OPINION: Head Start ‘changed our lives’: A newly minted Ph.D. reflects on why this program must be saved 

Posted 2025-09-16 05:00:00 by: Melinda King

The first words I uttered after successfully defending my dissertation were, “Wow, what a ride. From Head Start to Ph.D.!” Saying them reminded me where it all began: sitting cross-legged with a picture book at the Westside Head Start Center, just a few blocks from my childhood home in Jackson, Mississippi.  I don’t remember every […] The post OPINION: Head Start ‘changed our lives’: A newly minted Ph.D. reflects on why this program must be saved  appeared first on The Hechinger ...

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STUDENT VOICE: What National Endowment for the Humanities cuts mean for high schoolers like me

Posted 2025-09-16 05:00:00 by: Melinda King

In April, the Trump administration announced drastic funding cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities. Those cuts are harming education groups that rely on NEH grants — and students like me.  Among the organizations that lost funding was National History Day, a nonprofit that runs a half-century-old competition engaging some 500,000 students annually in […] The post STUDENT VOICE: What National Endowment for the Humanities cuts mean for high schoolers like me appeared first on The Hechinger ...

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Behind the latest dismal NAEP scores

Posted 2025-09-15 10:00:00 by: Melinda King

The National Assessment for Educational Progress, called NAEP or the Nation’s Report Card, has long been considered the gold standard for understanding how American students are doing. So bad headlines were inevitable last week when the long-delayed 2024 results for 12th graders in math and reading and for eighth graders in science were finally released. […] The post Behind the latest dismal NAEP scores appeared first on The Hechinger ...

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OPINION: The push to expand school choice is reshaping the landscape of American education, but leaving behind fundamental democratic values 

Posted 2025-09-15 05:00:00 by: Melinda King

From Texas to Florida to Arizona, school voucher policies are reshaping the landscape of American education. The Trump administration champions federal support for voucher expansion, and many state-level leaders are advancing school choice programs. Billions of public dollars are now flowing to private schools, church networks and microeducation platforms.   The push to expand school choice […] The post OPINION: The push to expand school choice is reshaping the landscape of American education, but leaving behind fundamental democratic values  appeared first on The Hechinger ...

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Football fantasy: Colleges add sports to bring men, but it doesn’t always work

Posted 2025-09-13 05:00:00 by: Melinda King

SALEM, Va. — On a hot and humid August morning in this southwestern Virginia town, football training camp is in full swing at Roanoke College. Players cheer as a receiver makes a leaping one-handed catch, and linemen sweat through blocking drills. Practice hums along like a well-oiled machine — yet this is the first day […] The post Football fantasy: Colleges add sports to bring men, but it doesn’t always work appeared first on The Hechinger ...

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Students, schools race to save clean energy projects in face of Trump deadline

Posted 2025-09-11 05:00:00 by: Melinda King

Tanish Doshi was in high school when he pushed the Tucson Unified School District to take on an ambitious plan to reduce its climate footprint. In Oct. 2024, the availability of federal tax credits encouraged the district to adopt the $900 million plan, which involves goals of achieving net-zero emissions and zero waste by 2040, […] The post Students, schools race to save clean energy projects in face of Trump deadline appeared first on The Hechinger ...

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OPINION: Let’s move past bad report cards and toward new approaches to help students thrive in a rapidly changing world 

Posted 2025-09-10 15:38:01 by: Melinda King

America’s future is not made in factories or innovation labs — it’s forged in classrooms. We can’t bring good jobs back to U.S. shores if we don’t first educate a workforce capable of doing them. The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, known as the Nation’s Report Card, paints a grim picture, with […] The post OPINION: Let’s move past bad report cards and toward new approaches to help students thrive in a rapidly changing world  appeared first on The Hechinger ...

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A window into America’s high schools slams shut

Posted 2025-09-10 05:00:00 by: Melinda King

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. […] The post A window into America’s high schools slams shut appeared first on The Hechinger ...

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OPINION: Higher education has been under attack. Here’s a new way to fight back and help today’s students  

Posted 2025-09-10 05:00:00 by: Melinda King

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 […] The post OPINION: Higher education has been under attack. Here’s a new way to fight back and help today’s students   appeared first on The Hechinger ...

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Lawsuit saves massive reading experiment

Posted 2025-09-09 05:00:00 by: Melinda King

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 […] The post Lawsuit saves massive reading experiment appeared first on The Hechinger ...

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