Teacher stress declined modestly in 2026, but teachers were still far more likely than similar working adults to report higher stress, worse well-being and greater financial strain, extending a pattern that has persisted since 2021, according to new RAND research.
A student’s school experience can shift dramatically--not just from year to year but from classroom to classroom each day. They may feel seen and encouraged by one teacher, but overlooked and underestimated by another.
Cyber resilience in education starts at the data layer. That is because the data layer is where schools' most important information lives and where recovery begins when something goes wrong.
The future of high-quality middle level engagement will include career exposure and exploration with a focus on transferable skills and the development of career goals.
Ameer Baraka knew something was wrong long before anyone gave it a name. Ameer grew up in poverty in Louisiana and had difficulty learning to read, but no one caught it. By third grade, he had already decided he would never amount to anything.
I've been teaching fifth grade in Massachusetts for 26 years. I hated social studies as a kid. I found it boring, heavy on dates and facts, and light on everything that might make a person actually care.
In 2023, Bob Bolduc, the founder of Hope for Youth and Families, identified a gap in our student’s reading success here in Springfield, Massachusetts. He sought to identify a solution that would specifically support middle school students reading below grade level, and in 2024 partnered with Storyshares and HILL for Literacy to create an intensive, four-week summer literacy program.
Across classrooms right now, many educators are noticing the same shift: Students are even harder to reach than they were just a short time ago. In a recent survey, teachers pointed to rising disengagement as a growing concern, with more students opting out of learning in both loud and quiet ways.
“Maybe we have too much teacher training.” That headline is a sentence I never thought I’d write, given that I run a company built around supporting teachers’ professional growth. But it has been sitting with me since I read the latest Education Scorecard report.
There is a period in the school leadership journey that we do not talk about enough: the time between earning an administrative license and actually becoming a school leader.
Once upon a time. For generations, those four words were an invitation. Children leaned in because a story was beginning. They would listen closely, follow the characters, and stay with the plot until the end.
It’s easy to connect with the families who show up in September already invested: responding to messages, attending events, kids showing up on time. In most cases, building that investment started months or years earlier.
Building a strong foundation in math during elementary and middle school is essential for success in the later grades. Because each concept builds on the last, students must truly grasp the material before moving forward.
American schools spent roughly $30 billion on educational technology in 2024--a figure that's projected to nearly double by 2033. Superintendents are constantly bombarded with emails, brochures, and demos from education technology companies.
As I wrapped up my student conferences, one conversation stuck with me. Steven had barely touched his final project for our computer science course, a virtual simulation of a piano, despite showing real promise earlier in the year.
The recent Instructure/Canvas breach should be a wake-up call for every school and university relying on third-party platforms to power teaching and learning.
Educators often see recommendations, dashboards, and strategic plans labeled as “data-backed,” as if the numbers themselves drive outcomes. The truth is that data alone cannot make decisions or explain why students struggle or programs succeed.
In the second week of January, a senior mathematics teacher with 22 years in the classroom raised a hand at the end of a staff meeting and asked a question that changed the way I now design AI literacy work for entire faculties.
A fictional space station orbiting the moon is turning into a real-world digital success story. Spacegate Station, a STEM series created in 2022 by Duval County Public School (DCPS) to support daily instruction, has unexpectedly taken off on YouTube, drawing sustained engagement from viewers far beyond the district.
Across the country, educators, parents, and policymakers are struggling with a question that schools can no longer afford to avoid: What role should cell phones play in today’s classrooms?
The overreliance on AI is a widely discussed topic for teachers, administrators, and families alike. The last thing we want is for technology to stifle the creativity, expertise, and human connection that educators bring to the classroom or hinder our students’ ability to think critically.
Every June, once the last bus leaves and the halls go quiet, I get the strong desire to take a deep breath and to allow the pressure of the previous school year to subside and let the slower pace of summer settle in.
The MacBook Neo may narrow a pricing gap, but it also exposes a management gap. A lower-cost Mac may be enough to spark fresh interest. However, it alone isn’t enough to guarantee a smooth rollout.
Summer is full of learning opportunities that many children miss. When back-to-school season begins, some kids are already starting behind. That's all due to a lack of access to high-quality programs and resources.
Libraries are more than a quiet corner of school where students can pick up a book now and then--they are vibrant learning environments that support classroom curriculum, spark curiosity and creativity, and enhance vital literary skills
There’s never been a more turbulent time for young people to plan for and embark on their futures, and a new survey gives insights on their feelings and plans.
When people outside of education talk about comprehensive school safety planning, it can sometimes sound theoretical: a checklist of protocols or a compliance exercise.
Last year, one of my strongest students could solve complex equations flawlessly--but paused when I asked a simple question: “Why does this method work?”
New York is currently standing at a historic crossroads. With a rare alignment of executive leadership in Albany and NYC and a tireless advocacy community, the state is poised to transform the promise of universal early childhood education (ECE) into a reality for tens of thousands of families.
