The Hechinger Report

APRIL 7, 2023

Credit: Lily Estella Thompson for The Hechinger Report This year, Harpeth Valley flagged just 12 third graders as needing extra reading support, but the requirements of the expansive Tennessee law could put far more students at risk of retention. Third graders work through a reading assignment at Harpeth Valley Elementary School in Nashville.

Tutoring 133

Tutoring Elementary School K-12 Advocacy 133

The Hechinger Report

JUNE 20, 2017

Chun’s district is at the forefront of a national movement to turn K-12 librarians into indispensable digital mavens who can help classroom teachers craft tech-savvy lesson plans, teach kids to think critically about online research, and remake libraries into lively, high-tech hubs of collaborative learning — while still helping kids get books.

Library 111

Library K-12 Digital Resources Advocacy 111

The Hechinger Report

NOVEMBER 29, 2016

Fewer than 20 percent of high school students knew that simply looking at one photo online is not enough research to gauge if something is really happening. And among middle school students, 80 percent did not understand that “sponsored content” on a news organization’s website is paid advertising.

Civics 112

Civics Advocacy Elementary School Middle School 112

The Hechinger Report

OCTOBER 3, 2024

Nearly 15,000 of Philadelphia’s more than 197,000 students attended a virtual cyber charter school last year — a 55 percent increase since the 2020-21 school year. In fact, Pennsylvania has quietly become the “cyber charter capital of the nation” according to a report from the education advocacy group Children First PA.

Charter School 98

Charter School Tradition Advocacy K-12 98

The Hechinger Report

SEPTEMBER 20, 2022

New York City’s Department of Education is the latest public school system to require that U.S. history instruction include an Asian American and Pacific Islander K-12 curriculum. The program will be piloted this fall at selected schools and fully rolled-out in over 1,800 schools by the spring.

History 113

History Heritage K-12 American History 113

The Hechinger Report

APRIL 10, 2018

And a number of schools in Washington, D.C., For example, at the Howard University Middle School of Math and Science, on the university’s campus, 78 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch and about half are considered “at-risk.”

Education 109

Education Charter School Middle School Advocacy 109

The Hechinger Report

OCTOBER 29, 2020

Mendoza’s involvement in civic participation started in middle school, when she signed up for the All City Council Student Union, a student-led group sponsored by the Oakland school district that gives students a voice in school district decision-making. Credit: Alison Yin for The Hechinger Report.

Civics 143

Civics Civic Engagement High School Government 143

The Hechinger Report

JANUARY 23, 2019

It seems to work: Vertus says that 71 percent of its students pass their Regents exams, required by the state of New York for graduation, compared to 38 percent in the Rochester City School District. The LEAP Learning Framework urges schools to personalize learning in multiple ways. Here it feels totally different,” he said.

Charter School 111

Charter School Advocacy Middle School High School 111

The Hechinger Report

AUGUST 18, 2016

That’s a feat a surprising number of high school graduates fail to accomplish. Half a million, or about one in four, show up on campuses each fall not ready to take college courses in math or English, according to the advocacy organization Education Reform Now.

High School 76

High School K-12 Advocacy Middle School 76

The Hechinger Report

NOVEMBER 28, 2018

Edgecombe is still a rural district with a high-poverty student body, but a new staffing model has made its schools newly desirable for teachers who want to be school leaders without leaving the classroom. Each school that embarks on creating an Opportunity Culture does so in a unique way, based on its needs.

Elementary School 111

Elementary School Advocacy Cultures Public School 111

The Hechinger Report

JULY 1, 2016

. — This fall, students at Enterprise Attendance Center in the small city of Brookhaven may get to draw, paint and make crafts in an elementary art class — the first the school has had in 12 years. Nancy Loome, executive director and founder of the Parents’ Campaign, a nonprofit and grassroots education advocacy organization.

K-12 69

K-12 Elementary School Advocacy Global Connections 69

The Hechinger Report

MARCH 26, 2019

Approximately 77 percent of the more than 3,827,000 teachers in public elementary and secondary schools in the U.S. during the 2015-16 school year were women, according the data compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics. Between 2005 and 2017, public schools in the U.S. Related: Learning while you earn in college.

History 106

History Charter School Archiving Advocacy 106

The Hechinger Report

FEBRUARY 21, 2018

Middle school students at Kaleidoscope Academy, a district charter school in Appleton, Wisconsin, are constantly moving. At least we’re at the table now,” said Carly Wright, advocacy director for SHAPE. “It Today, middle and high schools are still the least likely to have daily physical education or recess.

