Education in Focus

The mother of a student who was killed outside a Philadelphia football game in 2022 has filed a lawsuit against the school, alleging it should have done more to prevent the shooting, raising questions about the legal responsibility schools have to protect students. Meredith Elizalde says the School District of Philadelphia is liable for the shooting death of her son, Nicolas Elizalde, because it s...

A recent report card from the state of South Dakota shows that although most students are completing high school, about half are not proficient in key subjects or ready for college – a juxtaposition the state education agency calls “complicated.” The South Dakota Department of Education released its State Report Card for the 2023-24 school year last week. Despite the 91% high school completion rat...

A federal court has ruled that a Pennsylvania first-grade teacher violated the rights of parents by teaching them about transgender identity during instruction related to Transgender Awareness Day. The court ruled late last month that teacher Megan Williams violated the law by reading extracurricular books and telling students at Jefferson Elementary School that "when children are born, parents ma...

A new national poll shows many Americans support school choice measures that would allow families to use taxpayer funds to attend a private school. The Center Square Voters' Voice Poll conducted by Noble Predictive Insights found that over two-thirds of the more than 2,200 likely voters polled support giving families choices using public funds. The poll found that 69% of likely voters said they su...

A renewed focus on math, science, reading and social studies is the best way to improve education in the U.S., a plurality of voters say, according to a new poll. According to The Center Square's Voter's Voice Poll conducted by Noble Predictive Insights, 39% of likely voters said focusing on these core subjects would "do the most to improve public education in America." Paying teachers more came i...

In a new national poll released this week, voters signaled they are divided over the Biden administration’s Title IX changes to expand gender identity protections ahead of the general election. The Center Square Voters' Voice Poll conducted by Noble Predictive Insights found that voters are almost evenly split on the controversial rule change from the Department of Education. The Center Square, li...

Exactly one year after the terrorist attack on Israel, a group of Jewish California teachers is suing state officials and the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District over regulations they say force them to associate with a union that promotes anti-Israel rhetoric. The federal lawsuit against Alberto M. Carvalho, LAUSD superintendent and the California Public Employee Relation Boa...

The latest test results show more students in Wisconsin's public schools are scoring better at reading and writing, but critics say it's an illusion. The state's Department of Public Instruction on Tuesday released the results from the Forward Exam, for middle and elementary school students, and the ACT for high schoolers. The scores show 51% of Wisconsin children are proficient in reading and 53%...

During last week's debate between candidates for vice president, the two sparred over school shootings, illustrating the ideological divide between the main political parties. While Republican VP candidate Sen. J.D. Vance from Ohio and Democratic candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz maintained a generally civil tone during the portion of the debate, their answers highlight the wide divide on approach...

A Michigan mom is appealing a court's ruling that she suffered "minor harassment" at the hands of school leaders for speaking out at board meetings against the COVID-19 policies enacted by her child's school district. Sandra Herndon, the mother of a special needs student formerly enrolled in the Chippewa Valley School District in Clinton Township, Michigan, alleges that school leaders violated her...

A California school district allegedly had a teacher teach a lesson and read a gender identity book to fifth graders, then have those fifth graders watch a video version of the book with their kindergarten mentees and teach them the lesson they just learned. Support this podcast:  https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxx Full story:...

New research shows that school enrollment has declined in over 5,000 public schools in the U.S., suggesting families are rejecting traditional schools because of the pandemic. The Fordham Institute's new study, conducted by researcher Sofoklis Goulas from the Brookings Institution, released Wednesday, found that families were over twice as likely to leave low-performing public schools. The enrollm...

A former paraprofessional is suing the Washoe County School District over claims that the system shuffles dangerous students between schools without adequately alerting staff about their behavior and terminated him in retaliation. The special education professional, James Benthin, said in the lawsuit that the school district “failed to discipline and remove dangerous students and failed to prevent...

A lawsuit filed last week against the Evanston/Skokie School District 65 in Evanston, Illinois, alleges the school separated students and teachers by race and incited “racial hostility” through “divisive, race-obsessed teachings,” which it which the lawsuit says requires teachers to impose on students. The complaint filed by the Southeastern Legal Foundation on behalf of part-time drama teacher St...

As some students return to class this year with statewide or district-implemented cellphone bans, those who still have access to smartphones may be able to use an app powered by artificial-intelligence to complete their homework. The app, called Guath AI or Gauthmath, allows students to take pictures of their homework or tests, which it analyzes and solves. Critics have also pointed out that becau...

Earlier this month, a Texas special education teacher pleaded guilty to soliciting explicit photos from minors. The high school teacher posed as a 19-year-old boy to solicit the photos from a 14-year-old girl. The exploitation of children by teacher Juan Carlos Munoz highlights how adults posing as young people exploit minors, which federal law enforcement agencies say has been on the rise and mus...

Nearly two of three Detroit high school students did not complete selected online credit recovery courses the year after COVID-19. In the two following years, the district has seen higher completion rates for courses intended to help students graduate on time. Sample course completion data obtained by Chalkboard News through a public records request show that only 36% of Detroit Public School Comm...

As teachers begin another school year and approach their first grade book deadlines, some school districts are adopting more “equity grading” reforms. Just last month, the Kansas City Public School district in Missouri gave the green light to a “no zero policy” in which students receiving a failing grade would have a 40% minimum grade through 59% instead of the 0-59% range it had before. According...

After the shooting at Apalachee High School in metro Atlanta last week, schools nationwide have closed due to threats, and dozens of students have been arrested. But what causes the uptick in school shooting threats after a mass shooting? According to Jaclyn Schildkraut, the executive director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, it’s not cle...

School districts nationwide are facing a Sept. 30 deadline to spend the last round of nearly $200 billion in federal COVID-19 funds on helping students recover from learning losses due to school closures and other needs. The deadline, sometimes called a fiscal cliff, marks the last day districts can spend federal money on certain expenditures, but there are some extensions and deadlines to know ab...

Public school students in New York City will receive lessons critical of capitalism and asserting that Black Americans should receive reparations, that student loans are equivalent to “debt peonage,” the tenets of the Black Lives Matter movement and arguments for abolishing the police. The 520-page Black Studies Curriculum, which is being implemented by New York City Public Schools this fall, prov...

State authorities have announced that the father of the suspect accused of killing four and wounding nine more at a metro Atlanta high school has been arrested for his part in providing weapons for the suspect to use. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced Thursday evening that it had arrested Colin Gray, the shooter’s father, in connection with Wednesday’s attack on Apalachee High School i...

The Washington State Board of Education is moving closer to officially updating and expanding a 2021 resolution that established an ethnic studies graduation requirement. Board members discussed “incorporating Ethnic Studies into the legislative platform, and/or addressing Ethnic Studies through the FutureReady graduation requirements initiative,” according to the agenda for Thursday’s virtual boa...

Seattle Public Schools has amended certain student information policies after a parent complained to administrators that an identity worksheet handed out by an outspoken teacher may have violated federal and state laws, Chalkboard has learned. The district confirmed to Chalkboard News this week that it no longer asks students to provide protected information for a “social identity wheel” that coul...

A group of publishers, authors and individuals filed a lawsuit against Florida’s Board of Education and several school districts over book removals, which they say violates the First Amendment rights of publishers, authors and students. Thursday’s lawsuit specifically targets portions of the 2023 law which mandated the Department of Education create a parental objection form to allow parents and r...