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</p> <h2>From literacy, New Orleans after Katrina and special ed for all to freedom of speech and teachers who gave up, what our op-ed writers had to say</h2> <p class="sans">By <a rel="author" href="https://www.the74million.org/contributor/20200/">The 74</a></p> <p>This story first appeared at <a href="https://www.the74million.org">The 74</a>, a nonprofit news site covering education. <a href="https://www.the74million.org/about/newsletters/?utm_source=republish-button&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=republish">Sign up for free newsletters from The 74</a> to get more like this in your inbox.</p> <p>Literacy, literacy, literacy was the hottest topic on The 74’s opinion pages this year. Whether it was Chad Aldeman and Eamonn Fitzmaurice’s deep dives into schools and districts that are beating the odds for their students, practical explanations of classroom practice in teaching reading or the continuing debate about the science of reading versus so-called balanced literacy, our op-ed writers had lots to say. But that wasn’t all they had to talk about. From the power of handwriting and special ed for all to freedom of speech, Gen Z teachers, citizenship tests and school choice, here, in no particular order, are 12 of our most read, talked-about and impactful essays of 2025.</p> <div class="wp-block-group callout"> <div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://the74million.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed7a40adc5e6569f36b64ba3e&id=4e956cf0bf&e=2dff081a35"><strong>Bright Spots: These Schools Are Beating the Odds in Teaching Kids to Read</strong></a></h3> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" width="825" height="495" src="https://blog.college-counseling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Our-13-Most-Read-Most-Talked-About-and-Most-Powerful-Education.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1022763" /></figure> <p>Early reading is highly predictive of later-life outcomes, and there’s often a strong correlation between a school’s poverty level and its reading proficiency rate. But around the country, exceptional schools are beating the odds. Columnist Chad Aldeman and The 74’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 exceeding expectations in teaching kids to read, and plotted the results on an interactive map. Is your school a Bright Spot?</p> </div> </div> <div class="wp-block-group callout"> <div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://the74million.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed7a40adc5e6569f36b64ba3e&id=940bfdc6c8&e=2dff081a35"><strong>The Power of Handwriting: Improved Reading, Thinking, Memory and Learning</strong></a></h3> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" width="825" height="495" src="https://blog.college-counseling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/1766406065_751_Our-13-Most-Read-Most-Talked-About-and-Most-Powerful-Education.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1022369" /></figure> <p>In a world where digital devices are everywhere, it’s easy to wonder if handwriting still matters. But research keeps confirming what many teachers have known for years: Handwriting is more than just penmanship — it’s an important part of a child’s thinking and literacy development, particularly during the formative years of pre-K through fifth grade. Learning Without Tears educators Elizabeth DeWitt, Cheryl Lundy Swift and Christina Bretz explain.</p> </div> </div> <div class="wp-block-group callout"> <div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://the74million.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed7a40adc5e6569f36b64ba3e&id=b8d991eaba&e=2dff081a35"><strong>The Inconvenient Success of New Orleans Schools</strong></a></h3> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="825" height="495" src="https://blog.college-counseling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Our-13-Most-Read-Most-Talked-About-and-Most-Powerful-Education.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1019877" /></figure> <p>The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina inadvertently created the conditions for one of the most remarkable education experiments in American history. Today, that experiment has quietly produced results that should be making national headlines. But Ravi Gupta, creator of the <em>Where the Schools Went</em> podcast, argues that instead, it’s met with a curious indifference that reveals something broken about America’s politics and media. New Orleans, he says, is a rare example of adversaries becoming collaborators, ideology yielding to evidence and a community choosing pragmatic progress over ideological purity.</p> </div> </div> <div class="wp-block-group callout"> <div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/we-started-grouping-students-by-reading-ability-vs-grade-heres-what-happened/?utm_source=The+74+Million+Newsletter&utm_campaign=66b489eedb-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_07_27_07_47_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_077b986842-66b489eedb-176112633"><strong>We Started Grouping Students by Reading Ability vs. Grade. Here’s What Happened</strong></a></h3> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="825" height="495" src="https://blog.college-counseling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/1766406066_451_Our-13-Most-Read-Most-Talked-About-and-Most-Powerful-Education.png" alt="" class="wp-image-1016980" /></figure> <p>Facing a post-COVID decline in reading proficiency, Ellis Elementary in Rockford, Illinois, tried a new approach: Students were sorted by reading ability, allowing educators to teach skills that every student in the room was ready for, with no watered down instruction, writes the school’s instructional coach, Jessica Berg. The results go beyond test scores, though those have improved: the school has seen an 18 percentage-point gain since the 2021 low and a 25-point drop in the number of students identified as at-risk.