Opinion Collections
Social Studies
Opinion
Celebrating Black History Education: A Collection
This year’s special Education Week Opinion project celebrating Black History Month focuses on what is going well in Black history education.
School & District Management
Opinion
'I Used to Think School Systems Were Broken': Educators Reflect
Changing your mind or evolving your thinking is not easy. Hear how these education leaders did just that.
Policy & Politics
Opinion
Mapping the Future of Education: A Collection
Educational progress has stalled. But recommitting to opportunity for students shows the way forward, say advocates from across the country.
Social Studies
Opinion
The Urgency of Black History: A Collection
A strong Black history program is about more than building a curriculum; it’s about building citizens. Here’s where to start.
School & District Management
Opinion
The Public Role of Education Researchers: A Collection
Rick Hess releases the RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings in tandem with his commentary on the state of public scholarship.
Equity & Diversity
Opinion
What Black History Month Should Mean: A Collection
Amid national backlash against racially conscious instruction, it will take hard work to improve how Black history is taught in schools.
School & District Management
Opinion
How Educators and Researchers Can Work Together to Improve Schools: A Collection
Researchers and educators share their best advice on how to create successful partnerships that can improve schools.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
What We Learned About Teachers During the Pandemic: A Series
A researcher shows how teachers went from making school happen to having little say in planning for an unprecedented year.
School & District Management
Opinion
Leadership Lessons From the Kitchen Table: A Series
Experienced district leaders from one end of the country to the other share their most instructive insights from leading through a pandemic.
School & District Management
Opinion
Leading for Racial Justice: A Series
Two educators explore the hard but necessary work of making schools places where Asian, Black, Indigenous, and Latinx students can thrive.
Equity & Diversity
Opinion
Using Cultural Knowledge for Equity: A Series
How can you make instruction work for children of color? The equity team of an Oregon district shares research and experience.
Equity & Diversity
Opinion
How to Get Black History Right: A Series
What does it mean to be an educator of Black history? Educators, students, and historians explore.
Leadership
Opinion
What U.S. Education Has to Learn From 2020: A Collection
What happens when we enter new territory that cries out for evidence-based guidance, but there is none or very little?
Student Well-Being
Opinion
How to Support Your Students Following a Traumatic News Day
Educators and researchers share their advice and reflections on how to respond to tragic events at home and abroad.
Student Well-Being
Opinion
How Students Find Strength Now: An Opinion Project
Students are carving their own paths in the pandemic. Educators and students explore what that means for schools.
Leadership
Opinion
The Principal Is In: Advice for Principals
In a biweekly Education Week column, experienced principals and other school leadership experts offer advice for their peers.
School & District Management
Opinion
Weighing the Research: What Works, What Doesn't
In an ongoing series, Susanna Loeb, Heather Hill, and guest authors put the pieces of research together so that education decisionmakers can evaluate which policies and practices to implement.
Leadership
Opinion
How Education Scholars Stay Informed
As the media landscape becomes more atomized and the political landscape more fractious, we wanted to know how scholars are keeping current.
Big Ideas in Education
Special Report
10 Big Ideas in Education 2020
Education Week reporters and editors question some of the basic assumptions that underpin public education and stand in the way of transformation.
College & Workforce Readiness
Opinion
From the Pueblo to College: The Journey of Two Rural Students
What does it take for rural students to succeed academically? This three-part video series follows two Native American students as they transition from high school to higher education and explores what their decisions mean for their families and their Jemez Pueblo community.
Student Achievement
Opinion
Redefining Opportunity and Advantage in Education
The word choices we make can inform and affect how we view student potential. This special Opinion package tackles what educators need to know.
Leadership
Opinion
Want to Be a Public Scholar? Here's What You Need to Know
Five education scholars share their best advice for how to make have your voice heard in education policy and practice
Big Ideas in Education
Special Report
10 Big Ideas in Education 2019
Education Week reporters and editors identify 10 of today’s most pressing challenges in education and offer bold ideas for addressing them.
School & District Management
Opinion
How Principals Navigate Challenge
From school shootings to student suicides to hurricanes and more: School leaders open up about how they faced some of the most difficult circumstances of their careers.
School & District Management
Opinion
An Inside Look at School Improvement (Perspectives)
What does continuous improvement look like in practice? One school community shares insights from its innovative model.
Leadership
Opinion
How Should Education Scholars Join the Public Conversation?
Frederick M. Hess and four education scholars discuss the pros and cons for academics who want to wade into public debate.
Big Ideas in Education
Special Report
10 Big Ideas in Education 2018
Part opinion writing, part conversation, and part journalism analysis, this special report explores game-changing disruptions to the field of education that have the potential to shake up the schoolhouse and the classroom.
Future of Work
Opinion
Artificial Intelligence, Schooling, & Tomorrow's Jobs
Are students academically prepared for a future of jobs we have yet to imagine, shaped by technology we have yet to invent? Professors, advocates, and futurists explore what's ahead.
Curriculum
Opinion
Arts Education: A Look Ahead
In this package, Education Week has convened a range of researchers, professors, and practitioners to argue their case for arts education’s path forward. Despite their many contrasting opinions, these experts all agree on one thing: Arts instruction is key to American schooling and is worth supporting, researching, and protecting.
