Education

EdWeek's Must Read Articles

Bringing you the must-read articles in K-12 education on some of the hottest topics, so you can improve your subject matter expertise quickly.

You can also browse these topics pages: student achievement, opportunity/achievement gap, and the digital divide.

High-Performing & Dedicated Team

Image of adults going back in the workforce.
Collage by Laura Baker/Education Week + Getty
School & District Management How the Superintendency Is Changing, in 5 Charts
Olina Banerji, September 17, 2026
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5 min read
Chief David Hope, left, instructs junior Madilyn Ruder during a Firefighting and Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) academy course at South Tech High School in Sunset Hills, Mo., on Monday, Sept. 14, 2026. Students spend half their school day learning skills before returning to their home high school for traditional courses. (Whitney Curtis for Education Week)
Teacher David Hope, left, instructs junior Madilyn Ruder during a firefighting and emergency Medical Technician (EMT) academy course at South Tech High School in Sunset Hills, Mo., on Monday, Sept. 14, 2026. Hope has to foot the bill to keep up with fast-changing EMT technology, something many districts don't cover for their career and technical education teachers.
Whitney Curtis for Education Week
Teaching Profession Skills Change Fast in CTE. Can Teachers Keep Up?
Sarah D. Sparks, September 15, 2026
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10 min read
Image of one teacher at a desk working, and the silhouette of another heading toward an exit door.
Collage by Laura Baker/Education Week + Getty
Recruitment & Retention What the Research Says Where Do Teachers Who Leave Their Job Go? See the Charts
Sarah D. Sparks, September 3, 2026
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4 min read

You can also browse these topics pages: teacher quality/effectiveness, retention, and recruitment & hiring.

Efficient Operations/Budget & Finance

Collage of various articles of clothing with clipped clothing descriptions and prices. Partial face of a kindergarten male eating a piece of fruit with other food items clipped such as pizza, bananas, and an apple. Subtle typography in the background shows menu items with prices.
Collage by Gina Tomko/Education Week + Getty
School & District Management As Student Meal Debt Soars, School Districts Launch Their Own Fundraisers
Caitlynn Peetz Stephens, September 30, 2026
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4 min read
Collage of school construction, blueprints and money images. School funding, bonds and construction.
Collage by Vanessa Solis/Education Week + Getty
Budget & Finance Voter Support Dips as Schools Seek to Borrow More Money
Grace Jiang, September 21, 2026
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5 min read
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - AUGUST 13: School supplies are displayed at a Target store on August 13, 2026 in Downtown Brooklyn in New York City. Back to school supplies are expected to cost more than 10% more for families amid a rise in inflation driving up costs.
School supplies are displayed at a Target store on August 13, 2026, in New York City. Back-to-school supplies are getting more expensive and families are struggling to pay for them, prompting educators to step in and help.
Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Budget & Finance How to Help When Families Can't Afford School Supplies
Jennifer Vilcarino, August 20, 2026
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4 min read

You can also browse these topics pages: budget & finance and school funding.

Parent & Community Engagement

Row of three school desks. Each has a different color seat. One is red, one is white, and the third desk has a blue seat. Each desk has a voting booth on top with the familiar voting "American flag" and the word "VOTE".
Illustration by Taylor Callery for Education Week
States EdWeek's Guide to the 2026 Elections: Where Education Is on the Ballot
Matthew Stone, Emily Wright & Jennifer Vilcarino, September 24, 2026
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2 min read
Illustration by Nicole Xu showing a teacher in a teacher-parent conference with a laptop that translates a distorted depiction of the student. The female parent of the EL student has a swirly white line of confusion circling her head.
Nicole Xu for Education Week
Artificial Intelligence Can Schools Trust AI to Translate for Non-English-Speaking Parents?
Alyson Klein, September 21, 2026
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10 min read
WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 17: The U.S. Department of Justice Building on August 17, 2026 in Washington, DC.
The U.S. Department of Justice Building on Aug. 17, 2026 in Washington. The Justice Department has teamed up with the U.S. Department of Education to fight school and state policies concerning transgender students it deems objectionable.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Law & Courts Trump Admin. Turns to Student Privacy Laws in Gender Identity Fights With Schools
Mark Walsh, September 17, 2026
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8 min read

You can also browse these topics pages: families & the community and parent engagement.

State-of-the-Art Facilities/Maintenance

Many Philadelphia schools lack adequate electrical service to support effective whole-school air conditioning on Sept. 8, 2023. Bayard Taylor, in Hunting Park , has window units but they do not cool the whole building.
Window air conditioning units at Bayard Taylor School in Philadelpia, pictured here on Sept. 8, 2023, do not cool the whole building. High classroom temperatures can make it harder for students to learn and perform well on tests, a new report outlines.
Elizabeth Robertson/The Philadelphia Inquirer via TNS
School Climate & Safety How Extreme Weather Threatens Student Learning and Academic Progress
Sarah Schwartz, September 28, 2026
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5 min read
HOUSTON, TEXAS - JUNE 26: Broken water fountains are shown at Key Middle School on Wednesday, June 26, 2024 in Houston. School leaders showed some of the infrastructure problems in their buildings that would be addressed in a likely vote on the Houston ISD school bond in November.
Broken water fountains are shown at Key Middle School on June 26, 2024, in Houston. A fifth of school districts had to call off classes during the 2024-25 school year due to facility problems, including plumbing emergencies and excessive heat and cold.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
School & District Management Building Problems Forced Students to Lose 3.5 Million Days of Learning in 2024-25
Arianna Prothero, September 14, 2026
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5 min read

You can also browse this topics page: school facilities & design.

