A Tennessee law meant to curb school violence has reportedly been used again to penalize younger students, allegedly leading a 10-year-old to be expelled for an entire year after making a finger gun gesture. The state’s zero-tolerance law for school violence, which was passed after a shooter killed six people at The Covenant School in Nashville, has been invoked in several alleged instances where school administrators disciplined students with expulsion or arrest for making threats. According to a report from ProPublica last week, one unnamed Tennessee school district first suspended a student for making a finger gun gesture with his hands and then notified parents that he would not be allowed to attend the district for a year. 

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Some Arizona leaders are hoping cell phones will be banned throughout the school day as part of state law in next legislative session. “This is a real emergency, the problem of cell phones in the classroom,” Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said at a news conference on Thursday, arguing that the issue of students being distracted in classes continues to worsen. House Bill 2793, sponsored by Rep. Beverly Pingerelli, R-Peoria, was vetoed by Gov. Katie Hobbs in April. The bill passed the legislature along party lines, with Republicans backing the bill and Democrats voting against it. 

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Montana governor wants cell-phone ban in schools

Arizona leaders to renew push for school cell phone ban

Students at a Detroit combined virtual school took their online credit recovery courses 20 times faster than the courseware provider suggests in the 2023-24 school year. According to a public records request filed with Detroit Public Community School District, students took their 11th and 12th-grade English language arts classes in about four hours, while the courseware provider Edgenuity recommends students spend 80 hours on such courses. All 23 students who took the 11th-grade ELA online credit recovery class at Detroit Lions Academy completed the course in four hours, 14 minutes and 20 seconds of active time, with an average grade of 86%. 

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A congressional panel in the House of Representatives heard testimony from witnesses about the different perspectives on graphic books in school libraries. Such debates over the appropriateness of explicit books that students can access have occurred nationwide in school board meetings. The Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education held a hearing Thursday on “combating graphic, explicit content in school libraries.” Republican lawmakers favored the removal of inappropr

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation that changed requirements for retired public-school teachers to work while receiving pension benefits, citing the teacher shortage in the state. Data show the number of teachers has increased in recent years relative to students. While the number of teachers has increased and the number of students has decreased overall in the state, lawmakers passed legislation that would make it easier for retired teachers to receive their pensions and return to work for school districts.

Standardized test score results show academic achievement declines for the sixth year in a row, highlighting the impact of COVID-19-related school closures on student learning. The nonprofit behind the ACT said this week that scores fell again in all testing subjects in the 2022-23 school year. This comes as graduation rates in school districts have increased despite test scores showing academic declines, as Chalkboard News previously reported. Students nationwide tested during the 2022-23 school year had an average composite score on the ACT of 19.5, which was down from 19.8 the previous year and 20.7 in the 2018-19 school year. 

Kalamazoo Public Schools said late last month that over half of last year’s senior class from one of its high schools graduated despite not meeting the criteria to do so. The school will allow the students to keep their diplomas. Phoenix Alternative High School in Kalamazoo, Michigan, allowed at least half of the class of 2023 to graduate without meeting state or district requirements, according to a statement from KPS. 

Cheating is nothing new. But the methods of how it’s done are constantly changing. There is currently a market hidden in plain sight for the subset of students looking to graduate high school without completing their online coursework. 

Flint Community Public Schools said Friday that a fight between students led to a teacher being harmed. A viral video reportedly of the event shows a student throwing a chair and hitting the teacher on the head. Reports also say that the teacher was unconscious and hospitalized.

When government officials and school leaders closed classrooms because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many students switched to virtual learning. Some schools, however, have continued to utilize virtual options for students, including courseware that critics say allows students to cheat. A former Atlanta-area public school teacher wrote last month in an op-ed that course assessments from ed-tech company Edmentum could be gamed using search engines, allowing students to receive credit by cheating at home. 

As Chalkboard has previously reported, parents and voters have been outspoken in their desire for school choice and education options since the pandemic. Hybrid homeschooling is one of the models parents are turning to, which offers some of the structure of formal programming with at-home instruction. But the intersection between new education models and funding programs to support families could be more complicated, according to a Monday report from ExcelinEd. The report highlights how state school choice programs can support families who hybrid homeschool to give them greater flexibility. 

