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Sarah Garland talks to PBS about Joel Klein’s departure

In the wake of Joel Klein’s resignation as head of the nation’s largest school system, Sarah Garland of The Hechinger Report spoke with Gwen Ifill of the PBS NewsHour on November 10th. Garland discussed the significance of Klein’s departure and what lies ahead for New York City, as well as what the research says about […]

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In Bihar, hope—and some progress—despite the education system’s many problems

On a 2011 reporting trip to visit schools in Bihar, India’s poorest state, one scene in particular stuck in my mind. After a touring a slum neighborhood on the outskirts of the state’s capital city, Patna, my contact there, Sunita Singh, of the Education Development Center, drove me past a small one-room schoolhouse that served […]

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Supreme Court leaves affirmative action intact, for now

The Supreme Court released an anti-climatic ruling in what might have been a major decision about the use of race in higher education admissions on Monday. In its decision, the court sent the case back to the Fifth Circuit with instructions for the lower court to re-examine how the University of Texas (UT) uses race […]

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More awards for Hechinger writers

Since our last batch of awards in March, we’ve picked up several more. Our “Mississippi Learning” series won a New York press Club Award for continuing coverage by an online outlet. Sara Neufeld’s series on reform efforts at Quitman Street Community School in Newark, N.J. won First Place in the series category in the Garden State Journalists […]

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Are ‘No Excuses’ reformers and their critics finding common ground?

The current debate between business-minded reformers like Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York and former Washington, D.C. chancellor Michelle Rhee and their critics has often been set up as a fight over whether policymakers should tackle poverty or not as they attempt to improve student achievement. Last week, Michael Petrilli, vice president at the Fordham […]

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Five Hechinger Report writers recognized with national awards

For the third consecutive year, The Hechinger Report has been honored with National Awards for Education writing from the Education Writers Association. Our brand of solutions-oriented, in-depth writing about education has been appearing in major publications across the U.S. since May 2010. Five Report writers are among the winners of the 2012 National Awards for […]

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Is closing a struggling school the right choice?

Hundreds of schools have closed in urban neighborhoods in recent years, mostly in low-income, minority neighborhoods. Would-be education reformers like Mayor Michael Bloomberg in New York City have argued that closure is the only way to turn around some persistently failing schools. Critics have argued that closing a school is a drastic step with collateral damage that […]

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Two Head Start reports find problems and some hope

The benefits children reap from Head Start, the preschool program for low-income families, disappear almost completely by third grade. While social support for children in the program is high, academic supports are low. Nearly all of children in the program live near the poverty line, more than half do not live with their fathers, and […]

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Charter schools expanding rapidly in more U.S. cities

Charter schools now enroll more than 20 percent of public school children in 25 school districts across the country, according to a new report from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, which tracks charter-school growth annually. Overall, charters enrolled more than two million students in 41 states and the District of Columbia during the […]

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A happy ending for a school hit hard by hurricane

It was chaotic and cold at many schools in the region hit hard by Superstorm Sandy as classes resumed for many on Monday, while thousands stayed home from schools that were too damaged to reopen. But staff and students at one school severely damaged in the storm will celebrate a happy ending on Wednesday after […]

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