AI is a daily reality in the nation's schools, and in Illinois, it shapes how students research, problem-solve, and create. Now, Teach Plus Illinois and the Illinois Digital Educators Alliance (IDEA) are releasing “From ‘Rules and Tools’ to Schools,” a follow-up to the 2024 report that first sounded the alarm on AI's "Wild West" conditions in schools.
In the Ithaca City School District, we have long understood that relationships are not peripheral to the work; they are the work. A culture of love is not aspirational language but a daily commitment to ensure that every student, every family, and every member of our community feels seen, valued, and connected to something greater than themselves.
AI plays a supportive educational role for nearly 70 percent of top-performing math students asked about their study habits, according to a new survey.
Educational research has never been more abundant, yet its impact on classroom practice remains uneven at best. While universities continue to produce studies on instructional strategies, student outcomes, and emerging technologies, many K-12 educators rarely engage with this work in meaningful ways.
Last month, Mesick Consolidated Schools banned digital devices in its elementary school of about 250 students. The decision wasn’t an agonizing one. The ban came at astonishing speed, almost overnight, after a conversation between Mesick Superintendent Jack Ledford and Jewett Principal Elizabeth Kastl.
In mathematics education, we have long relied on a familiar sequence: introduce vocabulary, demonstrate procedures, and assign practice. For some students, this works well enough.
In many schools, AI is being handled through individual teacher decisions rather than a shared structure. That makes sense in the short term. Teachers are responding in real time, trying to protect their classrooms, their expectations, and their students.
After 20 years teaching high school math, I thought I understood why students struggled. Then I sat in my first professional learning session focused on early math and was humbled.
In many K–12 schools today, fragmented student data has quietly become one of the most significant barriers to effective decision-making and day-to-day operations. While digital tools have expanded rapidly in classrooms and administrative offices, the systems managing student information, communication, and reporting often remain disconnected.
Does the thought of student-led inquiry make you nervous? For some teachers, handing over control of the classroom to their students sounds like an invitation for disaster.
In recent years, educational research has sparked significant discussion about whether boys and girls learn differently and if gender-specific teaching strategies could enhance academic outcomes.
AI is rapidly reshaping education, but not always in ways that support learning. A growing number of AI tools promise to “help” students by doing assignments, writing papers, solving problem sets, or even completing exams automatically.
My first few years teaching math were a struggle for me and my students. Our textbook focused primarily on direct instruction: I do, then you do, but rarely we do.
AI is here, and it’s moving fast. For schools, that speed is both an opportunity and a risk: The right tools can transform learning, but the wrong ones can compromise data, equity, and instructional goals.
Reading is competing for attention in a world built for scrolling. A recent University of Florida study found that the share of Americans who read for pleasure on an average day dropped from 28 percent in 2003 to just 16 percent in 2023.
Some might worry that the introduction of AI tools in the English classroom will simply lead to more cheating and even worse literacy rates, leaving students unprepared for college and careers that demand strong writing and communication skills.
I once met a student who had attended three different schools before arriving at mine. His parents described him in familiar terms: quiet, disengaged, unmotivated.
The world of work is changing fast. Careers no longer sit neatly within a single industry, city, or even country; they span disciplines, time zones, technologies, and cultures.
Last fall, during a professional development session I was running with a group of teachers in São Paulo, a fifth-grade teacher raised her hand and asked a question I have since heard in every country I work in: “I want to use AI to plan better lessons. But how do I do that without just putting kids in front of another screen?”
Schools have seen rising problems with student behavior since the pandemic. For too many K-12 districts, these student behavior challenges are leading to violence against teachers.
Recent updates to the Americans with Disabilities Act means digital accessibility for public educational institutions can not be ignored. It will become a legal mandate.
While nearly every industry is racing to integrate artificial intelligence, most schools are still teaching high school math the way it’s been done for decades--rooted in instructional material that is abstract, disconnected, and detached from the world students actually live in.
In other words, while technology can generate information and automate tasks, people still need to evaluate options, weigh tradeoffs, and determine what to do next. These are decision-making skills--and demand for them is rising.
District leaders across the country are grappling with a deepening crisis: Student mental and behavioral health needs are growing more complex. In a recent national survey, 58 percent of school-based providers reported that student mental health has worsened, a noticeable jump from the previous year (46 percent).
School leaders everywhere are working to implement change--new initiatives, new instructional frameworks, new technologies, new approaches to student support.
As children, we play hide-and-seek. There is a kind of logic to it: If you cannot see me, then I cannot see you. As adults, and sometimes as leaders, we can fall into a similar pattern.
When Senator Bill Cassidy recently questioned whether K–12 systems are adequately preparing students for college-level math, he touched a nerve in the national conversation.
Schools have been struggling for nearly a decade with stagnant or declining test scores. Some have blamed external factors like the pandemic or children’s screen use outside of school.
I’ve been a principal for 14 years, during which time I served as the leader of an alternative school, an early college, and a large middle school. Through it all I’ve seen firsthand just how anxious families get during school transitions at every stage of the game.
Every school year brings an influx of IT solutions designed to reinvent K-12 education. Schools are primed to jump on the latest technologies to address the issues most impacting our students.
