The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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Southern Preparatory Academy has several summer programs available for students....
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (MAY 6, 2026) – The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees unanimously appointed Donald J. Leo, PhD, as the 11th president of The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). He will assume the role on June 1. An accomplished administrator with more than 30 years of experience in higher education, Leo's leadership journey is largely defined by his 11‑year tenure at the University of Georgia, where he served as the first permanent dean of the College of Engineering. Rec...
Teachers say there’s a rise in misbehavior even among the littlest kids School had been in session at Lead Elementary for less than an hour, but already Andrea Quinn had paused teaching her first graders nearly 20 times, she told The Hechinger Report. First, there was the child who had zipped his entire face inside the hood of his green sweatshirt. “Is that a good choice?” Quinn asked. “Yeah?” responded a muffled voice. Then, there was the girl in pink leggings who stood up from her seat, wan...
Why kids who love dinosaurs may be smarter than we think A child who falls completely in love with dinosaurs has a way of turning everyone around them into an accidental expert. Researchers who study early childhood development have been paying close attention to children who develop that kind of devoted interest in one subject. And what they are learning is helping explain why these early passions can offer important clues about how children begin building knowledge and confidence as they...
Khan Academy’s founder says AI tutoring revolution hasn't come for education, yet Three years ago, as Khan Academy founder Sal Khan rolled out an AI-powered tutoring chatbot, he predicted a revolution in learning. So far, the revolution hasn’t happened, he acknowledged. “For a lot of students, it was a non-event,” Khan told Chalkbeat about his eponymous chatbot, Khanmigo. “They just didn’t use it much.” Khan gives this analogy: Imagine he walked into a class, sat in the back of the room, and...
This elementary school banned screens in the middle of the year. Will it solve their reading crisis? Chromebooks are scattered all around the classrooms of Floyd M. Jewett Elementary School in Mesick, Michigan. Towers of them are teetering atop bookshelves. They’re piled up in corners of classrooms. They’ve even cropped up in one classroom’s dish rack. But there’s one place you won’t find them: in students’ hands. Last month, Mesick Consolidated Schools banned digital devices in its elementary...
Kids who were babies during COVID-19 are now struggling with reading and math Although most of them were still in diapers when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, today’s early elementary students didn’t make it through the global catastrophe unscathed. A new analysis from NWEA, an assessment company, suggests that these children are experiencing learning disruptions even now. While kindergarten achievement levels in math and reading largely held steady during and since the pandemic, by first and sec...
Are microschools a solution to falling public school enrollment? Seventh grader Taitym Lynch plans most of her school day herself, mapping out a schedule each morning on her school laptop. She typically starts with math when her brain is sharpest, logging into an online platform her school uses for math lessons. Next she often tackles science with her “class guide,” a teaching assistant who walks her through topics like animal food chains. Lynch chooses to have lunch around noon, and finds tim...
When panic hits: New data maps the moment students start studying Students in the U.S. and U.K. both procrastinate before high-stakes exams, but they do it on very different schedules, according to a new analysis by Quizlet of Google Trends data from 2022 through 2025. The study, which tracked eight common student prep search terms across both countries, found that U.K. students wait until just over a week before their General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exams to begin searching...
14% of parents say nature is essential for kids. So why are families stuck inside? American parents aren't confused about what their kids need. They're just not doing it. A new national survey from Westgate Resorts found that 95% of U.S. parents believe nature and outdoor experiences are a nonnegotiable part of childhood development. But that's not the surprising number. What's surprising is how little it translates into action. Only about a third of those same families actually get outside...
Rural high school students are more likely than city kids to get their diplomas, but they remain less likely to go to college Many high school seniors are currently in the midst of the college application process or are already waiting to hear back from their selected schools. For high school students in rural parts of the United States, the frantic pace of the college application process can look a bit different. For starters, some of these rural students might not have large numbers of elite...
What is wisdom, and can it be taught? Emily Swanson was under pressure — not the end-of-the-world variety, but definitely stressful: prepping for her PhD qualifying exams. She fully expected the process to be grueling. But then, like a character from a heroic tale, she had an encounter that changed her path. Swanson took a job as a teaching assistant with Monika Ardelt, a leader in the scientific study of wisdom. Ardelt, a University of Florida sociologist, teaches an undergraduate course c...
Parents trust report cards more than test scores, with consequences for kids Most parents want to help their children succeed. We check report cards, ask about homework and try to help our kids study. When that fails, we sometimes hire tutors. But in an era of rising grades, it’s easy to be misled. A new study reviewed by The Hechinger Report found that parents often assume everything is fine when their child’s report card shows mostly A’s, even when standardized test scores slide. That assum...
