The Year in Education: 25 of Our Top Stories About Schools, Students and Learning
The dismantling of the Ed Dept., why kids aren鈥檛 reading, teacher pay. 社区黑料 takes a look back at some of our biggest education stories of 2025.
By Nicole Ridgway | December 29, 2025When it comes to education news, 2025 was unprecedented. Within days of President Donald Trump taking office in January, tectonic shifts to education policy and child welfare were set in motion 鈥� and at a dizzying pace.
Here at 社区黑料, we chronicled the administration鈥檚 efforts to dismantle the Department of Education and its cuts to crucial department staffing, education research and funding. We wrote about immigration crackdowns that spurred concerned families to keep children home from school (or leave the country altogether), significant changes in vaccination recommendations, efforts to remove crucial protections for students and a broader push for school choice and religious instruction in schools, among other things. And we did much more than just cover that news; our team dug further to help explain what these changes mean to school districts, teachers, parents and 鈥� most importantly 鈥� children.
At the same time, other storylines were playing out. A big one was literacy. Testing data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress painted a dismal picture of America鈥檚 children鈥檚 ability to read. But there were some encouraging signs, especially in the South. Separately, our team created an interactive database that compares literacy versus poverty rates in 10,000 districts and 42,000 schools to discover where educators are beating the odds. (We will be continuing to feature these Bright Spots in the new year.)
We also took a close look at teacher pay, special education and the challenges teachers and parents face as they grapple with the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence. And, with the launch of our zero2eight vertical, we expanded our coverage to include the crucial issues facing early child care and education.
It has been a busy year and this list only scratches the surface of the great work the team at 社区黑料 produced. We hope you take the time to read (and share) these memorable and impactful stories.
The Justice, the Professor and the Friendship That Could Rattle a Pivotal Religious Charter School Case
By Linda Jacobson
Long before the case over an Oklahoma Catholic charter school reached the U.S. Supreme Court, Nicole Stelle Garnett and Amy Coney Barrett were close friends and neighbors. Some observers say that friendship is the reason Justice Barrett recused herself from what could be the most significant ruling to affect schools in decades, writes Linda Jacobson in one of 社区黑料鈥檚 most widely read (and shared) stories of the year, co-published with The Guardian. Barrett鈥檚 recusal ultimately led to a rare tie in the Supreme Court鈥檚 ruling.
Related
Why Are So Few Kids Reading for Pleasure?
By Greg Toppo
Over the past two generations, the proportion of young people who “never or hardly ever” read for fun has quadrupled. What鈥檚 going on? Digital distraction and social networking seem likely culprits, but it might not be that simple. Could young people be reading less because they got lousy reading instruction? 社区黑料鈥檚 Greg Toppo explores young people鈥檚 changing relationship with books, showing that the problem is complex and may require a deep commitment to doing things differently.
Related
Kept in the Dark: Meet the Hired Guns Who Make Sure School Cyberattacks Stay Hidden
By Mark Keierleber
As schools nationwide face an onslaught of cyberattacks, education leaders have employed a pervasive pattern of obfuscation that leaves the real victims in the dark, 社区黑料鈥檚 Mark Keierleber reveals in an investigation copublished with WIRED. His in-depth analysis chronicles more than 300 school cyberattacks since 2020 and exposes the degree to which educators provide false assurances to students, parents and staff about the security of their sensitive information. Meanwhile, consultants and lawyers steer 鈥減rivileged investigations,鈥� which keep key details hidden from the public.
Related
Bright Spots: These Schools Are Beating the Odds in Teaching Kids to Read
Analysis by Chad Aldeman; Interactive by Eamonn Fitzmaurice
Early reading is highly predictive of later-life outcomes, and there’s often a strong correlation between a school鈥檚 poverty level and its reading proficiency rate. But around the country, exceptional schools are beating the odds. Contributor Chad Aldeman and 社区黑料’s art and technology director Eamonn Fitzmaurice crunched the numbers for 10,000 districts, 42,000 schools and 3 million kids to find the schools that are best at teaching kids to read, and plotted the results on an interactive map, allowing you to discover whether your school is a Bright Spot.