Elementary School 109

Elementary School Middle School Charter School High School 109

The Hechinger Report

NOVEMBER 8, 2016

In 50 elementary schools, according to officials, these students now take classes in Spanish and English with an ultimate goal of achieving academic proficiency in both languages by middle school. Both programs aim to make students fully bilingual. Both feature instruction in two languages.

Multicultural Education 111

Multicultural Education Social Justice Elementary School Advocacy 111

The Hechinger Report

DECEMBER 1, 2017

We have kids leaving high school with diplomas they think are worth something, and in many cases they actually aren’t.”. Candace Cortiella, the director of The Advocacy Institute. And that’s not the case,” said Candace Cortiella, the director of The Advocacy Institute, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C.,

High School 90

High School Advocacy Middle School Education Policy 90

The Hechinger Report

JULY 30, 2019

Looking at the number of students utilizing these programs provides insight into the challenges schools face. A high-poverty school is defined as one in which 75 percent of students are eligible for the NSLP. And the number of students in these schools is on the rise. For a 1,000-student high school, it means $1.2

Advocacy 100

Advocacy Middle School High School Economics 100

The Hechinger Report

JANUARY 16, 2017

(From left to right) Sixth graders Mia DeMore, Maria DeAndrade, and Stephen Boulas make a number line in their math class at Walsh Middle School in Framingham, Massachusetts, one of 132 “Basecamp” schools piloting the Personalized Learning Platform created by the Summit charter school network. Photo: Chris Berdik.

Charter School 86

Charter School Middle School Project-Based Learning Elementary School 86

The Hechinger Report

MAY 2, 2020

A network of charter schools in California and Washington developed the Summit Learning Program for their students almost a decade ago; the model got a boost in 2014 from Facebook engineers after Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, visited a Summit middle school.

Junior High 134

Junior High Charter School Elementary School Social Studies 134

The Hechinger Report

AUGUST 11, 2016

Martin Middle School in Dillon dates to 1896 and was still in use when then-Senator Barack Obama visited in 2007 during his presidential campaign. Martin Middle School, part of which dated to 1896 and was still in use. The growth in the graduation rate at Dillon High School over four years. Photo: Alan Richard.

Middle School 76

Middle School High School Government Advocacy 76

The Hechinger Report

JULY 30, 2018

Most states have something on the books to encourage competency-based options, but only about a half-dozen have loosened seat-time dictates enough to dispense with grade levels, according to Matt Williams, chief operating officer and vice president of policy and advocacy for the personalized-learning nonprofit KnowledgeWorks.

Tradition 111

Tradition Charter School High School Cultures 111

The Hechinger Report

MARCH 21, 2017

“We can’t leave behind families who need more assistance to close that financial gap,” said Ian Rosenblum, the executive director of Education Trust–New York, a nonprofit education advocacy group that published a report about the Excelsior Scholarship. Moises began skipping school. I should have a master’s by now,” she said.

Library 96

Library Tutoring Government K-12 96

The Hechinger Report

NOVEMBER 16, 2017

“In rural areas there’s often not the tax base you find in an urban or suburban school to fund additional programs,” said Lavina Grandon, co-founder and board president of Rural Community Alliance, a nonprofit school advocacy organization.

High School 97

High School Social Studies Leadership Political Science 97

ED Surge

NOVEMBER 1, 2024

There, he tried to give people information about important education-related bills, including the bill that introduced Amendment 2, which would overturn the state’s constitutional restriction that prohibits using public funds for private and charter schools. Still, the path was winding and not limited to school.

Civics 118

Civics Education Government K-12 118

The Hechinger Report

JULY 7, 2019

Juliet Basinger, a rising seventh grader at Laing Middle School in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, demonstrates the capabilities of a drone she built in the school’s Fab Lab. At the state level, Maine passed a law two years ago to expand career-and-technical education to middle schools. PLEASANT, S.C.

Middle School 112

Middle School Elementary School High School Advocacy 112

The Hechinger Report

JULY 13, 2021

Dawn Lineberry, a sixth grade math teacher at Jackson Middle School in Guilford County, North Carolina, noticed that some of her students were struggling with long division. Principal Angela McNeill of Eastern Guilford Middle School said that students had lost ground in multiplication, division and problem solving.

