Federal policy and reform

U.S. rises in world rankings for math, reading, science as other countries’ performance slips

The drop in suspensions likely reflects a combination of fewer students learning in person and a reticence among educators to remove students from the classroom.

Aging school buildings, lagging teacher pay: ‘The needs are so great,’ says head of Memphis district.

Federal education officials have received at least nine complaints involving antisemitism or Islamophobia on college or K-12 campuses since Hamas attacked Israel last month.

A long-awaited Biden administration program is putting $12.5 million toward school integration efforts.

A new federal rule permits 3,000 more districts to give free meals to all students. But without additional funding from Congress, many will likely hold off.

The group will begin meeting in early November and report to the legislature by Jan. 6.

“I would love us to try to agree on some goals,” said Arne Ducan at a forum on Tuesday. “I don’t have a lot of optimism that it’s going to come at the national level.”

Most federal money supports low-income students, English language learners, students with disabilities.

Here’s what we know: high-poverty schools face a bigger cliff, that more federal money won’t be forthcoming, and that school budgets will be shaped both by districts’ own financial decisions and those made by state politicians.

The inspector general found they fraudulently got federal loans during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. 

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights reviewed 80 complaints of sexual harassment across city public schools and found some were not investigated.

The new civil rights guidance suggests practices related to curriculum and support for certain groups are permissible, but race-exclusive groups may not be. 

The Supreme Court ruling shouldn’t deter students from talking about their identities or stop colleges from recruiting from schools that serve mostly students of color, new federal guidance states.

Jackson has produced influential studies on school finance and teacher quality. His pick might signal a growing interest from the White House on K-12 education issues.

Researchers say that’s because the program is complex and hard to access.

About 7,400 students will get their student loans discharged.

The deep proposed cuts are a sign of conservatives’ growing critique of public schools, rooted in cultural issues and the pandemic.