The Hechinger Report

Our platform focuses on addressing inequality and fostering innovation in education through comprehensive journalism. We combine research, data, and real stories from classrooms and campuses to demonstrate how education can be enhanced and explain its importance to society.

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Education Department reinstates some research and data activities

6 days ago | hechingerreport.org | Jill Barshay

Education Secretary Linda McMahon has repeatedly said that the February and March cancellations and firings at her department cut not only the “fat” but also into some of the “muscle” of the federal role in education. So, even as she promises to dismantle her department, she is also bringing back some people and restarting some activities. Court filings and her own congressional testimony illuminate what this means for the agency as a whole, and for education research in particular.
How Trump is changing higher education: The view from 4 campuses

1 week ago | hechingerreport.org | Steven Yoder |Felicia Mello |Alexandra Villarreal |Miles MacClure

A Black History Month event, canceled. A lab working to fight hunger, shuttered. Student visas revoked, then reinstated, uncertain for how long. Opportunities for students pursuing science careers, fading. The first six months of the Trump administration have brought a hailstorm of changes to the nation’s colleges and universities.
A week of breaking news in education research

1 week ago | hechingerreport.org | Jill Barshay

When I was covering education research in the Before Times, I rarely worried about following the latest news. But the Trump administration has upended my beat. Last week was one of the busiest I’ve had in my 14 years at The Hechinger Report. Some highlights: a bewildering email, contradictory court rulings and a missed deadline. For details, read on. On June 6, some 1,300 former Education Department employees received email notices that their March mass firing would be reversed.
How Nebraska is reimagining special education — and seeing promising results

1 week ago | hechingerreport.org | Jackie Mader

SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. — When Bethany Jolliffe started teaching kindergarten 15 years ago, she picked up on what seemed like a long-standing pattern: Teachers mostly stayed in their lane, with general education teachers focusing on “their” students, and special education teachers honed in on students deemed to be their responsibility. Instead of keeping children with disabilities in classrooms and bringing help to them, those students were often pulled out of the classroom, away from their peers.
New Jersey has the lowest rates of inclusion for students in special education in the country

2 weeks ago | hechingerreport.org | Marina Villeneuve |Meredith Kolodner

New Jersey students with disabilities are the least likely in the nation to spend their days surrounded by peers without disabilities. One underlying reason: a sprawling network of separate schools that allows districts to outsource educating them. New Jersey has more than a hundred private schools, plus eight county-run districts specifically for students with disabilities.
Education researchers lose to Trump administration in first round of court challenge

2 weeks ago | hechingerreport.org | Jill Barshay

The courts have pushed back against much of President Donald Trump’s agenda, but he did win a small victory this week in a dispute with education researchers. On June 3, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., denied a request by four education research trade associations for a preliminary injunction, which means that the Education Department doesn’t have to temporarily reinstate fired employees and canceled contracts within its research and data arm, the Institute of Education Sciences.
New Jersey students in special education stuck in separate classrooms

2 weeks ago | hechingerreport.org | Meredith Kolodner |Marina Villeneuve

CINNAMINSON, N.J. — Terri Joyce believed that her son belonged in a kindergarten classroom that included students with and without disabilities. The year before, as a 4-year-old, he happily spent afternoons in a child care program filled with typically developing children, without any extra support. Like other kids his age, her son, who has Down syndrome, was learning about shapes and loved sitting on the rug listening to the teacher read books aloud.
Education Department misses key deadline for delivering statistics report

2 weeks ago | hechingerreport.org | Jill Barshay

For nearly 160 years, the federal government has been producing a statistical report on the condition and progress of education. In 2002, as part of the Education Sciences Reform Act, Congress gave the Education Department an annual deadline for that report: June 1. But no “Report on the Condition of Education” was delivered by June 1 of this year, the first time the Education Department has failed to meet this statutory obligation.
A South Dakota museum takes students on flights to the stars, but future trips are in question because of cuts from the Trump administration cuts

2 weeks ago | hechingerreport.org | Anya Kamenetz

HAYTI, S.D. — “Are we actually in space?” The kindergartners of South Dakota’s Hamlin County are, in fact, in space. To be specific, they are on planet Earth, near the geographic center of North America, sitting crisscross applesauce inside an 11-foot-high inflatable planetarium set up in their school gym. The darkness is velvety.
Trump cuts could expose student data to cyber threats

3 weeks ago | hechingerreport.org | Jill Barshay

When hackers hit a school district, they can expose Social Security numbers, home addresses, and even disability and disciplinary records. Now, cybersecurity advocates warn that the Trump administration’s budget and personnel cuts, along with rule changes, are stripping away key defenses that schools need.