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Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Wednesday vowed to pass legislation punishing public schools that do not remove graphic books from their shelves by knocking them down a notch in the state’s annual school performance ratings, which the state uses to seize control of underperforming districts. Flanked by easels displaying printed covers of books he found […]

Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who is seeking reelection this November, received a key endorsement on his education policies from the state’s largest union this week. Monday’s announcement marks the third time the Illinois Education Association, which represents more than 135,000 teachers, professors, and support staff statewide, has endorsed Pritzker for governor. The Illinois Federation of Teachers [&#823…

When Mississippi overhauled its literacy education in 2013, one of the most controversial pieces was a policy to retain third graders if they couldn’t pass the reading portion of the state’s English language arts assessment. Years later, as education officials across the country have taken notice of Mississippi’s literacy gains, more states have adopted their […]

High school came with more responsibility and less accountability for Josiah Ulukita. Courses were much harder, teachers were less strict about attendance and it was easier to skip school with friends or go on his phone during class, he said.  Ulukita went from easily passing middle school to failing freshman English and social studies. After […]

Missouri education officials are preparing to ask lawmakers for roughly $300 million more for public schools next year, setting up a potentially difficult budget fight as the state faces a projected revenue shortfall. The numbers are yet to be finalized, but the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s preliminary report shows that recent changes to […]

Supportive teachers can make a world of difference for transgender students, influencing their sense of safety and academic engagement — often in the face of discrimination and bullying — according to new research from two national LGBTQ+ advocacy groups. Students whose identities are affirmed at school report a greater sense of belonging and higher grades, […]

Mayor Zohran Mamdani sued the New York City Council on Wednesday, hours after a bill giving classroom paraprofessionals $10,000 in bonus pay became law.  The lawsuit claims that the council’s approval of bonuses for some of the city’s lowest-paid school employees is unlawful because it bypasses the traditional collective bargaining process.  The bill, passed unanimously […]

I am a product of Head Start. Before I understood federal funding, program performance standards or the complicated systems that make Head Start possible, I understood what it meant to be a Head Start child. Years later, I returned, first as a center director and later as a regional director of a Head Start program […]

The rapid rise of dyslexia in public discourse reflects a long-overdue shift in education. For decades, students with persistent reading difficulties were misunderstood, mislabeled or overlooked entirely. Increased awareness has helped dispel harmful myths, fueled the Science of Reading movement, and prompted schools to take literacy instruction more seriously. The urgency could not be greater. […

In the nearly four years since generative artificial intelligence began colonizing the academic lives of teens, it has changed the experience of school for millions of young people. Perhaps no group has watched their reality shift more than student journalists. Just as the technology has rewired the relationship between young writers-in-training and their teachers, it […]

This March, Mary Ellen Lykins, a director of 10 Head Start centers serving around 200 kids in northwest Washington, submitted a seemingly simple application to the federal government: She wanted to convert one of her partial-day preschool classrooms into a full-day program, extending the hours to better support the families she serves. Under the existing […]

As superintendent of Desert Sands Unified in California’s Coachella Valley, Kelly May-Vollmer has a hard time naming a system that’s not somehow connected to the district’s broadband network. Parents can check a school bus tracking app to make sure their child arrived on time. Cafeteria staff don’t use cash registers; kids’ meal accounts are linked […]

New York State is betting big on Portrait of a Graduate. It could transform how schools think about student success — or become one of the most well-intentioned failures in recent education policy. Last summer, the state formally adopted its Portrait framework, committing to a new vision of what it means to earn a diploma […]

This summer, I ran a one-week artificial intelligence pilot at the Chicago headquarters of Forging Opportunities for Refugees in America, a nonprofit dedicated to helping refugees succeed in school. Most of the students were still building their literacy skills, and several of the 22 newcomers, ranging in age from 11 to 17,  had arrived from […]

Indiana has more than 500 job openings for medical assistants, but training for the job isn’t cheap — between $1,500 and $4,000 at lower-cost schools, such as Indiana’s Ivy Tech Community College. The reduced $1,500 tuition for low-income people the college offers is still a challenge for students trying to bootstrap their way to an […]

Three years after voters passed an ambitious arts education funding measure, California’s K-12 schools were supposed to be awash in dance, music, theater and fine arts. But some schools are returning their arts money to the state, saying the rules on how to spend it are too vague and they can’t find enough arts teachers. […]

I did not come to chess as a grandmaster, a coach or someone trying to raise the next great prodigy. I came to it first as a father. My son Harry is twice exceptional, a term often used for children who are both gifted and learn differently. Like many kids who think intensely, he did […]

OKLAHOMA CITY — Hundreds of thousands of Oklahoma children returned to school this week for their first academic year under strict new literacy laws. It will be their final school year before reading scores carry even higher stakes. More than 21,100 Oklahoma third graders, or 44%, scored below a basic level on statewide reading tests […]