Equity & Diversity
Opinion
Education Equity Is Now Up to the States
As ESSA goes into full effect and the federal role in education recedes, equity now belongs to the states. Education leaders from around the country weigh in on their priorities for upending equity.
Education
Opinion
The Leftward Tilt of Education Scholarship
With the release of 2017's RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, Rick Hess weighs in on "the leftward tilt" of education scholarship.
Student Well-Being
Opinion
Student Trauma: How School Leaders Can Respond
In this special package, school leaders and two founders of trauma-informed programs reflect on proven strategies that promote healing.
Teaching
Opinion
Focusing In on Science Learning
In this special Commentary package, Education Week editors challenged classroom teachers, teacher-educators, and researchers to tackle issues surrounding STEM learning and propose new ideas for improving science instruction.
College & Workforce Readiness
Opinion
Reimagining College Admissions
In this collection of Commentaries, four thought leaders unpack the hot-button issues that surround the pathway to higher education.
Families & the Community
Opinion
Inside Opt-Out
This Commentary special collection offers a range of perspectives on parents’ opting their children out of tests.
Standards
Opinion
Common Core: Perspectives From the Classroom
In this special Commentary package, five educators discuss the realities of common-core implementation from the frontlines, highlighting both challenges and opportunities.
Curriculum
Opinion
Inspired Learning
In this special package from Education Week Commentary, educators and advocates discuss the arts in K-12 education. Regular contributing artists illustrate the package, which includes a video that explores the role of the arts in classroom engagement.
Equity & Diversity
Opinion
Brown at 60: Perspectives
Education Week Commentary explores the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, including how questions concerning race continue to play out in K-12 education.
College & Workforce Readiness
Opinion
College Access for All
Today, more than ever, a college degree is considered an essential ingredient for personal economic success. But how do educators and policymakers work together to encourage more students to apply to, stick with, and succeed in higher education?
Equity & Diversity
Project
Education in Indian Country: Obstacles and Opportunity
On most measures of educational success, Native American students trail every other racial and ethnic subgroup of students. We explore why.
Families & the Community
Opinion
The Role of the K-12 Parent
This Commentary package offers different perspectives on the changing nature of parent empowerment and the role that family engagement can play in student achievement.
Teacher Preparation
Opinion
Commentaries on Teacher Preparation
Commentary considers teacher education and the best ways to prepare new educators for the classroom
Federal
Opinion
A Nation at Risk: 30 Years Later
This special collection, and a new blog that accompanies it, examines the legacy of the landmark report.
Standards
Opinion
Common-Core Commentaries
Adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia, the Common Core State Standards have provoked opinions and ideas from thought leaders, policymakers, and the educators who have to implement them. Browse their perspectives in this collection
Federal
Opinion
The Federal Role in Education
What lessons have been learned from the past half-century of federal involvement in education? Chester E. Finn Jr., Charles Barone, and Marshall S. Smith, among others, consider this question and others in this collection of five essays adapted for Education Week from the book Carrots, Sticks, and the Bully Pulpit (Harvard Education Press, 2011).
Student Well-Being
Opinion
Education and the Whole Child
Many advocates for children argue that schools need to do more than focus on academics solely—that they must address the "whole child." These Commentaries offer perspectives on what educating the whole child means in reality, why some feel it's more important now than ever before, and how schools and other organizations are working together to meet students' needs outside the classroom.
Federal
Opinion
NCLB Turns 10
To reflect on the anniversary of the No Child Left Behind Act, the Education Week Commentary editors asked K-12 education leaders, politicians, teachers, and child advocates for their thoughts. Read what Linda Darling-Hammond, Kaya Henderson, and Paul G. Vallas, among others, have to say. This package also includes links to Education Week's coverage over the decade, readers' comments, and a glossary of selected NCLB terms.
School & District Management
Opinion
K-12 Innovation
What can schools learn from video games? Do ideas always have to be “big” to solve education problems, or can schools benefit from an evolving slate of smaller, more focused changes? Could some schools leap into new digital advances while others proceed more cautiously, without harming students? Ken Kay, Ted Kolderie, Michael Levine, and others weigh in on these ideas and more in this collection of Commentaries on innovation and learning.
School & District Management
Opinion
The Futures of School Reform
The members of the Futures of School Reform Group represented leading thinkers from the academic, business, and public-policy sectors.
Teacher Preparation
Opinion
Perspectives on TFA in Its 20th Year
In its two decades, Teach For America has dispatched more than 20,000 young teachers to work in some of America’s poorest schools and communities. To mark TFA’s 20th-anniversary year, 2010-11, Education Week's Commentary editors sought out a variety of perspectives on Teach For America and its effects on teachers, students, and schools.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
The Future of Teaching
Karen Hawley Miles, Barnett Berry, and others explore how to strengthen the teaching profession as a whole through new learning opportunities and better evaluation systems. The authors also consider what teaching will look like in years to come and the importance of listening to the rising numbers of new teachers. The “future of teaching” is still being mapped out; read what leaders think is ahead