The Hechinger Report

The Hechinger Report We cover inequality and innovation in education with in-depth journalism that uses research, data and stories from classrooms and campuses.

We cover inequality and innovation in education with in-depth journalism that uses research, data and stories from classrooms and campuses to show the public how education can be improved and why it matters.

Thirty states now limit or ban cellphone use in classrooms, and teachers are noticing children paying attention to their...
10/20/2025

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. 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....

Analysis of Florida school district after 2023 classroom cellphone restrictions shows reading and math test score gains

Washington lawmakers and the Trump administration passed a major legislative package this summer that will cut funding f...
10/20/2025

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 — making it far harder for these students to afford and complete college. The leaders behind these cuts claim that they’re necessary to curb wasteful spending and keep higher education accountable. But that line of thinking is woefully misguided — and destructive — for our entire nation. These changes will make higher education even more exclusive. And House Republicans just released a budget proposal that would further…...

If recent education budget cuts are enacted, millions of young people will lose the opportunity to earn a college degree and build a more financially secure future for themselves and their families. Instead, we should invest in a nimble, adaptable and educated population.

Two months after Education Secretary Linda McMahon was confirmed, she and a small team from the department met with lead...
10/17/2025

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 on behalf of millions of students with dyslexia and other disorders. Jacqueline Rodriguez, NCLD’s chief executive officer, recalled pressing McMahon on a question raised during her confirmation hearing: Was the Trump administration planning to move control and oversight of special education law from the Education Department to Health and Human Services? Rodriguez was alarmed at the prospect of uprooting the 50-year-old Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA), which spells out the responsibility of schools to provide a “free, appropriate public education” to students with disabilities....

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 on behalf of millions of students with dyslexia and other disorders.  Jacqueline Rodriguez,...

Every year, tens of thousands of infants are born prematurely, at a low birthweight, or with other conditions that would...
10/16/2025

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 provides those services, required by federal law, for children ages birth to 3. Depending on the community, the program is paid for by federal, state or local dollars, or private insurance. But far too few of the youngest children actually receive that help. (It’s an issue I wrote about earlier this year.) One particular gap is in services provided to infants from birth to 1....

Federal law requires that children with suspected disabilities be offered therapies that could help them thrive later in life. But children from birth to age 1 are the least likely to receive that support, according to a new study.

This story was produced by the Associated Press and reprinted with permission. WASHINGTON – For a generation of young Am...
10/16/2025

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 complex calculation of costs and benefits that often revolves around a single question: Is the degree worth its price? Public confidence in higher education has plummeted in recent years amid high tuition prices, skyrocketing student loans and a dismal job market — plus ideological concerns from conservatives. Now, colleges are scrambling to prove their value to students....

A bachelor's degree still pays off, at least on average and in the long run. Yet there’s growing recognition that not all degrees lead to a good salary.

In New Jersey, fewer than half of 6- and 7-year-olds in special education spend the vast majority of their day with thei...
10/15/2025

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 education advisory group has pledged to examine the issue. Earlier this year, a Hechinger Report investigation revealed New Jersey is the worst in the nation when it comes to what’s known as inclusion — measured by how often students of all abilities are learning alongside one another in the classroom for at least 80 percent of the day....

A state council announced plans to focus on the placement of young children with disabilities this year. A new law regarding IEPs for students with disabilities will also go into effect.

Last January, Diego Sandoval’s high school in San Diego County closed abruptly one Friday because of wildfires menacing ...
10/15/2025

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 school was among the few in the area that didn’t close, recalls that friends with asthma were coughing and wheezing from the smoke. It wasn’t the first time the students — both 17-year-old seniors in the Sweetwater Union High School District — saw how extreme weather disrupted learning. A year earlier, floods swamped parts of the county, …...

Worried about the impact of climate change, students are rallying around ‘climate superfund’ legislation that would put oil companies on the hook for disrupted learning and damage to school buildings.

MEAD, Wash. — A few weeks after President Donald Trump took office, the conservative school board leaders in this town n...
10/14/2025

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 years, Democrats in control of the state had required every school district to have policies on the books that protect transgender students from bullying and prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity. The Mead school board unanimously approved a policy in 2019 to comply with the state guidelines, with little comment....

Officials in Mead and other Washington state towns have the federal government’s support in resisting state policies on transgender inclusion that the Trump administration says violate Title IX.

Social emotional learning — lessons in soft skills like listening to people you disagree with or calming yourself down b...
10/13/2025

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 for Liberty opposes SEL, as it is often abbreviated, telling parents that its “goal is to psychologically manipulate students to accept the progressive ideology that supports gender fluidity, sexual preference exploration, and systemic oppression.” Critics say that parents should discuss social and emotional matters at home and that schools should stick to academics. Meanwhile, some advocates on the left say standard SEL classes don’t go far enough and should include such topics as social justice and anti-racism training....

Reading and math gains from soft skill instruction

Summer usually provides a respite for Connor Pavlicko from his duties as student body president at Slippery Rock Univers...
10/13/2025

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 up. What made these students particularly angry was that the 3.6 percent increase followed a span since 2018 in which tuition at public universities in Pennsylvania, including Slippery Rock, had been frozen in place, said Pavlicko, a junior political science and government major from Ohio. “This is happening everywhere,” he said he found after “endlessly doomscrolling” social media....

College students nationwide are facing increases in tuition this fall of as much as 10 percent, along with new fees and rising costs for dorms and dining plans, after a stretch when tuition had been flat or down when adjusted for inflation.

I teach introductory college courses to aspiring medical assistants, medical coding and billing specialists, dental assi...
10/13/2025

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 knock them down, but they must get back up and get back to it. I also share my own story of how I initially failed out of nursing school due to poor study habits and time management, how I earned good grades at another college that declared bankruptcy before I could finish (costing me all my credits), how I pleaded with my first nursing school for a second chance and how I returned older and wiser and finally earned my degree....

America is facing both a critical shortage of health care workers and a rapidly aging population. The classroom experiences, support and encouragement students in these fields receive can make a decisive difference in whether they persist and ultimately succeed.

When pediatricians diagnose preschoolers with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, there are clear steps they are s...
10/08/2025

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 their children and manage challenging behaviors that may be related to ADHD. If therapy isn't making a significant difference, the American Academy of Pediatrics advises, pediatricians can then consider medication. Nationwide, this process — behavior therapy, then medication if needed — isn’t being followed as often as it should, according to a study recently released by Stanford Medicine…...

Behavior therapy should be a first step for families who have a child with ADHD, but a recent Stanford Medicine study found many children are receiving medication within a month of diagnosis.

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