At least 26 states have passed laws about how schools teach reading since APM Reports’ Sold a Story podcast began in 2022. But proponents of the disproven ideas about reading exposed in the podcast haven’t given up.
For decades, the federal government has surveyed high school students — and repeatedly followed up with them as adults. The goal was to gather data on their educational choices and careers so researchers could draw connections between them. Trump put an end to that effort as part of his quest to dissolve the Department of Education.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress is one of the few federal education initiatives that the Trump administration has vowed to preserve. But the administration has slashed the staff responsible for keeping the series of tests up to date. And the board overseeing the assessment has eliminated more than a dozen scheduled tests over the next seven years, citing “cost efficiencies.”
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.
The school reform program, first developed in the 1980s, has been declining in popularity for the past two decades — even though a mountain of research shows it gets great results, especially when it comes to elementary reading skills. Schools that have dropped the program cite logistical challenges, cost, administrative turnover and a perceived lack of flexibility.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns ruled that the lawsuit against educational publisher Heinemann and three of its top authors was invalidated by a legal doctrine that bars claims of “educational malpractice.”
Even though EdReports is only a decade old, it has quickly become a powerful force in the educational publishing industry. Many schools rely on its reviews when they decide which reading programs to buy. But the nonprofit organization has given high marks to programs that use strategies debunked by cognitive science. And it hasn't endorsed other programs despite studies showing they work.
The third graders in Steubenville, Ohio, are among the best little readers in the nation. For nearly 20 years, 93% or more of them have scored proficient on state reading tests. In fact, the elementary schools in this economically depressed area are producing better readers than some of the wealthiest places in the country.
A class-action lawsuit filed in Massachusetts claims that the educational publishing company Heinemann falsely advertised its products as “research-backed” and “data-based.”
The educational publisher raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue during the 2010s selling reading programs based on a disproven theory. The company now faces financial fallout, as schools ditch its products.
Frank Edelblut pledged to stay “nonpartisan.” But as head of New Hampshire’s education department, he’s used his platform to pursue conservative grievances against the education system and individual educators.
New Hampshire Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut criticized a middle school art class slideshow for discussing gender. For the teacher who made the presentation, it was the last straw.
As schools around the country are dropping Reading Recovery, the nonprofit that advocates for the tutoring program tapped into its cash reserves to push back against journalists and legislators.
Other schools are backing away from a disproven theory about how kids learn to read, but programs started by Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell train literacy coaches to believe in it.
“Flipping a coin would actually be better” for identifying struggling readers, one researcher said of the test created by influential curriculum developers Fountas and Pinnell.
APM Reports found that the controversial educational publishing company has sold instructional materials and professional resources in almost every state, earning at least $1.6 billion over a decade.
The education professors double down on a flawed approach that encourages pictures and context to read words. Heinemann — their publisher — faces harsh criticism.
Colleges are struggling to meet the surging demand for mental health services on campus, and some schools are wrestling with how much care they owe students.
Colleges and universities in the United States attract more than a million international students a year. Higher education is one of America’s top service exports, generating $42 billion in revenue. But the money spigot is closing. The pandemic, visa restrictions, rising tuition and a perception of poor safety in America have driven new international student enrollment down by a jaw-dropping 72 percent.
Texas Teachers of Tomorrow has become the largest teacher training program in the nation, offering a low-cost online program. While it’s lowered barriers and helped diversify the workforce, this approach to training hasn’t solved chronic teacher shortages.