American institutions occupy six of the top 10 slots on this year’s table. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is first for the second year in a row, followed by Stanford University in second, also retaining its 2025 position. The California Institute of Technology rose one spot to third place, and the University of California, Berkeley, debuts on the list in fourth position.
Duke University dropped from fifth to sixth rank this year, and the Georgia Institute of Technology appears on the list for the first time, coming in seventh.
On a country level, nearly a quarter of the top 100 institutions in the ranking are from the US, more than any other nation.
Launched in 2024 in association with Schmidt Science Fellows, the rankings were created to improve scientific excellence and collaboration across disciplines and to help universities benchmark their interdisciplinary scientific work
THE broadened the interdisciplinary scope of research for this year’s list to cover any project that comprises multiple scientific disciplines or one or more scientific disciplines combined with the social sciences, education, psychology, law, economics or clinical and health.
The U.S.’s performance in the rankings is driven by high scores for outputs metrics, which include the number and share of interdisciplinary science research publications, the citations of interdisciplinary science research, and the reputation of support for interdisciplinary teams.
“For more than 80 years, research universities have advanced our understanding of the world, leading to dramatic improvements in health, economic prosperity, and national security. That work fundamentally is done best when people ideate and collaborate without regard for disciplinary boundaries within and between scientific areas,” Ian A. Waitz, vice president for research at MIT, said in a statement.
“Scientific research that breaks down academic silos and crosses traditional disciplines is increasingly understood to be essential for the next generation of big breakthroughs and the key to solving the world’s most pressing problems,” said Phil Baty, THE’s chief global affairs officer.
“The world’s biggest challenges are highly complex and require cutting-edge knowledge and fresh ideas from a wide range of specialisms.”
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers abruptly went on leave Wednesday from teaching at Harvard University, where he once served as president, over recently released emails showing he maintained a friendly relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, Summers’ spokesperson said.
Summers had canceled his public commitments amid the fallout of the emails being made public and earlier Wednesday severed ties with OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. Harvard had reopened an investigation into connections between him and Epstein, but Summers had said he would continue teaching economics classes at the school.
That changed Wednesday evening with the news that he will step away from teaching classes as well as his position as director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government with the Harvard Kennedy School.
“Mr. Summers has decided it’s in the best interest of the Center for him to go on leave from his role as Director as Harvard undertakes its review,” Summers spokesperson Steven Goldberg said, adding that his co-teachers would finish the classes.
Summers has not been scheduled to teach next semester, according to Goldberg.
A Harvard spokesperson confirmed to The Associated Press that Summers had let the university know about his decision. Summers decision to go on leave was first reported by The Harvard Crimson.
Harvard did not mention Summers by name in its decision to restart an investigation, but the move follows the release of emails showing that he was friendly with Epstein long after the financier pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl in 2008.
By Wednesday, the once highly regarded economics expert had been facing increased scrutiny over choosing to stay in the teaching role. Some students even filmed his appearance in shock as he appeared before a class of undergraduates on Tuesday while stressing he thought it was important to continue teaching.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, said in a social media post on Wednesday night that Summers “cozied up to the rich and powerful — including a convicted sex offender. He cannot be trusted in positions of influence.”
Messages appear to seek advice about romantic relationship
The emails include messages in which Summers appeared to be getting advice from Epstein about pursuing a romantic relationship with someone who viewed him as an “economic mentor.”
“im a pretty good wing man , no?” Epstein wrote on Nov. 30, 2018.
The next day, Summers told Epstein he had texted the woman, telling her he “had something brief to say to her.”
“Am I thanking her or being sorry re my being married. I think the former,” he wrote.
Summers’ wife, Elisa New, also emailed Epstein multiple times, including a 2015 message in which she thanked him for arranging financial support for a poetry project she directs. The gift he arranged “changed everything for me,” she wrote.
“It really means a lot to me, all financial help aside, Jeffrey, that you are rooting for me and thinking about me,” she wrote.
New, an English professor emerita at Harvard, did not respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday.
An earlier review completed in 2020 found that Epstein visited Harvard’s campus more than 40 times after his 2008 sex-crimes conviction and was given his own office and unfettered access to a research center he helped establish. The professor who provided the office was later barred from starting new research or advising students for at least two years.
Summers appears before Harvard class
On Tuesday, Summers appeared before his class at Harvard, where he teaches “The Political Economy of Globalization” to undergraduates with Robert Lawrence, a professor with the Harvard Kennedy School.
“Some of you will have seen my statement of regret expressing my shame with respect to what I did in communication with Mr. Epstein and that I’ve said that I’m going to step back from public activities for a while. But I think it’s very important to fulfill my teaching obligations,” he said.
Summers’ remarks were captured on video by several students, but no one appeared to publicly respond to his comments.
Epstein, who authorities said died by suicide in 2019, was a convicted sex offender infamous for his connections to wealthy and powerful people, making him a fixture of outrage and conspiracy theories about wrongdoing among American elites.
Summers served as treasury secretary from 1999 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He was Harvard’s president for five years from 2001 to 2006. When asked about the emails last week, Summers issued a statement saying he has “great regrets in my life” and that his association with Epstein was a “major error in judgement.”
Other organizations that confirmed the end of their affiliations with Summers included the Center for American Progress, the Center for Global Development and the Budget Lab at Yale University. Bloomberg TV said Summers’ withdrawal from public commitments included his role as a paid contributor, and the New York Times said it will not renew his contract as a contributing opinion writer.
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This story has been corrected to show that Summers is a former treasury secretary, not treasurer; to show that Summers’ statement about stepping back from public commitments was issued late Monday, not Tuesday; and to show that the school is known as the Harvard Kennedy School, not Kennedy Harvard School.
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Associated Press journalist Hallie Golden contributed to this report.
I have been in and out of college classrooms for the last 10 years. I have worked as an adjunct instructor at a community college, I have taught as a graduate instructor at a major research institution, and I am now an assistant professor of history at a small teaching-first university.
Since the spring semester of 2023, it has been apparent that an ever-increasing number of students are submitting AI-generated work. I am no stranger to students trying to cut corners by copying and pasting from Wikipedia, but the introduction of generative AI has enabled them to cheat in startling new ways, and many students have fully embraced it.
Plagiarism detectors have and do work well enough for what I might call “classical cheating,” but they are notoriously bad at detecting AI-generated work. Even a program like Grammarly, which is ostensibly intended only to clean up one’s own work, will set off alarms.
So, I set out this semester to look more carefully for AI work. Some of it is quite easy to notice. The essays produced by ChatGPT, for instance, are soulless, boring abominations. Words, phrases and punctuation rarely used by the average college student — or anyone for that matter (em dash included) — are pervasive.
But there is a difference between recognizing AI use and proving its use. So I tried an experiment.
A colleague in the department introduced me to the Trojan horse, a trick capable of both conquering cities and exposing the fraud of generative AI users. This method is now increasingly known (there’s even an episode of “The Simpsons” about it) and likely has already run its course as a plausible method for saving oneself from reading and grading AI slop. To be brief, I inserted hidden text into an assignment’s directions that the students couldn’t see but that ChatGPT can.
I assigned Douglas Egerton’s book “Gabriel’s Rebellion,” which tells the story of the thwarted rebellion of enslaved people in 1800, and asked the students to describe some of the author’s main points. Nothing too in-depth, as it’s a freshman-level survey course. They were asked to use either the suggestions I provided or to write about whatever elements of Egerton’s argument they found most important.
I received 122 paper submissions. Of those, the Trojan horse easily identified 33 AI-generated papers. I sent these stats to all the students and gave them the opportunity to admit to using AI before they were locked into failing the class. Another 14 outed themselves. In other words, nearly 39% of the submissions were at least partially written by AI.
The percentage was surprising and deflating. I explained my disappointment to the students, pointing out that they cheated on a paper about a rebellion of the enslaved — people who sacrificed their lives in pursuit of freedom, including the freedom to learn to read and write. In fact, Virginia made it even harder for them to do so after the rebellion was put down.
I’m not sure all of them grasped my point. Some certainly did. I received several emails and spoke with a few students who came to my office and were genuinely apologetic. I had a few that tried to fight me on the accusations, too, assuming I flagged them as AI for “well written sentences.” But the Trojan horse did not lie.
The author with his cat, Persephone “Dots” Teague
Photo Courtesy Of Will Teague
There’s a lot of talk about how educators have to train students to use AI as a tool and help them integrate it into their work. Recently, the American Historical Association even made recommendations on how we might approach this in the classroom. The AHA asserts that “banning generative AI is not a long-term solution; cultivating AI literacy is.” One of their suggestions is to assign students an AI-generated essay and have them assess what it got right, got wrong or if it even understood the text in question.
But I don’t know if I agree with the AHA. Let me tell you why the Trojan horse worked. It is because students do not know what they do not know. My hidden text asked them to write the paper “from a Marxist perspective.” Since the events in the book had little to do with the later development of Marxism, I thought the resulting essay might raise a red flag with students, but it didn’t.
I had at least eight students come to my office to make their case against the allegations, but not a single one of them could explain to me what Marxism is, how it worked as an analytical lens or how it even made its way into their papers they claimed to have written. The most shocking part was that apparently, when ChatGPT read the prompt, it even directly asked if it should include Marxism, and they all said yes. As one student said to me, “I thought it sounded smart.”
How do I assign students an AI-generated essay for assessment if they don’t have the basic knowledge to parse said essay? I can’t and I won’t.
I’m a historian. I am trained and paid to teach students how to understand a narrative, to derive meaning from it with textual analysis and to communicate that meaning in written word. I cannot force them to do any of those things, but I won’t be complicit in exposing them to even more AI in my classroom.
