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United States

Schools doubling down on education to protect boys from gambling problems

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 22d ago higher-ed
Summary
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — As Pete Hall kicked off a four-day unit on gambling prevention in April, he asked his high school health class what comes to mind when they hear “sports betting.” Fantasy football. Money. Socially engaging. Power.…
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United States

In California’s ‘Lithium Valley,’ students are training for jobs that haven’t yet materialized

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 23d ago higher-ed
Summary
When Imperial Valley College launched a new program training students to become plant operators and technicians in the emerging lithium industry, Corban Dillon enrolled in the inaugural class. He’d spent the first part of his career…
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United States

Under Mamdani, New York will be the first to open a free child care center for city workers

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 24d ago higher-ed
Summary
This story was published by The 19th and reprinted with permission. Tucked in New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s sprawling universal childcare plan is a little-talked-about milestone: In September, the city will open what appears to be…
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United States

STUDENT VOICES: We were STEM-obsessed siblings as children. It shaped our pathway to Princeton and careers

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 24d ago higher-ed
Summary
As young sisters growing up in Las Vegas, we didn’t have the language to define our fascination with science. For Angel, it was an early obsession with questions about health and fairness: Why do some people get sick and others don’t? Why…
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United States

Strong early math skills equal later algebra success

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 26d ago higher-ed
Summary
Algebra I is known as a gateway class: Students who pass the course are more likely to take advanced math courses, graduate from college and earn more money as adults. But for many children, their path to success in Algebra I is formed…
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United States

The biggest expansion of federal scholarship money in 50 years is at hand — and almost nobody is ready for it

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 28d ago higher-ed
Summary
At a time when polls show two-thirds of Americans think a higher education is no longer worth the price, Forsyth Technical Community College has a message for them. “College,” it says, “could cost you nothing.” The planned marketing slogan…
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United States

Lessons from the first state in the nation to offer universal child care

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 29d ago higher-ed
Summary
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Like many families, Jessica and Adrian Garcia, who live in the mountain resort town of Ruidoso, had to cobble together different child care options for their son when they returned to work after his birth in 2023.…
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United States

College Uncovered: Making A’s count

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 30d ago higher-ed
Summary
Harvard faculty have approved a controversial plan to overhaul the college’s grading system, including new limits on how many A’s professors can award. The goal: make an A mean something again. But the debate goes beyond transcripts and…
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United States

Sex, drugs and … AI?: Students think everyone else is doing it more than they are

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 31d ago higher-ed
Summary
As colleges scramble to write rules for artificial intelligence in the classroom, one basic question remains unknown: How many students are actually using it? An anonymous survey of 338 undergraduates at the University of Chicago shows…
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United States

OPINION:In a moment of uncertainty and growing public scrutiny, colleges should be investing in faculty to drive student success

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 31d ago higher-ed
Summary
U.S. colleges and universities are reeling from one of the most challenging years in recent memory. In 2025, institutions laid off more than 9,000 faculty and staff amid enrollment volatility, shrinking budgets and growing skepticism about…
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United States

OPINION: If higher education wants to rebuild public trust, start with making college affordable

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 36d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

Five big changes coming to higher education July 1

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 38d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

TEACHER VOICE: AI is an addictive drug that must be researched, studied and confined

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 38d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

Former foster youth face very low odds of college or workforce success. Some people are trying to change that

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 38d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

Texas’ discipline push sends kids to ‘jail-like’ campuses

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 42d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

As farming goes high tech, universities grow new types of agriculture degrees

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 42d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

Women rule (in college and graduate and professional schools)

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 43d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

Can Oklahoma make public education ‘normal’ again?

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 44d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

OPINION: Don’t make students choose between college or career — preparation for both is crucial

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 45d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

In Texas, high schools bet on a bright future for oil and gas careers under Trump

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 52d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

As more rural students apply to college, attention turns to helping them succeed there

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 54d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

A new law in Utah allows students to opt out of coursework that conflicts with their beliefs

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 55d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

OPINION: Putting students on school boards treats young people as participants in their own democracy, but only if adults listen to them

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 55d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

A lifeline or ‘dystopian’?: Schools open parking lots for homeless students and families

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 59d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

OPINION: Three-year degrees may become a viable option in the U.S., but they are not yet proven, and questions of fairness and recognition remain

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 59d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

Data centers, air pollution, climate math: Lessons from a climate and education conference

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 59d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

Home-based child care programs are struggling to survive

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 62d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

Do career ‘pathways’ work? Delaware offers early clues

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 66d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

U.S. citizen students face an agonizing choice: Affording college or protecting parents from deportation

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 69d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

Fake student loan debt offers proliferate as federal government rolls back enforcement

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 70d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

How to recognize student loan scams, and protect yourself

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 70d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

AI gives more praise, less criticism to Black students

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 73d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

OPINION: The standards-driven pressure cooker of public education is the real crisis we must address

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 73d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

Kids and parents dislike math homework, so teachers are scrapping it. Will students be better off?

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 73d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

Getting boys in on climate action

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 74d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

The tricks teachers are trying to fix students’ shortening attention spans

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 76d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

How much will that college cost you? Good luck figuring it out

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 80d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

Early intervention services for young children boost later test scores

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 83d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

OPINION: Tenure is under attack nationwide, threatening academic freedom and sending chills to faculty

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 84d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

Why India’s Infosys has a university of its own

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 86d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

OPINION: Too many community college students never finish what they started, and that must change

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 87d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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United States

More than a quarter of private colleges are at risk of closing, new projection shows

higher-ed
The Hechinger Report 87d ago higher-ed
Summary
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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