Related:
鈥楪oing for Blood鈥�: With Half of Its Staff Cut, Many Wonder How Ed Dept. Will Function
By Linda Jacobson, Amanda Geduld and Mark Keierleber
One of the biggest education stories of 2025 documented efforts to dismantle the Department of Education under the Trump administration. In March, a nighttime purge of Ed Department staff left deep cuts to programs long critical to its mission, from investigating complaints of student discrimination to measuring academic performance. At the time, Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced the elimination of more than 1,300 employees, meaning that, along with buyouts and early retirements, the department would be reduced to roughly half the size it was when President Donald Trump took office just eight weeks earlier.
Related
Before Special Ed, There Was the School-to-Asylum Pipeline. This Lawsuit Helped End It
By Beth Hawkins
In 1971, parents of children confined in a notorious state 鈥渟chool鈥� for disabled people tapped a young lawyer willing to take pie-in-the-sky cases to court. They had no idea the attorney鈥檚 brother was locked up there. The settlement he won went on to form the basis for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, guaranteeing children with disabilities the right to an education. Through incredible narratives and archival photos, 社区黑料鈥檚 Beth Hawkins lays out the improbable backstory of how the law 鈥� now 50 years old 鈥� came to be and how its fate is now uncertain.
Related
As Immigrant Students Flee in Fear of ICE Raids, Teachers Offer Heartfelt Gifts
By Jo Napolitano
A soccer ball covered in signatures from classmates. A handwritten letter telling a child of their worth. A T-shirt bearing a school emblem meant to remind a former student how much they were loved in a place they once called home. Teachers handed out these mementos after hearing their students planned to leave the country to avoid being deported. 鈥淚t鈥檚 nothing big, but [a signed T-shirt] was a treasure to him to have the physical signatures of his dearest friends and teachers to take with him,鈥� one Philadelphia teacher told 社区黑料鈥檚 Jo Napolitano.
Related
RFK Jr. Could Pull Many Levers to Hinder Childhood Immunization as HHS Head
By Amanda Geduld
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 鈥� a conspiracy theorist who 鈥淭here’s no vaccine that is safe and effective鈥� 鈥� was tapped by President Donald Trump to run the Department of Health and Human Services, with vast influence over vaccine research, funding and rhetoric. Prior to his confirmation, 社区黑料鈥檚 Amanda Geduld spoke with experts who called the child health implications 鈥渄ire鈥� and predicted a fresh round in the school culture wars over mandatory vaccines for students. One law professor pointed out that school boards 鈥渃an鈥檛 change the policies, but they might say, 鈥榃e don’t support these policies. Not in our school district. No way, no how.鈥欌��
Related:
Many Young Adults Barely Literate, Yet Earned a High School Diploma
By Jessika Harkay
The numbers are staggering: One in four young adults in the U.S. is functionally illiterate 鈥� yet more than half earned high school diplomas. In 2023, a total of about five million young adults could understand the basic meaning of short texts but could not analyze long reading materials, according to an analysis by the American Institute of Research. At the same time, the share of young adults earning diplomas increased significantly. 鈥淲e know that over 20% of (young adults) that get their high school diploma do not have the skills commensurate with that,鈥� Sharon Bonney, chief executive officer of the Coalition on Adult Basic Education, a national adult education nonprofit, told 社区黑料鈥檚 Jessika Harkay. 鈥淪o, when we have this 鈥樷�� agenda, but people can鈥檛 read, write, speak the language or do math, they can鈥檛 get good jobs and better jobs. They can鈥檛 be skilled up.鈥�
Related
The South Surges Academically in Alternative View of National Exam
By Kevin Mahnken
According to an analysis of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a raft of mostly Southern states 鈥� Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, and others 鈥� can boast the highest math and English scores anywhere in the country. There’s just one catch, 社区黑料鈥檚 Kevin Mahnken explained. That new educational hierarchy is only visible when researchers adjust for the demographics in each state. In other words, after accounting for the uneven distribution of low-income and minority families, special-needs students, and English learners, the nation’s K鈥�12 hierarchy looks wildly different.
Related
School Spending Is Up. Teacher Pay Isn鈥檛. See What鈥檚 Happening in 8,900 Districts
Analysis by Chad Aldeman; Interactive by Eamonn Fitzmaurice
In districts nationwide, school spending has skyrocketed 鈥� in Los Angeles, for example, it鈥檚 up 108% from 2002 to 2022. But L.A鈥檚 teachers have seen a meager 5% salary increase during that time. In fact, teacher salaries nationally have hovered around an inflation-adjusted $70,000 for decades, lagging behind not only per-pupil spending, but earnings of other college-educated workers. Contributor Chad Aldeman and 社区黑料’s art and technology director, Eamonn Fitzmaurice, document this disconnect in a series of interactive charts. See what’s happening in nearly 8,900 districts.
