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.

Today’s colleges face an uncertain future and need to be more relevant and more connected to the world of work to thrive...
09/10/2025

Today’s colleges face an uncertain future and need to be more relevant and more connected to the world of work to thrive. The liberal arts, which have evolved throughout history to meet the needs of society and the state of knowledge, were created for the industrial era. They are badly dated and must be rethought to prepare students for the global, digital, knowledge economy in which they will live their lives. Vocational education prepares people for their next job. But liberal arts education is designed to do more — to “future-proof” students....

The liberal arts evolved to meet the needs of society and the state of knowledge but were created for the industrial era. They are badly dated and must be rethought to prepare students for the global, digital, knowledge economy in which they will live their lives.

This story was reported by and originally published by APM Reports in connection with its podcast Sold a Story: How Teac...
09/10/2025

This story was reported by and originally published by APM Reports in connection with its podcast Sold a Story: How Teach Kids to Read Went So Wrong. The choices you make as a teenager can shape the rest of your life. If you take high school classes for college credit, you’re more likely to enroll at a university. If you take at least 12 credits of classes during your first year there, you’re more likely to graduate. And those decisions may even influence whether you develop dementia during your later years....

This story was reported by and originally published by APM Reports in connection with its podcast Sold a Story: How Teach Kids to Read Went So Wrong. The choices you make as a teenager can shape the rest of your life. If you take high school classes for college credit, you’re more likely to enr...

This story was reported by and originally published by APM Reports in connection with its podcast Sold a Story: How Teac...
09/09/2025

This story was reported by and originally published by APM Reports in connection with its podcast Sold a Story: How Teach Kids to Read Went So Wrong. The Zoom call was supposed to be a regular check-in for the team at Boston University. They’d wrapped up work on a massive, federally funded study of a system to detect when kids are having trouble learning to read and get them help immediately. The team was just waiting for the data on the early warning system to be analyzed. But one of the professors, Nancy Nelson, interrupted the call....

The Trump administration tried to kill the largest reading experiment ever funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s research arm — just months before the yearslong study was complete. The administration agreed to finish the research only after it was sued.

Writing can be hard, equal parts heavy lifting and drudgery. No wonder so many students are turning to the time-saving a...
09/08/2025

Writing can be hard, equal parts heavy lifting and drudgery. No wonder so many students are turning to the time-saving allure of ChatGPT, which can crank out entire papers in seconds. It rescues them from procrastination jams and dreaded all-nighters, magically freeing up more time for other pursuits, like, say ... doomscrolling. Of course, no one learns to be a better writer when someone else (or some AI bot) is doing the work for them. The question is whether chatbots can morph into decent writing teachers or coaches that students actually want to consult to improve their writing, and not just use for shortcuts....

Rethinking praise lavished by chatbots and knowing when to ask ChatGPT for help instead of a handout

Back to School with AI Read More on AI Everywhere you look, someone is telling students and workers to “learn AI.” It’s ...
09/07/2025

Back to School with AI Read More on AI Everywhere you look, someone is telling students and workers to “learn AI.” It’s become the go-to advice for staying employable, relevant and prepared for the future. But here’s the problem: While definitions of artificial intelligence literacy are starting to emerge, we still lack a consistent, measurable framework to know whether someone is truly ready to use AI effectively and responsibly. And that is becoming a serious issue for education and workforce systems already being reshaped by AI. Schools and colleges are redesigning their entire curriculums....

Students and workers are being told to “learn AI.” But while definitions of AI literacy are starting to emerge, we still lack a consistent, measurable framework to know whether someone is truly ready to use AI effectively and responsibly.

Back to School with AI Read More on AI In an age defined by digital transformation, access to reliable, high-speed inter...
09/07/2025

Back to School with AI Read More on AI In an age defined by digital transformation, access to reliable, high-speed internet is not a luxury; it is the bedrock of opportunity. It impacts the school classroom, the doctor’s office, the town square and the job market. As we stand on the cusp of a workforce revolution driven by the “arrival technology” of artificial intelligence, high-speed internet access has become the critical determinant of our nation’s economic future. Yet, for millions of Americans, this essential connection remains out of reach. This digital divide is a persistent crisis that deepens societal inequities, and we must rally around one of the most effective tools we have to combat it: the…...

The digital divide is a persistent crisis — exacerbated by AI — that deepens societal inequities, and we must rally around one of the most effective tools we have to combat it: the Universal Service Fund.

