The Conversation

How do children learn to read? This literacy expert says ‘there are as many ways as there are students’

Written by K. Dara Hill, Professor of Reading and Language Arts, University of Michigan-Dearborn

Not all children learn to read in the same way, but schools tend to adopt a single approach to literacy.luckyvector/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Five years after the pandemic forced children into remote instruction, two-thirds of U.S. fourth graders still cannot read at grade level. Reading scores lag 2 percentage points below 2022 levels and 4...

The hidden history of Philadelphia’s window-box gardens and their role in urban reform

Written by Sonja Dümpelmann, Professor of Environmental Humanities, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Window-box gardening has been a Philly tradition since the 1800s.Sonja Dümpelmann, CC BY-SA

It’s that time of year when Philadelphia row home owners with a green thumb fastidiously attend to their window boxes – selecting new plants to design an artful blend of colors, shapes and textures.

Sonja Dümpelmann is a historian of...

Is China the new cool? How Beijing is using pop culture to win the soft power war

Written by Shaoyu Yuan, Research Scientist at the Division of Global Affairs, Rutgers University - Newark

IShowSpeed, a 20-year-old American YouTuber and internet star, recently livestreamed hourslong tours of Chinese cities including Beijing and Shanghai, showcasing the locations to some of his nearly 40 million viewers.

During the March events, IShowSpeed, whose real name is Darren Jason Watkins Jr., marveled at friendly locals, spotless streets and...

From Doing Business to B-READY: World Bank’s new rankings represent a rebrand, not a revamp

Written by Fernanda G Nicola, Professor of Law, American University

The 2025 spring meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund takes place in Washington, D.C.Bryan Dozier/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

In 2021, the World Bank shut down one of its flagship projects: the Doing Business index, a global ranking system that measured how easy it was to start and run a business in 190...

Justice Department lawyers work for justice and the Constitution – not the White House

Written by Cassandra Burke Robertson, Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Professional Ethics, Case Western Reserve University

The U.S. flag flies above Department of Justice headquarters on Jan. 20, 2024, in Washington. J. David Ake/Getty Images

In the 1970s, President Richard Nixon tried to fire the Department of Justice prosecutor leading an investigation into the president’s involvement in wiretapping the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters.

Since...

Trump is stripping protections from marine protected areas – why that’s a problem for fishing’s future, and for whales, corals and other ocean life

Written by David Shiffman, Faculty Research Associate in Marine Biology, Arizona State University

The coral reefs of Palmyra Atoll, part of Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, provide nurseries for many fish species.Andrew S. Wright/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via Flickr, CC BY-SA

The single greatest threat to the diversity of life in our oceans over the past 50 years, more than climate change or plastic pollution, has been...

US universities lose millions of dollars chasing patents, research shows

Written by Joshua M. Pearce, John M. Thompson Chair in Information Technology and Innovation and Professor, Western University

Every year, American universities spend millions of dollars patenting inventions developed on their campuses. Big names such as Stanford and the University of California system lead the pack in patent activity, but hundreds of other universities are also trying to strike gold by monetizing intellectual property. The idea is simple: By investing in...

From help to harm: How the government is quietly repurposing everyone’s data for surveillance

Written by Nicole M. Bennett, Ph.D. Candidate in Geography and Assistant Director at the Center for Refugee Studies, Indiana University

Immigration enforcement is a key justification for repurposing government data.Photo by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via Getty Images

A whistleblower at the National Labor Relations Board reported an unusual spike in potentially sensitive data flowing out of the agency’s network in early March 2025 when staffers from the...

Trump administration pauses new mine safety regulation − here’s how those rules benefit companies as well as workers

Written by Jeremy M. Gernand, Associate Professor of Environmental Health and Safety Engineering, Penn State

Federal officials in white hard hats speak with miners in an Indiana coal mine in 2015. AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley

President Donald Trump’s administration has announced its intention to pause or reverse regulations on mine safety, saying it wants to loosen rules that constrain companies. But as a scholar of both engineering and public policy,...

Controlled burns reduce wildfire risk, but they require trained staff and funding − this could be a rough year

Written by Laura Dee, Associate Professor of Ecology, University of Colorado Boulder

Prescribed burns like this one are intentional, controlled fires used to clear out dry grass and underbrush that could fuel more destructive wildfires.Ethan Swope/Getty Images

Red skies in August, longer fire seasons and checking air quality before taking my toddler to the park. This has become the new norm in the western United States as wildfires...