he was stepping down as executive editor. A replacement has yet to be named; you can apply for the job here. 

Want education news and commentary all day, every day? Follow @thegrade_ for daily news clips and @alexanderrusso for commentary.