A decade ago, journalist Amanda Ripley wanted to answer a simple question: Why do international tests routinely show dozens of countries outperforming the United States academically? Her resulting book, The Smartest Kids in the World, became a bestseller and one of the most talked-about releases in 2013. Following three American students as they traveled to high schools...

Some key absences complicated the return to school in Wayne Township, Indiana: 461 to be exact. After just eight days in classrooms, 37 positive coronavirus cases in the 16,000-student district outside Indianapolis had triggered hundreds of student quarantines, forcing young people to miss out on classes and extracurriculars. Superintendent Jeff Butts knew he had to...

Witnessing the growth of food and income insecurity during the pandemic, teachers and districts are turning to DonorsChoose — a nonprofit crowdfunding site for public educators — to leverage financial support. Founded in 2000 and historically utilized for instructional materials that teachers would either have to pay for out of pocket or go without, like...

Safe, high quality in-person schools and access to higher education are top concerns for Black women – nearly as important as protecting voting rights and fighting racism, a new national survey has found. Conducted by brilliant corners Research & Strategies, “Our Power, Our Legacy,” a June survey of 733 randomly selected Black women over the...

The year 2050 may seem a long way off, but in 29 years our current crop of K-12 students will be well into their careers. How will this chaotic school year have affected them? Recent findings from the University of Pennsylvania warn that over the next three decades, our recent COVID-related U.S. school closures, as...

As in most pre-K classrooms, Geneva Gadsden’s students — known as the All Stars — rotate through different stations, from dress-up corners to building block areas. But the All Stars, the Happy Owls and other groups of preschoolers at the Whitted School in Durham, North Carolina, also take turns with Chromebooks, spending 15 minutes a...

Teachers’ ability to connect individually with students went from tricky to downright challenging during the pandemic. But a new digital reflection tool, Along, can help teachers create personal relationships with students while allowing each student to feel seen and understood. After a pilot program with hundreds of teachers last school year, this summer’s launch of...

Nancy Mastronardi does all kinds of art with her students at Joella C. Good elementary school in Miami. Some weeks it’s drawing and painting, other weeks it’s weaving and pottery. At the Title 1 school, creativity is on display everywhere you look—from the sunshine-yellow tile mosaic flanking the school’s entrance to the painted superhero vegetables...

March marked an all-time monthly high in solo youth crossings at the U.S. southern border. Those children and teenagers could be an unexpected boon for native-born students should they reach American classrooms, a timely new study suggests. The research, which analyzes a decade’s worth of data from over 1.3 million Florida students, links the presence of immigrant classmates...

Across the country each year, thousands of teaching candidates get ready to begin their classroom careers. They finish up their graduate coursework, start scanning excitedly for job openings — and then fail their states’ teacher licensure exams. Dejected and daunted by the prospect of retaking the test, many never become teachers. It’s a distressing pattern...