Author: BelieveAgain

Rod Paige, an educator, coach, and administrator who rolled out the nation’s landmark No Child Left Behind law as the first African American to serve as U.S. secretary of education, died Tuesday.Former President George W. Bush, who tapped Paige for the nation’s top federal education post, announced the death in a statement but did not provide further details. Paige was 92.Under Paige’s leadership, the Department of Education implemented the No Child Left Behind law that in 2002 became Bush’s signature education law and was modeled on Paige’s previous work as a schools superintendent in Houston. The law required states to…

Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday gave a full-throated endorsement of Turning Point USA and its assassinated founder Charlie Kirk’s quest to grow the conservative organization’s presence in high schools.The Texas governor, speaking at the Governor’s Mansion alongside Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and a Turning Point USA leadership official, also warned school district officials who might be resistant to creating local chapters of the group in public schools.“Let me be clear, any school that stands in the way of a Club America program in their school should be reported immediately to the Texas Education Agency, where I expect meaningful disciplinary action…

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ordered a federal appeals court to reconsider its decision to uphold a New York state law that eliminates religious exemptions for required school vaccinations.The justices asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, in New York City, to give a second look to the claims of a group of Amish schools and parents in light of the high court’s decision last summer in Mahmoud v. Taylor, which held that parents have a free exercise of religion right to challenge certain aspects of the public school curriculum.The order came on a busy day…

A federal appeals court has temporarily kept grant funding in place for 49 projects designed to boost school mental health services and train new specialists to work in schools.But the temporary relief, the result of the court’s decision last week, doesn’t end the uncertainty for those grant recipients in 15 states who have been scrambling to preserve their federal funding ever since the Trump administration last spring told them it would end. Plus, it brings some new uncertainty for another set of school districts and states that have been hoping for federal money to support their own initiatives to hire…

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to take up the legality of President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship for children born to undocumented immigrant parents, an issue closely watched in the education community.The justices granted the administration’s request in Trump v. Barbara to consider whether the president’s Jan. 20 order complies with the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment, which says, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”A federal district judge in New Hampshire…

When two Wisconsin districts consolidated in 2018, the process was far more complicated than merely blending enrollments and budgets.Leaders in the Friess Lake and Richfield Unified districts, which enrolled 175 and 400 K-8 students, respectively, had to wrestle with differing student data systems and teacher evaluation models, redraw attendance zones, close a historic elementary school, and refurnish buildings for new grade configurations. Other differences they had to navigate: school board governance, tax rates, and property values.Though both districts were in the village of Richfield, they opted to pick a new identity so that it didn’t feel like Friess Lake was…

When Ian Levy secured a $3.3 million federal grant last fall, he expected to have five years to train 30 new school counselors who would go on to work in high-need New Jersey school districts.By the end, he thought he’d have a group of counselors working in schools across the state where he could send future counselor trainees for hands-on training.But less than a year into the project, Levy is preparing to wind down much of the work to boost the number of counselors and the profession’s diversity. Instead of lasting five years, the funding for the initiative will end…

A coalition of states that sued months ago to stop mass layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education is now also challenging the department’s recent moves to shift many of its core functions to the U.S. Department of Labor and other federal agencies.The Democratic attorneys general from 20 states and the District of Columbia argue in an amended complaint filed on Nov. 25 that federal laws require the U.S. Department of Education carry out its own programs.But the department this year has signed seven agreements to have four other federal agencies take over day-to-day management of key grant programs. Under…

Education savings accounts, tax-credit scholarships, vouchers, charter schools, home schooling, tutoring, course choice, dual degrees, and microschools are transforming K–12. In “Talking Choice,” Ashley Berner and I try to make sense of the shifting landscape. Ashley directs Johns Hopkins’ Institute for Education Policy and is a leading authority on “educational pluralism.” Whatever your take on educational choice, we seek to foster a more constructive conversation about what it means for students, families, and educators. Today, we discuss whether state officials should require testing of private schools that participate in choice programs.–Rick Rick: Ashley, a big question when it comes to…

State lawmakers have passed a slate of comprehensive reading bills in recent years that aim to align schools’ teaching, curricula, and professional development with research on key foundational literacy skills. But most of that legislation has focused on elementary school students. Now, advocates have set their sights on improving instruction for older students, who are often left out of the conversation.The swell of attention for younger students is understandable. Students who can’t read by 3rd grade are more likely to struggle academically down the road, drop out of high school, and have poor adult outcomes. But when students don’t meet…