Spill The News

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Higher education is under siege, with many students and parents balking at high costs. In a series of op-eds, university leaders lay out their efforts to keep college affordable. This is the first in the series. For many people across the…

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WINOOSKI, Vt. — The day’s class started with a writing prompt: Do you feel safe in school? Why or why not? The students — whose families hail from across the globe and speak languages including Arabic, Nepali, Spanish and Somali — wrote…

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Absenteeism is a huge and seemingly intractable problem for the nation’s public schools. And Michigan has one of the worst attendance rates in the country. That makes it a prime target for researchers. In hundreds of schools, more than 3…

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Since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, the White House and Congress have worked aggressively to overhaul federal student financial aid. On July 1, many of those efforts will come to fruition. Student borrowers will begin…

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In my English and writing classes, I ask my students to interrogate fictional character bots. The first time I assigned this project, I worried that I would get them addicted to Character.AI — arguably the most seductive and addictive type…

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — On a late February afternoon, a dozen or so Sacramento State students, all current or former foster youth, filed into the office of the university’s Guardian Scholars Program for a financial aid workshop that promised…

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Juan Lozada’s grandson missed out on almost his entire fifth-grade year at his dual language elementary school in San Antonio, Texas. All because of a child-friendly knife, marketed as safe for ages 3 and up, that the boy brought to school…

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When Glennys Torres was looking for summer child care for her kids, she envisioned a program full of outdoor play and time spent with friends. But Torres quickly realized she didn’t have many options because of the cost. Each summer, she…

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Angela Comfort still can’t explain exactly what went wrong. Her son, Jordan, an honors student in Garland, Texas, got in trouble with school officials this February for distributing flyers on campus about a protest against Immigration and…

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Every year, Texas sends more than 100,000 students to its system of disciplinary schools, known as disciplinary alternative education programs. When the state legislature established DAEPs in 1995, during rising national concern about…

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LINCOLN, Neb. — From the air, the spring landscape here is a vast expanse of brown farmland stretching out below, ready for farmers to dig in and plant their corn and soybeans, the state’s two top crops. But what flying above Nebraska…

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There’s a tectonic shift underway that most Americans may not think about, but see every day when they take their pets to the vet or their kids to the dentist, need a lawyer or an eye exam, see a therapist or pick up a prescription: More…

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OKLAHOMA CITY — The most exciting thing about Lindel Fields, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction, is how boring he is. Sitting in a state education office conference room recently while his office was under renovation, Fields…

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In the past decade, student achievement has stagnated or declined around the world as cellphones have become nearly ubiquitous Gen Z and Gen Alpha accessories. Educators from Florida to Sweden to Rio de Janeiro are responding with an…

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If we want genuine, future-ready graduates, state policy and school curriculum decision-makers should start looking at the career technical education (CTE) playbook. High schools have been working hard to expand and diversify prospects for…

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PHILADELPHIA — The college gym is packed with employers offering work opportunities, but Jimmy Myers, a freshman at Drexel University, has come to the career fair to speak with just one of them: the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation…

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It seems like a tale of two school systems. Washington, D.C., has emerged as the fastest-improving school system in the nation, according to a major new analysis of student test scores released last week by researchers at Stanford, Harvard…

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Chronic absenteeism has become one of the defining challenges facing American schools. Students are missing more school than they did before the pandemic, when absenteeism was already labeled a national crisis. The consequences are serious…

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MIDLAND, Texas — Dylan Ruiz sat in front of a nearly 6-foot-tall structure, a jumble of pumps and valves that simulate the flow of liquids and pressure changes. He was working through a training scenario on preventing oil leaks during his…

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DANIELSON, Conn. — Inside the carpentry classroom at Harvard H. Ellis Technical High School in eastern Connecticut, three dozen sophomores and juniors are building cabinets and framing walls. Saws buzz, hammers clank and sandpaper…

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AMHERST, Mass. — Crowding around a fire pit outside the Amherst College campus center, earnest-looking high school seniors offered fire-building suggestions as intently as if they were taking a final exam. “This is our test of how rural…

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OGDEN, Utah — The syllabus in 18-year-old Madelynn Wells’ introductory film studies class assigned “Jaws” first, and then the Spanish dark comedy “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.” She said she watched those, and did the written…

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Public school is the first place most Americans meet democracy. It is also, for almost all of them, the last place they experience it without a vote. School boards are elected by adults, staffed by adults and run for adults. They make…