</p> </div> </div> <div class="wp-block-group callout"> <div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://the74million.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed7a40adc5e6569f36b64ba3e&id=59c8e4c7ae&e=2dff081a35"><strong>To Make Sure Gifted Kids Get an Appropriate Education, Why Not Put Them in Special Ed?</strong></a></h3> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="825" height="495" src="https://blog.college-counseling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/1766406066_902_Our-13-Most-Read-Most-Talked-About-and-Most-Powerful-Education.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1011151" /></figure> <p>New York City parents of gifted-and-talented kids are desperate. In some neighborhoods, half of students score in the top 10th percentile on IQ tests, but a shortage of G&T seats equals thousands of underserved kids. A number of states offer Individualized Education Programs or similar plans for gifted students, and Kansas goes so far as to bundle giftedness under special education and give all students who qualify an IEP. Alina Adams, a New York-based author, blogger and mother of three, asks some NYC parents what they think.</p> </div> </div> <div class="wp-block-group callout"> <div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://the74million.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed7a40adc5e6569f36b64ba3e&id=2e380d9465&e=2dff081a35"><strong>Gen Z Teachers Are Ready to Reinvent Education. Schools Need to Catch Up</strong></a></h3> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="825" height="495" src="https://blog.college-counseling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/1766406066_321_Our-13-Most-Read-Most-Talked-About-and-Most-Powerful-Education.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1022638" /></figure> <p>Gen Z teachers, born between the late 1990s and early 2010s, are entering classrooms with fresh energy, says Anajah Philogene, executive director of Teach For America Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana and a former teacher. They are digital natives, eager to leverage technology. They bring a keen understanding of student needs because they were recently students themselves. They are naturally inclined to collaborate, provide individualized learning and engage students and their families. That combination makes Gen Z teachers the type of talent that education needs right now. It also means schools must adapt if they hope to keep them.</p> </div> </div> <div class="wp-block-group callout"> <div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://the74million.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed7a40adc5e6569f36b64ba3e&id=b55f682ad1&e=2dff081a35"><strong>The Voices We Don’t Hear: Teachers Who Gave Up</strong></a></h3> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="825" height="495" src="https://blog.college-counseling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/1766406066_427_Our-13-Most-Read-Most-Talked-About-and-Most-Powerful-Education.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-735287" /></figure> <p>Teaching is among the most optimistic and aspirational professions, drawing idealists who believe education can transform lives. But celebrating only the success stories — teachers who beat the odds, schools that defy demographics — distorts our vision, writes American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Robert Pondiscio. Other fields learn from failure: medicine from misdiagnoses, aviation from crashes. Here, Pondiscio urges people to invite teachers who quit to speak up — not to shame them, but to learn from them. </p> </div> </div> <div class="wp-block-group callout"> <div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://the74million.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed7a40adc5e6569f36b64ba3e&id=06a414c5e4&e=2dff081a35"><strong>The Promise and Peril of America’s School Choice Movement</strong></a></h3> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="825" height="495" src="https://blog.college-counseling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/1766406066_814_Our-13-Most-Read-Most-Talked-About-and-Most-Powerful-Education.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1022219" /></figure> <p>Will school choice become a lever for equity or another layer of inequality? What happens next depends less on whether choice exists and more on how leaders, policymakers and practitioners choose to design, regulate and support it, says education consultant and former high school principal Meagan Booth. That means dealing with transportation challenges, complicated enrollment systems, the lack of special education services and the need for fair funding and accountability. “Choice without infrastructure only stands to reinforce privilege rather than broaden opportunity,” she writes.</p> </div> </div> <div class="wp-block-group callout"> <div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://the74million.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed7a40adc5e6569f36b64ba3e&id=a04d2be464&e=2dff081a35"><strong>Across All Ages & Demographics, Test Results Show Americans Are Getting Dumber</strong></a></h3> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="825" height="495" src="https://blog.college-counseling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/1766406067_769_Our-13-Most-Read-Most-Talked-About-and-Most-Powerful-Education.