Why Teacher Shortages Persist: Pay, Workload and the Pipeline Problem
The shortage is less about too few people who want to teach and more about how many trained teachers leave, and why.
By Marta Kowalczyk • October 10, 2026
Education Fame
Latest
Exploring Careers With Kids: Turning Curiosity Into Real Plans
A parent-and-teacher guide to career exploration that starts with what children actually wonder about, not with career-day stereotypes.
By Zara Nasser • October 7, 2026
expert-voice
What Competency-Based Grading Means for Transcripts and College Admissions
When a school replaces letter grades with skill ratings, the transcript changes shape — and so does the conversation with admissions offices.
By Samuel Achebe • October 4, 2026
guides
What Kennesaw State's Overflow Meet Strategy Reveals About Roster Development
Five Owls ran unattached from the varsity plan at Georgia Tech's invitational, and the results show why coaches schedule meets like this.
By Zara Nasser • October 2, 2026
Statewide Reading Curriculum Adoption or Local Choice: How States Should Decide
Mississippi's widely studied NAEP reading gains followed a statewide push toward evidence-aligned early-reading instruction. NCTQ's teacher-prep research offers a way to weigh that model against the case for leaving curriculum choice to districts.
By Samuel Achebe • September 4, 2026
How Principals Should Weigh a Scripted Curriculum Mandate Against Teacher Autonomy
RAND's American Instructional Resources Survey has tracked a real tension in schools adopting highly scripted curricula: consistency gains that show up in the data, and morale costs that show up in exit interviews. A principal implementing a mandate from the district office has to manage both.
By Samuel Achebe • September 2, 2026
What District Leaders Should Require Before Buying Cyber-Incident Insurance
K12 Security Information Exchange has tracked a steady stream of ransomware and data-breach incidents against school systems. A cyber policy bought without verifying the district's own baseline controls often costs more and covers less than leaders expect.
By Samuel Achebe • August 24, 2026
Expert Voice
Should a College Drop Standardized Testing for Good? How Enrollment Leaders Read the Evidence
NACAC's State of College Admission research has tracked years of test-optional policy since the pandemic pushed most institutions to adopt it. The evidence on what test-optional actually changes is more mixed than either side of the debate tends to admit.
By Zara Nasser • August 10, 2026
From the past month
education-news
The Student Debt Conversation: Where Repayment and Forgiveness Stand
Repayment structures, forgiveness fights, and the policy choices that decide what borrowers actually pay.
By Marta Kowalczyk • September 28, 2026
education-news
One Student's Summer in an REU Program: What the Story Shows and What It Doesn't
A UTC profile of junior Chloe Mondido is a useful window into NSF's undergraduate research program — read carefully.
By Marta Kowalczyk • October 1, 2026
guides
The Student's Guide to Note-Taking Systems That Stick
Cornell, outline, mapping and charting compared across lectures, reading and seminars — with the honest limits of each.
By Samuel Achebe • September 28, 2026
careers
Careers for Introverts: Jobs That Reward Deep Focus
Some jobs treat sustained, quiet concentration as the core skill. Here is how to find them, and what to weigh before you switch.
By Victor Petrov • September 25, 2026
How to Land a Remote Job in EdTech: A Practical Guide
Portfolios, skills, and channels that actually move candidates from application to interview.
By Marta Kowalczyk • September 23, 2026
FCC's New E-Rate Bidding Portal Sparks Pushback From School Groups
A rule meant to curb fraud in the $5.2 billion school-internet program is drawing warnings that small and rural districts will carry the heaviest new paperwork load.
By Marta Kowalczyk • August 15, 2026
How Districts Should Evaluate AI Tutors Before Buying
A due-diligence guide: the questions about evidence, data, accuracy, and pedagogy districts should put to every AI tutoring vendor.
By Marta Kowalczyk • July 24, 2026
What Are Open Educational Resources and How Should Districts Evaluate Them
Free, openly licensed curricula can cut textbook costs — if districts apply the same quality bar they use for commercial materials.
By Zara Nasser • July 19, 2026
A Nashville Art Program Shows Two Career Paths in One Classroom
Gigi's Creative Corner pays artists with housing instability to teach — and gives a school a low-cost way to test what art instruction can do.
By Victor Petrov • September 22, 2026
Career Changes After 30: A No-Drama Transition Guide
A sequencing plan for switching fields while protecting your income, savings, and sanity.
By Zara Nasser • September 20, 2026
Careers
Substitute Teaching Pays a $37,380 Median as State Rules Diverge
Requirements to become a substitute teacher range from a bachelor's degree in California to no degree at all in New York, and several states have loosened the rules since 2022 amid staffing shortages.
By Victor Petrov • August 12, 2026
Careers
From Teacher to Nonprofit Program Officer: An Education Career Guide
Foundations and education nonprofits hire teachers to run grantmaking, manage programs, and evaluate impact. Here is the role map, the pay reality, and how to make the switch.
By Victor Petrov • July 30, 2026
How to Appeal a College Financial Aid Decision
A step-by-step guide to gathering documents, writing the letter, and asking a aid office to take a second look.
By Zara Nasser • September 17, 2026
How to Earn a Teaching Credential While Working Full Time
Alternative certification routes exist in every state, run in a year to two, and — unlike the traditional path — are built around evening and online coursework.
By Samuel Achebe • August 26, 2026
Guides
How Alternative Teacher Certification Works for Career Changers
About 18% of U.S. public school teachers entered the classroom through an alternative route, per NCES — here is how the licensure pathway actually works, who uses it, and what it pays.
By Samuel Achebe • August 21, 2026
Guides
Returning to College After 30: A Guide for Adult Learners
Millions of adults have some college and no degree. This guide covers re-enrollment, credit resurrection, financial aid past 30, and the logistics that decide whether returning sticks.
By Samuel Achebe • August 4, 2026
What Makes a Substitute Teacher the One Every School Requests First
The subs who become legends share a small set of habits, and none of them require a teaching credential.
By Marta Kowalczyk • September 30, 2026
Broken Arrow Asks Its Community About Confidence in Schools: How These Surveys Work
A five-to-eight-minute anonymous survey in an Oklahoma district is a window into how schools measure public trust.
By Marta Kowalczyk • September 27, 2026
Education News
The FAFSA Overhaul Is Done. The Cleanup Is Not
The redesigned federal aid form survived its disastrous first cycle — but aid-award timing and small-college enrollment effects are still working through the system.
By Marta Kowalczyk • August 28, 2026
Education News
How School Funding Actually Works: Title I and State Formulas
By Marta Kowalczyk • August 24, 2026