Related
Another AI Side Effect: Erosion of Student-Teacher Trust
By Greg Toppo
As AI colonizes school assignments, a small but growing body of research suggests it鈥檚 eroding trust between teachers and students. It鈥檚 making school more transactional and forcing teachers to rely on unreliable AI detectors that create mutual suspicion. 社区黑料鈥檚 Greg Toppo explains how that dynamic is damaging student-teacher relationships, with students feeling surveilled and teachers losing faith in student work. Experts suggest returning to the fundamentals: handwritten assignments, in-class work, blue-book essays and addressing root causes of cheating through better course design and intrinsic motivation.
Related
For Students With Disabilities, Suspension Not Just a Matter of Race and Gender 鈥� But Geography
By Amanda Geduld
An exclusive analysis by 社区黑料鈥檚 Amanda Geduld of federal data revealed stark disparities among students already subject to disproportionate punishment in school 鈥� not only by race and gender but also geography. Some 15% of special education students in South Carolina faced out-of-school suspensions for up to 10 days in the 2022-2023 school year 鈥� nearly twice the national average and more than any other state in the nation. Meanwhile, students with the same disabilities were the least likely to be excluded from school if they lived in California or Vermont.
Shut Out: High School Students Learn About Careers 鈥� But Can鈥檛 Try One That Pays
By Patrick O鈥橠onnell
Schools and businesses have prioritized teaching students about careers they might pursue, but they rarely take the next step and let students try them. Though career days, job shadowing and field trips to businesses are common, fewer than 5% of students have a chance at an internship or apprenticeship while in high school. 鈥淲e still have a long way to go to provide more opportunity for young people,鈥� career training advocate Julie Lammers told 社区黑料鈥檚 Patrick O鈥橠onnell.
Related
For Decades, the Feds Were the Last, Best Hope for Special Ed Kids. What Happens Now?
By Lauren Wagner and Beth Hawkins
When it wrote the laws protecting children with disabilities, Congress tried to make it simple for parents to act when schools weren鈥檛 delivering. But the paths for complaining have never been as easy 鈥� or effective 鈥� as intended. Now, the threat of federal intervention, the ultimate backstop, is collapsing. 社区黑料鈥檚 Lauren Wagner and Beth Hawkins crunched the numbers and found big disparities in how complaints get resolved.
Related:
The Massachusetts Teen Who Held PowerSchool Ransom Was a 鈥楽ophisticated鈥� Cybercriminal, Prosecutors Say
By Mark Keierleber
When 社区黑料鈥檚 Mark Keierleber knocked on Matthew Lane鈥檚 door in August, the 19-year-old college student seemed an unlikely figure to have pulled off what鈥檚 considered the largest exposure of private student data in history. Lane was known as a soft-spoken gamer and skilled computer programmer, but open-source reporting, threat intelligence research and a federal sentencing memo show him to be a 鈥渟ophisticated鈥� cybercriminal. After pleading guilty to the 2024 PowerSchool hack, Lane was sentenced to four years in federal prison and $4 million in restitution.
Related:
30 Years Without a Real Raise: New York鈥檚 Early Intervention Pay Crisis
By Sarah Carr
Emily Lengen has been a special education teacher for the New York State Early Intervention Program since the 1990s. She loves her work, but is distraught about remaining in what might be the only profession in New York that hasn鈥檛 gotten a real raise in three decades. 鈥淎s a 30-year veteran with a master鈥檚 degree, I am working twice as hard as when I started in early intervention, and making less now,鈥� Lengen tells zero2eight鈥檚 Carr.
Related
Some 15 Years After Disastrous Debut, Common Core Math Endures in Many States
By Jo Napolitano
The once-derided standards have proven their staying power, with many states holding onto the original version or some close iteration, 社区黑料’s Jo Napolitano reports. Despite early complaints from teachers and parents and fierce political opposition from the left and the right, Common Core math has withstood three presidents and more recent revamps to state curriculum. And while critics say it failed to boost student achievement 鈥� math scores have dropped nationally since it was adopted in 2010 鈥� advocates say it did something far more important: provide an on-ramp to algebra.
