Nirvi Shah

An Institute for Training Machinists Takes on the Childcare Shortage A lack of childcare is one big barrier to training more machinists, so a union-backed institute in Washington state decided to train up more childcare workers too.

Finding childcare is a challenge. It’s even harder when you work in the trades—or any role that's not 9-5. One underlying reason: Childcare workers are scarce. A Washington state training institute for the trades is tackling both challenges workshift.org/an-institute... For @workshift.bsky.social

The Dish: The Philly cheesesteak invasion The Philadelphia-bre(a)d insurgency taking over Baltimore’s cheesesteak scene goes beyond the major chains and viral fads. It’s also being propelled by Charm City’s small businesses.

Do you eat your #cheesesteak the #Philly way or the #Baltimore way? Some new places in Baltimore want to set you straight about losing the lettuce and not scooping out the soft centers of the bread. More in @thebaltimorebanner.com from Matti Gellman: www.thebanner.com/culture/food...

After Kennedy Center exit, Philip Glass to bring new symphony home to Baltimore Famed composer and Baltimore native Philip Glass pulled his symphony from the Kennedy Center in protest of Donald Trump. Now, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will perform “Lincoln” in 2027.

Philip Glass brings the symphony he pulled from the Kennedy Center to Baltimore via @thebaltimorebanner.com www.thebanner.com/culture/arts...

What is immigration enforcement doing to kids and families? And what can schools do to protect their students’ mental health and physical safety? @nirvishah.bsky.social greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item... #academicsky #edusky

How ICE Raids Are Affecting Children—And What Schools Can Do What is immigration enforcement doing to kids and families? And what can schools do to protect their students’ mental health and physical safety?

What is #immigration enforcement doing to kids and families? And what can schools do to protect their students’ mental health and physical safety? greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item... via @greatergoodmag.bsky.social #K12 #mentalhealth #education

Investigations and a Billion-Dollar ‘Shakedown’: How Trump Targeted Higher Education

Donald Trump unleashed the power of the presidency against American #colleges, with mixed results. #HigherEducation www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/u...

Trump administration drops legal appeal over anti-DEI funding threat to schools and colleges The Trump administration is dropping its appeal of a federal court ruling that blocked a campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion threatening federal funding to the nation’s schools and colle...

Trump administration drops legal appeal over anti-DEI funding threat to schools and colleges. This leaves in place a federal judge's ruling that the anti-DEI effort violated the First Amendment and federal procedural rules. (Via AP) apnews.com/article/dei-... #ncpol #nced

Conservatives see two-parent households as a solution to student achievement. It’s not that simple Conservatives have long argued that unwed motherhood and single parenting are major drivers of poor student achievement. They contend that traditional two-parent families — ideally with a married mother and father — provide the stability children need to succeed in school. Single-parent households, more common among low-income families, are blamed for weak academic outcomes. That argument has resurfaced prominently in Project 2025, a policy blueprint developed by the conservative Heritage Foundation that calls for the federal government to collect and publish more education data broken out by family structure.

Conservatives see two-parent households as a solution to student achievement. It’s not that simple

Conservatives have long argued that unwed motherhood and single parenting are major drivers of poor student achievement. They contend that traditional two-parent families — ideally with a married…

Early childhood educator apprenticeships offer an answer to child care shortages About six years ago, an apprentice training to be a machinist in Washington state told her supervisor she would probably have to drop out of the training program after having her baby: She couldn't find child care that accommodated her shift. It was one of the first challenges Shana Peschek was tasked with solving when she became executive director of the Machinists Institute, which trains workers for jobs in the aerospace, manufacturing and automotive industries all over the state. Peschek knew it was essential to do something for workers with young children.

Early childhood educator apprenticeships offer an answer to child care shortages

About six years ago, an apprentice training to be a machinist in Washington state told her supervisor she would probably have to drop out of the training program after having her baby: She couldn't find child care…

Front Page Awards — THE NEWSWOMEN'S CLUB OF NEW YORK

🎉 @hechingerreport.org @sarahelizcarr.bsky.social @merkolodner.bsky.social @reportermarina.bsky.social @jillbarshay.bsky.social w/@nicholedobo.bsky.social & @nobleingram.bsky.social edits by me @sarahbutro.bsky.social @casamuels.bsky.social +Barbara Kantrowitz www.newswomensclubnewyork.com/fps-index

Schools are closing across rural America. Here’s how a battle over small districts is playing out in one state PEACHAM, Vt. — Early on a chilly fall morning in this small Vermont town, Principal Lydia Cochrane watched a gaggle of kids chase one another and a soccer ball around their school recess yard. Between drop-off and first bell, they were free, loud and constantly moving. With only about 60 students in prekindergarten through sixth grade, Peacham Elementary is the sort of school where all the kids know one another and locals regularly respond to calls for supplies and volunteers for field trips and other school activities. Cochrane gestured at the freshly raked wood chips around the swings and climbing structures, one of many tasks Peacham families completed at a recent community workday.

