Sarah Schwartz is a reporter for Education Week who covers curriculum and instruction. Before joining the staff, she was as an Education Week intern, covering education technology. She has also worked at a middle school in New York City.
Diana Oviedo-Holguin, left, teaches a first grade English-learner class at Heritage Elementary School in San Antonio, Texas, on Sept. 3, 2025. Oral-language development is a critical part of reading that helps with vocabulary and comprehension, and is particularly important for EL students.
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.
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Members of the U.S. House of Representatives leave the Capitol after a session on Sept. 16, 2026 in Washington, D.C. The House passed legislation that would make the "science of reading" a priority in some federal literacy grants.
Fifth graders Natalia Gutierrez, 10, and Garrett Christian, 10, and 3rd grader William Robinson, 8, wait to begin reading time in the afternoon at Creative Minds School in Wichita, Kan., on Sept. 15, 2026. Applying reading research to the classroom can be challenging, and engineering principles could help, some researchers say.
<br/>HOUSTON, TEXAS - NOVEMBER 20: Second grade students line up after selecting books to check out in the library at Burnett Elementary School in Pasadena ISD on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024 in Houston. Pasadena ISD is modernizing their reading standards to include more of the science of reading in earlier grades. The schools are also partnering with CYCLE, a nonprofit that gives students free bikes if they reach their academic goals.
Business and entrepreneurship students Charlotte Smith, 15, left, Leslie Hernandes, 14, center, and Leah Vazquez, 15, all of Port Richey, Fla., collaborate with their teacher Jamie Hickey while using an AI model designed for teachers and students to organize business plans for a project on Jan. 24, 2025 at Dayspring Academy in New Port Richey. Little research has been done on which AI tools have instructional utility in classrooms; a new portal aims to shine a light on their varied promises and pitfalls.
Teacher Adam Gravenor hands out lesson sheets he created with the help of AI technology to accompany the class textbook at Coronado High School in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Nov. 17, 2025. More teachers are using AI to generate decodable texts and other tailored reading, and not much research points to best practices.
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The PISA results were released Sept. 8 and showed global declines in three subjects. International education luminaries presented the findings: Karin Prien, the federal minister of education, family, senior citizens, women, and youth; Francesco Avvisati of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and co-author of the PISA report; Prof. Dr. Samuel Greiff, director of the PISA National Center at the Technical University of Munich; and Anna Stolz, president of the conference of education ministers and Bavarian minister of state for education and cultural affairs.
Froylan Vasquez, foreground, and Gaby Ortiz, students at the High School of Science and Technology in Springfield, Mass., remove a tire in the automotive shop at Putnam Vocational Technical Academy. This is part of the After Dark Vocational Program at the two schools on April 9, 2024. Students who don't tend to go directly to college say they generally get less information on post-high school options.
Teacher Adam Gravenor uses AI technology to assist his instruction at Coronado High School in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Nov. 17, 2025. As AI continues to enter the classroom, some teachers are using both general tools and those provided by educational publishers to generate "decodable" text to supplement phonics lessons, or texts of varying complexity.
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A tutor helps students at Benjamin O. Davis Middle School in Compton, Calif., on Feb. 6, 2025. A new study shows that shorter, less intensive tutoring can be effective.
Students at R. Brown McAllister Elementary School practice exercises in phonemic awareness during literary instruction on March 19, 2025, in Concorn, N.C. Consensus exists that teaching students alphabetics, including phonics and phonemic awareness, is critical for reading—but which methods are the most efficient?
Julie Celestial, center, teaches her kindergarten class a literacy lesson at Mark Twain Elementary School in Long Beach, Calif. on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. Proponents of a "speech-to-print" phonics approach say it works more efficiently than other methods. But research evidence is inconclusive.
Sixth graders read a passage and give constructive feedback to their partners during Nancy Barajas' class at Fairview Elementary School on May 6, 2026, in Modesto, Calif. New research shows the nation's 6th graders' reading scores have flatlined, and the lowest-performing students are losing ground.
U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., left, listens as U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee meeting at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 30, 2026. The committee advanced two bills related to reading, as well as another opposing the transfer of certain U.S. Department of Education offices to other agencies.
The desktop of a student at the Wells Preparatory Elementary School reflects the literature they're studying in Charlotte Owens' fifth grade class on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. Research supports children reading over the summer—but not specifically assigning reading lists or holding kids accountable for completing them.
Research confirms what many educators know: chronic absenteeism undermines student academic recovery. A view of an empty classroom at a school in Colorado Springs, Colo., Feb. 12, 2026.