Related
No Idea Too Radical: Inside New Orleans鈥� Dramatic K-12 Turnaround After Katrina
By Beth Hawkins
The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina forced the wholesale reboot of New Orleans schools 鈥� by most measures, among the worst in the country in 2005. Two decades later, education researchers and the city鈥檚 civic leaders have released comprehensive data outlining what worked to get rapid academic growth for kids, how preschoolers and college students are doing and where racial inequities persist. Beth Hawkins uses highlights from the research to tell the story of the singular reform. You can read (and listen) to our other coverage on the 20th anniversary of Katrina here.
Related
The California Mom at the Center of Trump鈥檚 Crackdown on School Gender Policies
By Linda Jacobson
A California mother spent three years battling a school district that supported her child鈥檚 social transition from female to male. Her story is now at the heart of the Trump administration鈥檚 push to clamp down on schools that conceal changes in students鈥� gender identity from parents. Some say students鈥� well-being could be at risk if educators are forced to get parents鈥� permission before using different names and pronouns. But one attorney told 社区黑料鈥檚 Linda Jacobson that officials can鈥檛 鈥渂y default assume that every parent 鈥� is going to reject and hurt their children.鈥�
Related
Strapped for Cash: Districts OK Union Raises, But Don鈥檛 Have the Money to Fund Them
By Lauren Wagner
Several school districts across the U.S. had to borrow money or renegotiate teacher contracts over the summer after budget shortfalls left them without enough funding to pay for agreed-upon raises, 社区黑料鈥檚 Lauren Wagner discovered. Philadelphia Public Schools approved $1.5 billion in borrowing, while districts in Fairfax County, Virginia, and Baltimore County, Maryland, rescinded teacher pay hikes. Chicago Public Schools considered delaying pay bumps in its union contract to address a $734 million deficit. 鈥淐ontracts are not optional documents,鈥� Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates wrote in a letter to the school board.
Related
From Screen Time to 鈥楪reen Time鈥�: Going Outside to Support Student Well-Being
By Jessika Harkay
As cell phone bans are widely underway this year in schools nationwide, there鈥檚 a question of what else to do in the effort to aid student mental health and re-engage kids back in the classroom, 社区黑料’s Jessika Harkay reports. Some experts believe one next step may be to incorporate outside time into the school day (a.k.a. 鈥済reen time鈥�) for older students. While some schools have developed full programming, research shows 15 to 30 minutes outside can have big benefits, too.
Related
How LAUSD School Zones Perpetuate Educational Inequality, Ignoring 鈥楻edlining鈥� Past
By Ben Chapman
School attendance zones are meant to provide Los Angeles families with strong options for their children鈥檚 education. But a growing number of critics say the outdated school zones of LAUSD reinforce educational inequality by locking needy students out of a good education. Some of these enrollment zones match racist redlining maps of the 1930s that were used to deny housing loans in Black neighborhoods. 鈥淭he district doesn鈥檛 want to touch those lines, because families overpaid for homes within them,鈥� says local parent and researcher Tim DeRoche
Related:
LifeWise鈥檚 Big Red Bus Is Driving Thorny Questions About Church and State
By Linda Jacobson
Lifewise Academy is a fast-growing program that allows students to leave school during the day for religious instruction and is the most visible example of an evangelical Christian movement to require districts to participate. But as LifeWise and similar programs spread, opposition is increasing among those who say releasing students during the day is disruptive and crosses the line between church and state. 鈥淚t’s insulting,鈥� one former teacher told 社区黑料’s Linda Jacobson about watching students miss his class once a week to attend LifeWise.
Related:
With Bees, Drones & Ancient Technology, New Mexico Schools Engage Students to Save Precious Water for the Next Generation
By Beth Hawkins
This year, the Rio Grande ran dry in Albuquerque 鈥� a climate-change fueled event of particular interest to students at a high school a few blocks from the river. Students at Rio Grande High School and three lower-grades schools that share its sustainable agriculture focus live on neighborhood farms. Lessons combining cutting-edge technology and centuries-old conservation techniques are real-life relevant 鈥� and key to the region鈥檚 survival.
Related
Did you use this article in your work?
We鈥檇 love to hear how 社区黑料鈥檚 reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers.
Nicole Ridgway is Editor in Chief of 社区黑料 where she manages all aspects of the newsroom, from daily coverage to broader editorial strategy.
[email protected]