Sarah Schwartz

Students look at books during a book fair at Schaumburg Elementary, part of the ReNEW charter network, in New Orleans on 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.

Kids gather in a circle to learn how to play marbles during the after school programming in the community library in Soddy-Daisy, Tenn. on Oct. 1, 2026. The library is going beyond traditional academic enrichment to connect with a school district's literacy curriculum.

Students read <i>Where the Mountain Meets the Moon</i> in teacher Jaime Johnson’s 6th grade language arts class at Murphy Middle School in Dacula, Georgia on September 22, 2026. Johnson has students do most of the reading in class—to improve fluency, created a shared culture of engagement in books, and above all make sure every student completes the text.

Children place flowers at a makeshift memorial outside Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Ore., Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, a day after a deadly shooting. The child victims, ages 5, 8, and 11, include the youngest person killed in a school shooting since Education Week began<a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/school-shootings-this-year-how-many-and-where/2026/01" target="_blank" link-data="{&quot;cms.site.owner&quot;:{&quot;_ref&quot;:&quot;00000173-0561-d1f0-a17f-adef4bee0000&quot;,&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;ae3387cc-b875-31b7-b82d-63fd8d758c20&quot;},&quot;cms.content.publishDate&quot;:1792177418426,&quot;cms.content.publishUser&quot;:{&quot;_ref&quot;:&quot;00000180-d7b2-d193-a1b2-dfbba3aa0001&quot;,&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;6aa69ae1-35be-30dc-87e9-410da9e1cdcc&quot;},&quot;cms.content.updateDate&quot;:1792177418426,&quot;cms.content.updateUser&quot;:{&quot;_ref&quot;:&quot;00000180-d7b2-d193-a1b2-dfbba3aa0001&quot;,&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;6aa69ae1-35be-30dc-87e9-410da9e1cdcc&quot;},&quot;link&quot;:{&quot;disableUtmTracking&quot;:false,&quot;target&quot;:&quot;NEW&quot;,&quot;attributes&quot;:[],&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https://www.edweek.org/leadership/school-shootings-this-year-how-many-and-where/2026/01&quot;,&quot;_id&quot;:&quot;000001a1-4619-d1d1-a3f3-f77b151b0000&quot;,&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;ff658216-e70f-39d0-b660-bdfe57a5599a&quot;},&quot;linkText&quot;:&quot; tracking these incidents&quot;,&quot;theme.brightspot-theme-default.:core:enhancement:Enhancement.hbs.enhancementAlignment&quot;:null,&quot;theme.brightspot-theme-default.:core:link:Link.hbs._template&quot;:null,&quot;theme.brightspot-theme-default.:core:link:Link.hbs.type&quot;:null,&quot;theme.brightspot-theme-default.:core:link:Link.hbs._preset&quot;:null,&quot;theme.brightspot-theme-default.:core:enhancement:Enhancement.hbs._preset&quot;:null,&quot;_id&quot;:&quot;000001a1-4619-d1d1-a3f3-f77b14b10001&quot;,&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;809caec9-30e2-3666-8b71-b32ddbffc288&quot;}"> </a>tracking those incidents eight years ago.

Pages from the book <i>Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons</i> by the late professor Siegfried Engelmann. That book, which exemplifies Engelmann's step-by-step, scripted approach to instruction, continues to be popular with parents—but in education circles the technique, known as Direct Instruction, never took off. Engelmann's work is explored as part of a new season of the Sold a Story podcast.

Caitlyn Wilder, a social studies teacher at Northern Lehigh High School, helps a student who is using artificial intelligence software and a chatbot to complete a worksheet on Sept. 23, 2025, in Slatington, Pa. A history organization's ban on AI tools to help students brainstorm or create products for their history competition entries raises new questions about whether, in social studies, the tools can help aid historical thinking—or short-circuit learning.

Books sit on shelves in an elementary school library in suburban Atlanta on Aug. 18, 2023. Although not new, book challenges have surged in public schools since 2020, part of a broader backlash to what kids read and discuss in school.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Teacher Donnie Piercey reviews the products of a writing assignment during his class at Stonewall Elementary in Lexington, Ky., on Feb. 6, 2023.

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?