The Supreme Court in a sweeping decision Wednesday upended the way public-sector unions do business, ruling that dissenting employees cannot be compelled to pay any dues, and that union members must affirmatively opt in to membership — rather than requiring dissenters to opt out. Forcing dissenting employees to pay dues violates First Amendment protections against compelling...

Student performance in civics has improved over the last two decades, even as the gap in civic knowledge has grown along class and racial lines during that period. That’s the conclusion of a new study released today by the Brookings Institution’s Brown Center on Education Policy. Its Report on American Education, an annual publication exploring...

At a repurposed Walmart just north of the U.S.-Mexico border, the freezer aisles, toy department, and everyday low prices are nowhere in sight. Instead, the former shopping center that now dons a “Casa Padre” sign houses dorm-style bedrooms, a cafeteria — and classrooms. The facility in Brownsville, Texas, which houses more than 1,400 immigrant boys,...

Over the past year, researchers from The Century Foundation have analyzed roughly 5,700 charter schools in all 50 states in an attempt to produce the first-ever nationwide inventory of diversity in the public charter school sector. This school profile was adapted from The Century Foundation report “Citizens of the World Charter Schools: Balancing Network and Community.”...

When school districts adopt personalized learning, the bulk of the work falls to teachers, who, while excited about the opportunity to innovate, are often not supported by their school systems to implement and share their ideas. That’s according to new research from the Center for Reinventing Public Education, which analyzed the efforts of districts and...

Each year, on the first day of school at KIPP Academy of Opportunity in South Los Angeles, teacher Kasi Moore-Watts has a reliable way of getting her students’ attention. Her mom was on drugs, Moore-Watts tells them, and her grandparents raised her. When she shares her background with students, she said, she sees “heads that...

Since the Trump administration announced last year it would end a program that offers protections to undocumented immigrants who were brought to this country as children, their fate remains in limbo.Si Amid the political gridlock in Washington over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Dreamers must keep pushing forward. Among them are the young...

The Supreme Court’s pending decision in the Janus case has the potential to decimate the clout and size of public-sector unions by allowing members who disagree with the union’s activity to opt out of membership. But another path to maintaining membership in local unions may be emerging: a split from the more divisive and politically charged state...

Updated June 15 About one-fourth of LA Unified schools have just won a coveted freedom: the right to hire the best teacher for the job. However, the majority of Los Angeles schools are still shackled by a longtime districtwide policy that forces principals to hire from a “must-place” list of “displaced” teachers. But that could...

June 20 Update: The LAUSD board approved the 2018-19 budget as expected on June 19, and pledged support for a couple new initiatives, including college savings accounts and free college admissions tests. But again, senior district officials forecast that the district was headed towards financial catastrophe in just four years, when reserves are expected to...