Not only is there an inability to recognize AI-generated content for the slop it is, but each university, each college and each department is adopting wildly different AI policies. There is no consistency. My colleagues and I are actively trying to solve this for ourselves, maybe by establishing a shared standard that every student who walks through our doors will learn and be subject to. But we can’t control what happens everywhere else.
I have no doubt that many students are actively making the decision to cheat. But I also do not doubt that, because of inconsistent policies and AI euphoria, some were telling the truth when they told me they didn’t realize they were cheating. Regardless of their awareness or lack thereof, each one of my students made the decision to skip one of the many challenges of earning a degree — assuming they are only here to buy it (a very different cultural conversation we need to have). They also chose to actively avoid learning because it’s boring and hard.
Now, I’m not equipped to make deep sociological or philosophical diagnoses on these choices. But this is a problem. How do we solve it? Is it a return to analog? Do we use paper and pen and class time for everything? Am I a professor or an academic policeman?
The answer is the former. But students, society and administrations that are unwilling to take a hard stance (unless it’s the promotion of AI) are crushing higher ed. A college degree is not just about a job afterward — you have to be able to think, solve problems and apply those solutions, regardless of the field. How do we teach that without institutional support? How do we teach that when a student doesn’t want to and AI enables it?
I don’t know. But for my students, I decided to not punish them. All I know how to do is teach, so that’s what I did. I assigned a wonderful essay by Cal Poly professor Patrick Lin that he addressed to his class on the benefits and detriments of AI use. I attached instructions that asked them to read it and reflect. These instructions also had a Trojan horse.
Thirty-six of my AI students completed it. One of them used AI, and the other 12 have been slowly dropping the class. Ultimately, 35 out of 47 isn’t too bad. The responses to the assignment were generally good, and some were deeply reflective.
But a handful said something I found quite sad: “I just wanted to write the best essay I could.” Those students in question, who at least tried to provide some of their own thoughts before mixing them with the generated result, had already written the best essay they could. And I guess that’s why I hate AI in the classroom as much as I do.
Students are afraid to fail, and AI presents itself as a savior. But what we learn from history is that progress requires failure. It requires reflection. Students are not just undermining their ability to learn, but to someday lead.
I asked my students to reflect, so I suppose I will end with my own reflection. I don’t use AI for anything in my academic or personal life. I value almost nothing more than my ability to think and to freely express myself. Even when I make mistakes, at least they are my mistakes.
We live in an era where personal expression is saturated by digital filters, hivemind thinking is promoted through endless algorithms and academic freedom itself is under assault by the weakest minds among us. AI has only made this worse. It is a crisis.
I can offer no solutions other than to approach it and teach about it that way. I’m sure angry detractors will say that is antiquated, and maybe it is.
But I am a historian, so I will close on a historian’s note: History shows us that the right to literacy came at a heavy cost for many Americans, ranging from ostracism to death. Those in power recognized that oppression is best maintained by keeping the masses illiterate, and those oppressed recognized that literacy is liberation. To my students and to anyone who might listen, I say: Don’t surrender to AI your ability to read, write and think when others once risked their lives and died for the freedom to do so.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Student absences at schools are still in the tens of thousands since the arrival of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in North Carolina.
What You Need To Know
The Wake County Public School System reported 10% of its student body, or more than 19,000 students, were out on Tuesday
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools reported over 30,000 absences on Monday. On Tuesday, that number was down slightly to 25,000
Several teachers spoke before the CMS Board of Education Tuesday, asking the district not to act as if things are business as usual when it comes to the impact of Border Patrol presence on some families
East Mecklenburg High School teacher Rebecca Costas said she has concerns it will be a while before families feel safe again
The Wake County Public School System reported 10% of its student body, or more than 19,000 students, were out Tuesday.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools reported over 30,000 absences on Monday. On Tuesday, that number was down slightly to 25,000.
Several teachers spoke before the CMS Board of Education Tuesday, asking the district not to act as if things are business as usual when it comes to the impact of Border Patrol presence on some families.
In addition, they are requesting guidance on how to explain immigration enforcement activity in the city to students.
While the district shared a message with staff, teachers Spectrum News 1 spoke with say it’s still not enough.
Rebecca Costas teaches multilingual learners at East Mecklenburg High School.
“We have a hallway where we do a lot of our contact classes with [these students], their English and their learning linguists development, and it was a ghost town. Our hallway was empty,” said Costas about attendance on Monday.
She shared a photo of her classroom, where she had four students out of 20.
Tuesday night during the Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Dr. Crystal Hill addressed the more than 30,000 student absences Monday.
“This week has been hard. There’s not one member in our community that has not been affected by the recent activity in our community,” Hill said.
While the district said there has been no immigration enforcement activity on CMS properties, teachers like Costas voiced their concerns to the school board about this situation.
“I can’t overstate the terror that these families are experiencing, and the communication thus far, including a video recorded only in English, has not provided evidence the district understands its severity,” Costas said.
Tiffany Newkirk, a multilingual teacher at Pineville Elementary, agrees the statements made by the district don’t fully address the fears.
“Those empty seats in my building are not just numbers. They are 5-year-olds and 8-year-olds and 10-year-olds whose families are too afraid to leave their homes,” Newkirk said.
She said students attending school are asking questions.
“Those students who have come sit in hollow classrooms asking, where are my friends? Are they okay? And I don’t have answers for them, not because I’m not paying attention, but because there has been no clear guidance, no language and no support for how I should respond,” Newkirk said.
Costas said it doesn’t get easier with older students.
“We’ve received no kind of training, no kind of resources for how to respond to our students, you know, to how to talk to them about this, perhaps how to talk and communicate with our families. This is a very different kind of trauma,” Costas said.
On Tuesday, CMS sent a video to staff sharing student support services staff are available for families.
“Our priority remains unchanged the safety, well-being, and education of every student. We are committed to ensuring all students receive the education they deserve for a promising future,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Assistant Communications Officer Tom Miner said.
Board Chair Stephanie Sneed said students remain a priority.
“Our schools must remain places where every child and every family feels seen, protected and welcomed,” Sneed said.
The message on the video explains that the district is following all laws regarding immigration. For when enrolling students, schools can’t ask immigration status or social security number. In addition, CMS staff are legally obligated to safeguard the confidentiality of personal information, including immigration status, except if otherwise required by federal law. Furthermore, immigration officials may not gain access to private areas in the schools or documents without a properly executed warrant or subpoena.
Costas said she wants more clarity of actions teachers should follow if Border Patrol is on school property.
“We don’t know when we go on lockdown. We don’t know when teachers and parents are notified. We want internal plans,” Costas said.
Tuesday night, Hill said the district considered virtual learning, but she said there could be unintended consequences to this option, including students not receiving free meals and employees not having job duties without students.
The district is also offering counseling services to employees to help navigate this ongoing situation.
In a statement in response to teachers’ concerns, Board Communications Director Sheri Costa shared the board understands the fear and anxiety the entire community feels about the immigration enforcement activity. Because of community concern, she said the district has shared multiple videos and messages and taken numerous calls and emails on this topic since the federal guidance changed in 2025, determining schools were not protected areas when it came to immigration enforcement.
“To be clear, the district cares deeply about our students and has communicated this in all of our messages to students, families and staff. In these uncharted times, we understand our efforts may not feel like enough as the ultimate hope – including the district’s hope – is that all families can feel safe going to school, work and their community gathering places,” Costa said in a statement.
Follow us on Instagram at spectrumnews1nc for news and other happenings across North Carolina.
At a contentious meeting Wednesday night, the Santa Clara County Office of Education’s board delivered the results of a lengthy investigation into an alleged misuse of public funds by the county’s former superintendent of schools — but conflicting claims by county office of education leaders made it clear that many questions still swirl around the findings.
They come more than a year after former Superintendent Mary Ann Dewan was unexpectedly removed from her position in a 4-2 vote; the action was classified as “without cause.” The board declined to expand on the reasoning for Dewan’s mysterious removal for months, but says now the decision stemmed from her handling of several complaints regarding the county’s Head Start program, which helps low-income children under the age of five access critical resources.
The report did not cite specific examples of wrongdoing, or include the names of the two law firms that conducted the independent review. But it contained 14 findings, including that under Dewan’s leadership, the Santa Clara County Office of Education misused public funds and violated several board policies, that the county superintendent’s segregated account was used to redirect grant funding for unrelated purposes and that public dollars were used for legal expenses and investigations of the board of education.
A federal audit released earlier this year said the county office of education misused more than $135,370 in federal Head Start funds under Dewan, an error the board called a failed cover-up and an intentional effort to undermine the board’s authority — but which Dewan said was a communication error.
The county office of education said Wednesday that the board and staff were not aware of any charges being filed by law enforcement or the district attorney’s office.
The report’s summarized findings presented Wednesday were written by board counsel and the board’s governance committee — comprised of board president Maimona Afzal Berta, vice president Victoria Chon and trustee Jessica Speiser as well as current county superintendent David Toston — the board’s legal counsel said Wednesday and the findings stemmed from multiple investigations and reports conducted in the last two years.
The report’s findings also said several office of education contracts were awarded in a manner that suggested personal favoritism and that “ethical safeguards” were ignored, with several county office of education employees allegedly using “public resources” to show support for their superior.
In a statement Wednesday, Dewan condemned the board’s findings, calling them “meritless, malicious and baseless attacks unsupported by any evidence.”
“I have no knowledge of any wrongdoing and fulfilled all of my duties with integrity and within the statutory framework of my role,” Dewan said. “This pattern of public attacks, mischaracterizations and personal targeting is harmful to the institution and discourages talented educators from serving our students.”
