Education
While moderate and liberal candidates did well in recent school board elections nationwide, experts say it's too soon to call these results a permanent change to extreme partisanship in school board politics.
The program also includes more funding for special education, teacher retention, per-student allotments and would revamp virtual education and public school accountability. But it would cost billions to implement.
Federal officials say 16 states have shortchanged their Black land grant colleges by billions of dollars. Equitable funding would benefit not only students at these vital institutions but their states’ economies as well.
Since fall 2020, West Coast inflation has risen nearly 18 percent, while Portland Public Schools’ funding has risen just 12 percent. About 70 school districts and teachers unions across the state will negotiate contracts this fall.
Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill on Wednesday, Nov. 1, that will require public schools across the state to teach media literacy as a way to combat misinformation. The law goes into effect immediately.
The state’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has partnered with CSU Dominguez Hills and has enrolled 33 students in a two-year master’s program in humanities. The program launched in September.
The DonorsChoose Grant Program, a popular crowdfunding platform, allows teachers to list what they want for their classrooms and will fulfill up to $500 for each wish list upon approval from the state. The funds are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
The Department of Higher Education waited eight weeks to notify the attorney general’s office of a data breach that affected thousands of personal records from the last two decades, despite state law requiring a 30-day notice.
A survey found that 69 percent of voters were in favor of requiring school districts to place an armed security officer in every school; 73 percent believe it would make schools safer.
Proposed legislation would make it mandatory for students to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form, which is necessary to secure federal grants, work-study jobs and loans, to graduate high school.
School officials in both Meridian and Nampa, Idaho, have seen their students increasingly use artificial intelligence in their work, which has prompted some school districts to create a task force to propose new policies.
In the 2022 fiscal year, the school district sponsored 232 workers on H-1B or specialty occupation visas, which is nearly four times greater than Houston’s 60 workers, the second-highest total in the U.S.
There have been 33 school shootings in 2023 that resulted in injuries or deaths. Many school officials are using COVID-19 funds to purchase security equipment. But the tools may not always be as beneficial as they seem.
A report found that 63,000 residents aged 14 to 26 have either failed to graduate high school or have graduated but are not currently employed or enrolled in further education. An additional 56,000 are at risk of not graduating high school.
Ellen Rosenblum has joined a coalition of 23 other attorneys general that is urging the U.S. Court of Appeals to uphold the education department’s rule for protecting students from schools’ predatory behaviors.
Just hiring more recruiters won’t address the issue. By partnering with community organizations that connect with young people daily, some higher education institutions have an opportunity to overcome demographic trends.
Los Angeles parents and bus drivers have reported that the tracking system is often inaccurate, which creates confusion for the already-tough pickup and drop-off schedules. The school district estimates 43,00 students ride the 2,700 daily routes.
The New York school district’s after-school instruction faces a teacher shortage two weeks before its scheduled start date. The majority of the program has been funded through American Rescue Plan dollars, which will expire by Sept. 2024.
Thirty-three states have laws that allow schools or school employees to carry, store or administer naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal medication. But some states and school districts struggle with the stigma that comes with it.
An online document accuses the university of creating a toxic environment in the School of Education that caused four tenure-track female professors to leave their jobs. There were 52 faculty in the School of Education in 2020, 18 of whom were people of color.
Baldwin County, Ala., schools are in the process of constructing a preparatory academy that will open for the 2024-25 school year and will provide training in a variety of trades to help students seamlessly transition into the workforce.
California and Florida have set start times no earlier than 8:30 a.m. But ripple effects, from upended bus schedules, later starts for extracurriculars and new schedules for teachers and staff, have raised concerns.
Local leaders say changing directives and confusing guidance from state officials are hampering efforts to comply — even as potentially heavy penalties await them if they don’t.
The state opened the school year with 3,584 teaching vacancies, almost a 20 percent drop from the previous year, but many of the new hires are less qualified. There’s been a 51 percent decrease in the last decade in traditional teacher preparation program enrollment.
School officials are implementing new rules to prevent bullying and improve the mental health of teens. But some of the new policies, like a cellphone ban, are controversial. In 2021, 16 percent of high schoolers said they had been cyber bullied.
Greater investment is key, enabling smaller classes with better-paid teachers, and most state and local governments have the money. But our public schools also need leadership stability and more parental involvement.
A survey of more than 4,250 faculty across four states, including Florida, found that faculty are becoming increasingly discouraged by recent legislation impacting higher education and many are considering leaving.
A $25 million loan program was established in 2006 as a way to pay for maintenance and repairs of aging school buildings. But lawmakers made the program “difficult to use” and only two districts have been able to access the aid.
The Livingston Parish School Board has filed a lawsuit against TikTok and Instagram, claiming the platforms are so addictive they have created a mental health crisis among the district’s students.
The Florida county’s State Attorney’s office declined to formally investigate former Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie and two other former administrators for attempting to hide a massive March 2021 ransomware attack from the public.
Baltimore County assigned 133 students to its Virtual Learning Program as a means of punishment, which experts say is opposite of what students facing discipline need to keep them engaged and enrolled.
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