Education

Photos of the Decade: Education Week's Best

Look back on photos that are not only linked to some of the biggest education stories of the decade, but that also represent telling visual moments from the people who make up the K-12 community.

Photos of the Decade: Education Week’s Best

The photos that embody an eventful decade in education

When the visuals team reviewed the photographs published in Education Week over the past decade, it reminded us of how often the news and events we report on in K-12 education can affect everyone in the community. Included are photos that are not only linked to some of the biggest stories of the decade—the Common Core State Standards, the Atlanta cheating scandal, teacher activism, school shootings and safety concerns—but that also represent telling visual moments from the individuals that make up the K-12 community.




Ron Brown College Preparatory High School students greet each other during the morning circle in Washington. The all-male school is designed specifically to meet the needs of young black men in the nation’s capital. (2017)
—Jared Soares for Education Week

Listen to the 2017 three-part audio series from Education Week/NPR, "Raising Kings: A Year of Love and Struggle at Ron Brown College Prep."




“When I heard about Posse and realized that you could go as a group, that changed my whole mindset because going as a group is stronger than going as one,” says Rashawn Russell at the Posse Foundation program, which provides leadership training and college scholarships for students. (2014)
—Mel Burford for Education Week

Read the story: "'Posses' Keep Students on Academic Track"




Norberto Collazo maneuvers his horse on a highway near a washed-out bridge in Utuado, Puerto Rico. (2017)
—Swikar Patel/Education Week

Read our full coverage of Puerto Rico's schools in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria: "Putting Puerto Rico's Schools Back on Track: Education Week in the Field"




Cameron Sterling, 15, is comforted at a vigil outside the store in Baton Rouge, La., where police shot and killed his father Alton Sterling on July 5. Educators from superintendents to classroom teachers had to prepare to discuss high-profile police-related shootings and bigger issues of race and policing in schools after a tumultuous summer. (2016)
—Gerald Herbert/AP

Read the story: "Schools Prepare to Confront Questions on Race and Policing"




Dashawn Smith, 6, left, looks over at his friend Malachi Davis, 10, outside the Potomac Gardens public-housing complex in Washington. The fence was erected around the property to keep out drug dealers and other criminals. While the federal housing programs expanded through the War on Poverty provide stability for assisted families, their children still often live in concentrated poverty. (2014)
—Swikar Patel/Education Week

Explore Education Week's series on the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty and its impact on the lives of children, especially those living in poverty.




Sixth grader Julian Salazar travels to Wheat Ridge Middle School. Budget cuts have forced school officials in Colorado’s Jefferson County to close some schools. The district is also charging students a fee to ride school buses. (2011)
—Nathan Armes for Education Week

Read the story: "Tax-Wary Voters, Needy Schools a Volatile Mix"




Instructors from Big Iron Concealed Handgun Training in Waco, Texas, give teachers tips on what they need to know to earn a license to carry weapons out of sight. (2013)
—Lance Rosenfield/Prime for Education Week

Here's what you need to know about the divisive issue of arming teachers: "Should Teachers Carry Guns? The Debate, Explained."




Ray Harney of Rockville, Ind., lets his feelings be known about the common core while attending a public hearing at the Indiana State Library in Indianapolis. (2014)
—Aaron P. Bernstein for Education Week

Read the story: "Resistance to the Common Core Mounts"




Former Atlanta Public Schools School Research Team Director Tamara Cotman, center, is led to a holding cell after a jury found her guilty in the test-cheating trial in Atlanta. (2015)
—Kent D. Johnson/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/AP

Read the story: "Atlanta Educators Convicted in Test-Cheating Trial"




Ten-year-old Legend Tell Tobacco, right, races his friend Jose Hernandez, 8, after school on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. (2013)
—Swikar Patel/Education Week

On most measures of educational success, Native American students trail every other racial and ethnic subgroup of students. Education Week explores why in this 2013 special package of articles, essays, photos, and multimedia.




An early morning fog rises where 17 memorial crosses were placed in memory of the deceased students and faculty from the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. (2018)
—Gerald Herbert/AP

Read our complete coverage of the Feb. 14, 2018, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., and our special report, "A Broken Trust: Inside the Rift Between Parkland and Its School District."




Students try to untangle themselves from a ‘human knot’ during a field day exercise at Greene Central Central High School in Snow Hill, N.C. The students are part of the Peer Group Connection mentor program, which pairs upperclassmen mentors with new 9th graders to help guide them through their transition to high school. (2017)
—Justin Cook for Education Week

Read the story: "To Fill a 'Mentoring Gap,' Schools Get Creative"




Brian Taylor, front left, and Season Williams, right, both 3rd graders, line up at Memphis College Prep, a charter school in Memphis, Tenn. Memphis, like many other communities, is undergoing profound changes in the structure and administration of its schools. In addition to merging with the neighboring Shelby County school system, Memphis includes a mix of regular public schools, state-run schools, and charter schools. (2014)
—Swikar Patel/Education Week

Read the story: "Rival Strategies for Running Schools Put Memphis in Hot Seat"




Ayat Husseini, right, a Lebanese immigrant from New York, hangs out with Nina Milligan, a fellow freshman, in Ayat’s dorm room at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa. A year ago, Ayat was still working to persuade her parents to let her leave home to enroll at Lafayette. (2016)
—Mark Abramson for Education Week

Read the story: "Immigrant Daughter Lands at 'Dream' School"




Julie Latessa sings to students in a summer learning program in Providence, R.I. The program is part of coordinated efforts between the city and school district to boost students’ academic performance and overall well-being. (2018)
—Gretchen Ertl for Education Week

Read the story: "In Some Cities, Closing Achievement Gaps Is Not for Schools to Fix Alone"




Clyde McBride, the director of career and technical education in the Kayenta Unified School District in Kayenta, Ariz., has built a powerhouse pre-veterinary-sciences program that gives Navajo students hands-on experience that propels them to college and prepares them for jobs. (2017)
—Swikar Patel/Education Week

Clyde McBride was recognized as a 2017 Education Week Leader To Learn From for his leadership in career and technical education. Read about his work.




English/language arts teacher Dowan McNair-Lee fights fatigue as she grades papers in the evening at her home in southeast Washington. (2013)
—Jared Soares for Education Week

Explore our series on the District of Columbia's vision of the common-core standards and how they are being put into practice.




Shayreen Izoli, 16, plays with her kitten in West Warwick, R.I. The Lincoln School junior says 9/11 spurred her to become an ambassador for her faith. "I feel it's my responsibility as a Muslim to be a positive role model," she says. (2011)
—M. Scott Brauer for Education Week

Read the story: "Muslim Pupils' Lives Changed After Sept. 11"




Students settle in for a physical education class at Walter H. Dyett High School on Chicago's South Side. The school is being phased out over three years. Dyett students are among those nationwide calling for a moratorium on school closings. (2012)
—Jon Lowenstein/NOOR for Education Week

Read the story: "School Shutdowns Trigger Growing Backlash"




J’Remi Barnes, a recent graduate of New Orleans’ Sci Academy, walks to the bus stop in May. A college scholarship to a distant school could pave the way to a better life for his family. (2015)
—Swikar Patel/Education Week

Explore our special project on the evolution of New Orleans' unorthodox school system in the decade since Hurricane Katrina: "The Re-Education of New Orleans"




More From Our Decade in Review



Compiled by: Emma Patti Harris, Deputy Managing Editor of Visual and Immersive Experiences