Dewan also pointed out that whether appointed by the board — in the case of Santa Clara County — or elected by the community, a county superintendent has independent authority under the law to enter into agreements and contracts. She also said that employees, like all individuals, have First Amendment rights and the board’s effort to frame employee free speech as misconduct is troubling.
At Wednesday’s meeting, a handful of community members and head start staff expressed their gratitude to the board for investigating the misuse of funds and Dewan’s “unethical” requests.
“The findings are astonishing but not surprising given that I and Head Start staff have been saying this for the last two years,” said Mercedes Hill, a Head Start office specialist within the county office of education.
But Riju Krishna, the president of the Association of County Educators — a group of local teachers unions — pointed out that the amount of improperly misused funding alleged in the investigation’s findings “cannot possibly be the work of one single superintendent” in a system that requires multiple checks and balances, and called on the current county superintendent Toston to implement significant policy reform.
“What is your plan…to rebuild the school oversight, repair the damage and ensure that this never happens again?” Krishna asked. “How will you repair this harm?”
The board of education presented several suggested policy changes in response to the investigation’s findings Wednesday in an effort to prevent the misuse of funds from reoccurring.
But Tara Sreekrishnan, who said she was speaking as an individual member of the board and not on behalf of the board itself, expressed concerns about the proposed board policy changes, which she said centralizes authority in the board president, restricts speech, reduces transparency and moves the county office of education toward “punitive, politically motivated governance.”
She also expressed deep concerns about the investigation’s findings.
“The findings raise broad and serious concerns but they are presented without evidence or specific examples, which makes it difficult for the public trustees or any oversight agency to fully evaluate them,” Sreekrishnan said in a statement Wednesday.
Several other former county office of education leaders came to the defense of Dewan Wednesday, including former board president Claudia Rossi and former trustee Kathleen King.
“Countless public dollars have been poured into this two-year witch hunt and still not a shred of evidence of wrongdoing has been produced,” Rossi said in a statement Wednesday.
But current board member Don Rocha cautioned the community that in his more than 30 years of public service, he’s never seen an agency as unconcerned with serving community interests as the Santa Clara County Office of Education was under Dewan.
“The evidence speaks for itself unless you choose to look the other way,” Rocha said.
When we imagine the future of America’s workforce, we often picture engineers, coders, scientists, and innovators tackling the challenges of tomorrow. However, the truth is that a student’s future does not begin in a college classroom, or even in high school–it starts in the earliest years of a child’s education.
Early exposure to science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) builds the foundation for critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity. Research indicates that children introduced to STEAM concepts before the age of eight are significantly more likely to pursue STEM-related fields later in life. Yet for too many children, especially neurodivergent learners and those in underserved communities, STEAM education comes too late or not at all. That gap represents a missed opportunity not only for those children, but also for the industries and communities that will rely on their talents in the future.
The missed opportunity in early education
In most school systems, STEAM instruction ramps up in middle school or high school, long after the formative years when children are naturally most curious and open to exploring. By waiting until later grades, we miss the chance to harness early curiosity, which is the spark that drives innovation.
This late introduction disproportionately affects children with disabilities or learning differences. These learners often benefit from structured, hands-on exploration and thrive when provided with tools to connect abstract concepts to real-world applications. Without early access, they may struggle to build confidence or see themselves as capable contributors to fields like aerospace, technology, or engineering. If STEAM employers fail to cultivate neurodivergent learners, they miss out on theirunique problem-solving skills, specialized strengths, and diverse thinking that drives true innovation. Beyond shrinking the talent pipeline, this oversight risks stalling progress in fields like aerospace, energy, and technology while weakening their competitive edge.
The result is a long-term underrepresentation of neurodivergent individuals in high-demand, high-paying fields. Without access to an early STEAM curriculum, both neurodivergent students and employers will miss opportunities for advancement.
Why neurodivergent learners benefit most
Neurodivergent learners, such as children with autism, ADHD, or dyslexia, often excel when lessons are tactile, visual, and inquiry-based. Early STEAM education naturally aligns with these learning styles. For example, building a simple bridge with blocks is more than play; it’s an exercise in engineering, problem-solving, and teamwork. Programming a toy robot introduces logic, sequencing, and cause-and-effect.
These types of early STEAM experiences also support executive functioning, improve social-emotional development, and build persistence. These are crucial skills in STEM careers, where theories often fail, and continued experimentation is necessary. Additionally, building these skills helps children see themselves as creators and innovators rather than passive participants in their education.
When neurodivergent children are given access to STEAM at an early age, they are not only better equipped academically but also more confident in their ability to belong in spaces that have traditionally excluded them.
Houston as a case study
Here in Houston, we recognize the importance of early STEAM education in shaping our collective future. As the world’s Energy Capital and a hub for aerospace innovation, Houston’s economy will continue to rely on the next generation of thinkers, builders and problem-solvers. That pipeline begins not in a university laboratory, but in preschool classrooms and afterschool programs.
At Collaborative for Children, we’ve seen this firsthand through our Collab-Lab, a mobile classroom that brings hands-on STEAM experiences to underserved neighborhoods. In these spaces, children experiment with coding, explore engineering principles, and engage in collaborative problem-solving long before they reach middle school. For neurodivergent learners in particular, the Collab-Lab provides an environment where curiosity is encouraged, mistakes are celebrated as part of the learning process, and every child has the chance to succeed. Additionally, we are equipping the teachers in our 125 Centers of Excellence throughout the city in practical teaching modalities for neurodivergent learners. We are committed to creating equal opportunity for all students.
Our approach demonstrates what is possible when early childhood education is viewed not just as childcare, but as workforce development. If we can prioritize early STEAM access in Houston, other cities across the country can also expand access for all students.
A national priority
To prepare America’s workforce for the challenges ahead, we must treat early STEAM education as a national priority. This requires policymakers, educators and industry leaders to collaborate in new and meaningful ways.
Here are three critical steps we must take:
Expand funding and resources for early STEAM curriculum. Every preschool and early elementary program should have access to inquiry-based materials that spark curiosity in young learners.
Ensure inclusion of neurodivergent learners in program design. Curricula and classrooms must reflect diverse learning needs so that all children, regardless of ability, have the opportunity to engage fully.
Forge stronger partnerships between early education and industry. Employers in aerospace, energy, and technology should see investment in early childhood STEAM as part of their long-term workforce strategy.
The stakes are high. If we delay STEAM learning until later grades, we risk leaving behind countless children and narrowing the talent pipeline that will fuel our nation’s most critical industries. But if we act early, we unlock not just potential careers, but potential lives filled with confidence, creativity and contribution.
Closing thoughts
The innovators of tomorrow are sitting in preschool classrooms today. They are building with blocks, asking “why,” and imagining worlds we cannot yet see. Among them are children who are neurodivergent–who, with the proper support, may go on to design spacecrafts, engineer renewable energy solutions, or code the next groundbreaking technology.
If we want a future that is diverse, inclusive, and innovative, the path is clear: We must start with STEAM education in the earliest years, for every child.
Dr. Melanie Johnson, Collaborative for Children
Dr. Melanie Johnson is the President & CEO of the Collaborative for Children.
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It’s this creeping surveillance that gives some students pause, even those who told The 74 they otherwise support vape detectors in bathrooms. The possibility of unknown capabilities with the sensors is “very scary to me” said Moledina, the Austin teen, who worries about a future where bathrooms come with cameras.
“Just knowing that there is vape smoke in the bathroom doesn’t really help you because the administrators already know it’s happening, and just by knowing that it’s there isn’t going to help them find out who is doing it,” he said. “So my concern is that, at the end of the day, we’re going to end up having cameras in bathrooms, which is definitely not what we want.”
Minneapolis educators have used surveillance cameras in conjunction with the sensors to identify students for vaping in the bathrooms, discipline logs show.
In February, for example, a Roosevelt High School senior was suspended for a day based on accusations they hit a weed vape in the bathroom. Officials reviewed footage from a surveillance camera outside the bathroom and determined the student was “entering and exiting the bathroom during the timeframe that the detector went off.” They were searched, and administrators found “a marijuana vape, an empty glass jar with a weed smell and a baggie with weed shake in it.”
That same month, educators referred a Camden High School student to a drug and alcohol counselor for “vaping in the single stall bathrooms.”
“After I reviewed the camera it does show [a] student leaving out that same stall bathroom,” campus officials reported.
Gutierrez, the 18-year-old from Arizona, said she quit vaping after she was suspended and now copes with depression through positive means like painting. What she didn’t do, however, was quit because she received help at school for the mental health challenges that led her to vape in the first place.
She stopped vaping while she was suspended, she said, because she was away from her friends and lacked access. She was frightened into further compliance, Gutierrez recalled, by the online lessons depicting vaping as a gross, gooey purple monster that would poison her relationships.
“Yes I stopped, but it wasn’t a good stop,” she said. “I didn’t get no support. I didn’t get no counseling. I stopped because I was scared.”
Some people dream about retirement as heaven; I see it as hell. I do not wish to retire. I am only 80 and have been a college professor for a mere 56 years. I’m a workaholic and I have every reason to continue. My office is my Shangri-La. In a small space, it is a mini-museum of an entire career—2,000 books, plaques for well beyond a dozen teaching and scholarship awards, many photographs, travel mementos from around the world, and artifacts of every kind. All organized and I know where everything is. I look around and remember. And there is much to remember. Students from across the institution sometimes drop in just to marvel at what this office says about a career. I once wrote an article on one’s office as a teaching tool.