A federal court ruling waved a caution flag on school district policies requiring teachers to hide student gender identity from parents after granting a temporary reprieve to two teachers who sued their school district over the rules. The decision by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California last week to grant a preliminary injunction for the teachers comes as the state sues school districts for parental notification policies and highlights the murky legal grounds underpinning the state’s guidance school districts cite in creating gender identity policies. 

One issue Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias put in the national spotlight during testimony to a U.S. Senate committee this week was that of access to controversial books. The Democratic statewide official promoted the Illinois measure he spearheaded to withhold taxpayer-funded grants to public and school libraries that he said “ban books.” Meanwhile others argue that this is not an issue of censorship but of discretion.

A Maryland school district says it will have to walk back its bold goals for an all-electric bus fleet after a highly critical watchdog report revealed wasteful spending and a lack of oversight with a clean-energy transportation vendor. Montgomery County Public Schools said it will likely fall short of its goals to have an emissions-free bus fleet after delays and setbacks highlighted in a recent report from the Montgomery County Inspector General. The district has asked the state board of education for millions to cover the cost of standard diesel buses and said it would need an exemption for the vehicles because of a state law prohibiting the acquisition of non-electric vehicles.

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A battle over parental rights is brewing across the country and at the forefront is the gender choice of children while enrolled in public schools. In California and New Jersey, the government has gone to court to shield parents from knowing what gender their children have chosen while at school. In other states, such as Michigan and Pennsylvania, the policies on parental notification are left up to the individual school districts to determine.

Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis-Gates, who has been outspoken against the state's school choice program, is sending her child to a private school, according to reports. Davis-Gates took office in 2022 to lead the third largest teachers union in the country. Since taking office, Davis-Gates has publicly spoken out against the Invest in Kids Act, which allows people to pay for scholarships for students to attend private schools rather than attend public schools in Chicago or throughout the state.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said schools should not keep students home amid reports that the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise this fall, propped up by new variants of the virus that causes the disease. Responding to a question during a back-to-school bus tour, Cardona said schools should stay open and focus on communication and practicing health protocols that were present at the height of the pandemic. 

With the return of students to class, hoax calls that shut down school buildings are also back. The calls, which tell authorities that there are active shooters at schools, scare students, staff and parents and can be dangerous for both law enforcement and those at the scene. There were several hoax threats and swatting calls this week across the country, from Illinois to Georgia.

For many students, school started weeks ago, and classes are in full swing. For others, however, the school year has yet to begin. Michigan, for example, has a law that requires schools to start after Labor Day unless they are granted a waiver by the state’s Department of Education.

A new report from a conservative watchdog organization claims school district diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and hiring policies determine the political leanings of the teachers who end up in the classroom. The National Opportunity Project report, released Friday, said school districts that implement the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion in the hiring process weed out candidates that don’t “subscribe to certain views.” Districts mentioned in the report declined requests to comment.

At the Republican primary debate last week, presidential hopefuls disparaged the state of education in the nation, with some candidates advocating for the abolition of the U.S. Department of Education and the promotion of school choice options. It’s an issue that seems sure to reappear as voters signal strong concerns with the quality of traditional public education. The Center Square Voters' Voice Poll, conducted by Noble Predictive Insights, found that more Americans are dissatisfied than satisfied with the quality of education at their local public school.

A group of 20 schools in Missouri has received a waiver from the state to halt end-of-school standardized testing for students in lieu of interim assessments that direct how teachers and administrators will provide instruction. The schools are part of the Success-Ready Students Network and see the state Board of Education’s decision Tuesday to waive annual assessment requirements as a way to better provide competency-based learning to students. The state board voted unanimously to approve the “innovation waivers,” which will absolve the school districts of state requirements to test students for three years as the schools pursue competency-based learning. 

The Texas House Select Committee on Educational Opportunity and Enrichment released a statewide report on education last week along with public comments from residents who expressed competing outlooks on education opportunity, accountability methods and student outcomes. The public comments show how Texans are vocally divided on whether to implement school choice programs in the state. The divide echoes division around school choice measures in the Legislature last session.