Schools are closing across rural America. Here’s how a battle over small districts is playing out in one state

PEACHAM, Vt. — Early on a chilly fall morning in this small Vermont town, Principal Lydia Cochrane watched a gaggle of kids chase one another and a soccer ball around their school recess…

5 years after California banned holding college students’ transcripts hostage for unpaid debt, some colleges neglect the law OAKLAND — In 2020, California led the nation in outlawing transcript-withholding, a debt collection practice that sometimes kept low-income college students from getting jobs or advanced degrees. Five years later, 24 of the state’s 115 community colleges still said on their websites that students with unpaid balances could lose access to their transcripts, according to a recent UC Merced survey. The communications failure has been misleading, student advocates said, although overall, the state’s students have benefited from the law. It “raises questions about what actual institutional practices are at colleges and the extent to which colleges know the law and are fully compliant with the law,” said Charlie Eaton, a UC Merced sociology professor who led the research team that conducted the survey in October.

5 years after California banned holding college students’ transcripts hostage for unpaid debt, some colleges neglect the law

OAKLAND — In 2020, California led the nation in outlawing transcript-withholding, a debt collection practice that sometimes kept low-income college students from getting…

Probes into racism in schools stall under Trump LUBBOCK, Texas — The meeting of the local NAACP chapter began with a prayer — and then the litany of injustices came pouring out. A Black high school football player was called a “b—h-ass” n-word during a game by white players in September with no consequence, his mom said. A Black 12-year-old boy, falsely accused last December of touching a white girl’s breast, was threatened and interrogated by a police officer at school without his parents and sentenced to a disciplinary alternative school for a month, his grandfather recounted. A Black honors student was wrongly accused by a white teacher of having a vape (it was a pencil sharpener) and sentenced to the alternative school for a month this fall, her mom said.

Probes into racism in schools stall under Trump

LUBBOCK, Texas — The meeting of the local NAACP chapter began with a prayer — and then the litany of injustices came pouring out. A Black high school football player was called a “b—h-ass” n-word during a game by white players in September with no…

11 numbers that capture the Trump effect on education About 1.5 million people teach on college campuses in the United States, and nearly 4 million teachers work in its public elementary and secondary schools. More than 15 million undergraduates attend U.S. colleges and universities. There are more than 50 million school-age children across the country. They all have one thing in common: Federal education policy affects their lives. President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon say they want to close the Department of Education and return control of education to the states. At the same time, however, they have aggressively, and rapidly, wielded federal power over schools.

11 numbers that capture the Trump effect on education

About 1.5 million people teach on college campuses in the United States, and nearly 4 million teachers work in its public elementary and secondary schools. More than 15 million undergraduates attend U.S. colleges and universities. There are…

How education changed in one year under Trump Even with a conservative think tank’s blueprint detailing how the second Trump administration should reimagine the federal government’s role in education, few might have predicted what actually materialized this year for America's schools and colleges. Or what might be yet to come. “2025 will go down as a banner year for education: the year we restored merit in higher education, rooted out waste, fraud and abuse, and began in earnest returning education to the states,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon told The Hechinger Report. She listed canceling K-12 grants she called wasteful, investing more in charter schools, ending college admissions that consider race or anything beyond academic achievement and…

How education changed in one year under Trump

Even with a conservative think tank’s blueprint detailing how the second Trump administration should reimagine the federal government’s role in education, few might have predicted what actually materialized this year for America's schools and colleges.…

The Trump administration’s biggest impact on education in 2025 It was almost impossible for the average observer to keep track of the Trump administration’s biggest impacts on education in 2025. Here’s what changed across colleges and universities, K-12 schools, ...

