The Hechinger Report

11/17/2025

From the archives, Aug. 7, 2017. Every summer, the federal government provides meals to millions of American children living in poverty.

In 2016, the Department of Agriculture fed 179 million meals to nearly 4 million children who rely on free or reduced meals during the school year. In the Mississippi Delta, the program is a lifeline for many families, and it could become even more important in the coming years.

The Trump administration has proposed cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, by $191 billion. More than half of the 67,000 Delta families on food stamps have children.

Every summer, the federal government provides meals to millions of American children living in poverty. In 2016, the Department of Agriculture fed 179 millio...

11/17/2025

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 questioned whether this imbalance hinders young boys at the start of their education. Are female teachers less understanding of boys’ need to horse around? Or would male role models inspire boys to learn their letters and times tables? Some advocates point to research that lays out why boys ought to do better with male teachers....

A teacher's gender doesn’t matter for young boys, national study shows

11/17/2025

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 one million college students, and it needs to stop. Students work countless hours on top of their academic pursuits only to be told they should be “grateful for the opportunity.” The government must pass legislation mandating that all internships include monetary compensation; employers must stop exploiting students and recent graduates while they build necessary work experience. The idea of an unpaid internship is odd considering that most of us grew up learning that work is rewarded....

Roughly one million college students have unpaid internships. The government must pass legislation mandating an end to this practice; all internships should include monetary compensation, and employers must stop exploiting students while they build necessary work experience.

11/14/2025

Proof Points columnist Jill Barshay explains why one reading expert argues that giving students easy texts is holding back US reading achievement.

11/14/2025

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 students and a headache for teachers to enforce — makes an academic difference.

Indeed, it did.

Student test scores rose a bit more in high cellphone usage schools two years after the ban compared with schools that had lower cellphone usage to start. Students were also attending school more regularly.

The policy also came with a troubling side effect. The cellphone bans led to a significant increase in student suspensions in the first year, especially among Black students. But disciplinary actions declined during the second year.

“Cellphone bans are not a silver bullet,” said David Figlio, an economist at the University of Rochester and one of the study’s co-authors. “But they seem to be helping kids. They’re attending school more, and they’re performing a bit better on tests.”

If student achievement goes up after a cellphone ban, it’s tough to know if the ban was the reason. Some other change in math or reading instruction might have caused the improvement. Or maybe the state assessment became easier to pass. Imagine if politicians required all students to wear striped shirts and test scores rose. Few would really think that stripes made kids smarter.

Two researchers from the University of Rochester and RAND, a nonprofit research organization, figured out a clever way to tackle this question by taking advantage of cellphone activity data in one large school district in Florida, which in 2023 became the first state to institute school cellphone restrictions. The researchers compared schools that had high cellphone activity before the ban with those that had low cellphone usage to see if the ban made a bigger difference for schools that had high usage.

Indeed, it did.

Student test scores rose a bit more in high cellphone usage schools two years after the ban compared with schools that had lower cellphone usage to start. Students were also attending school more regularly.

The policy also came with a troubling side effect. The cellphone bans led to a significant increase in student suspensions in the first year, especially among Black students. But disciplinary actions declined during the second year.

11/13/2025

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 determining whether 3-year-olds met that mark, which, in New Orleans, entitled them to gifted-only prekindergarten programs at a few of the city’s most highly sought-after public schools. Families could sit on a lengthy waitlist and have their children tested at the district central office for free. Or they could pay the money for the private test....

Researchers say that young children are growing and developing too quickly for tests to capture their intelligence accurate, but testing policies are still widespread.

11/10/2025

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 research and statistics arm, were due on Oct. 15. A total of 434 suggestions were submitted, but no one can read them because the department isn’t allowed to post them publicly until the government reopens. (We know the number because the comment entry page has an automatic counter.) A complex numbers game There’s broad agreement across the political spectrum that federal education statistics are essential....

But new hires and fresh research grants hint at a quiet rebuilding effort

11/10/2025

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 local politics and activism since long before he was born. But policies from the Trump administration and the Ohio Legislature are complicating his college experience — and his plans to become a politician. Cade is a student at Ohio State University double-majoring in public policy analysis and political science with a focus on American political theory. He recalls his maternal grandmother, Maude Hill — who had a large hand in raising him — talking to him about her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement....

This story was produced in partnership with Teen Vogue and reprinted with permission.  This story also appeared in Teen Vogue Christopher Cade wants to be president someday. His inspiration largely comes from family members, who have been involved in local politics and activism since long before he...

11/10/2025

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 down. Once reliable gateway jobs for college graduates in industries like finance, consulting and journalism have tightened requirements. Many entry-level job postings that previously provided initial working experience for college graduates now require two to three years of prior experience, while AI, a recent analysis concluded, “snaps up good entry-level tasks,” especially routine work like drafting memos, preparing spreadsheets and summarizing research. Without these proving grounds, new hires lose chances to build skills by doing....

Many entry-level jobs that previously provided initial workforce experience for college graduates now require two to three years of prior experience, leading to higher unemployment for college graduates. Here are five solutions.

11/07/2025

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 college town on the outskirts of Raleigh was nowhere near where she’d actually be teaching. On the car ride to her school district, the city faded into the suburbs. Those suburbs turned into farmland. The farmland stretched into more farmland, until, two hours later, she made it to her new home in rural Halifax County....

In Halifax County, North Carolina, 101 of 156 teachers are international. A new $100,000 H-1B visa fee could effectively slam the door on future hires.

11/06/2025

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 salesperson. He works to drum up enrollment by speaking to parent and church groups, offering private tours and giving Hartsfield parents his cell phone number. He fields calls on nights, weekends and holidays. With the building at just 61 percent capacity, Olson is frank about the hustle required: “Customer service is key.” It’s no secret that many public schools are in a battle for students....

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 salesperson. This story also appeared in Chalkbeat He works to drum up enrollment by speaki...

11/05/2025

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 more strategic about this goal. Like nearly 1 in 3 of his classmates, he declared a second major to better stand out in an unpredictable labor market. It’s part of a trend that’s spreading nationwide, according to a Hechinger Report analysis of federal data, as students fret about getting jobs in an economy that some fear is shifting faster than a traditional college education can keep up....

The practice of double-majoring is rising at many colleges and universities as students fret about getting jobs in an economy seemingly shifting faster than single majors can keep up.