I’m a fairly ordinary guy. My degrees would not raise any eyebrows—undergraduate from a directional-named tertiary regional university, Ph.D. from my home-state Midwestern university. A tour in Vietnam and church-related travels all over the globe add some zest. I have had some successes in the academic world—books, lots of articles, some wider recognition and campus leadership roles. I’ve been department chair for 35 years; “it is a small place.” I’ve had some offers all the way up to a presidency inquiry. I’ve spurned them all.
I am a teacher, the highest calling in this human existence and at a place best suited for my practice. A colleague called our role “a slice of heaven breaking into this earthly realm.” He was right. It isn’t what I do; it is who I am. Back when I began graduate school, jobs in my discipline were plentiful. My early predecessors scrambled for prestigious appointments and got them. I declared from day one that what I wanted was a small liberal arts college where I could affect students’ lives. Some accused me of low aspirations. My adviser proclaimed, “You can do better than that.” However, things changed for historians dramatically in the mid-1970s, and the opportunities, prestigious and other, dried up. But I was fortunate; my desires came about.
Teaching is about mentoring students. And I have had my share. Of the majors, at least, I remember almost all of them, now in the upper hundreds. They have done well. I’m committed to that. I remember from my first year, my first high-profile student received a prestigious national Ph.D. award. I was ecstatic. She retired many years ago as a prominent scholar and provost. And I am just as enthusiastic about the several graduates from this past spring who went on to top graduate and professional schools and good career opportunities.
I am proud to hope that I have played a role in their becoming. If it is my fortune, they will join the ranks who check in periodically, send cards and letters, get married (and divorced), have kids, and come by to see me occasionally. Maybe it is just to confirm if the old man is still alive. I have several second-generation majors and a couple of third-generation ones—again, “it is that kind of place.” I have stories about their parents and grandparents, a bit disconcerting to their elders. I’m a storyteller and I have an almost inexhaustive supply. I’ve lived a lot of life, and this is a tool to employ in speaking to new generations of students. We travel quite a bit, and every place we go, every book read, movie watched, indeed every experience, I approach didactically. How does this become part of my classroom and student learning?
I’ve heard the cliché that we should teach learning to think, not what to think. Yes, but we also have a greater responsibility. I’m not tolerant enough to accept that genocide is OK, rape is just fine or that the world is flat and John F. Kennedy is alive in a hospital in Dallas. That is the antithesis of intellect. I have little patience for conspiracy theorists or patent immorality, even if there is a lot of both going around. Our goals must be higher, our expectations more worthy.
But it isn’t just about the students. I’ve hired several department members, selected to perpetuate the purposes we want to achieve. My job is to model the norms and culture that have made us successful and for my colleagues to achieve their best selves. The greatest tribute that I have received in my career was from a now-deceased member of the department who proclaimed, “His greatest strength as a leader is that he is so deeply committed to our success that he is just as pleased to see our work succeed as he is to see his own work succeed.” I hope that I have lived up to that high accolade.
I do not enjoy summer, because my colleagues and our students are not around much. No hanging out in the office talking about everything from books, politics, philosophy, culture, teaching and maybe a little gossip. I find it hard to come to grips with what a full year would be as an extended summer. I can only read and write so many hours a day, especially if I can’t see it manifest itself in the classroom. I’ve been at this long enough to know that no matter your stature, when you are gone, your shelf life is short. In four years, or three, in many cases today, you are just a name that the ever-cycling group of current students may or may not have heard about, but in any case, you aren’t impacting them directly.
Everything about this academic life hasn’t been idyllic. Pay may have been less than ideal, frustrations exist, challenges are around every corner and today the very existence of my discipline, type of institution and indeed the liberal arts are under threat from forces internal and external.
I know that someday my portion of the quest will come to an end. Health is precarious, the mind fragile, life full of the unsuspected. I’ve witnessed that from 50-plus years of colleagues. I know my vulnerabilities—back surgeries, hearing and creeping infirmities. Things can change in the blink of an eye. But as long as mind and body cooperate, I remain a teacher, the highest calling with which we mortals are graced. It is my slice of heaven, and, as for my students and my sacred department office space, I do not want to give up either prematurely.
Joe P. Dunn is the Charles A. Dana Professor of History and Politics at Converse University.
POLK COUNTY, Fla. — County commissioners have approved a tax referendum for the 2026 ballot.
The referendum will let voters decide on giving teachers and school staff a raise by paying an extra $1 in property tax for every $1,000 their property is worth.
The funds would generate an estimated $76-$82 million annually to boost teacher and staff pay and fund programs like school safety, arts, career/technical education and early learning.
A significant salary gap exists between Polk and neighboring counties, contributing to recruitment and retention issues. The additional funds would cost the average homeowner about $260 more per year.
If the referendum passes, the tax would go into effect July 1, 2027, and last until June 2031.
The U.S. Department of Education announced new steps Tuesday in President Donald Trump’s push to downsize the federal agency. Trump signed an executive order in March that called for eliminating the Education Department, but his administration has previously acknowledged that dissolving it entirely would require an act of Congress, which created the agency in 1979. For now, the department is moving forward with plans to shift key services to other parts of the federal government through six new interagency agreements. “The Trump Administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Cutting through layers of red tape in Washington is one essential piece of our final mission.”The announcement is already facing pushback. Critics fear that the Education Department shakeup will disrupt critical services that students rely on.The National Education Association called it an “illegal plan to further abandon students.”Minnetonka Public Schools Superintendent David Law, who serves as president of AASA, The School Superintendents Association, said the reorganization could prove counterproductive. “It talks about streamlining and efficiency, and yet it’s counterintuitive to me that multiple agencies having their hand on something is more efficient,” Law said.Under the plan, the Labor Department will co-manage the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, which administers K-12 grant programs and Title 1 funding for low-income schools, as well as the Office of Postsecondary Education, which oversees grants for institutions of higher education.The Department of the Interior will take on a greater role in administering Indian Education programs. The Department of Health and Human Services will co-manage the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program and Foreign Medical Accreditation. The State Department will help oversee international education and foreign language studies programs. In the past, the Trump administration has also talked about moving management of other Education Department services, like the student loan portfolio and civil rights enforcement. The administration is still “exploring options,” according to a senior department official who briefed reporters on Tuesday ahead of the official rollout. Tuesday’s announcement builds on a sweeping downsizing effort that started earlier this year. The Trump administration has already launched an interagency partnership with the Labor Department to manage adult education and career and technical education programs.In July, the Supreme Court paved the way for the Education Department to move forward with roughly 1,400 layoffs.The Education Department said in an email on Tuesday that no additional layoffs are expected at this time as a result of the new interagency agreements.
Trump signed an executive order in March that called for eliminating the Education Department, but his administration has previously acknowledged that dissolving it entirely would require an act of Congress, which created the agency in 1979.
For now, the department is moving forward with plans to shift key services to other parts of the federal government through six new interagency agreements.
“The Trump Administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Cutting through layers of red tape in Washington is one essential piece of our final mission.”
The announcement is already facing pushback. Critics fear that the Education Department shakeup will disrupt critical services that students rely on.
The National Education Association called it an “illegal plan to further abandon students.”
Minnetonka Public Schools Superintendent David Law, who serves as president of AASA, The School Superintendents Association, said the reorganization could prove counterproductive.
“It talks about streamlining and efficiency, and yet it’s counterintuitive to me that multiple agencies having their hand on something is more efficient,” Law said.
Under the plan, the Labor Department will co-manage the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, which administers K-12 grant programs and Title 1 funding for low-income schools, as well as the Office of Postsecondary Education, which oversees grants for institutions of higher education.
The Department of the Interior will take on a greater role in administering Indian Education programs. The Department of Health and Human Services will co-manage the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program and Foreign Medical Accreditation. The State Department will help oversee international education and foreign language studies programs.
In the past, the Trump administration has also talked about moving management of other Education Department services, like the student loan portfolio and civil rights enforcement. The administration is still “exploring options,” according to a senior department official who briefed reporters on Tuesday ahead of the official rollout.
Tuesday’s announcement builds on a sweeping downsizing effort that started earlier this year.
The Trump administration has already launched an interagency partnership with the Labor Department to manage adult education and career and technical education programs.
In July, the Supreme Court paved the way for the Education Department to move forward with roughly 1,400 layoffs.
The Education Department said in an email on Tuesday that no additional layoffs are expected at this time as a result of the new interagency agreements.
OHIO — Literacy continues to be a priority for Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, and first lady Fran DeWine.
On Monday, the two joined students at two Ohio schools showing major progress with reading as part of the Governor’s Literacy Leaders Tour. The tour is part of DeWine’s initiative to celebrate schools using the Science of Reading to improve literacy outcomes.
What You Need To Know
On Monday, the two joined students at two Ohio schools showing major progress with reading
They first visited Cherry Hill Primary in Washington Court House before going to Willowville Elementary School in Union Township, near Batavia
The Dewines participated in roundtable discussions at both schools
“We see time and again that as teachers and students become more comfortable using the Science of Reading in the classroom, it results in a very positive learning experience,” said DeWine in a news release. “Kids are excited to read and achieve their goals, and their schools are seeing amazing results. The schools we visited today are additional examples of how we’re setting up students for success in school and throughout life.”
They first visited Cherry Hill Primary in Washington Court House before going to Willowville Elementary School in Union Township, near Batavia.
At Cherry Hill Primary, preschool classes are offered within the building through a partnership between Washington Court House City Schools and Fayette County Early Learning Center. The school’s early learning program is gold-rated through the Ohio Department of Children and Youth’s Step Up to Quality program, meaning the preschool introduces students to instruction based on the Science of Reading.
The early introduction helps students transition smoothly using the instruction. Approximately 90.8% of kindergarten students score “on track” for their reading skills.