A new @hechingerreport.org collection of stories looks at how education changed during the first year of the second Trump administration. hechingerreport.org/how-educatio... Thanks to the many people who labored to put this insightful work together. #education #college #highered #K12 #earlyed

A new ‘solution’ to student homelessness: A parking lot where students can sleep safely in their cars  LONG BEACH, Calif. — When Edgar Rosales Jr. uses the word “home,” the second-year college student with a linebacker’s build isn’t referring to the house he plans to buy after becoming a nurse or getting a job in public health. Rather, the Long Beach City College student is talking about the parking lot he slept in every night for more than a year. With Oprah-esque enthusiasm, Rosales calls the other students who use LBCC’s Safe Parking Program his “roommates” or “neighbors.” Between 8 and 10:30 p.m., those neighbors drive onto the lot, where staff park during the day.

A new ‘solution’ to student homelessness: A parking lot where students can sleep safely in their cars 

LONG BEACH, Calif. — When Edgar Rosales Jr. uses the word “home,” the second-year college student with a linebacker’s build isn’t referring to the house he plans to buy after becoming a nurse or…

Under Trump, protecting students’ civil rights looks very different The 10-year-old was dragged down a school hallway by two school staffers. A camera captured him being forced into a small, empty room with a single paper-covered window. The staffers shut the door in his face. Alone, the boy curled into a ball on the floor. When school employees returned more than 10 minutes later, blood from his face smeared the floor. Maryland state lawmakers were shown this video in 2017 by Leslie Seid Margolis, a lawyer with the advocacy group Disability Rights Maryland. She’d spent 15 years advocating for a ban on the practice known as seclusion, in which children, typically those with disabilities, are involuntarily isolated and confined, often after emotional outbursts.

Under Trump, protecting students’ civil rights looks very different

The 10-year-old was dragged down a school hallway by two school staffers. A camera captured him being forced into a small, empty room with a single paper-covered window. The staffers shut the door in his face. Alone, the boy…

With preschool teachers in short supply, cities, states turn to apprenticeships Preschool teachers are generally in short supply, and many who attempt this work quickly quit these typically low-paying jobs. Some places are using apprenticeships — a training arrangement more commo...

Grow apprentice programs and fund them as well as SF in order to "train early childhood educators & to boost pay enough so teachers can [do] it for the long term,” writes @nirvishah.bsky.social for @hechingerreport.org. Just wait til you read Erica Davis's story! hechingerreport.org/one-city-fin...

via the magnificent @gailcornwall.com

One city’s big bet on finding badly needed early educators — and getting them to stay This audio is sponsored by Teaching Strategies SAN FRANCISCO — In a playground outside a YMCA, Mayra Aguilar rolled purple modeling dough into balls that fit easily into the palms of the toddlers sitting across from her. She helped a little girl named Wynter unclasp a bicycle helmet that she’d put on to zoom around the space on a tricycle. Aguilar smiled, the sun glinting off her saucer-sized gold hoop earrings. “Say, ‘Thank you, teacher,’” Aguilar prompted Wynter, who was just shy of 3. Other toddlers crowded around Wynter and Aguilar and a big plastic bin of Crayola Dough, and Aguilar took the moment to teach another brief lesson.

One city’s big bet on finding badly needed early educators — and getting them to stay

This audio is sponsored by Teaching Strategies SAN FRANCISCO — In a playground outside a YMCA, Mayra Aguilar rolled purple modeling dough into balls that fit easily into the palms of the toddlers sitting across…

Trump’s attacks on DEI may hurt men in college admission   Brown University, one of the most selective institutions in America, attracted nearly 50,000 applicants who vied for just 1,700 freshman seats last year. The university accepted nearly equal numbers of male and female prospects, even though, like some other schools, it got nearly twice as many female applicants. That math meant it was easier for male students to get in — 7 percent of male applicants were admitted, compared to 4.4 percent of female applicants, university data show. The Trump administration’s policies may soon end that advantage that has been enjoyed by men, admissions and higher education experts say.

Trump’s attacks on DEI may hurt men in college admission  

Brown University, one of the most selective institutions in America, attracted nearly 50,000 applicants who vied for just 1,700 freshman seats last year. The university accepted nearly equal numbers of male and female prospects, even…

A South Dakota museum takes students on flights to the stars, but future trips are in question because of cuts from the Trump administration cuts The Institute for Museum and Library Services was established in 1996 and is the largest source of federal funding for museums and libraries like the South Dakota Discovery Center in Pierre. The Trump...