Trussville, Ala. - May 4, 2026 - Trussville City Schools has chosen Transfinder's Tripfinder platform to manage transportation for field trips and extracurricular activities, expanding the district's use of Transfinder's suite of school transportation technologies. The district, located in the northeastern Birmingham metro area and serving roughly 5,000 students across five schools, already utilizes Routefinder PLUS for routing, Stopfinder for parent communication, and Viewfinder for systemwide...
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (APR. 9, 2026) – The Alabama Office of the State Climatologist (AOSC), housed at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama System, is inviting Alabamians to participate in the annual "Rain Gauge Rally" by joining CoCoRaHS, the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network. CoCoRaHS is a citizen science program made up of volunteer observers who measure and report rainfall across the nation. Each year, CoCoRaHS hosts the Rain G...
Microschools are seeing an enrollment surge this year Kara Fox did not want to wait. A mom of two, she was frustrated by the fall semester at her children’s traditional private school near Omaha, Nebraska — particularly for her 12-year-old son, Gavin. “He just felt so hopeless already in the second quarter, before the end of the first semester,” said Fox, explaining that the rigidity of a conventional classroom and curriculum weren’t working well for her son, who has ADHD and is on the autis...
5 big questions to help you understand the current state of student loans Washington is sending confusing and even contradictory signals to people with student loans. New repayment plans, reversals on wage garnishment for people in default and trouble getting staffers on the phone to clear up problems are adding to the lack of clarity. Last year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal agency set up to help consumers, received more complaints about student loans than in any year in...
Districts nationwide continue to face school bus driver shortages Compared to 2019, there are now 21,000 fewer school bus drivers in America. Here’s how that affects your family. Maybe the bus didn’t come this morning. You got a last-minute text, scrambled to find another way to get your child to school, and they arrived 10 minutes late. If this sounds familiar, you’re not imagining things. The shortage of school bus drivers in America has been getting worse for years, and it’s still not fix...
Why playdates are key to preparing young kids for school Playdates are the best way to prepare young children for school, according to a leading family psychologist. Dr. Martha Deiros Collado has 25 years of clinical experience and has conducted research by examining peer-reviewed papers (particularly longitudinal studies and meta-analysis) on playdates, school readiness, social play in the early years, socialization in 2-to 6-year-olds, loneliness and parenting. She said one of the most valuabl...
Are ADHD medications overprescribed in kids? Are too many kids taking ADHD medication? Understood examines the question of whether stimulant medications for ADHD are overprescribed, which has been around for years. Lately, it’s been coming up more and more. In September 2025, the Make America Healthy Again Commission published a report featuring concerns that too many children are being treated with prescription medication for ADHD. But is there a way to know if ADHD drugs are overprescribed? A...
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (MAR 26, 2026) – The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) College of Nursing has a new way to promote the well-being of the college's faculty and staff as they nurture the nursing profession's next generation of caregivers: the James Raper and Scott Holtham Compassionate Care Endowment. UAH is a part of The University of Alabama System. "A nursing program is only as strong as the people who sustain it," says Dr. Yeow Chye Ng, professor and associate dean of graduate p...
The rising impact of character-focused education on academic performance Student performance in the classroom is rarely a one-size-fits-all metric. While we often lean on old assumptions about what drives results, a growing body of evidence suggests that our traditional obsession with strictly core academics might be missing the mark. The rise of character-focused education-an approach that prioritizes values to improve learning outcomes-is actively challenging the long-held wisdom of the past....
‘Stage is shifting rapidly’ for high schools: Are states helping them keep up? The rise of artificial intelligence and other technology has traditional high schools scrambling to keep up, with states doing an uneven job of encouraging schools to embed critical thinking skills and offer students access to internships and college courses, according to a new report reviewed by The 74. Today’s world, the nonprofit XQ Institute argues in its new report The Future Is High School, “requires an entirely...
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (MAR. 17, 2026) – The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama System, will host the Southeast Aerial Drone Competition (ADC) Regional Championship April 17–18 at Spragins Hall on the UAH campus. The event will bring middle and high school students from across the Southeast to Huntsville to compete in a series of team-based aerial drone challenges designed to test their technical knowledge, piloting skills and problem-solving abilities. Part...
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (MARCH 19, 2026) – For more than a decade, the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) and Northrop Grumman have worked together to turn classroom learning into career opportunities. On March 3, the partners celebrated a major milestone: more than 60 full-time and internship offers were extended to UAH students and recent graduates. UAH is a part of The University of Alabama System. Northrop Grumman is currently the leading employer of UAH alumni, and the latest group of offer...
