Was there ever a time when Americans believed that kids were actually being educated well? A look back through The Atlantic's archives shows that bouts of optimism are very occasional. I recently joined this long line of pessimists when reporting on the stunning decline in educational performance among K-12 students in the United States over the past decade. After a temporary period of improvement
At 39, she divides her time between shaping young minds as an economics professor at the Pleasant Hill campus of Diablo Valley College (DVC) and steering the city of Vallejo toward transparency, accountability and trust. It has been a challenge balancing the dual roles, especially because there is a lot of work to do in Vallejo, said Sorce, who says she wishes she had 40 hours in a day.
The room carried a quiet stillness that afternoon as the young adults gathered for the restorative justice session. Their stories held old wounds, many of them shaped in childhood spaces where silence felt safer than truth. Mateo, 22 years old, entered softly and selected a seat near the edge of the circle, his posture revealing the weight of years spent swallowing words. On that day, however, he chose to speak.
In Japan, legal frameworks concerning sexual minorities, including transgender individuals, are insufficient, and societal discussions have not progressed. Without a clear vision for promoting understanding, gaining the understanding of students and parents requires a certain amount of time and careful dialogue.
Fifty years ago, just after Thanksgiving of 1975, President Gerald Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, the landmark law that created special education as it exists today, and guaranteed all children with disabilities the right to a "free appropriate public education." Yet, "rather than celebrating progress, we face a crisis," warned a recent letter to Congress, signed by hundreds of disability, civil rights and education groups. That crisis, according to the letter, is "the dismantling of the very infrastructure Congress created to ensure children with disabilities could reach their full potential."
Can you guess which professionals in England work 26 hours of overtime a week without compensation, give up time with friends and family to deal with the workload and often find themselves on call in the holidays? Not CEOs, bankers or even doctors, but teachers. No wonder, then, that teaching vacancies are at the highest level ever. Workload is the top concern that teachers cite for leaving the profession, with almost as many quitting as those who joined last year.
"I love it. I love the chaos. I love the freedom of the children learning. I even love changing the bums." Victoria Cook has worked as a childminder for more than 10 years. "We're not just babysitters - we're educators, carers, and part of the community," she said. "If we disappear, families lose more than just childcare, they lose choice."
China wants more robotics talent. The country's elite universities are preparing to launch a new undergraduate major in "embodied intelligence," an emerging field that combines AI with robotics. Seven universities - including Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Zhejiang University, Beijing Institute of Technology, and Xi'an Jiaotong University - have applied to offer the new major, according to a public notice published in November by China's Ministry of Education.
A few months ago, a high school English teacher in Los Angeles Unified noticed something different about his students' tests. Students who had struggled all semester were suddenly getting A's. He suspected some were cheating, but he couldn't figure out how. Until a student showed him the latest version of Google Lens. "I couldn't believe it," said teacher Dustin Stevenson. "It's hard enough to teach in the age of AI, and now we have to navigate this?"
Instead of a 10th grade MCAS exam, the proposed framework would include capstone projects or portfolios, financial literacy lessons, and end-of-course tests administered and scored by the state, among other steps. The new approach to testing would feature exams "that are not high-stakes, but are [on] the actual course you just took," Healey explained Monday. "This is about reimagining high school in Massachusetts and making sure that every student who leaves a Massachusetts high school leaves with the tools, the resources, the wherewithal to be as successful as they can possibly be," she told a crowd of students and educators at Dedham High School.
The 4 Day Week Foundation has written to the education secretary calling for greater autonomy for schools to pilot shorter working weeks, saying the government will not be able to meet its manifesto pledge of recruiting 6,500 new teachers without change. It comes after the Scottish government announced new proposals last week for teachers to be able to work a flexible four-day teaching week, which would see them given one day a week to focus on work such as preparation and marking.
AI uses Machine Learning models to analyze student conduct, monitor their performance, and identify learning patterns. It modifies lessons in real-time, provides additional resources, and customizes the learning pace for each student. Such dynamism in real time can assist in making sure that no student is left behind and that more advanced learners can move at their own pace, making it one of the top EdTech trends.
Digital equity in education ensures every student has access to the same digital resources and opportunities. Inclusive smart classroom technology embodies this principle by accommodating diverse learning needs. These tools enable all students, regardless of ability or background, to benefit from technology. Smart boards, for instance, can serve as assistive classroom technology, allowing students with disabilities to engage more fully.
San Jose has gained a new educational landmark as Hillbrook School opens its permanent high school campus in Downtown San Jose. Known for its JK-8 program in Los Gatos, the school now extends its innovative approach to older students in a vibrant urban setting. The new facilities at 227 N. First Street include classrooms, offices, and an arts and athletics center, creating a hub that blends learning with city life.
Located in the northern districts of Marseille, , Les Fabriques is a complex by Brenac & Gonzalez & Associés designed as a compact, climate-responsive structure built from solid . Positioned on a constrained plot within the Littorale urban development zone, the project integrates a nursery school and an elementary school, each with dedicated reception areas, circulation routes, and naturally lit and ventilated classrooms.
In the highly competitive and rapidly evolving landscape of U.S. K-12 education, curriculum publishers face a unique set of challenges. School districts and educators increasingly request more than just content. They seek solutions that genuinely address the diverse learning needs of every student, drive measurable outcomes, and demonstrate clear value in an era of constrained budgets and heightened accountability. For publishers navigating this complex environment, the traditional one-size-fits-all approach to educational materials is becoming a liability, not a strength.
