Education in Focus

A teacher who started work at a New York City charter school after she was terminated from her position at a public school has been fired after Chalkboard inquired about her previous employment.  The former teacher’s ability to start working at a charter school after a report was sent to the New York City Public Schools District from its Special Commissioner of Investigation points to what appears...

A  report  from a teacher effectiveness organization on how well the nation implements best practices to help students learn how to read found that 19 states do not currently implement critical policies to promote literacy. The National Council on Teacher Quality report shows that precisely half of states do not have “specific guidelines to teacher prep programs about what they should teach aspiri...

As gun violence remains a significant threat across the country, states, districts and schools debate ways to increase safety. But policies allowing teachers to carry weapons in school remains controversial. A school in Ohio made news last week after signs posted outside the school announced that teachers were armed, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. Survey data from last year shows staff appr...

A special education teacher from the Bronx was found to have acted inappropriately by New York City Public School’s watchdog agency and was subsequently terminated last summer. Then, a few months later, she took a position at a nearby charter school that says the investigation into her wasn't flagged. The Bronx’s Atmosphere Academy says the teacher was fingerprinted and underwent a background chec...

Chicago Public Schools says it is “reviewing” its approach to school safety as the board of education has reportedly considered removing school resource officers from buildings in the city. CPS is expected to “provide updates in the coming months,” according to a statement from a district spokesperson. But reports say the board has already decided to remove police officers from schools and could v...

Gradebooks may be less alphabetical in Georgia after the state recently released school accountability numbers for the first time since the pandemic. This suggests the state may be transitioning away from A-F grades. Instead, schools have their content mastery test scores instead of letter grades. Georgia is the latest state to consider eliminating traditional letter grades for public schools in f...

The Biden administration has proposed sweeping changes to expand the nation’s law prohibiting sex discrimination in the nation’s schools to include gender identity and sexual orientation. Final action on the rule is not expected until at least March next year, but legal challenges would likely arise upon its implementation. The Department of Education says that the rules protect students and try t...

Earlier this year, Chalkboard News highlighted how students can cheat on online classes and assignments using social media platforms and other new tools. But do social media platforms prohibit academic dishonesty? TikTok has clarified that videos promoting academic dishonesty violate its community guidelines and will be removed. Meta, which owns Instagram, did not respond to Chalkboard’s request f...

The parent of a student who faced persistent antisemitism at a Westport, Connecticut school says administrators tried to silence him and his family through the terms of a settlement.  Andrew Goldberg, the parent of a middle-school student at Westport Public Schools, said in an opinion piece in Newsweek last week that administrators offered to pay for a year’s worth of tuition at a private school i...

The Chicago Public School Board of Education isn’t planning on shutting down charter schools in the city yet, but is poised to direct money away from those schools between 2025 and 2029 in a broader effort to move away from ranking schools against each other. The board adopted the resolution in a unanimous vote on Thursday during its regular meeting, signaling the districts “transition away from p...

Finalization of the Department of Education’s Title IX ruling that would strike down statewide prohibitions on transgender athletes participating in a sport that matched their identity is expected to occur next year. An updated page on the Office of Management and Budget says final action on the federal government's rule on how transgender students can play on sports teams that match their gender...

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores show U.S. students scored significantly worse on math than in 2018 and declines in all subjects. It also found that increased spending had less to do with student outcomes than how the funds are used. PISA also noted that lower math test scores were associated with lower...

A debate over whether New York City’s classrooms are overcrowded is mounting between the city’s teachers union and the public school system. The United Federation of Teachers says hundreds of thousands of students are subjected to overcrowded classes, while the New York City Public Schools says it is in compliance with the law. A recent survey from the city’s teachers union asserted that over 300,...

For schools and institutions of higher learning waiting for the Department of Education’s final action on a rule governing eligibility for transgender students on sports teams to be finalized, more patience is required. Initially expected in October, the Department of Education’s forthcoming rule on transgender athletes on sports teams has been delayed as the agency sifts through thousands of comm...

Students have returned to school in Portland as the teachers union and district have yet to vote on an agreement to end the weeks long strike, which kept students out of class for most of November. The Portland Association of Teachers and Portland Public Schools announced a tentative agreement Sunday, ending a strike that began on Nov. 1. The union called the strike a win in an update to members....

Voters support school policies that require educators to tell parents about changes to their student’s pronouns, a nationwide poll has found. The findings come as parental notification policies have stirred controversy as student advocates and parents square off in school board meetings. The Center Square Voter’s Voice Poll conducted with Noble Predictive Insights found that two-thirds of voters b...

New federal data shows white students are more likely than their peers to report being harassed or bullied because of their sex or disability. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights released data this week from a survey of district-level data on student discipline, harassment and educational access conducted in the 2020-21 school year. The data shows white students were much more li...

A recent report based on polling parents of K-12 students found that while most think their child is on the right track academically based on their grades, test scores show the majority of students are not actually performing at grade level. The report released this week from Gallup and Learning Heroes found that while almost 80% of parents said their students received at least B grades, under 50%...

The Pacific Research Institute released a study in September reviewing the impacts of the various approaches states took when dealing with the pandemic. The study concluded: "The states that implemented policies categorized as more stringent tended to have fewer COVID-19 infections and fewer COVID-19 mortalities per 100,000 people. These states have also experienced increases in other causes of mo...

A large majority of voters say that public schools should focus on the basics – math, reading, writing, science and social studies – to improve the quality of public education in the country. That's according to the latest The Center Square’s Voters' Voice poll conducted in late October in conjunction with Noble Predictive Insights. The poll results come as the nation has seen academic achievement...

A parental rights organization is criticizing a Southeast Michigan school district after its board voted to change its sex education policy so that parents would not be able to opt students out of learning about gender or sexuality outside of health classes. Parents Defending Education raised concerns over the Dexter Community Schools Board of Education’s sex education policy from its October meet...

Mariyah Green was a junior when she transferred during the 2018-19 school year from a charter school to Bogan High School, where she played volleyball and basketball. Green had no idea when she transferred to Chicago Public Schools that she would end up suing the school, alleging violations against her First Amendment rights. She told Chalkboard that students were made to participate in the distri...

Students have opportunities to cheat on online learning courses provided by Edmentum and other virtual course providers, according to a former public school teacher, researchers and in-depth reporting by Chalkboard that resulted in TikTok removing videos and accounts. But despite the concerns over vulnerabilities that online learning platforms allow cheating and research showing that students who...

Leaders of the Oakland Education Association in Oakland, California, called on school leaders to stand in solidarity with Palestinians and called for a ceasefire as tensions between the terrorist organization Hamas and Israel continue to increase. The union’s leadership shared curriculum resources it encouraged educators to employ in their classrooms, which accuse Israel of carrying out genocide a...

Even after losing its position as the third largest school district in the country, Chicago Public Schools continues to seek budget expansions for building investments, despite more empty schools. The district’s 2023 Education Facilities Master Plan identifies a rapid need for investments, especially for the school systems’ aging buildings. But between the 2013-14 school year and the 2022-23 schoo...