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-738964" /></figure> <p>Until about a decade ago, student achievement scores were rising. Those gains were broadly shared across racial and economic lines, and achievement gaps were closing. But then something happened, and scores started to fall. Worse, they fell faster for lower-performing students, and achievement gaps started to grow. And, says contributor Chad Aldeman, similar declines are seen in assessments of adults. Why this is remains a huge unanswered question.</p> </div> </div> <div class="wp-block-group callout"> <div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://the74million.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed7a40adc5e6569f36b64ba3e&id=d32bf35dba&e=2dff081a35"><strong>The Remarkable Educational Attainment Gains of the School Reform Era</strong></a></h3> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="825" height="495" src="https://blog.college-counseling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/1766406067_374_Our-13-Most-Read-Most-Talked-About-and-Most-Powerful-Education.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1022214" /></figure> <p>Conversations about education tend to focus on either the decline in student achievement over the last 12 years or recent progress in some Southern states. But what’s hardly ever noted, writes Michael J. Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, is that the declines since 2013 or so came on the heels of two decades of remarkable progress. Young people made huge gains from the mid-1990s to the mid-2010s, when education reform was at its zenith. We need to celebrate that success more often — and get back to making that kind of progress again.</p> </div> </div> <div class="wp-block-group callout"> <div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://the74million.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed7a40adc5e6569f36b64ba3e&id=41500217e7&e=2dff081a35"><strong>Free Speech Is a Right. Educators Have a Responsibility to Use It Wisely</strong></a></h3> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="825" height="495" src="https://blog.college-counseling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/1766406067_1_Our-13-Most-Read-Most-Talked-About-and-Most-Powerful-Education.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1021019" /></figure> <p>Attorney General Pam Bondi’s threatened prosecution of “hate speech” after Charlie Kirk’s assassination shocked many on the right, whose views have been silenced under that label. But in education, the issue isn’t only what teachers and professors can legally say, writes James V. Shuls, head of the Education Liberty branch of the Institute for Governance and Civics at Florida State University — it’s what they are morally and professionally obligated to do. Academic freedom is a trust extended to those forming minds and shaping citizens. When teachers and professors embrace it, education flourishes. When they abandon it, students and society suffer.</p> </div> </div> <div class="wp-block-group callout"> <div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://the74million.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed7a40adc5e6569f36b64ba3e&id=0bc19965f7&e=2dff081a35"><strong>I Just Wrote a Book About Alternative Ed — But My Child Chose a Public School</strong></a></h3> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="825" height="495" src="https://blog.college-counseling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/1766406067_922_Our-13-Most-Read-Most-Talked-About-and-Most-Powerful-Education.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1020888" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Students arrive at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, where the author’s daughter is a freshman. (Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure> <p>When Kerry McDonald’s daughter announced she wanted to go to public high school, McDonald’s first response was “no.” After all, McDonald — a senior fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education and host of the LiberatED podcast — was writing a book about the unconventional schools and learning options that have sprouted in recent years. But she soon changed her mind, recognizing that if educational freedom was truly her top value, her daughter deserved it, too. “As parents, we should look at our children’s distinct educational needs and interests, and say ‘yes’ when they want a change,” she writes.</p> </div> </div> <div class="wp-block-group callout"> <div class="wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained"> <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="https://the74million.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ed7a40adc5e6569f36b64ba3e&id=fd11b34fb8&e=2dff081a35"><strong>Making HS Grads Pass a Citizenship Test Is Fine. But Civics Ed Must Start Much Earlier</strong></a></h3> <figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="825" height="495" src="https://blog.college-counseling.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/1766406067_864_Our-13-Most-Read-Most-Talked-About-and-Most-Powerful-Education.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-699027" /></figure> <p>The U.S. Citizenship Test is a straightforward assessment of basic knowledge about America’s government, history, geography and democratic principles. In a number of states, high schoolers must take it to graduate. But, says American Enterprise Institute’s Robert Pondiscio, if 17-year-olds are cramming basic facts to fulfill a last-minute requirement, we’ve already missed the boat. He recommends starting in elementary school, and to show how easy that is, he compares the 100 questions on the test with a civics-rich pre-K-8 curriculum to see how they line up, grade by grade.</p> </div> </div> <p> Copy HTML
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