A court recently ruled that the Trump administration cannot dismantle the Institute for Museum and Library Sciences, which supports libraries and other programs all over the country. Earlier this year, @anya1anya.bsky.social wrote a story on an IMLS-funded program in South Dakota:

No college degree, no problem? Not so fast DENVER — On a bus headed downtown, Cherri McKinney opened a compact mirror and — even as the vehicle rattled and blinding morning sun filled the window — skillfully applied eyeliner. McKinney is a licensed aesthetician. She went into bookkeeping after graduating from high school in 1992, then ran a waxing salon for years. Later she shifted into human resources at a homeless shelter. But stepping off the bus, she started her work day as a benefits and leave administrator for Colorado’s Department of Labor and Employment. She wouldn’t have made it past some hiring managers.

No college degree, no problem? Not so fast

DENVER — On a bus headed downtown, Cherri McKinney opened a compact mirror and — even as the vehicle rattled and blinding morning sun filled the window — skillfully applied eyeliner. McKinney is a licensed aesthetician. She went into bookkeeping after…

How Trump 2.0 upended education research and statistics in one year This audio is sponsored by SXSW EDU Inauguration Day was a time of hope for the MAGA faithful who watched President Donald Trump take his second oath of office in the Capitol rotunda. But less than a mile away, at the Department of Education, fear and uncertainty reigned. Researchers, contractors and federal staff — the corner of the Education Department that I cover — braced for potentially devastating upheaval. Would the department itself be eliminated, as Trump had promised during the campaign? Would congressionally mandated research and statistical programs move to other agencies?

How Trump 2.0 upended education research and statistics in one year

This audio is sponsored by SXSW EDU Inauguration Day was a time of hope for the MAGA faithful who watched President Donald Trump take his second oath of office in the Capitol rotunda. But less than a mile away, at the Department…

A Republican homeschooling mom came to love her public schools. Now she’s fighting other conservatives she thinks will destroy them In North Idaho, a local mom’s efforts to wrest school board control from MAGA conservatives ended in disappointment on Election Day. How it happened carries a message about political power.

The race for two seats on the Lakeland school board in Idaho was not about school issues, but about allegiances. It offers an urgent message about strategy and power. Reported with @emmaepperly.bsky.social @idahoednews.bsky.social for @hechingerreport.org hechingerreport.org/a-republican...

YouTube video by The Hechinger Report Why one reading expert says ‘just-right’ books are all wrong #reading #education

Why one reading expert says ‘just-right’ books are all wrong. @jillbarshay.bsky.social explains in her latest video.

www.youtube.com/shorts/zL_SY...

She wanted to keep her son in his school district. It was more challenging than it seemed This story was produced by the Associated Press and reprinted with permission. ATLANTA — It was the worst summer in years. Sechita McNair’s family took no vacations. Her younger boys didn’t go to camp. Her van was repossessed, and her family nearly got evicted — again. But she accomplished the one thing she wanted most. A few weeks before school started, McNair, an out-of-work film industry veteran barely getting by driving for Uber, signed a lease in the right Atlanta neighborhood so her eldest son could stay at his high school.

She wanted to keep her son in his school district. It was more challenging than it seemed

This story was produced by the Associated Press and reprinted with permission. ATLANTA — It was the worst summer in years. Sechita McNair’s family took no vacations. Her younger boys didn’t go to camp. Her…

Colleges ease the dreaded admissions process as the supply of applicants declines PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. — As she approached her senior year in high school, the thought of moving on to college was “scary and intimidating” to Milianys Santiago — especially since she would be the first in her family to earn a degree. Once she began working on her applications this fall, however, she was surprised. “It hasn’t been as stressful as I thought it would be,” she said. It’s not that Santiago’s anxiety was misplaced: The college admissions process has been so notoriously anxiety inducing that students and their parents plan for it for years and — if social media is any indication — seem to consider an acceptance as…

Colleges ease the dreaded admissions process as the supply of applicants declines

PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. — As she approached her senior year in high school, the thought of moving on to college was “scary and intimidating” to Milianys Santiago — especially since she would be the first in her family to…

Do male teachers make a difference? Not as much as some think The teaching profession is one of the most female-dominated in the United States. Among elementary school teachers, 89 percent are women, and in kindergarten, that number is almost 97 percent. Many sociologists, writers and parents have questioned whether this imbalance hinders young boys at the start of their education. Are female teachers less understanding of boys’ need to horse around? Or would male role models inspire boys to learn their letters and times tables? Some advocates point to research that lays out why boys ought to do better with male teachers.

Do male teachers make a difference? Not as much as some think

The teaching profession is one of the most female-dominated in the United States. Among elementary school teachers, 89 percent are women, and in kindergarten, that number is almost 97 percent. Many sociologists, writers and parents have…