Prepare Students for Career & College in a Global Environment

Collage of a person wearing high heels and a graduation gown stepping up stairs that are made of bar charts.
Illustration by Emily Wright for Education Week + Getty
College & Workforce Readiness Post-High-School Outcomes Vary Around the World. How Do U.S. Graduates Stack Up?
Sarah D. Sparks, September 29, 2026
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2 min read
South Career and Technical Academy student ambassadors and student councils hand out wristbands to new students as they arrives at CCSD’s newest high school, opening its doors for the 2025-2026 school year, on Aug. 11, 2025 , in Las Vegas .
South Career and Technical Academy students hand out wristbands to new students as they arrive at their school system's newest high school on Aug. 11, 2025, in Las Vegas. A new report recommends that school, college, and workforce leaders break down silos in their data, in order to better coordinate career-technical education goals.
Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal via TNS
College & Workforce Readiness Why Schools, Colleges, and Employers Aren't Connected on Career-Technical Education
Grace Jiang, September 24, 2026
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6 min read
Leaders in education have a panel discussion about offering a path for students from schools into careers.
Industry leaders discuss the new Compact for America’s Youth during a launch event in Washington on Sept. 10, 2026. The compact brings organizations together to work on solutions to scale up career-connected learning.
Courtesy of CareerWise
College & Workforce Readiness How Can Schools Connect Students to Careers? A New Compact Has a Plan—and Money
Lauraine Langreo, September 22, 2026
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5 min read

You can also browse these topics pages: college readiness, college access, career readiness, and graduation requirements.

Diversity

Nash Tilman, a participant in the Teacher Academy Pathway, reads The Rose That Grew From Concrete, a poem by Tupac Shakur, to 6th grade students at (Room 14) Robinson Elementary on November 7, 2025 in Fresno. California.
Nash Tilman, a participant in Fresno Unified school district's Teacher Academy Pathway, reads The Rose That Grew From Concrete, a poem by Tupac Shakur, to 6th grade students at Robinson Elementary on Nov. 7, 2025 in Fresno, Calif. A new study examines the extent to which high school education courses help more people become teachers.
Andri Tambunan for Education Week
Recruitment & Retention What the Research Says High School Teacher Academies Work. But There's a Break in the Pipeline
Sarah D. Sparks, September 21, 2026
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5 min read
A sign for the Internal Revenue Service building is pictured in Washington, May 4, 2021.
A sign for the Internal Revenue Service building in Washington on May 4, 2021. The agency has proposed new regulations that would threaten the tax-exempt status of any private school that give racial minorities preference in admissions, scholarships, and programming.
Patrick Semansky/AP
Equity & Diversity Trump Extends Anti-DEI Push to Private Schools, Eyeing Their Tax-Exempt Status
Alyson Klein, September 3, 2026
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5 min read
Children look at the Star Spangled Banner, the flag that inspired the lyrics of the American national anthem, at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Washington.
Children look at the Star Spangled Banner, the flag that inspired the lyrics of the American national anthem, at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History on June 10, 2025, in Washington.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo
Social Studies Trump Admin. Calls Popular Smithsonian History Teaching Materials 'Radical'
Sarah Schwartz, July 14, 2026
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5 min read

You can also browse these topics pages: diversity and teacher diversity.

School Safety

The Jackson Police Department responded to a hoax threat to the Middle School at Parkside on May 8, 2025. Investigators determined the call to be a prank, just like a similar call made to the school a day prior.
The police department in Jackson, Mich., responded to a "swatting" incident directed at the city's Middle School at Parkside on May 8, 2025. Many schools across the country have experienced similar fake threats, which can scare teachers, students, and parents, and disrupt the school day.
J. Scott Park/MLive.com via TNS
School Climate & Safety 'Swatting' Disrupts Schools. New Federal Guidance Shows How to Respond
Evie Blad, September 28, 2026
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3 min read
A photo showing a CCTV security eye style camera monitoring students in a classroom. The classroom is blurred in the background while the camera is in focus.
iStock/Getty
Special Education Cameras in Special Ed. Classrooms: Safety Measure or Privacy Invasion?
Caitlynn Peetz Stephens, September 25, 2026
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7 min read
Authorities investigate the scene after a deadly shooting at Marshall County High School in Benton, Ky., on Jan. 23, 2018.
Authorities investigate the scene after a deadly shooting at Marshall County High School in Benton, Ky., on Jan. 23, 2018. Patricia Greer, who was serving as principal during the incident, and other current and former school leaders have updated a guide on leading schools in the aftermath of gun violence.
Ryan Hermens/The Paducah Sun via AP
School Climate & Safety Principals Who Have Survived School Shootings Offer Advice in New Guide
Olina Banerji, September 24, 2026
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4 min read

You can also browse these topics pages: school safety and school shootings.