Tutoring 141

Tutoring Middle School K-12 High School 141

The Hechinger Report

DECEMBER 6, 2023

About 3,500 people attended the conference, among them K-12 and higher ed educators who teach the subjects that constitute social studies — including history, civics, geography, economics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, law and religious studies. Glenn Youngkin.

Social Studies 142

Social Studies Teaching Civics Advocacy 142

The Hechinger Report

JULY 10, 2019

It was the latest big-fix trend in K-12 education, and Gist, a favored daughter of Silicon Valley philanthropists, offered up the nation’s smallest state as a laboratory mouse. For decades, nonprofit advocacy groups and corporate donors have targeted K-12 education for intervention.

K-12 110

K-12 Charter School Middle School Elementary School 110

ED Surge

DECEMBER 9, 2022

When Texas’ House Bill (HB) 25 went into effect earlier this year, banning transgender students from participating in K-12 sports, I invited teachers at my middle school to stop by my classroom to help with a project to reaffirm our school’s support for trans students. But I want them to live.

Education 128

Education K-12 Advocacy Government 128

The Hechinger Report

MAY 23, 2022

But critics say the bill’s language is so vague that it will lead many schools and teachers to over-correct, avoiding anything that might anger a parent. Anita Carson, a middle school science teacher in Lake Alfred, Florida, said she’ll keep talking to the LGBTQ students who come to her for support, even if it costs her a job.

Cultures 25

Cultures Library Elementary School Advocacy 25

The Hechinger Report

APRIL 22, 2019

John Brazeal, chief financial officer at Fox C-6 School District, at Fox Middle School in Arnold, Missouri. This story about school bonds is part of the series Districts in Debt , which examines the hidden financial pressures challenging American schools. In a separate case, Kansas City-based George K.

K-12 90

K-12 Middle School Elementary School Government 90

The Hechinger Report

MAY 8, 2020

Just before this crisis began, Arizona was poised to spend millions more on boosting its thin roster of counselors, thanks in part to the advocacy of students like Kumar. Without it, what little mental health support schools can offer students may fray further in the coming months. About 19 percent reported anxiety.

K-12 145

K-12 Charter School Middle School High School 145

The Hechinger Report

APRIL 19, 2020

On the Friday before spring break at Meigs Middle School, special education teacher Matt Coe was busy preparing new lessons for his students now that schools were set to close due to the coronavirus crisis. We are a small rural school with only 270 students. Credit: Photo courtesy Arkansas PBS.

Library 145

Library Advocacy Middle School High School 145

The Hechinger Report

MAY 8, 2023

While every school is different, Palestinian teachers are often vilified, diminished or made unwelcome. To gain more insight into our experience, I reached out to my network of Palestinian American K-12 educators. My advocacy for Palestine is professional suicide,” Sawsan Jaber said.

K-12 122

K-12 Education Advocacy Human Rights 122

ED Surge

JANUARY 26, 2023

Getting to middle school, where I had a counselor, Mrs. Bennett — God rest her soul — she was a Black woman who told me, “You really need to be in the advanced courses.” And that was another real experience that showed me what advocacy can do. So it’s advocacy that really changed my life. And I said, “Sure.”

Advocacy 110

Advocacy K-12 Humanities Teaching 110

The Hechinger Report

MAY 29, 2020

Nearly 200,000 Mississippians with children between ages of 6 to 12 work. Through the Families First Corona Response Act federal aid package, some workers staying at home to care for their children can receive up to 12 weeks of paid leave. Nearly 200,000 Mississippians with children between the ages of 6 to 12 are working parents.

Advocacy 144

Advocacy Tradition Economics Public School 144

The Hechinger Report

APRIL 11, 2018

“When these kids go off to college there have been lots of studies that say they’re not prepared with the communication, critical thinking and collaboration skills they need,” said Denise Pope, a senior lecturer at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education and a co-founder of Challenge Success, a nonprofit education advocacy group.

Teaching 107

Teaching Education Psychology High School 107

The Hechinger Report

JUNE 27, 2021

In Kachemak Selo, a remote coastal village 30 miles from Homer, students can be found wearing winter coats inside due to chilly drafts that seep through the cracked walls of the building housing the middle and high schools. These are things that cause a facilities manager to stay awake at night,” Lyon said.

High School 116

High School Government K-12 Advocacy 116