Nevada lawmakers voted Wednesday not to divert federal COVID-19 relief funds toward expanding the Opportunity Scholarship program in the state after about six hours of discussion and testimony. Members of the Interim Finance Committee, comprised of the Senate Committee on Finance and the Assembly Committee on Ways and Means from the last legislative session, voted down party lines to reject Gov. Joe Lombardo’s funding proposal. The Nevada Educational Choice Scholarship Program, also known as the Opportunity Scholarship, was created in 2015 by the state’s legislature to provide need-based scholarships for students whose families live under 300% of the federal poverty line, according to the state’s website. 

As the presidential election heats up heading into the fall, experts say local school board races are becoming more politicized and partisan, eliciting various responses from states and districts. In Indiana, for example, a district ruled that a school board candidate who wanted to appear on the ballot with a Trump-themed nickname is disqualified. In Florida, however, voters are faced with an amendment that, if passed, would allow school board candidates to appear on the ballot with their party affiliation. Julie Marsh, a professor of education at the University of Southern California, said that in recent years, school board elections have seen higher spending and are “more politicized…more partisan, more nationally oriented, more contested.”

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The Biden administration announced a more unified approach Tuesday to help school districts ward off cyberattacks that threaten the exposure of private student data, disruption of daily operations and the loss of millions in taxpayer money. The Department of Education and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a document for school district leaders highlighting best practices to keep data safe, including preparing for attacks targeting schools as seen recently in Minneapolis and Los Angeles. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit heard oral arguments Wednesday in a case against Michigan’s Blaine amendment, which restricts most public funds from going toward private schools. Five families sued the state in September 2021, arguing that the state’s Blaine amendment violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution because they were not allowed to use Michigan’s Education Savings Plan for private school tuition. 

Test scores have continually demonstrated that students across the nation lost academic ground during the pandemic, so why are some districts touting higher graduation rates than before the pandemic? Do graduation rates mean students know everything they should? School districts across the nation have posted high graduation rates, despite test scores that show student achievement declines since the COVID-19 pandemic. Research suggests that the high graduation rate across the country comes from lower standards, not increased learning. 

A new report from the National Retail Federation found that back-to-school shopping is expected to cost consumers an all-time high. The industry association found families purchasing for K-12 students are expected to spend an average of about $890, about $25 more than last year.

Emails obtained by Chalkboard revealed how board members at a Tallahassee charter school handled complaints from parents arguing Michelangelo’s “David” and other famous works were not appropriate for students. Tallahassee Classical School made international headlines in March when principal Hope Carrasquilla told the Tallahassee Democrat that she was forced out of her position after parental objections to a sixth-grade art lesson on the Renaissance. The school says that characterization is false. The new details of what parents said about the artwork come as school districts nationwide struggle to agree on what is age-appropriate material for children, especially regarding library books.

After a recent showdown with Gov. Gavin Newsom, a California school board has approved a middle school social studies curriculum that it previously rejected over opposition to materials that mention the gay historical figure Harvey Milk. The Temecula Valley Unified School District school board voted in a special meeting Friday to approve the curriculum after Newsom said the state would provide textbooks that align with state standards and fine the school for failing to provide materials that do so.

Americans are unhappy with how schools handle student behavior issues and how school discipline policies are enforced, which can have an effect on school safety, according to a July 19 poll. Parental rights organization Parents Defending Education commissioned the poll conducted by CRC Research. The poll found that 40% of those surveyed think schools are doing a poor job enforcing student behavior policies and said school disruptions have increased in the past year.

New research from an education assessment organization found that test scores from students in the 2022-2023 school year show student achievement fell short of what it was before schools nationwide closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research from Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) found that achievement gains for most students in grades 3-8 again fell short of average achievement gains from before the pandemic. The researchers concluded that the average student will need at least four extra months of school to catch up on reading and math. 

A top official at the U.S. Education Department Office of Civil Rights said this afternoon that her office would consider taking away federal funds from school districts that remove books from school libraries. Assistant Secretary Catherine Lhamon said that her office is "very eager" to enforce its control over federal funds to keep districts from creating a hostile environment for students caused by book removals.

As more school districts across the country consider the possibility of four-day school weeks, critics point to studies that indicate there are more risks than benefits. While advocates argue condensing instruction hours into four longer school days can save taxpayers money while appealing for teachers and students, studies show negative correlations between both student performance and teacher recruitment and retention, according to Shannon Holston, chief of policy and programs at the National Council on Teacher Quality.

