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.
Alisson Ramírez, right, listens to her social studies teacher during class Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. Elementary social studies is the focus of a new tool meant to guide curriculum selection that leans more heavily on history content than on skills like weighing primary sources.
Students at a Chicago elementary school make their way to the cafeteria past logos showing the core subjects they study on March 8, 2024. The state of Illinois has launched an effort to offer school districts guidance on effective strategies in math.
Bow Memorial School in Bow, N.H., pictured here on Oct. 29, 2025, has developed a systematic approach to addressing foundational reading gaps in middle school students. Teachers who work with older readers say they often have a hard time finding texts that support these students' needs at grade level without feeling babyish or patronizing.
Teachers from across the country convened at National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Feb. 7, 2026, to create lessons for America's 250th anniversary this summer. In the distance Independence Hall is visible.
The Texas State Capitol on the first day of the 87th Legislature's special session on July 8, 2021 in Austin. In 2025, Texas lawmakers mandated professional development for classroom teachers, math coaches, interventionists, and building leaders working with students in grades K-3.
Students look at books during a book fair at Schaumburg Elementary, part of the ReNEW charter network, in New Orleans, Wednesday, April 19, 2023. Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana have seen a promising turnaround in their student reading scores after passing a series of similar literacy reforms.
Jaime Garcia, the dean of academics at LISA Academy North Middle-High School won a $25,000 award from the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, in part for the work he's done to build community and academic by having students help their classmates.
Cory Alexander, child nutrition director for Osborn School District, meets with the middle school culinary team, chef Theresa Mazza and Maddie Furey at the Garden Cafe in Phoenix, on Jan. 21, 2026.
Texas is poised to be the first state to require that every student read the same texts—including, controversially, selections from the Bible and several Christian parables. Books line shelves in a high school library on Oct. 1, 2018, in Brownsville, Texas.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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.