Sarah Schwartz

An elementary school classroom in Effie, La., shows how one of the learning goals is to master the ability to compare numbers, on August 22, 2025. New research points out steps teachers can take to memorize facts—through a combination of practice, drills, and playing with numbers.

Kathleen Flynn for Education Week

Mathematics 4 Research-Backed Tips for Mastering Math Facts

Sarah Schwartz, January 27, 2026

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5 min read

A child kneels in the snow among demonstrators holding signs during a news conference at Lake Hiawatha Park in Minneapolis on Jan. 9, 2026, demanding Immigration and Customs Enforcement be kept out of schools following the killing of Renee Good by federal agents.

Kerem Yücel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP

Teaching 'There's a Firehose of Information': Talking to Students About Minneapolis

Sarah Schwartz, January 26, 2026

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2 min read

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, pictured on Capitol Hill on Dec. 9, 2025, has asked for details from colleges and universities about whether matriculants possess adequate math skills.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Mathematics Are Students Prepared for College-Level Math? A Senator Wants to Know

Sarah Schwartz, January 23, 2026

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3 min read

A 5th grader works on a problem during a math class at an elementary school in Effie, La., on Aug. 22, 2025. A position paper on teaching math published by the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics recently kicked off another round of conversations about what practices work best in the classroom—and what the ultimate goals of the subject even are.

Kathleen Flynn for Education Week

Mathematics Debates Over Math Teaching Are Heating Up. They Could Affect Classrooms

Sarah Schwartz, January 22, 2026

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9 min read

Education Week and Canva

Mathematics How the Vocabulary Math Teachers Use Affects Student Learning

Sarah Schwartz, January 16, 2026

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4 min read

Children participate in math activities during the East Providence Boys and Girls Club Summer Camp at Emma G. Whiteknact Elementary School on Thursday, July 10, 2025, in Providence, R.I. Studies show post-pandemic summer programs led to small gains in math achievement.

Sophie Park/AP

Student Achievement Summer School Can Boost Learning Gains—Even When Programs Aren't Perfect

Sarah Schwartz, January 14, 2026

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3 min read

Eight states have passed legislation restricting school officials from pulling books out of school libraries for partisan or ideological reasons. In the past five years, many such challenges have focused on books about race or LGBTQ+ people. Amanda Darrow, the director of youth, family and education programs at the Utah Pride Center, poses with books that have been the subject of complaints from parents in Salt Lake City on Dec. 16, 2021. (Utah is not one of the eight states.)

Rick Bowmer/AP

States States Are Banning Book Bans. Will It Work?

Sarah Schwartz, January 7, 2026

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5 min read

Anjanette McNeely teaches a reading block with her kindergarten students at Windridge Elementary School in Kaysville, Utah, on Dec. 4, 2025.

Niki Chan Wylie for Education Week

Reading & Literacy Video How Reading Instruction Evolved in 2025, and What’s Ahead

Sarah Schwartz & Kaylee Domzalski, December 30, 2025

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2:13

Students attend Bow Memorial School in Bow, N.H. on Oct. 29, 2025. Bow Memorial School is a middle school that has developed a systematic approach to addressing foundational reading gaps in middle school students.

Sophie Park for Education Week

Reading & Literacy Video What Happens When Middle and High Schoolers Still Struggle to Read?

Sarah Schwartz & Kaylee Domzalski, December 18, 2025

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1 min read

A court put on ice Oklahoma standards for social studies pushed by former state Superintendent Ryan Walters, pictured here listening to public comment at the Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting on April 25, 2024 in Oklahoma City.

Nick Oxford/Human Rights Campaign via AP

Social Studies Oklahoma Must Rework Social Studies Standards After Court Ruling

Sarah Schwartz, December 17, 2025

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3 min read

What's the best way to attend to all the elements of the 'science of reading' in a literacy block? Research doesn't specify a specific answer, but kindergarten teacher Anjanette McNeely has designed hers to incorporate foundational skills, content, and writing. McNeely's class works on their letters at Windridge Elementary School in Kaysville, Utah, on Dec. 4, 2025.

Niki Chan Wylie for Education Week

Reading & Literacy How to Build a Reading Block: Two Teachers Share Their Approaches

Sarah Schwartz, December 8, 2025

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7 min read

Loralyn LaBombard, a reading specialist, reads <i>Among the Hidden</i> by Margaret Peterson Haddix with a group of students in a 7th grade reading class at Bow Memorial School in Bow, N.H., on Oct. 29, 2025. Nationally, experts say there is a lack of resources available to help middle and high school students learn basic reading skills.

Sophie Park for Education Week

Reading & Literacy Many Teens Lack Basic Reading Skills. These Teachers Are Trying to Change That

Sarah Schwartz, December 4, 2025

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6 min read

Texas' new social studies framework underscores American exceptionalism and the state's own history. The Battle of the Alamo—shown here in San Antonio on March 26, 2020—has long been a flashpoint in debates over what topics Texas students should know. Over the past five years many states have confronted the push for right- or left-favored topics and themes in their history standards.

Eric Gay/AP

Social Studies Communism, American Exceptionalism Latest Flashpoints in State History Standards

Sarah Schwartz, November 25, 2025

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6 min read

Under a new definition, students wouldn't need to have "unexpected" learning gaps to be identified for dyslexia services. Students in the online blended learning class at the ALLIES School in Colorado Springs, Colo., work with literacy programs created for students with dyslexia, on April 7, 2023.

Jaclyn Borowski/Education Week

Special Education What a New Dyslexia Definition Could Mean for Schools

Sarah Schwartz, November 24, 2025

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5 min read

Bow Memorial School has developed a systematic approach to addressing foundational reading gaps among middle schoolers, integrating sound-letter skills with a rich diet of reading materials. A student shows their spelling during an exercise in a 5th grade class at the school in Bow, N.H. on Oct. 29, 2025.

Sophie Park for Education Week

Reading & Literacy When Older Students Can't Read: How This Middle School Is Tackling Literacy

Sarah Schwartz, November 24, 2025

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14 min read

iStock/Getty

Reading & Literacy 4 Tips for Supporting Older Struggling Readers, From Researchers and Experts

Sarah Schwartz, November 24, 2025

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5 min read

iStock/Getty

Artificial Intelligence AI Tutors Are Now Common in Early Reading Instruction. Do They Actually Work?

Sarah Schwartz, November 20, 2025

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7 min read

iStock/Getty

Student Achievement What the Research Says Why Hasn't Tutoring Been More Effective?

Sarah Schwartz, November 18, 2025

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6 min read

Logan Jeffiers teaches an eighth grade prealgebra class on April 28, 2023, at Medlin Middle School in Trophy Club, Texas. New data confirm that even when they have similar academic marks as their white peers, Black and Latino students tend to have less access to the gatekeeping course of Algebra 1.

Amanda McCoy/Fort Worth Star-Telegram via TNS

Mathematics High-Achieving Black and Latino Students Are Often Shut Out of Algebra 1

Sarah Schwartz, November 18, 2025

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3 min read

New research suggests that exercises in phonemic awareness may be more impactful when connected to print and purposeful phonics teaching.

Allison Shelley for All4Ed

Reading & Literacy A Popular Method for Teaching Phonemic Awareness Doesn't Boost Reading

Sarah Schwartz, November 4, 2025

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5 min read

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