5 cheat sheets for parents of preschoolers When my oldest child was a 2-year-old, we relocated to a new state and I found myself back at square one with my search for child care. In my new city, I now had a very good problem: There was an abundance of programs with availability, and I had a choice…

OPINION: Funding high-quality teacher preparation programs should be the highest priority for policymakers   By dismantling the Department of Education, the Trump administration claims to be returning control of education to the states. And while states and local school districts are doing their…

TEACHER VOICE: I’m a new, male kindergarten teacher in rural Missouri. Extra support made a huge difference to my class I was the only guy in my education classes at Missouri State University, and until this year I was the only male out of nearly 100 teachers in my school. My approach to teaching…

OPINION: It will take patience and courage to fix K-12 education without the Department of Education The Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education this week provides a rare opportunity to rethink our current top-down approach to school governance. We should jump on it.…

She wanted to keep her son in his school district. It was more challenging than it seemed This story was produced by the Associated Press and reprinted with permission. ATLANTA — It was the worst summer in years. Sechita McNair’s family took no vacations. Her younger boys didn’t go to camp. Her…

Colleges ease the dreaded admissions process as the supply of applicants declines PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. — As she approached her senior year in high school, the thought of moving on to college was “scary and intimidating” to Milianys Santiago — especially since she would be the first in her family to…

Why one reading expert says ‘just-right’ books are all wrong. @jillbarshay.bsky.social explains in her latest video. www.youtube.com/shorts/zL_SY...

Do male teachers make a difference? Not as much as some think The teaching profession is one of the most female-dominated in the United States. Among elementary school teachers, 89 percent are women, and in kindergarten, that number is almost 97 percent. Many sociologists, writers and parents have…

STUDENT VOICE: College students are tired of being told that we ‘should be grateful’ for our internships. We also want to get paid Imagine clocking out of an eight-hour shift and your compensation is a pat on the back and experience for your resume. This scenario is a disturbing reality for around…

How young is too young for gifted testing? In New Orleans, a few hundred dollars could once help a family buy a “gifted” designation for their preschooler. As an education reporter for the city’s Times-Picayune newspaper several years ago, I discovered that there was a two-tiered system for…

Advocates warn of risks to higher ed data if Education Department is shuttered Even with the government shut down, lots of people are thinking about how to reimagine federal education research. Public comments on how to reform the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the Education Department’s…

Trump administration cuts canceled this college student’s career start in politics This story was produced in partnership with Teen Vogue and reprinted with permission. Christopher Cade wants to be president someday. His inspiration largely comes from family members, who have been involved in…

OPINION: Too many college graduates are stranded before their careers can even begin. We can’t let that happen This fall, some 19 million undergraduates returned to U.S. campuses with a long-held expectation: Graduate, land an entry-level job, climb the career ladder. That formula is breaking…

Federal policies risk worsening an already dire rural teacher shortage HALIFAX COUNTY, N.C. — When Ivy McFarland first traveled from her native Honduras to teach elementary Spanish in North Carolina, she spent a week in Chapel Hill for orientation. By the end of that week, McFarland realized the…

Universal vouchers have public schools worried about something new: market share TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — As principal of Hartsfield Elementary School in the Leon County School District, John Olson is not just the lead educator, but in this era of fast-expanding school choice, also its chief…

Students worried about getting jobs are adding extra majors After he graduates from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Drew Wesson hopes to begin a career in strategic communication, a field with higher-than-average job growth and earnings. One year into his time at the university, Wesson became…

OPINION: The new AI tools are fast but can’t replace the judgment, care and cultural knowledge teachers bring to the table The year I co-taught world history and English language arts with two colleagues, we were tasked with telling the story of the world in 180 days to about 120 ninth graders. We…

What research says about Mamdani and Cuomo’s education proposals New York City, where I live, will elect a new mayor Tuesday, Nov. 4. The two front runners — state lawmaker Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, running as an independent — have largely ignored the…

Child care crisis deepens as funding slashed for poor families The first hint of trouble for McKinley Hess came in August. Hess, who runs an infant and toddler care program in Conway, Arkansas, heard that the teen moms she serves were having trouble getting their expected child care assistance…

We’re testing preschoolers for giftedness. Experts say that doesn’t work When I was a kindergartner in the 1980s, the “gifted” programming for my class could be found inside of a chest. I don’t know what toys and learning materials lived there, since I wasn’t one of the handful of presumably more…

‘The clock is ticking’: Shutdown imperils food, child care for many For families in more than a hundred Head Start programs across the country, November could mark the beginning of some hard decisions. On Saturday, 134 Head Start centers serving 58,400 children would normally receive their annual…

OPINION: Young men are increasingly lonely, isolated and reading less Young men in America today are feeling lonely and socially isolated. They are not going to college, entering the workplace or going on dates as often as young men did in prior generations. In my years teaching literacy, I’ve…

Why one reading expert says ‘just-right books’ are all wrong Timothy Shanahan, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has spent his career evaluating education research and helping teachers figure out what works best in the classroom. A leader of the National Reading Panel,…

OPINION: Student-parents belong on college campuses. So do their children Too many student-parents never make it to graduation, in no small part because their campuses don’t adequately help them fit college into their lives — or even just fit in. Yet over 3 million student-parents across the…

More first-generation students in Texas are applying for college DALLAS — Adrian Torres’ obsession with race cars began when he was 11 years old. He got hooked watching a YouTube video of someone playing a Formula One game and quickly grew fascinated with the race cars themselves. In high school,…

Teachers unions leverage contracts to fight climate change This story first appeared in Hechinger’s climate and education newsletter. Sign up here. In Illinois, the Chicago Teachers Union won a contract with the city’s schools to add solar panels on some buildings and clean energy career pathways…