If you run cross-country or play soccer at Cathedral High, you'd better be extra polite and respectful around the head coaches. They also happen to be the school president and principal, respectively. Martin Farfan and Arturo Lopez continue to hold dual roles, which probably makes Cathedral the only school in the state with such an arrangement. Despite all the time and responsibilities required to coach and help run Cathedral, they seem to make it work.
American public schools educate more than seven million students with disabilities, who need access to specialized therapy services. But many public schools struggle to provide such services due to staffing shortages and limited resources. According to 2024 data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 55% of public schools cited insufficient mental health staff as a factor preventing schools from providing effective mental health services to students.
As co‑founder and chief executive of KWC Global, based in Glasgow and London, Wardrop has made a career of helping lawyers, accountants and financiers learn the commercial skills business school often forgets: how to sell, lead and grow. His thesis is disarmingly simple: if learning and development is designed correctly and linked to tangible outcomes, it stops being an overhead and starts paying for itself.
While many countries are seeing a slowdown in international academic mobility, Germany is bucking the trend - attracting record numbers of foreign students and researchers year after year. Germany's reputation as an open and welcoming destination for international students continues to grow, even as global trends point towards increased renationalisation and reduced cross-border movement. The latest figures from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) confirm that student bodies at German universities are more international than ever before.
Banners have been painted, posters printed, buttons pressed, all with a similar message: educators and other professionals represented by the United Teachers of Richmond are ready to fight for better pay, benefits, staffing levels and services for students. Educators are asking for a 10% raise over a two-year period, 100% employer-paid health care and improvements to class sizes, special education and other areas. The district has countered with a single 2% raise and 85% employer-paid health care.
On the steps of New York City Hall, the Empire State Campaign for Child Care (ESCCC), a statewide advocacy group for universal childcare, unveiled its recommended plan for achieving universal childcare for the state. ESCCC hosted several speakers at its Thursday event, including Elizabeth Kennedy, a working parent of two and the deputy public advocate for Education & Opportunity at the Office of the New York City Public Advocate.
"As we are currently unable to open, we have implemented a plan for the effective continuation of learning. "Work will be set in accordance with the usual timetable, where staff are well enough to do so. "A range of learning activities will be set... any additional teacher support in lessons will take place via Teams message or school email."
In this episode of Just Between Us, Jennifer Zamparelli is joined by pharmacist and author Laura Dowling for the no-nonsense, myth-busting sex education most of us missed out on.
Asking a question is often thought of as a way to solicit information, or in some situations, assess what one already knows-as in taking a test. Research from the learning sciences, however, has shown that questions can benefit learning in yet other ways. For instance, we can use questions to practice recalling important information or to help us think more deeply about a topic.
Parenting approaches like co-sleeping and continued breastfeeding were part of my identity. I praised effort instead of results and consciously provided my children opportunities that emphasized exploration. I believed these core values would foster the genius minds I dreamed of. I imagined my kids learning experientially through art and travel. I studied the Waldorf and Montessori education models and threw myself into promoting whole-child learning.
His mother said he should talk to his English teacher, so he opened his school-issued Google Chromebook and started drafting an email. The student then wrote a series of jokes in the draft email that he deleted each time. The last joke stated: "GANG GANG GIMME A BETTER GRADE OR I SHOOT UP DA SKOOL HOMIE," which he narrated out loud to his mother in a silly voice before deleting the draft and closing his computer.
Robert Eitel is president of the Defense of Freedom Institute, a conservative think tank. Eitel previously served as senior counselor to the Secretary of Education from 2017 through 2020, during the first Trump administration, and as Deputy General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Education from 2005 until 2009. Eitel has a background in for-profit education, serving past stints at for-profit college operators Bridgepoint Education Inc. and Career Education Corp.
Two years after the Supreme Court banned the use of race in college admissions decisions and in the wake of the Trump administration's attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion, colleges' use of diversity- and identity-related supplemental essay prompts is patchy. After a boom in prompts about applicant's identities, several universities have scrapped the essays entirely for the 2025-2026 admission cycle. Still others, especially selective universities, have kept the prompts, saying they are the best way to get to know their applicants.
From TikTok to Instagram, to local news headlines, the plan set off a storm of online criticism as influencers and advocacy groups take issue with the supposed declassification of certain degrees. But defining programs as professional or graduate isn't a debate about social prestige or cultural characterization; it's a debate about access to student loans, and now the Education Department is saying it's time to "set the record straight."
Kim Kardashian posted a video on her Instagram account lamenting her recent failure of the bar exam, and images she included of her study notes revealed her grasp of the material may not be as strong as she had hoped. Kardashian, 45, began the process of reading law, an unusual path to becoming an attorney that is only available in a few states and involves studying as an apprentice under a licensed lawyer as a prerequisite for taking the bar exam instead of law school.
"When I came to London I felt at ease. This was my place," says 20-year-old Manou, who moved from Belgium to study at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in south-east London three years ago. But the contemporary dance student says she won't be able to complete her degree if the costs of a proposed 6% levy on overseas student tuition fees are passed to her.
The grant will pay for the construction of wireless towers, fixed wireless access (FWA) infrastructure, and receivers for designated student homes in hard-to-reach parts of the Lordsburg area, with the goal of bringing FWA service to 395 student households that currently lack reliable home internet. Internet service will be provided at no charge for the first three years for participating students and school staff.