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Parents and educators intuitively know the many benefits of singing and music for young children. It’s why children learn the alphabet through song, PBS’ Daniel Tiger sings to teach emotional regulation, and lullabies are used to lull…

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Online shopping. Smartphones with 5G. Meal delivery. Instantaneous access to information. So much of the world has speeded up. But college seems to take forever. Now change may be coming to long-standing practices that slow students down.…

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This story was produced by the Associated Press, in partnership with Chalkbeat and AL.com , and reprinted with permission. MODESTO, Calif. – Before every important test, teacher Nancy Barajas dims the lights, turns on a disco ball and…

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Schools routinely administer academic assessments to get a handle on what incoming students know, and how best to help them learn more. They should do the same for what’s going on inside a student’s heart, taking a lesson from “ the…

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BROOKLINE, Mass. — Claire Galloway-Jones stepped up to lead the Brookline school district’s Office of Educational Equity in July 2023 at a time when families, staff and students were losing trust. The wealthy, coveted district on Boston’s…

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SAN DIEGO — As an 8-year-old boy steered his bicycle in figure eights, his mother piled three plates with pizza and pineapple slices from an outdoor kitchen shared with more than a dozen other families who call this parking lot home. She…

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Three-year bachelor’s degrees are no longer merely a thought experiment. In my home state of Massachusetts, the board of higher education announced in February that it will accept pilot proposals for these three-year degrees. Across the…

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Students who attend schools near data centers are more likely to see their math performance decline than those who don’t. Attending school near noisy airports is also associated with declines in math scores. After…

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In the last half of 2025, Gertrudis Espinal watched as, one by one, children left the child care program she runs out of her home in the Bronx. The city had run out of voucher money that her families needed to pay for care, and by…

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Right now, we are asking the wrong questions about AI in education. The conversation is dominated by asking what the technology can do — How fast can it generate content? Personalize practice? Analyze data? But far less attention is being…

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Career “pathways” have become a big idea in high school reform. The goal is to give all students a structured sequence of courses in a career field, along with early exposure to the workplace and opportunities to build practical,…

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When I taught middle school math, some of my worst days as a teacher were spent sitting at an uncomfortable cafeteria table, watching someone slog through a PowerPoint about strategies for classroom management or student engagement. Like…

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For too long, higher education has acted as if learning only counts when it happens inside a classroom. Millions of Americans know otherwise. Opportunity should not require relocation, excessive debt or navigating systems built for someone…

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It hadn’t occurred to Ryan that going to college could endanger his parents’ safety, until he was halfway through filling out the financial aid form. He sat in his room at his computer, staring at the box he had to click acknowledging that…

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There’s a growing backlash to educational technology in the classroom, as I described in my story co-published with The New York Times in March. To dig deeper into the topic, I led a Hechinger Report webinar last week on screen time in the…

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It happens every spring: Families receive financial aid offers from colleges, puzzle over them and are still left with the question — how much will this college actually cost me? Instead of stating how much a family must pay out of pocket,…

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A teacher in Wisconsin recently got a call with an intriguing offer: a promise to have 80 percent of her federal student loans forgiven — for a fee. The teacher, Lauren, owes about $60,000 in debt more than a decade after graduation, so…

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If you have student loan debt, you might receive calls or see targeted social media ads promising to help reduce, or even eliminate, your balance — for a fee. The problem is, many of these offers are fraudulent, in some cases the companies…

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As schools introduce artificial intelligence into the classroom, a new analysis suggests that these tools could be steering students in different directions depending on who they are. Researchers from Stanford University fed 600 middle…

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Over the last several years, much has been written about the surge in mental health problems among American youth, reinforced by the 2021 public advisory from the U.S. surgeon general that labeled this situation a “crisis.” The concerns…

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A few days into the new semester this January, the LaSalle Parish school district in rural Louisiana made a pronouncement: There would be no more homework. None of the 2,500 students in this district — from the youngest learners up through…

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Why is caring for the planet considered ‘unmanly’? That’s a question Joseph Henderson, a lecturer at the University of Vermont, has been grappling with recently. There’s research suggesting that boys care less about the planet than girls,…

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TOLEDO, Ohio — William Werner’s first-grade class was squirming. Some of his students at McKinley STEAM Academy were still completing reading worksheets one morning last month while others who had long finished were building pyramids out…

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I spent most of the last two weeks on the road in California at three education conferences that highlighted the risks – and potential benefits – of artificial intelligence in the classroom. The American Educational Research Association…

