Education
The people least prepared to teach are education majors. K-12 schools should be freed to hire based on subject-matter expertise.
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.
Massachusetts became the latest state to grant immigrants without legal status access to in-state tuition. However, nine states block access to tuition or financial aid for residents lacking permanent status.
Eight children of migrant families were turned away from attending Emmett Louis Till Math and Science Academy on Monday. Other students, who were allowed to enroll, were forced to rely on Google Translate for language support.
At least 14 school resource officers will be at campuses across the city, one of the most significant changes since the shooting at East High School five months ago, overturning a three-year-old policy which had previously removed the officers.
Some professors have decided to ban the use of generative artificial intelligence technology programs while others have worked to incorporate it into their curriculum. Now colleges are working to establish clear policies for the tech.
Charter, the parent company of the area’s cable and broadband provider Spectrum, will cover 100 percent of tuition costs for workers pursuing a high school diploma, undergraduate or associate degree and some certificate programs.
The governor’s ambitious plan bets heavily on competition, through vouchers and school choice, but there’s no reliable evidence that competition can make a real difference.
Having mayors run school districts became a big trend 30 years ago. Now most cities are returning power to independently elected school boards.
There’s more to the elite college admissions game than a tilted playing field. It’s also about zoning squabbles and NIMBYism. State governments should take a larger role in land-use policy and overrule local stakeholders.
J.B. Pritzker signed a bill this week requiring public school districts to establish full-day kindergarten by the 2027-28 school year. The bill also requires a half-day program.
School districts across the state are struggling to fill teaching staff vacancies, so much that many will violate a new state law requiring public school districts offer free pre-kindergarten education.
The Legislature killed a school funding bill after it was tied to a contentious school voucher plan that would use public funds for private schools, forcing districts to lay off staff and new buses to afford teacher raises.
A report found that, measured against 11 metrics, the Brownsville-Harlingen, McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Beaumont-Port Arthur and Corpus Christi metro areas were four of the least educated regions in the nation.
The city’s Board of Education unanimously approved a $1 million contract to purchase X-ray machines that will replace approximately 70 existing machines in 108 elementary and high schools.
Texas began offering schools extra money to expand their bilingual programs in 2019. But as the nation grapples with a teacher shortage, some counties are unable to find qualified teachers to teach the classes.
The affordable laptops were easy for thousands of schools nationwide to scale up remote learning during the pandemic. Oakland Unified is just one of many districts that will have to retire and replace the tech after it expires just a few years after purchase.
A student’s transfer to a four-year institution is a benchmark for success among community colleges. But the numbers are low and disparities persist across the system, especially between colleges in rural areas and those in wealthy suburbs.
It’s a myth that the summer break is a relic of our agricultural past, and today’s summer school has a negative taint. It needs to be reimagined.
If the new Highland Springs school does not pass its final school facilities inspection, school officials will need to enact their contingency plan for their first week of school, requiring students to attend via e-learning. Classes begin on Tuesday.
To combat the “summer slide,” a network of about 600 community partners created a robust summer environment throughout the Dallas area to help improve students’ academic and social-emotional development.
A new state law caps class sizes from kindergarten through third grade at 20 students, fourth through eighth grade at 23 and high school classes at 25. To implement the law, the city will need to employ an additional 17,700 teachers.
Even before the Supreme Court's decision striking it down, Black students didn’t have equitable access to elite public higher education. We need to find better ways to extend true educational opportunities to all Americans.
