Author: Sequoia Carrillo

The Trump administration is proposing changes to Head Start rules, delivering on the administration’s promise to deregulate the early education program for children from low-income families. Sequoia Carrillo 2026-08-04 08:41:22 Source link

Matt Damon is Odysseus in a new film that was written, produced and directed by Christopher Nolan. Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pic/Melinda Sue Gordon hide caption toggle caption Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pic/Melinda Sue Gordon Casey Crowhurst has taught high school English for the past 16 years. One text has never gotten much easier to teach. “The Odyssey was always one we kind of struggled with,” he says. Getting his students at Monticello High School in eastern Illinois to pay attention was a tall order. “You tell them, ‘Hey, this was written 2,000 plus years ago.’ And right away, they’re gonna be…

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr asked for a review of the E-Rate program, which helps many public schools and libraries, and some private schools, pay monthly internet bills. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Catch up on what you missed with our Education newsletter, sent weekly. A program that helps connect schools and libraries to the internet at discounted rates is under review by the Federal Communications Commission. Educators and advocates are bracing for the funding to shrink or be eliminated. The so-called E-Rate program, created in the 1990s, has considerable bipartisan support. The agency’s recent focus…

Mural by Warren Montoya, on the wall of Santa Fe Indian School. Esha Chiocchio for NPR hide caption toggle caption Esha Chiocchio for NPR The Santa Fe Indian School sits off a short road in the middle of the New Mexico city. Its half dozen stucco buildings blend into the flat, dusty landscape around it. “We were established in 1890 as a Native American boarding school,” Kyle Shutiva, a junior at the school, says. “It’s still a boarding school, but not how people would expect.” For more than a century federal Indian boarding schools worked to break tribal bonds by…

For more than a century, federal boarding schools worked to forcibly assimilate Native American children into white culture. We visit one school that has rewritten its legacy. AYESHA RASCOE, HOST: And now to one of the many scenes from across the country that illustrate American life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It’s part of a series we’re calling America in Pursuit, as we mark this year’s 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. Today, a story that starts but doesn’t end in a dark chapter of American history. For more than a century, federal boarding schools worked…

Average reading and math scores for 9-year-old students rose from 2022 to 2025, according to the newest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Olivier Touron/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Olivier Touron/AFP via Getty Images New federal test scores show younger students are making gains in reading and math — after years of declines. “I think this is an optimistic release,” Matthew Soldner, acting commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, told NPR. Results from the long-term trend (LTT) report, released Wednesday, provide a national look at progress in reading and math for 9- and…

A first-of-its-kind national study looks at the impacts of cell phone bans in schools. MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: More students than ever are going to schools where cellphones aren’t allowed. More than two-thirds of states now have some restrictions, but are kids more focused? Are they learning more? A year ago, the National Bureau of Economic Research brought together academics from top universities to study these bans and highlight possible steps forward. This week, they issued their report. NPR’s Sequoia Carrillo has been covering this and is with us now to tell us more about it. Good morning, Sequoia.SEQUOIA CARRILLO, BYLINE:…

When Lila Byock’s oldest son was 11, she began to worry about how much time he spent on his school-issued iPad. It seemed as if he wasn’t allowed to go anywhere without it. “To the point that he was one day penalized for not having his iPad with him during PE class,” she recalls. She asked his school in central Los Angeles to explain why there was so much digital learning, even years after the COVID-19 pandemic: “There was no justification for why it was better,” she said. “It was just sort of, ‘Well, we got these things during COVID…

Kim Freudenberg, a longtime teacher in San Francisco, knew that raising two boys meant a lot of hard conversations. She warned them about all the usual dangers: drugs, alcohol, sex, social media, riding a bike without a helmet. “Never once did I even think that I needed to say ‘gambling,'” she recalls. One day, when her oldest son was 11, he was watching someone play video games on a livestream and clicked on a link in the comments. It took him to an offshore online casino. There, he got sucked in — to blackjack, poker, roulette. He could use items…

Madelyn Whitt (left) and Quani’e Lanier read in the school library at the Academy @ Shawnee, a magnet middle and high school in Louisville, Kentucky. With cellphones banned at their school, students find other ways to pass time. Lydia Schweickart for NPR hide caption toggle caption Lydia Schweickart for NPR How do you get teenagers to put their phones away for hours at a time? That is the question many schools are trying to solve as bans on cellphones sweep the U.S. — more than 30 states so far now restrict their use during the school day. One of those…