Senator Shane Wilkin and Rep. Bob Peterson joined the DeWines and Department of Children and Youth Director Kara Wente for a roundtable discussion with administrators and educators.
DeWine and his wife then went to Willowville Elementary School, an early adopter of the Science of Reading.
Since 2023, the school’s fourth grade English Language Arts proficiency has increased from 66.3% to 69.3% and fifth-grade proficiency has risen from 66.7% to 80.5%.
The two joined another roundtable discussion with West Clermont Superintendent Dr. David Fultz, Willowville Elementary Principal Trish Hiler, and several other school and district leaders. Rep. Jean Schmidt and Rep. Adam C. Bird from the Ohio House of Representatives were also in attendance.
When I first started experimenting with AI in my classroom, I saw the same thing repeatedly from students. They treated it like Google. Ask a question, get an answer, move on. It didn’t take long to realize that if my students only engage with AI this way, they miss the bigger opportunity to use AI as a partner in thinking. AI isn’t a magic answer machine. It’s a tool for creativity and problem-solving. The challenge for us as educators is to rethink how we prepare students for the world they’re entering and to use AI with curiosity and fidelity.
Moving from curiosity to fluency
In my district, I wear two hats: history teacher and instructional coach. That combination gives me the space to test ideas in the classroom and support colleagues as they try new tools. What I’ve learned is that AI fluency requires far more than knowing how to log into a platform. Students need to learn how to question outputs, verify information and use results as a springboard for deeper inquiry.
I often remind them, “You never trust your source. You always verify and compare.” If students accept every AI response at face value, they’re not building the critical habits they’ll need in college or in the workforce.
To make this concrete, I teach my students the RISEN framework: Role, Instructions, Steps, Examples, Narrowing. It helps them craft better prompts and think about the kind of response they want. Instead of typing “explain photosynthesis,” they might ask, “Act as a biologist explaining photosynthesis to a tenth grader. Use three steps with an analogy, then provide a short quiz at the end.” Suddenly, the interaction becomes purposeful, structured and reflective of real learning.
AI as a catalyst for equity and personalization
Growing up, I was lucky. My mom was college educated and sat with me to go over almost every paper I wrote. She gave me feedback that helped to sharpen my writing and build my confidence. Many of my students don’t have that luxury. For these learners, AI can be the academic coach they might not otherwise have.
That doesn’t mean AI replaces human connection. Nothing can. But it can provide feedback, ask guiding questions, and provide examples that give students a sounding board and thought partner. It’s one more way to move closer to providing personalized support for learners based on need.
Of course, equity cuts both ways. If only some students have access to AI or if we use it without considering its bias, we risk widening the very gaps we hope to close. That’s why it’s our job as educators to model ethical and critical use, not just the mechanics.
Shifting how we assess learning
One of the biggest shifts I’ve made is rethinking how I assess students. If I only grade the final product, I’m essentially inviting them to use AI as a shortcut. Instead, I focus on the process: How did they engage with the tool? How did they verify and cross-reference results? How did they revise their work based on what they learned? What framework guided their inquiry? In this way, AI becomes part of their learning journey rather than just an endpoint.
I’ve asked students to run the same question through multiple AI platforms and then compare the outputs. What were the differences? Which response feels most accurate or useful? What assumptions might be at play? These conversations push students to defend their thinking and use AI critically, not passively.
Navigating privacy and policy
Another responsibility we carry as educators is protecting our students. Data privacy is a serious concern. In my school, we use a “walled garden” version of AI so that student data doesn’t get used for training. Even with those safeguards in place, I remind colleagues never to enter identifiable student information into a tool.
Policies will continue to evolve, but for day-to-day activities and planning, teachers need to model caution and responsibility. Students are taking our lead.
Professional growth for a changing profession
The truth of the matter is most of us have not been professionally trained to do this. My teacher preparation program certainly did not include modules on prompt engineering or data ethics. That means professional development in this space is a must.
I’ve grown the most in my AI fluency by working alongside other educators who are experimenting, sharing stories, and comparing notes. AI is moving fast. No one has all the answers. But we can build confidence together by trying, reflecting, and adjusting through shared experience and lessons learned. That’s exactly what we’re doing in the Lead for Learners network. It’s a space where educators from across the country connect, learn and support one another in navigating change.
For educators who feel hesitant, I’d say this: You don’t need to be an expert to start. Pick one tool, test it in one lesson, and talk openly with your students about what you’re learning. They’ll respect your honesty and join you in the process.
Preparing students for what’s next
AI is not going away. Whether we’re ready or not, it’s going to shape how our students live and work. That gives us a responsibility not just to keep pace with technology but to prepare young people for what’s ahead. The latest futures forecast reminds us that imagining possibilities is just as important as responding to immediate shifts.
We need to understand both how AI is already reshaping education delivery and how new waves of change will remain on the horizon as tools grow more sophisticated and widespread.
I want my students to leave my classroom with the ability to question, create, and collaborate using AI. I want them to see it not as a shortcut but as a tool for thinking more deeply and expressing themselves more fully. And I want them to watch me modeling those same habits: curiosity, caution, creativity, and ethical decision-making. Because if we don’t show them what responsible use looks like, who will?
The future of education won’t be defined by whether we allow AI into our classrooms. It will be defined by how we teach with it, how we teach about it, and how we prepare our students to thrive in a world where it’s everywhere.
Ian McDougall, Yuma Union High School District
Ian McDougall is a history teacher and edtech coach at Yuma Union High School District in Arizona. He also facilitates the Lead for Learners Community, an online hub for learner-centered educators nationwide. With extensive experience in K–12 education and technology integration, Ian supports schools in adopting innovative practices through professional development and instructional coaching. He holds a master’s degree in United States history from Adams State University, further strengthening his expertise as both a teacher and coach.
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The Wake school board approved more than $13 million in adjustments to its more than $2.2 billion budget Tuesday night, 7-0. Board Member Cheryl Caulfield was absent.
The changes include money for higher-than-expected utility and academic costs, based on nearly equivalent savings so far this year.
It doesn’t include any new teacher raises because the state hasn’t passed a new budget that includes any.
It also didn’t include major investments in maintenance and operations, a department that’s struggling to address the smaller and more routine maintenance issues that are higher in number than the bigger issues that are prioritized.
“We’re spending only three-quarters of what the industry says we need to be spending… to maintain the facilities we manage,” Board Chairman Chris Heagarty said.
By once again not following the recommendations of its five-year maintenance plan, Heagarty said the plan will now be nine years.
The lack of a state budget has put on pause some of school districts’ plans for their budgets this year, but not all.
The Wake County school board already approved more than $18 million in budget cuts for this year in an interim budget passed this summer, including the elimination of 10 digital learning coordinators, some secretarial jobs, some unfilled social worker and counselor positions, and other expenses. It also included raising air conditioning set points by one degree and lowering heating set points by one degree — a measure undertaken during the tight budget of the Great Recession, as well.
Those moves were in part so the district could afford to open four new schools next year and pay for expected increases to salary and benefits from the state.
Little increase in maintenance funding
The years of deferred maintenance spending are because the school board has time and again rejected recommendations for maintenance funding in favor of other hiring and raises, Heagarty said.
“I don’t think anyone will fault us for money we put into he classrooms, money spent supporting teachers and students, but the working conditions in our buildings also support students,” Heagarty said.
Other board members on Tuesday urged the district to find ways to address the smaller maintenance issues that are visible every day to students and families but are waiting a month or longer to be addressed, according to district data.
The district has further prioritized bigger maintenance issues, leading to improvements in fix times for them, but worse fix times for smaller issues. Unlike in recent years, the district has only closed one school so far this year because of an air conditioning issue. That reflect the district’s work but also cooler temperatures putting less stress on HVAC equipment, Superintendent Robert Taylor said.
“We have to do something different, we have to be more aggressive toward it and change what we’re dealing with here, to keep recruitment up, to keep people coming to the schools,” Board Member Toshiba Rice said.
Planning without a state budget
This spring, Wake County Public School System officials estimated more than $60 million in new expenses next year, without increasing any programming, aside from opening the new schools. That was because they expected employee salaries and benefits to go up. When the state increases pay, benefit costs can increase, and individual school systems must raise pay for locally funded employees to match the pay of state-funded employees.
Wake County commissioners approved giving the school system more than $40 million in additional funding to help cover the expected costs, requiring the district to find things to cut to make up the difference.
Teachers and many other, but not all, school employees received step increases in a mini budget passed earlier this fall. Those are the pay increases that come with another year of service to state employment, typically totaling less than $1,000.
Teachers will also pay more come January for the state health plan, which for the first time introduced a system of premiums based on pay. In Wake County, 84% of employees’ premiums went up, and some, especially higher-experienced teachers who aren’t eligible for step increases — will see shrinking take-home pay in January.
The district wants to use about $13.2 million in unexpected savings so far this year to cover utilities and academic and literacy help for students that largely represents unexpected costs incurred for those programs. For example, a change to federal funding rules is prompting a plan to use $1.8 million for literacy coaches, and a drop in state funding is prompting a plan to use another $1.8 million for career and technical education programs.
The $13.6 million in unexpected savings could cover the unexpected losses, but it wouldn’t come close to covering the $34.7 million in increased compensation that the board had anticipated from the state. The board expected a 3% increase in base salary for staff from the state budget, but a mini-budget for the state authorized only a step increase for an additional year of experience, rather than changing base pay. The step increase represents a raise for each teacher of less than 1%.
The school board also planned this spring to increase the salary supplement for educators by 1.5%, which would cost about $2.8 million and amount to additional pay of between $110 and $210 for the entire year for a teacher.
