Failing news headlines soar after AI takes over reporters jobs.

*quietly takes over reporters’ jobs

Precise.

generally an editor writes the headline, not the reporter

No matter how many times I read it, I can't interpret it the way you're suggesting. "x soars after y" always reads as "x increases a lot because of y". I don't really get what you're saying.

Are you maybe saying that "soars" might mean "get better", so "failing grades soar" might mean there are actually less failing grades? That's not how I've ever understood that word.

"Falling" means that something goes towards the earth. "Soaring" means the opposite. "Grades soar" means that grades went up "Falling grades means that grades are going down". "Falling grades soar" is just meaningless writing.

The title is "failing grades soar" (one 'l', not two), not "falling grades soar."

Imagine an elementary school teacher told you that many of her students had failing grades, so she had implemented a new reading curriculum.

If she told you that afterwards the failing grades had "soared", it could easily be read either way:

- The (previously failing) grades had increased, so the program must be working very well.

- The percent of grades that count as failing had increased, so the program must actually be terrible.

It's not the best phrasing but it's still quite clearly the latter

Yeah, it was quite clear once I started reading the article. It just threw me for a loop as I read the title - Usually if I hear of grades "soaring" that's a _good_ thing.

I suspect the ambiguity might be part of making it "clickbaity", as it naturally causes you to wonder which meaning it's about and become more interested in reading.