Back to School with AI Read More on AI When it comes to the rapid integration of artificial intelligence into K-12 class...
09/07/2025

Back to School with AI Read More on AI When it comes to the rapid integration of artificial intelligence into K-12 classrooms, educators are being pulled in two very different directions. One prevailing media narrative stokes such profound fears about the emerging strengths of artificial intelligence that it could lead one to believe it will soon be “game over” for everything we know about good teaching. At the same time, a sweeping executive order from the White House and tech-forward education policymakers paint AI as “game on” for designing the educational system of the future....

Even as educators are optimistic about AI’s potential, they are cautious and sometimes resistant to it. What should responsible educators do? As a learning scientist who has been involved in research about AI and about learning for decades, I have some ideas.

IRVING, Texas — Crowded around a workshop table, four girls at de Zavala Middle School puzzled over a Lego machine they ...
09/05/2025

IRVING, Texas — Crowded around a workshop table, four girls at de Zavala Middle School puzzled over a Lego machine they had built. As they flashed a purple card in front of a light sensor, nothing happened. The teacher at the Dallas-area school had emphasized that in the building process, there are no such thing as mistakes. Only iterations. So the girls dug back into the box of blocks and pulled out an orange card. They held it over the sensor and the machine kicked into motion. “Oh! Oh, it reacts differently to different colors,” said sixth grader Sofia Cruz....

Efforts to close the gap between boys and girls in STEM classes are picking up after losing steam nationwide during the chaos of the Covid pandemic.

In the 1980s, a public interest law group sued the state of New Jersey, saying that the way it funded education left its...
09/04/2025

In the 1980s, a public interest law group sued the state of New Jersey, saying that the way it funded education left its low-income, urban school districts at a disadvantage compared to wealthier, suburban districts. The lawsuit, Abbott v. Burke, yielded a number of different decisions, including a requirement that the state offer free, full-day, high-quality preschool for children ages 3 and 4 in 31 school districts. This new school year marks the 26th since the program was created. Researchers have found that children who attend the preschool program are better prepared for school later on, but enrollment has been dwindling....

For more than 20 years, New Jersey has provided free, full-day preschool for children in its low-income urban districts as part of a court order. However, enrollment has dropped since its earliest years, alarming advocates.

This story was reported by and originally published by APM Reports in connection with its podcast Sold a Story: How Teac...
09/04/2025

This story was reported by and originally published by APM Reports in connection with its podcast Sold a Story: How Teach Kids to Read Went So Wrong. When voters elected Donald Trump in November, most people who worked at the U.S. Department of Education weren’t scared for their jobs. They had been through a Trump presidency before, and they hadn’t seen big changes in their department then. They saw their work as essential, mandated by law, nonpartisan and, as a result, insulated from politics. Then, in early February, the Department of Government Efficiency showed up....

While the Trump administration has vowed to preserve NAEP, it has overseen major cuts to staff who work on it and the elimination of more than a dozen tests.

This story about Abbott districts was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focus...
09/02/2025

This story about Abbott districts was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter. UNION CITY, N.J. — By 7:30 a.m., Jackson had started rushing his father, José Bernard, to leave their house. “Dad, we’re going! We’re going, come on, let’s go.” The 4-year-old was itching to return to his favorite place: Eugenio Maria de Hostos Center for Early Childhood Education, a burst of orange and blue on the corner of Union City’s bustling Kennedy Boulevard....

Twenty-five years ago, New Jersey was ordered to open preschools for children in low-income urban districts to help make up for funding disparities. Now, supporters fear the preschool program is not getting the attention they need from the state.

Ryan Arnoldy started community college with the goal of eventually transferring to a four-year university and getting a ...
09/02/2025

Ryan Arnoldy started community college with the goal of eventually transferring to a four-year university and getting a degree in chemical engineering. Soon Arnoldy started running up against the same exasperating bottleneck faced by a majority of university and college students: Classes required for his major were often not taught during the semesters he needed them, or filled so quickly there were no seats left. Colleges and universities manage to provide these required courses when their students need to take them only about 15 percent of the time, new research shows — a major reason fewer than half of students graduate on time, raising the amount it costs and time it takes to get degrees....

Fifty-seven percent of college students have to spend more time and money on college because their campuses don’t offer required courses when they need them. Mounting layoffs and budget problems now threaten to make this problem worse.

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