Chronic absenteeism has stabilized at historically high levels, signaling a long-term engagement challenge rather than a short-term pandemic disruption, according to a new national white paper released by Concentric Educational Solutions.
When I shipped Gramms AI to the App Store, I ran straight into a question that every developer building for kids will eventually face: What does “age-appropriate” actually mean in practice? And how do you build systems that enforce it reliably?
Student use of AI for homework increased in 2025, even as more students are worried the technology may be harming their ability to think critically, according to a new RAND report.
The dominant narrative around today’s students is bleak: declining test scores, post-pandemic learning loss, and widespread concerns about student behavior and mental health.
While prevention remains essential, 2025 has reinforced a hard lesson for district leaders: it’s not a question of if a cyber incident will occur, but how prepared a school system is to respond and recover when an attack happens.
If you’re feeling a bit sluggish (rightly so), most likely your students are. It may not feel like they are the prime audience for learning about multiplication, division, or decimals.
Data has become one of the most important strategic assets in education. Yet across institutions, publishers, and edtech companies, it often remains fragmented, inconsistently governed, and difficult to use with confidence.
Last year, a third-grade teacher in São Paulo told me she had "finally found the perfect AI tool." It generated colorful worksheets in seconds. Vocabulary lists, reading comprehension questions, even a quiz.
Chronic student absenteeism has reached troubling new heights in the post-pandemic K-12 landscape, with one in four students in many systems now missing significant class time.
On the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, only about one in four fourth graders in Michigan scored at or above proficiency in reading--a stark reminder that too many students are moving through elementary school without secure foundational literacy skills.
Traditional education models rely on providing rigid pathways for students to follow. They learn a particular way to solve problems and focus on achieving specific outcomes, rather than focusing on the creative ways that outcome can be achieved.
Artificial intelligence is no longer approaching the classroom--it is already embedded in it. Students are using generative tools to brainstorm, summarize, translate, draft, and revise.
Chronic absenteeism has become one of the most pressing challenges facing K-12 education today. According to the American Enterprise Institute, chronic absenteeism rates are leveling out at 23.5 percent, still far above pre-pandemic attendance levels.
Have you ever been to an escape room? For those unfamiliar with the term, an escape room is a structured, problem-solving experience where participants are locked in a room and must use their wits, tenacity, and deductive skills to find a way out.
Today, about 80 percent of K–12 students use computers or tablets at school--up from about 50 percent before the pandemic. Even as parents worry about too much “screen time,” schools are ramping it up.
Across the country, schools are raising alarms about chronic absenteeism. News stories highlight rising numbers of missed days, legislators are demanding answers from districts, and educators are feeling the stress.
AI is transforming the way students discover, evaluate, and choose colleges, according to a national survey of more than 5,000 high school students conducted by education company EAB.
In our district, families were checking multiple apps just to keep up with school communication. One child’s teacher posted in one platform. Another school used something different. District updates lived somewhere else entirely.
In just one academic year, Marietta City Schools in Georgia saw the percentage of elementary English learners (ELs) working in or above grade level rocket from 11 percent to 67 percent.
Without a doubt, career and technical education (CTE) is priceless for high school students wanting to get real-world, hands-on job skills before they graduate and turn their interests into career paths.
Across the country, districts are confronting a growing PK-12 leadership pipeline crisis. Veteran principals, assistant principals, and district administrators are retiring at increasing rates, yet there is not a sufficiently prepared pool of aspiring leaders ready to step into these roles.
Microschools are small learning environments that typically serve a limited number of students and emphasize personalization and strong relationships. Often blending elements of traditional schooling, project-based learning, and community-based experiences, microschools allow educators to tailor instruction to individual student needs while creating a strong sense of belonging.
In emergencies, time is the most valuable resource--and it’s often the one in shortest supply. Whether a medical crisis, fire, or security threat, the difference between a quick response and a delayed one can significantly shape outcomes.
Who among us has never copied a homework answer in a hurry? Borrowed a friend’s paragraph? Accepted a parent’s “small correction” that eventually became a full rewrite?
School buildings quietly shape everything that happens inside them. When systems work as intended, learning moves forward uninterrupted. When they fail, instruction, safety, and trust can unravel quickly.
Some of the most effective literacy ecosystems today are those where schools and public libraries work not in parallel, but in partnership with parents and students.
We live in an ever-evolving world, powered by advancements across STEM fields. Today, STEM has become increasingly intertwined with how we live our daily lives--from how we learn, to how we work, to entertainment and more.
School Specialty, a leading provider of learning environments, instructional solutions, and supplies for preK-12 education, is proud to celebrate outstanding educators with its 12th annual Crystal Apple Awards.
As a paraprofessional for over 3 years and going on my 5th year as a certified special education resource teacher, I’ve learned that no two learners are ever quite the same.
A purposeful commitment to responsible edtech use--and to professional development for teachers--is necessary to ensure edtech is innovative and transformational, according to CoSN's annual 2026 Driving K-12 Innovation Report.