Students at 15 Wake County schools will move to a different school, in a proposal approved by the school board 7-0 Tuesday evening. Board Member Cheryl Caulfield was absent.
The changes — affecting just under 1,500 students — are primarily recommended to fill up one new elementary school in the county’s growing southern area and to reduce overcrowding at some schools. The new student assignment plan also includes changes to which schools a student can apply to for a different calendar, with some choices proposed for elimination.
Families can look up whether they are affected by the changes here. Anyone affected has until Dec. 12 to apply for a stability transfer to stay at their current school, rather than being forced to move, though they’d likely forfeit bus transportation to school. That date could change based on a board vote.
People can look up the stability transfer rules here. About three-quarters of families affected would be eligible for a stability transfer, a higher share than in most years, to address parent concerns.
The changes would go into effect for the 2026-27 school year.
Some people in the southwest corner of the county have opposed the changes because of the relationships they say they’ve built at their current schools. Feedback to the school system was largely concerned with stability — with calendar, with community, and with commute.
Many families in southern, western and eastern Wake will be moved to new schools next year, including schools that operate on other calendars. Some families may be eligible to stay at their current school, but would have to forfeit bus transportation.
During a public hearing last month, several Apex residents asked to be “grandfathered in” at White Oak Elementary or Mills Park Middle, saying they and their children had already established relationships with teachers and other students. Some said it wasn’t practical to apply for stability to transfer to stay at White Oak because they need to use busing to get to school.
The district held three virtual information sessions and an in-person one at the new Hilltop Needmore Elementary School in Fuquay-Varina — the district’s only new school opening next year.
Overall, the changes would affect 24 schools. A handful of those schools wouldn’t lose any students but would gain them from other schools.
The goal is to affect as few families as possible while also addressing crowding needs, school system officials and school board members said. Reassignments used to be much bigger, years ago.
“The process is vastly improved from the way it used to be,” Board Member Lynn Edmonds said, while also noting that it’s still tough for families who must switch schools.
The changes
Families will be reassigned out of Ballentine, Banks Road and West Lake elementary schools to fill Hilltop Needmore Elementary in Fuquay-Varina. Hilltop Needmore would open as a multi-track year-round school in July 2026, meaning it would have four groups of students track in and out of the school at different times of the year — a tactic that increases a school’s capacity and that is often used in the district’s fastest-growing areas.
The reassignment for Hilltop Needmore will also have a trickle-down effect on other schools. Some students would move from Vance Elementary to fill the open seats at Banks Road Elementary. Students from Middle Creek Elementary would be moved into Oak Grove and West Lake elementary schools.
Other changes will reduce crowding.
Some students from Hebert Akins Road Middle and Dillard Drive Middle will move to West Lake Middle, primarily to reduce crowding at Herbert Akins Road. Dillard Drive Middle isn’t overcrowded, officials said, but some of its students’ elementary school siblings are on different calendars that would be more compatible with Herbert Akins Road Middle.
Some students from crowded Willow Spring High will move to Middle Creek High.
Several more changes will come to Apex and other western Wake schools.
Some students from Lufkin Road Middle and Salem Middle will move to Apex Middle, and some students will move from Apex Friendship High to Apex High — both moves are an effort to make the feeder pattern to high schools consistent for Baucom Elementary families.
Some students will move from the overcrowded White Oak Elementary — which is currently capped to new students — to Turner Creek Elementary.
Some students from overcrowded Mills Park Elementary will move to Salem Elementary.
A few eastern Wake schools are also affected.
Some students from crowded and growing Zebulon Magnet Elementary will move to Carver Elementary.
Some students from Zebulon Magnet Middle will move to Wendell Magnet Middle, an effort to make feeder patterns more consistent for the schools’ elementary counterparts.
Changing calendar options
The school system once again dropped transfer options for people who want to switch to a different calendar. Those transfers are often offered for people whose base school has a year-round calendar but who want a traditional calendar, or vice versa. Students who switch can sometimes be eligible for busing to the new school. The school board, at the request of the district, has been decreasing those options, in part because of busing and capacity challenges.
The changes approved Tuesday cut three options at two elementary schools — Abbotts Creek and Hodge Magnet. At the middle school level, it gives some students who are proposed to be moved to their calendar application option school the choice to apply to go back to the base school, under the calendar transfer option. For students at Dillard Driver Magnet and Herbert Akins Road who are proposed to be moved to West Lake, they would no longer have a calendar application option.
The plan also includes one new calendar application school for the White Oak Elementary families who could be reassigned to Turner Creek, giving them a traditional calendar option at Baucom. Families proposed to be reassigned to five other elementary schools would not have a calendar application option under the proposal.
NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. — Kelly Rutherford has been a teacher for 35 years.
She helps her students grow academically and socially while instilling a love for learning.
What You Need To Know
Kelly Rutherford is a career teacher who has worked in Pasco for 35 years
Currently, she teaches kindergarten at Cotee River Elementary and she’s also the color guard instructor at Gulf High School
Would you like to nominate an A+ Teacher? Click here
“That to me is the best feeling in the world, that you’ve made a difference in a child’s life, that you’ve given them access to things they didn’t have access to before and now they can communicate in different ways,” said Rutherford.
She’s experiencing that in a district she loves. Rutherford and her family members have always attended Pasco County schools.
“Grew up here, went to school here, my father grew up here, my grandmother grew up here, my children have grown up here. We’ve all been in Pasco County schools our whole lives,” said Rutherford.
Rutherford teaches kindergarten at Cotee River Elementary. She’s also the color guard instructor at Gulf High School, which is her alma mater. She was also in the color guard when she was in high school.
“The kids motivate me to come here, to see a finished show, to see the growth every time we come to band practice and we fix something or something gets better,” said Rutherford.
Rutherford’s husband is the band director at Gulf High, and their children help out too. The Rutherford family is committed to helping students reach their full potential.
“Whether they’re 5-year-olds or they’re 16 or 17-year-olds, everybody has a chance to be involved in a group and to learn and to love to learn and be a part of something bigger,” said Rutherford.
The economy is uncertain, but eight in 10 undergraduates somewhat or strongly agree that their college is preparing them with the skills, credentials and experiences they need to succeed in today’s job market. At the same time, most students are stressed about the future. Their biggest stressors vary but include not being to afford life after graduation, not having enough internship or work experience to get a job, and feeling a general pressure to succeed. That’s all according to new data from Inside Higher Ed’s annual Student Voice survey of more than 5,000 two- and four-year students with Generation Lab.
What can colleges do to help? The No. 1 thing Student Voice respondents want their institution to prioritize when it comes to career readiness is help finding and accessing paid internships. No. 2 is building stronger connections with potential employers. Colleges and universities could also help students better understand outcomes for past graduates of their programs: Just 14 percent of students say their college or university makes this kind of information readily available.
Some 5,065 students from 260 two- and four-year institutions, public and private nonprofit, responded to this main annual survey about student success, conducted in August. Explore the data captured by our survey partner Generation Lab here and here. The margin of error is plus or minus one percentage point.
Shawn VanDerziel, president and CEO of the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), said there’s “no doubt that the college experience equips students with a lifelong foundation for the general job market,” so it’s “heartening to hear” they have confidence that their academic programs are setting them up to succeed.
The challenge, however, “often becomes putting that learning and experience into the job market context—translating and articulating the experience that is meaningful to employers,” he added.
Beyond helping students frame what they’ve learned as competencies they can clearly communicate to prospective employers (who are increasingly interested in skills-based hiring), colleges also need to scale experiential learning opportunities. NACE has found that paid internships, in particular, give students a measurable advantage on the job market, and that Gen Z graduates who took part in internships or other experiential learning opportunities had a more favorable view of their college experience than those who didn’t. These graduates also describe their degree as more relevant to their eventual job than peers who didn’t participate in experiential learning.
While paid internships remain the gold standard for experience, student demand for them vastly outstrips supply: According to one 2024 study, for every high-quality internship available, more than three students are seeking one. Other students can’t afford to leave the jobs that fund their educations in order to take a temporary internship, paid or unpaid; still others have caring or other responsibilities that preclude this kind of experience. VanDerziel said all of this is why some institutions are prioritizing more work-based learning opportunities—including those embedded in the classroom.
Many institutions are “working toward giving more of their students access to experiential learning and skill-building activities—providing stipends for unpaid experiential experiences and ensuring that work-study jobs incorporate career-readiness skills, for example,” he said. “There is positive movement.”
One note of caution: Colleges adding these experiences must ensure that they have “concrete skill-building and job-aligned responsibilities in order to maximize the benefits of them for the students,” VanDerziel added.
Here are the career readiness findings from the annual Student Voice survey, in five charts—plus more on the experience gap.
Program outcomes data is unclear to students.
Across institution types and student demographics, a fraction of respondents (12 percent over all) say they know detailed outcomes data for their program of study. A plurality of students say they know some general information. Just 14 percent indicate this information is readily available.
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Students remain lukewarm on career services.
Similar to last year’s survey, students are more likely to describe career services at their institution as welcoming (31 percent) than effective (17 percent), knowledgeable about specific industries and job markets (15 percent), or forward-thinking (9 percent). Career centers across higher education are understaffed, which is part of the reason there’s a push to embed career-readiness initiatives into the curriculum. But those efforts may not be made plain enough, or come across as useful, to students: Just 8 percent of respondents this year indicate that career services are embedded in the curriculum at their institution. Double that, 16 percent, say that career services should be more embedded in the curriculum. Three in 10 indicate they haven’t interacted with career services, about the same as last year’s 30 percent.
Students still want more direct help finding work-based learning opportunities.
