-
‘Showdown’ over transgender students’ rights: Title IX rewrite expected to spark litigation from GOP-led states
Harleigh Walker, an Alabama ninth grader, was among the guests at the White House last month when the Biden administration recognized Transgender Day of Visibility. But officials at Auburn Junior High School didn’t think meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris was a valid reason to miss school. “They wanted more evidence that she had gone,”...
By Linda Jacobson | April 28, 2022
-
National Teacher of the Year winner Kurt Russell to emphasize diversity as lawmakers in his home state of Ohio rail against ‘divisive’ topics
Sign up here for LA School Report’s newsletter Kurt Russell, a Black history teacher and high school basketball coach from Oberlin High School in Ohio, has been known to give up his planning periods to sit with one of his players in class — just to make sure the student is meeting academic expectations. A...
By Linda Jacobson | April 25, 2022
-
As Nation’s Report Card resumes for first time since pandemic, federal testing chief admits she’s ‘a little nervous’ about results
Sign up here for LA School Report’s newsletter Almost 600,000 U.S. fourth- and eighth-graders are currently taking national reading and math tests for the first time since the pandemic began. The prospect makes the federal official in charge of measuring student progress a bit anxious. “The likelihood that the scores would be anything but down...
By Linda Jacobson | April 18, 2022
-
Embracing the ‘tough conversation’: Teacher of the Year finalists speak out on ‘divisive’ history, students’ mental health and why educators are not superheroes
April 19 Update: The Council of Chief State School Officers named Kurt Russell the 2022 National Teacher of the Year. About 40 students at Oberlin Senior High School won’t be taking courses on Black history, race and gender oppression this fall — not because they’ve been canceled due to conservative opposition, but because Kurt Russell...
By Linda Jacobson | April 18, 2022
-
More productivity or ‘zombied out’ students? Congress ponders permanent daylight saving time, but sleep experts say they’ve got it backwards
Sign up here for LA School Report’s newsletter As a member of PBS NewsHour’s Student Reporting Lab at Venice High School, near Los Angeles, Zoe Woodrick often stays at school past 5 p.m. recording podcasts and videos. When her interviews run late in the winter months, the sun is already setting over the Pacific, less...
By Linda Jacobson | April 11, 2022
-
With passage of pared-down budget, Biden may have missed best chance for historic school funding windfall, advocates fear
With President Joe Biden’s major education spending proposals for high-poverty schools and students with disabilities left out of this year’s federal budget, some advocates are already shifting their attention to next year’s cycle. But with even Biden concerned that Republicans could take control of the House — and Congress increasingly unable to pass an annual budget on time...
By Linda Jacobson | March 21, 2022
-
Academic mismatch: Students earned record-high GPAs as scores lagged on achievement tests. Here’s what the new federal data could mean
The grade point averages of high school students hit an all-time high in 2019, and students earned more credits toward graduation than ever before. But those gains are belied by signs that students didn’t demonstrate greater achievement in tests of math and science, according to new national data released Wednesday. The High School Transcript Study,...
By Linda Jacobson | March 17, 2022
-
One year after Congress appropriated over $122 billion for K-12, many school districts are struggling to spend it
Sign up here for LA School Report’s newsletter. As the nation’s school superintendents gathered last month for their first in-person meeting since the pandemic began, Dan Domenech, the organization’s leader, pressed U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona about an urgent issue facing his members. At Music City Center in Nashville, he reminded the secretary that districts...
By Linda Jacobson | March 10, 2022
-
Biden Supreme Court nominee, praised for ‘stellar civil rights record,’ could face conflict on upcoming Harvard admissions case
Sign up here for LA School Report’s newsletter. President Joe Biden made history when he nominated federal appeals court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. If confirmed, however, she’ll likely face pressure to sit out one of the most important cases involving race and education in...
By Linda Jacobson | March 7, 2022
-
700 days since lockdown: Educators, students, parents and researchers reflect on pandemic’s ‘seismic interruption to education’
700 days. That’s about how long it’s been since more than half the nation’s schools crossed into the pandemic era. On March 16, 2020, Los Angles Unified and other districts across 27 states, encompassing almost 80,000 schools, closed their doors for the first long educational lockdown. Within nine days, the nation’s remaining districts followed suit. Since...
By Linda Jacobson | February 16, 2022