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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
First grader Aizlynn Castillo works on an assignment in Diana Oviedo-Holguin’s English-learner class at Heritage Elementary School in San Antonio on Sept. 3, 2025. The school district has embraced the "science of reading" and is applying it to instruction for English learners and in dual-language programs.
Timothy Rimke reads during Casey Cuny's English class at Valencia High School in Santa Clarita, Calif., on Aug. 27, 2025. Some observers of English/language arts curriculum fear that several growing in popularity subordinate the reading of novels and whole texts to shorter excerpts, but the evidence is still sketchy.
Students in Saxon Brown's 9th grade English class take turns reading as the different characters in <i>To Kill A Mockingbird</i> during class at Bel Air High School in Bel Air, Md., on Jan. 25, 2024. Teachers say several tips help them build the scaffolding and stamina kids need to tackle complex novels like Harper Lee's masterpiece.
Third-grader Fallon Rawlinson reads a book at Good Springs Elementary School in Good Springs, Nev., on March 30, 2022. Reading scores remain flat after the pandemic, even as scores grow in math—a subject in which performance was initially more affected.
Laura Patranella's 5th graders write verses in response to <i>Love That Dog</i>, by Sharon Creech. One of Patranella's English/language arts unit features that novel alongside the poems that inspired it.
Illustration by Vanessa Solis/Education Week. Student writing courtesy of Laura Patranella
Students at R. Brown McAllister Elementary School use telephones for a phonemic awareness lesson on March 19, 2025, in Concorn, N.C. Researchers are homing in on the qualities of high-quality intervention for students who continue to struggle after regular teaching.
Students at R. Brown McAllister Elementary School use different strategies in phonemic awareness during literacy instruction on March 19, 2025, in Concorn, N.C. Teaching spelling in foundational-skills lessons can improve students' reading, research shows.
A student works on a math problem during a 5th grade class at Lafargue Elementary School in Effie, Louisiana, on Friday, August 22. The state has implemented new professional development requirements for math teachers in grades 4-8 to help improve student achievement and address learning gaps. The Trump administration says it will prioritize grants that promote similar state-based math education efforts.