Author: BelieveAgain

A federal judge has temporarily blocked a new Texas law requiring classrooms to display the Ten Commandments—at least in 11 school districts for now.The law was due to take effect Sept. 1, but the preliminary injunction issued Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Fred Biery of San Antonio blocks the requirement in the Austin and Houston school districts, as well as in nine others across the state.The law, known as S.B. 10, “impermissibly takes sides on theological questions and officially favors Christian denominations over others,” said Biery, an appointee of President Bill Clinton.The ruling means all three states that have passed…

No zeros. No late penalties for late work. Unlimited retakes on tests and quizzes. No credit for turning in homework or participation in class.These policies are among those associated with “equitable grading,” an approach popularized by author and former educator Joe Feldman. Advocates say that equitable grading policies make assessing students’ work more accurate by prioritizing summative over formative assessments, separating academic from behavioral performance, and subsequently reducing subjectivity in the overall grading process. But skeptics argue the approach can compromise rigor and lead to grade inflation.While educational pundits have debated the practice’s pros and cons, teachers’ voices have largely…

Five northern Virginia school districts will have to request reimbursement to receive all their federal funds following a U.S. Department of Education finding that the districts violated Title IX, the department announced Tuesday.It’s a new lever for the Education Department to use federal dollars to corral schools into falling in line with President Donald Trump’s agenda of cracking down on transgender students’ participation in athletics.The five districts—Alexandria City, Arlington, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, and Prince William County public schools—will now have extra hoops to jump through to get their subsidies after the department found them each in violation of the…

The Trump administration must restore two sets of centers that help state education departments and schools with improvement strategies and the use of education research, after two companies involved in the programs sued over the abrupt cancellations of their contracts earlier this year.A federal judge in Maryland on Friday concluded that the administration violated federal law and the Constitution’s separation of powers by effectively shuttering the U.S. Department of Education’s Comprehensive Centers and Regional Educational Laboratories programs.By 5 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 20, lawyers for the federal government and the companies that sued must provide the judge, Brendan Hurson, with a…

The Trump administration ran “into serious constitutional problems” by asking states to certify their school districts don’t use diversity, equity, and inclusion practices, a federal judge ruled this week.Maryland District Judge Stephanie Gallagher on Thursday sided with a coalition of plaintiffs—including the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second-largest teachers’ union, and the Eugene, Ore., school district—that sued in an effort to strike down several efforts made by the U.S. Department of Education to curb educators’ use of what it called “illegal DEI practices” without defining the term.The plaintiffs were challenging a Feb. 14 department memo, sent to K-12 schools…

A federal appeals court has upheld an Indiana school district’s decision to limit the scope of flyers that a “Students for Life” club could post on school walls to only time and place details for meetings, excluding broader anti-abortion messaging.A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, in Chicago, rejected a claim on behalf of the club’s founder, a 9th grader at Noblesville High School, that the school’s decision violated her First Amendment free speech rights.“This is not a case about tolerating private student speech,” the court said in its Aug. 14 decision in…

Students in one Arizona district will take fewer standardized tests this school year, the result of an educator-led push to devote less time to testing.The Tucson Education Association, backed by the school board and several parents, reached an agreement with the Tucson Unified school system in May to reduce the number of district-mandated standardized assessments students take annually starting in the 2025-26 academic year.The “memorandum of understanding” between the TEA, which represents Tucson’s teachers, and the 41,000-student district reduced by half the number of district-mandated standardized assessments students in grades 2-8 will take during the academic year. Students in those…

Federal funding cuts are starting to hit U.S. classrooms in unexpected ways, not just through delays from the U.S. Department of Education but through the loss of grants from cultural and library institutions that quietly support K-12 education.The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) are among the agencies facing deep reductions.A March executive order called for the dismantling of the IMLS to the “maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” In April, the Department of Governmental Efficiency slashed NEH grants to thousands of institutions—which include nonprofits, museums, and universities—in a move that…

A full federal appeals court has declined to overturn a panel ruling that upheld school administrators who required a Michigan 3rd grader to remove a hat picturing an AR-15 style rifle with the phrase, “Come and take it.”The Aug. 12 order in C.S. v. McCrumb by the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, in Cincinnati, was accompanied by a sharp exchange between two judges.One judge suggested the student’s hat at school was likely protected by the First Amendment.“I find it difficult to accept the notion that displaying an image of a gun on one’s clothing at school,…

A federal judge said Wednesday the U.S. Department of Education has not meaningfully complied with his June order to reinstate hundreds of civil rights enforcement staff after layoffs greatly reduced their ranks.The statement by Judge Myong J. Joun, a Masschusetts-based U.S. district judge, was part of an order he issued denying the Trump administration’s request to drop his initial directive to the agency, which stemmed from an April lawsuit challenging only terminations in the office for civil rights—the Education Department division charged with enforcing federal civil rights laws in the nation’s schools.The administration sought to have Joun overturn his June…