OPINION: A shuttered government was not the lesson I hoped my Texas students would learn on a trip to Washington, D.C.  After decades serving in the Marine Corps and in education, I know firsthand that servant leadership and diplomacy can and should be taught. That’s why I hoped to bring 32 high…

At Moms for Liberty summit, parents urged to turn their grievances into lawsuits KISSIMMEE, Fla. — It’s not a rebrand. But the Moms for Liberty group that introduced itself three years ago as a band of female “joyful warriors” shedding domestic modesty to make raucous public challenges to masks,…

Cellphone bans can help kids learn — but Black students are suspended more as schools make the shift Thirty states now limit or ban cellphone use in classrooms, and teachers are noticing children paying attention to their lessons again. But it’s not clear whether this policy — unpopular with…

OPINION: We cannot let higher education become a gated community for the wealthy, but that’s exactly where it is headed Washington lawmakers and the Trump administration passed a major legislative package this summer that will cut funding for programs that help students from low-income backgrounds…

Parents, advocates alarmed as Trump leverages shutdown to gut special education department Two months after Education Secretary Linda McMahon was confirmed, she and a small team from the department met with leadership from the National Center for Learning Disabilities, an advocacy group that works…

Getting preemies the help they need Every year, tens of thousands of infants are born prematurely, at a low birthweight, or with other conditions that would make them automatically eligible for therapeutic services that could help them thrive. When everything goes smoothly, early intervention…

As more question the value of a degree, colleges fight to prove their return on investment This story was produced by the Associated Press and reprinted with permission. WASHINGTON – For a generation of young Americans, choosing where to go to college — or whether to go at all — has become a…

Big Oil should help foot the bill for lost school time, students say Last January, Diego Sandoval’s high school in San Diego County closed abruptly one Friday because of wildfires menacing the Southern California area. Classmates evacuated their homes as the fire spread. Frida Vergara, whose…

NJ advisory group to probe how students with disabilities are separated from their peers  In New Jersey, fewer than half of 6- and 7-year-olds in special education spend the vast majority of their day with their classmates without disabilities. That might change, though, because a state special…

Red school boards in a blue state asked Trump for help — and got it MEAD, Wash. — A few weeks after President Donald Trump took office, the conservative school board leaders in this town near the Idaho border made a bet. They would pit one Washington against the other and see what happened. For…

Some social emotional lessons improve how kids do at school, Yale study finds Social emotional learning — lessons in soft skills like listening to people you disagree with or calming yourself down before a test — has become a flashpoint in the culture wars.  The conservative political group Moms…

After years of quietly falling, college tuition is on the rise again Summer usually provides a respite for Connor Pavlicko from his duties as student body president at Slippery Rock University. But this summer, he was bombarded by classmates demanding to know why their tuition was suddenly going…

TEACHER VOICE: My students don’t need to be taught resilience. They demonstrate it every single day I teach introductory college courses to aspiring medical assistants, medical coding and billing specialists, dental assistants and pharmacy technicians. I tell them that college — and life — will…

Many children with ADHD miss a crucial step in treatment When pediatricians diagnose preschoolers with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, there are clear steps they are supposed to take. Families should first be referred to behavior therapy, which teaches caregivers how to better support…

COLUMN: Trump’s push for ‘patriotic’ education could further chill history instruction High school history teacher Antoine Stroman says he wants his students to ask “the hard questions” — about slavery, Jim Crow, the murder of George Floyd and other painful episodes that have shaped the United…

Nurses are in high demand. Why can’t nursing schools keep up? LOS ANGELES — Oscar Mateo dreamed of being an artist, but after he got leukemia when he was 20, his life plans abruptly changed. The compassionate nursing care he received while hospitalized touched him so much that he decided he wanted…

OPINION: Higher education must help shape how students learn, lead and build the skills employers want most   For the first time in more than a decade, confidence in the nation’s colleges and universities is rising. Forty-two percent of Americans now say they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot”…

Spend more federal money on child care, rural parents say Hello! This is Christina Samuels, the early education editor here at Hechinger. By now, I hope you’ve had a chance to read my colleague Jackie Mader’s story about the important role that Head Start plays in rural communities. While Jackie…

STUDENT VOICE: Learning to debate is an important facet of education, but too often public school students are left out  Ever since I first stepped onto the debate stage, I have been passionate about speech and debate. For the last three of my high school years, I have competed and placed…

Education Department takes a preliminary step toward revamping its research and statistics arm In his first two months in office, President Donald Trump ordered the closing of the Education Department and fired half of its staff. The department’s research and statistics division, called the…

OPINION: We need more ‘math people’ in our country. Let’s boost learning beyond the traditional school day  As a teacher, I heard it all the time: “I’m not a math person.” I would be in line at the grocery store, wearing a math T-shirt one of my students got for me, and I’d hear it: “Algebra? Who…

Fires, floods and other disasters are multiplying. Schools are adding training for workers to combat them      WATSONVILLE, Calif. — Gavin Abundis watched as firefighter Adrian Chairez demonstrated how he uses pulleys and harnesses to rappel down buildings. “You’ve probably seen it in the movies…

Congress exempted beauty schools from rules about how much graduates should earn Remiah Ward’s shift at the SmartStyle salon inside Walmart was almost over, and she’d barely made $30 in tips from the haircuts she’d done that day. It wasn’t unusual — a year after her graduation from beauty school,…

So you went to trade school. Do you out-earn high school grads in your state? Schools that train hairstylists, dental assistants and health aides will be able to keep getting federal student loan dollars even if the professionals they turn out don't end up earning any more than a high school…