A federal appeals court has ruled that the Biden administration can’t implement its Title IX rules in an additional four states, bringing the total number of statewide injunctions to 26. With a recent block awarded in Oklahoma on Wednesday and then an emergency appeal granted by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, over half of the United States will be exempt from the Thursday deadline. The new Biden administration rules add gender identity to prohibitions on sexual discrimination in Title IX, including requiring schools to allow students to use a bathroom and locker room that aligns with their gender identity.

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Illinois saw its highest graduation rate in more than a decade last year, according to the Illinois Report Card. Yet critics are wondering if the state's schools are graduating students who aren't ready. Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski argues that the Illinois School System has become so broken even its greatest accomplishments now raise questions about its overall competency. “These school districts are not being honest with students or parents,” Dabrowski told The Center Square. “They’re looking to hide all their failures by graduating kids that are not prepared to move on.”

A practice once used in the criminal justice system is now preferred by the nation's top law enforcement and education agencies who say schools should use it to prevent discrimination.  Restorative justice or restorative practices have in the past decade or so become more regular terms in school buildings across the country as an alternative to hard-line disciplinary policies that before dominated districts. But is the new approach to discipline actually working? 

Pennsylvania's Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro signaled that he supports school choice measures as the state Legislature began discussions Thursday around the Pennsylvania Award for Student Success Program. Lawmakers in the Pennsylvania state house are the latest to discuss expanding school choice measures that allow public funds to follow students to private schools.

Learn about the launch of Chalkboard News which provides a non-partisan, non-political approach to news coverage of the critical issues facing public education in America. Our journalists focus on curriculum; school funding; educational choice; the roles of parents, teachers, and administrators; the voice taxpayers have in their local schools; and the betterment of K-12 public education.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona described several bright spots amid an otherwise bleak announcement this week that there has been no past-pandemic recovery for reading and mathematics based on test scores of 13-year-olds tested last year.

Illinois school officials are now required to notify parents and guardians of any cases of bullying within a 24-hour period. Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the measure into law despite opposition from numerous school groups who said the time period is not feasible, including the Illinois Principals Association and Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools.

With schools out for the summer, students and staff may not know how many days are left before going back to class. But some schools are looking at a shorter summer break as a way to reduce learning losses and balance out the school year. Advocates say that year-round school, or what is sometimes called a balanced calendar, allows students to retain learning better, catch up if they are struggling and offers the school community well-timed breaks to better recuperate.

The majority of teachers at a San Diego public charter school have voted to remove the union from their workplace years after initial attempts to do so were delayed until this year. The California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) announced the results of the vote to decertify the San Diego Education Association (SDEA) this week after nearly a month-long vote period, as Chalkboard previously reported.

A state board governing Georgia’s teacher training programs will vote this afternoon on whether to remove words like “equity,” “social justice” and “diversity” from educator training guides and replace them with values that promote “fairness” to remove controversial language. 

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction presented a report last week to the state’s House K-12 Education Committee. The report was created by an advisory group of education leaders who argue for amending the state’s A-F grading system for schools.

An education organization that administers a nationwide assessment has found that students are still not performing as well as they were immediately before the COVID-19 pandemic and that students' achievement gap worsened in the 2023-24 school year as compared to before COVID. NWEA, which issues the Measures of Academic Progress, said in a report this week that some middle school students are still an entire school year behind where they were before the pandemic in almost every grade as schools are slated to run out of federal relief this fall. The organization estimated that eighth-grade students would require nine months of additional schooling to reach pre-pandemic achievement levels in reading and 9.3 months of extra schooling to reach the same in math.

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A coalition of 21 state attorneys general are taking a stand in favor of Florida parents who sued their school district for allegedly violating their rights regarding their children’s gender confusion and the use of different pronouns while at school.

The U.S. Department of Education released guidance for school administrators that offers insights into how districts should implement and weigh the risks of artificial intelligence for teachers and students – but not when it comes to how students are using it.

As the school year ends and legislative sessions adjourn, Chalkboard updated its review of which legislatures nationwide are implementing school choice measures that provide education options for students and their families and which states have removed them.