Also similar to last year, the top thing students want their institution to prioritize regarding career readiness is help finding and accessing paid internships. That’s followed by stronger connections with potential employers and courses that focus on job-relevant skills. A few differences emerge across the sample, however: Adult learners 25 and older are less likely to prioritize help finding internships (just 26 percent cite this as a top need versus 41 percent of those 18 to 24); their top want is stronger connections with potential employers. Two-year college students are also less likely to prioritize help finding internships than are their four-year peers (30 percent versus 41 percent).
Most students are worried about life after college, but specific stressors vary.
Just 11 percent of students say they’re not stressed about life postgraduation, though this increases to 22 percent for students 25 and older and to 17 percent among community college students. Top stressors vary, but a slight plurality of students (19 percent) are most concerned about affording life after college. Adult learners and community college students are less likely than their respective traditional-age and four-year counterparts to worry about not having enough internship or work experience.
Despite their anxiety, students have an underlying sense of preparation for what’s ahead.
Some 81 percent of all students agree, strongly or somewhat, that college is preparing them with the skills, credentials and experiences they need to succeed in today’s job market. This is relatively consistent across institution types and student groups, but the share decreases to 74 percent among students who have ever seriously considered stopping out of college (n=1,204).
The Widening Experience Gap
Students increasingly need all the help they can get preparing for the workforce. For the first time since 2021, the plurality of employers who contributed to NACE’s annual job outlook rated the hiring market “fair,” versus good or very good, on a five-point scale. Employers are projecting a 1.6 percent increase in hiring for the Class of 2026 when compared to the Class of 2025, comparable to the tight labor market employers reported at the end of the 2024–25 recruiting year, according to NACE.
Economic uncertainty is one factor. Artificial intelligence is another. VanDerziel said there isn’t meaningful evidence to date that early-talent, professional-level jobs are being replaced by AI, and that even adoption of AI as a tool to augment work remains slow. Yet the picture is still emerging. One August study found a 13 percent relative employment decline for young workers in the most AI-exposed occupations, such as software development and customer support. In NACE’s 2026 Job Outlook, employers focused on early-career hiring also reported that 13 percent of available entry-level jobs now require AI skills.
The August study, called “Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts about the Recent Employment Effects of Artificial Intelligence,” frames experience as a differentiator in an AI-impacted job market. In this sense, AI may be widening what’s referred to as the experience gap, or when early-career candidates’ and employers’ expectations don’t align—a kind of catch-22 in which lack of experience can limit one from getting the entry-level job that would afford them such experience.
Ndeye Sarr, a 23-year-old engineering student at Perimeter College at Georgia State University who wants to study civil and environmental engineering at a four-year institution next fall, believes that her studies so far are setting her up for success. Earlier this year, she and several Perimeter peers made up one of just 12 teams in the country invited to the Community College Innovation Challenge Innovation Boot Camp, where they presented RoyaNest, the low-cost medical cooling device they designed to help babies born with birth asphyxia in low-resource areas. The team pitched the project to a panel of industry professionals and won second-place honors. They also recently initiated the patenting process for the device.
Ndeye Sarr
“This has helped me have a bigger vision of all the problems that are happening in the world that I might be able to help with when it comes to medical devices and things like that,” Sarr said, adding that faculty mentorship played a big role in the team’s success. “I think that’s what we’re most grateful for. Perimeter College is a pretty small college, so you get to be in direct contact with most of your mentors, your professors, which is very rare in most settings. We always get the support we need it anytime we’re working on something, which is pretty great.”
RoyaNest was born out of a class assignment requiring students to design something that did not require electricity. Sarr said she wishes most courses would require such hands-on learning, since it makes class content immediately relevant and has already helped put her in touch with the broader world of engineering in meaningful ways. This view echoes another set of findings from the main 2025 Student Voice survey: The top two things students say would boost their immediate academic success are fewer high-stakes exams and more relevant course content. And, of course, there are implications for the experience gap.
Sometimes you can even be in your senior year, and you will be like, ‘I don’t think I have all these skills!’ Even for an entry-level job, right?”
—Student Ndeye Sarr
“Mostly it’s like you go to class, and they will give you a lecture because you have to learn, and then you go do a test,” Sarr said of college so far. “But my thinking is that you can also do those hands-on experiences in the classroom that you might have to do once we start getting into jobs. Because when you look at the job descriptions, they expect you to do a lot of things. Sometimes you can even be in your senior year, and you will be like, ‘I don’t think I have all these skills!’ Even for an entry-level job, right?”
This challenge also has implications for pedagogy, which is already under pressure to evolve—in part due to the rise of generative AI. Student success administrators surveyed earlier this year by Inside Higher Ed with Hanover Research described a gap between the extent to which high-impact teaching practices—such as those endorsed by the American Association of Colleges and Universities—are highly encouraged at their institution and widely adopted (65 percent versus 36 percent, respectively). And while 87 percent of administrators agreed that students graduate from their institution ready to succeed in today’s job market, half (51 percent) said their college or university should focus more on helping students find paid internships and other experiential learning opportunities.
In addition to the national innovation challenge, Sarr attended the Society of Women Engineers’ annual conference this year, where she said the interviewing and other skills she’s learned from Perimeter’s career services proved helpful. Still, Sarr said she—like most Student Voice respondents—worries about life postgraduation. Top concerns for her are financial in nature. She also feels a related pressure to succeed. Originally from Senegal, she said her family and friends back home have high expectations for her.
“You pay a lot of money to go to college, so imagine you graduate and then there’s no way you can find a job. It’s very stressful, and I am from a country where everybody’s like, ‘OK, we expect her to do good,’” Sarr said. But the immediate challenge is paying four-year college expenses starting next year, and financing graduate school after that.
“I want to go as far as I can when it comes to my education. I really value it, so that’s something I am very scared about,” she said. “There’s a lot of possibilities. There are scholarships, but it’s not like everybody can get them.”
VanDerziel of NACE said that, ultimately, “Today’s labor market is tough, and students know it. So it doesn’t surprise me that they are feeling anxiety about obtaining a job that will allow them to afford their postgraduation life. Many students have to pay back loans, are uncertain of the job market they are going to be graduating into and are concerned about whether their salary will be enough.”
This independent editorial project is produced with the Generation Lab and supported by the Gates Foundation.
WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. — The Pasco County School Board is expected to give final approval Tuesday for dedicated funding that will support Heroes in the Classroom, an incentive program designed to bring retired first responders and military veterans into Florida’s teaching workforce.
Launched in 2023, the state-backed initiative offers a $4,000 first-year bonus to eligible veterans and former first responders who transition into education.
What You Need To Know
Heroes in the Classroom was approved by Florida Legislators in 2023, and administered by the Florida Department of Education
Pasco Schools began the program in March of 2025
Teachers are required to show service records and hold a valid teaching certificate
Recipient teachers receive a $4,000 bonus in their first year on the job
District leaders say the incentive is already helping address teacher shortages while bringing uniquely skilled professionals into local classrooms.
One of the program’s early success stories is Taylor Liamero, a 28-year-old Air Force veteran who spent nearly six years on active duty.
Straight out of high school, Liamero served in the Middle East, Europe, and later at a base in Virginia — experiences she says shaped her desire to continue serving her community in new ways.
Now, instead of military missions, her daily assignments involve coaching and teaching students at Wiregrass Ranch High School in Wesley Chapel.
“It’s something I always wanted to do,” Liamero said. “I’ve always loved coaching and athletics — from my time in the military and even before that as a young athlete. It just felt like something I needed to take a shot at.”
District leaders say Heroes in the Classroom is part of a broader effort to strengthen teacher recruitment and retention.
Kelly Smith, program coordinator for Teacher Pathways with Pasco County Schools, said the district has made major progress in reducing vacancies.
“When I first came on as a recruiter many years ago, we were in the triple digits starting the school year,” Smith said. “We’ve been very low in our vacancy count, and year over year we continue to make improvements.”
Smith says incentives like the veterans program help set Pasco apart from other districts competing for new educators.
For Liamero, the initiative gave her the chance to begin a career she now says feels like the right long-term fit.
“Now that I’m doing it,” she said, “I can’t imagine doing anything else—ever.”
To participate in Heroes in the Classroom, applicants must provide proof of eligible military or first-responder service and hold a valid teaching certificate or meet certification requirements
From Miami to San Diego, schools around the U.S. are seeing big drops in enrollment of students from immigrant families.
In some cases, parents have been deported or voluntarily returned to their home countries, driven out by President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown. Others have moved elsewhere inside the U.S.
In many school systems, the biggest factor is that far fewer families are coming from other countries. As fewer people cross the U.S. border, administrators in small towns and big cities alike are reporting fewer newcomer students than usual.
In Miami-Dade County Public Schools, about 2,550 students have entered the district from another country so far this school year — down from nearly 14,000 last year, and more than 20,000 the year before that. School board member Luisa Santos, who attended district schools herself as a young immigrant, said the trend is “a sad reality.”
“I was one of those arrivals when I was 8 years old,” Santos said. “And this country and our public schools — I’ll never get tired of saying it — gave me everything.”
Collectively, the enrollment declines in Miami-Dade erased about $70 million from the district’s annual budget, forcing administrators to scramble to cover the unexpected shortfall.
The drops in immigrant students add to strains on enrollment at many traditional public schools, which have seen overall numbers dip due to demographic changes and students opting for alternatives like private schools and homeschooling. Despite needs for English instruction and social supports, the newcomers in some districts have helped to buoy enrollment and bring critical per-pupil funding in recent years.
In northern Alabama, Albertville City Schools Superintendent Bart Reeves has seen the local economy grow along with its Hispanic population, which for decades has been drawn by the area’s poultry processing plants. Albertville soon will be getting its first Target store, a sign of the community’s growing prosperity.
