Heather Vogell

Reporter

Photo of Heather Vogell

Heather Vogell is a reporter at ProPublica looking at U.S. trade policy and the baby formula industry.

Previously, she investigated the rental housing market and how many of the nation’s biggest landlords were sharing data and using one company’s algorithm to set rents — potentially in violation of laws against price fixing. Afterward, dozens of tenants filed antitrust lawsuits and U.S. senators proposed legislation that would restrict the practice. She has also written about President Donald Trump’s business entanglements and collaborated with WNYC reporters on the podcast “Trump, Inc.” Her 2019 stories were the first to chronicle discrepancies between what the Trump Organization told New York City property tax officials and what it reported on loan documents.

At The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, her work on test cheating in the public school system resulted in the indictments of the superintendent and 34 others. A series she co-authored, “Cheating Our Children,” examined suspicious test scores nationwide.

Her work has been a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and the Gerald Loeb Awards for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism; it has also won the Hillman Prize, Sigma Delta Chi Awards and multiple honors from the Education Writers Association and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing.

Arkansas Spurns Warehousing of Floundering Students

In much of the country, alternative schools are neglected, underfunded and stigmatized. But one of the poorest states is spending big on them.

How Students Get Banished to Alternative Schools

In this era of so-called “school choice,” a pattern has emerged: Students don’t choose their alternative schools. They’re sentenced to them.

For-Profit Schools Reward Students for Referrals and Facebook Endorsements

Schools for potential dropouts market aggressively to boost enrollment — especially during weeks when heads are counted to determine funding. Some of their tactics may violate federal consumer protections.

For-Profit Schools Get State Dollars For Dropouts Who Rarely Drop In

Schools touted by Betsy DeVos aggressively recruit at-risk students, offer barebones courses, and boost revenue by inflating enrollment.

Bellwether Behavioral Health Is Controversial Group Home Operator AdvoServ — With a New Name

After two deaths of teenage residents in less than four years, AdvoServ has quietly taken a new name that makes it harder to follow the trail of media coverage, including ours.

Florida to Examine Whether Alternative Charter Schools Underreport Dropouts

State officials are following up on a ProPublica report last month that Orlando uses alternative charter schools to boost ratings and hide dropouts.

Help ProPublica and USA Today Investigate Alternative Schools

If you are familiar with alternative schools for students with academic or behavioral issues, we need your help.

‘Alternative’ Education: Using Charter Schools to Hide Dropouts and Game the System

School officials nationwide dodge accountability ratings by steering low achievers to alternative programs.

Alternative School Enrollment and Warning Signs

Which districts have large numbers of students in alternative schools, and where are those schools potentially problematic?

Methodology: How We Analyzed Alternative Schools Data

Using federal and local data, ProPublica examined how some alternative schools shortchange students and at times become a silent release valve for schools straining under the pressure of accountability reform.

Camera Catches Shoving Match with Group Home Worker Before Teenager’s Heart Stopped

A video shows a healthy 15-year-old going into her bedroom at a for-profit AdvoServ facility. Thirty-two minutes later, she had no pulse. Nobody’s saying what happened.

Maryland’s Move to Pull Children From Group Homes Came Too Late for Teenager Who Died

After unannounced inspections revealed deficiencies, Maryland stopped placing young people at Delaware facilities owned by AdvoServ.

Teenage Girl Dies After Incident at For-profit Group Home

The 15-year-old was a resident at a Delaware facility owned by AdvoServ, which has faced decades of reports of abuse.

Florida Cracks Down on Troubled For-profit Facility for the Disabled

After years of reports of abusive treatment, Florida is moving residents out of Carlton Palms.

FDA to Massachusetts Group Home: Stop Shocking Disabled Residents

The government questions whether The Judge Rotenberg Center has been straight with families about the risks of its electrical shock devices and alternative treatments.

Restraints

It took one mother seven years to learn that the for-profit school she trusted with her son had strapped him down again and again, one time after not picking up his Legos.

Follow ProPublica

Latest Stories from ProPublica