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More than a third of the federal government’s education research budget — an estimated $289 million — could go unspent this year, according to an analysis by an advocacy group. The Knowledge Alliance, which represents 20 private research…

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Our national politics are divided and angry in a way that often feels beyond our control. The division doesn’t just stay “out there” but filters down to the community and school level. I worry about what kind of environment that creates…

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Financial aid offer letters are supposed to tell families how much they will have to pay for college, which can be the deciding factor in where — or even whether — students go to college. But too often, the letters leave out important…

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Financial aid offer letters are supposed to tell families how much they will have to pay for college, which can be the deciding factor in where — or even whether — students go to college. But too often, the letters leave out important…

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A first-of-its-kind study has found that early intervention services — which can include occupational, physical and speech therapies, among others — improve children’s test scores, even years down the road. The study, conducted jointly by…

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A first-of-its-kind study has found that early intervention services — which can include occupational, physical and speech therapies, among others — improve children’s test scores, even years down the road. The study, conducted jointly by…

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Academic freedom is not a gift. It is a structure long protected by tenure, a contract with no expiration date that guarantees procedural protections to faculty. Tenure has granted faculty at U.S. colleges and universities the rights to…

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Academic freedom is not a gift. It is a structure long protected by tenure, a contract with no expiration date that guarantees procedural protections to faculty. Tenure has granted faculty at U.S. colleges and universities the rights to…

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MYSORE, India — Employers around the world share a familiar complaint: Universities often don’t prepare students for fast-changing job demands. Too many new graduates need extra preparation before they’re workforce-ready. In India, rather…

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MYSORE, India — Employers around the world share a familiar complaint: Universities often don’t prepare students for fast-changing job demands. Too many new graduates need extra preparation before they’re workforce-ready. In India, rather…

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When policymakers debate whether community colleges should offer bachelor’s degrees, the arguments often sound abstract: mission creep, duplication, threats to university enrollment. Yet for the students that community colleges serve and…

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CRAFTSBURY COMMON, Vt. — More than a dozen newborn lambs cavorted around a fenced-in yard beneath the scrutiny of their mothers and a few watchful students taking turns attending to them. The lambs’ successful births have been a needed…

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When policymakers debate whether community colleges should offer bachelor’s degrees, the arguments often sound abstract: mission creep, duplication, threats to university enrollment. Yet for the students that community colleges serve and…

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CRAFTSBURY COMMON, Vt. — More than a dozen newborn lambs cavorted around a fenced-in yard beneath the scrutiny of their mothers and a few watchful students taking turns attending to them. The lambs’ successful births have been a needed…

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CRANSTON, R.I. — Before he landed in prison three years ago for selling drugs, Joe worked on and off as a construction laborer. In his free time, he’d do little projects around the house, his youngest daughter by his side. “I always liked…

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CRANSTON, R.I. — Before he landed in prison three years ago for selling drugs, Joe worked on and off as a construction laborer. In his free time, he’d do little projects around the house, his youngest daughter by his side. “I always liked…

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It’s easy to get swept up in the hype about artificial intelligence tutors. But the evidence so far suggests caution. Some studies have found that chatbot tutors can backfire because students lean on them too heavily, get spoonfed…

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As a mom of a child with special needs, I often spend the majority of my day filing insurance forms for reimbursement. I can spend hours on the phone trying to find out why coverage was denied for my child’s therapy. Usually, it is due to…

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FORT KENT, Maine — Michael Robertson struggled in school almost from the very beginning. But it was in seventh grade, when he started smoking cigarettes and drinking, that school seemed to become nearly unbearable to him. “There was always…

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It’s easy to get swept up in the hype about artificial intelligence tutors. But the evidence so far suggests caution. Some studies have found that chatbot tutors can backfire because students lean on them too heavily, get spoonfed…

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As a mom of a child with special needs, I often spend the majority of my day filing insurance forms for reimbursement. I can spend hours on the phone trying to find out why coverage was denied for my child’s therapy. Usually, it is due to…

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FORT KENT, Maine — Michael Robertson struggled in school almost from the very beginning. But it was in seventh grade, when he started smoking cigarettes and drinking, that school seemed to become nearly unbearable to him. “There was always…

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When my son was about to turn 5, I was faced with a decision that may be familiar to parents of children whose birthdays are close to kindergarten enrollment cutoff dates. In my local school district, children must be 5 years old on or…

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When my son was about to turn 5, I was faced with a decision that may be familiar to parents of children whose birthdays are close to kindergarten enrollment cutoff dates. In my local school district, children must be 5 years old on or…