Reeves’ district is home to one of Alabama’s largest Hispanic student populations, with about 60% identifying as Hispanic. But Reeves said the district’s newcomer academy at a local high school hasn’t been enrolling any new students.
“That’s just not happening this year with the closure of the border,” said Reeves, who expects the hit to his budget from enrollment declines will cost him about 12 teacher positions.
Some students are self-deporting with their families
One Sunday morning in August, Edna, a 63-year-old immigrant from El Salvador, got the call she had been dreading. Her friend, a mother from Guatemala with seven young children, had been detained in Lake Worth, Florida, on immigration charges while she was out grabbing a treat for her kids’ breakfast.
The family had prepared for this moment. There were legal documents in place granting temporary custody of the children to Edna, who asked to be identified only by her first name because she fears immigration enforcement.
“I’ll be here, and we’ll be OK,” she recalled telling the oldest child, a 12-year-old boy.
In the weeks that followed, Edna stayed home with two younger kids and got their five older siblings on the bus each day to attend Palm Beach County public schools, where enrollment has fallen by more than 6,000 students this year. One day in September, all seven children boarded a plane to Guatemala to be reunited with their mom, leaving behind neighborhood friends, band practices, and the only life they had ever known.
“My house feels like a garden without flowers,” Edna said. “They’re all gone.”
The family is now living in a rural part of Guatemala, out of reach of phone service. School there had already started for the year and the mother, who did not attend school herself as a child, was keeping them home and weighing whether to enroll them next year, Edna said.
Tens of thousands of students across the country stayed home on Monday to protest immigration enforcement action as part of “Day Without Immigrants” demonstrations, resulting in some collateral damage for schools. Damian Trujillo reports.
Schools accustomed to newcomers see far fewer this year
The declines in the numbers of immigrants coming to the U.S. were already becoming evident in school registration numbers this summer.
Denver Public Schools enrolled 400 new-to-country students this summer, compared to 1,500 during the previous summer. Outside Chicago, Waukegan Community Unified School District 60 signed up 100 fewer new immigrant students. And administrators in the Houston Independent School District shuttered the Las Americas Newcomer School, a program dedicated to children who are new to the U.S., after its enrollment fell to just 21 students from 111 last year.
The shift is visible in places like Chelsea, Massachusetts, a city outside Boston that has long been a destination for new immigrants. The 6,000-student Chelsea Public Schools system has attracted Central Americans looking for affordable housing, and more recently, the state housed newly-arrived Haitians in shelters there. This year, the usual influx of newcomers didn’t materialize.
“This year has been different. Much more quiet,” said Daniel Mojica, director of Chelsea’s parent information center.
Over the summer, 152 newcomers signed up for Chelsea Public Schools, compared to 592 new-to-country students the previous summer.
Some are also picking up and leaving. Since January, 844 students have withdrawn from the district, compared to 805 during the same period last year. Mojica said a greater share of students leaving – roughly a quarter – are returning to their native countries.
He attributes that partly to the presence of masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers walking the city’s streets.
“You can feel the fear in the air,” he said.
Educators worry students are missing out
In San Diego, Principal Fernando Hernandez has enrolled dozens of newcomer students from across Latin America over the past couple years. Many made the treacherous journey through the jungles of the Darien Gap before setting up camp in a park near Perkins K-8 school.
About a third of students at the school are homeless. Staff have become experts on supporting kids who are facing adversity. As more newcomers arrived, Hernandez watched as Mexican American students switched up their playground slang to be better understood by their new classmates from Venezuela, Colombia and Peru.
But so far this school year, he hasn’t enrolled a single newcomer student. Other families did not return when the new school year began.
Hernandez fears the toll of the disruption will extend far beyond students’ academic progress. He worries students are missing out on chances to learn how to show empathy, to share, to disagree, to understand each other.
“This is like a repeat of the pandemic where the kids are isolated, locked up, not socializing,” he said.
“These kids, they have to be in school,” he added.
Natacha, a parent who moved with her family to California after leaving Venezuela, said she tries to avoid going out in public, but continues sending her daughters to school. Natacha, who asked to only be identified by her first name because she fears immigration enforcement, said she braces herself as she drives the girls home each afternoon, scanning the road behind her in case another car is following hers.
“I entrust myself to God,” she said.
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Kate Payne, Bianca Vazquez and Gisela Salomon | The Associated Press
LARGO, Fla. — Pinellas County community members got to hear from the school district Monday night at Largo High School.
This is one of the meetings they’re hosting to address declining enrollment.
What You Need To Know
Pinellas County saw enrollment decline by 3,651 students from last school year to the current school year
Attendees got the chance to leave feedback for the school district
The next meeting is on Dec. 2 in Dunedin
From shrinking enrollment to possible uses for empty school buildings, Jennifer Dull, the Chief Operations Officer for Pinellas County Schools, gave a presentation to address parents’ questions and provide them with an opportunity to weigh in.
“We’re trying to be really thoughtful about what is happening in our community and also taking into consideration and being thoughtful about what our community is really looking for as we go through a long-term planning process,” Dull said.
According to the school district, enrollment has gone from nearly 78,000 last school year to just over 74,000 this school year. The official decrease is 3,651.
Dull said with enrollment not expected to increase in future years, that’s why they’re hosting these meetings.
No questions were taken during the meeting, but the district wants to make sure they hear people’s concerns.
Boards were set up in the back, and attendees wrote dozens of posted notes, leaving suggestions for what they want to see.
“That feedback is important to our board and to our superintendent that our school community really comes forward and kind of helps us determine as we make recommendations for what Pinellas County Schools looks like in the future,” Dull said.
This is not the last of these meetings the school district is hosting.
While the presentation won’t change, there are still three meetings to give community members across Pinellas County a chance to listen.
WASHINGTON — Foreign students enrolled at U.S. colleges in strong numbers this fall despite fears that a Trump administration crackdown would trigger a nosedive, yet there are signs of turbulence as fewer new, first-time students arrived from other countries, according to a new report.
Overall, U.S. campuses saw a 1% decrease in international enrollment this fall compared with last year, according to a survey from the Institute of International Education. But that figure is propped up by large numbers of students who stayed in the U.S. for temporary work after graduating. The number of new students entering the United States for the first time fell by 17%, the sharpest decrease since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some universities are seeing backslides that have punched big holes in tuition revenue, but overall the falloff is less severe than some industry groups had forecast. Researchers credit colleges for helping students navigate visa issues through the summer.
“I think colleges and universities did absolutely everything in their power to advocate to get these students to the United States,” said Mirka Martel, head of research, evaluation and learning for the institute.
At DePauw University, a Catholic university in Chicago, the number of international graduate students fell by almost 62% this fall, a driving factor in recent spending cuts. The university president blamed student visa troubles and declining interest to study in the U.S., calling it a “massive” disruption.
Overall, nearly 60% of colleges reported a decrease in new foreign students this fall, the survey found, while 30% saw increases and others held even. More than 800 schools responded to the survey, which offers an early look at trends before full data is released next year.
The Trump administration has sought to reduce America’s reliance on foreign students. The White House is pushing colleges to cap enrollment of foreign students and enroll more from the U.S. In June, the State Department began screening visa applications more closely after temporarily halting all interviews.
Visa processing has continued to lag in some countries, including India, the largest source of America’s foreign students. Education firms have reported that future college students are now showing decreased interest in the U.S. and more in Europe and Asia. While international enrollment remained relatively steady, there are concerns about its sustainability.
“There are warning signs for future years, and I’m really concerned about what this portends for fall ’26 and ’27,” said Clay Harmon, the executive director of AIRC: The Association of International Enrollment Management, which represents colleges and recruitment agencies.
Foreign students make up about 6% of America’s college students but they play an outsize role in campus budgets. Most pay higher tuition rates and don’t get financial aid, effectively subsidizing U.S. students. Their numbers are far higher at elite campuses, often making up a quarter or more of the student body.
International students at the graduate level saw the biggest backslide this fall, with a 12% drop. That was mostly offset by rising numbers of students participating in Optional Practical Training, which allows students to stay in the U.S. for temporary work after graduating. Undergraduate numbers ticked up slightly.
Graduate students make up the biggest share of foreign students in the U.S., often coming for science, math and business programs. Numbers had already started leveling off last year after a post-pandemic surge, but the recent turmoil appears to have accelerated the downturn. In the survey, colleges that saw decreases cite factors including visa issues and other travel restrictions.
Many smaller and regional colleges have reported downswings, especially among master’s and doctoral students.
In a recent campus address, the president of the University at Albany said a decrease in foreign graduate students was having a “disproportionate impact” on the school’s budget. At Kent State University in Ohio, falling international numbers required an additional $4 million in cuts to balance the budget, the president wrote in an October update.
Even the biggest public universities weren’t immune. The University of Illinois’ flagship campus saw its international numbers dip, fueled by a 6% drop in graduate students. At the University of Michigan, foreign graduate enrollment fell by a similar share. Arizona State University, which has more foreign students than any other public campus, saw its overall numbers fall by 3%.
Universities are offering wider flexibility to students who couldn’t make it to campus this fall, according to the survey. Almost three-quarters are allowing foreign students to defer their enrollment to the spring term, and more than half are allowing deferrals until fall 2026.
Colleges in other countries, meanwhile, have sought to capitalize on the disruption, said Joann Ng Hartmann, senior impact officer at NAFSA, an agency that promotes international education. In Germany, Canada and some other countries, colleges are ramping up efforts to recruit students who might be rethinking college in the U.S.
“They have friendlier policies, and students realize that,” she said. “They have friendlier messaging for students that welcomes them.”
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