June 6, 2018
Education Week, Vol. 37, Issue 34
Education Funding
Map: Per-Pupil Spending, State-by-State
Each state's Quality Counts 2018 school finance grade includes a tally for per-pupil spending adjusted for regional cost differences, capturing factors like teacher and staff salaries, classroom spending, and administration.
Education Funding
State Grades on School Finance: Map and Rankings
Examine the grades and scores that states earned on school funding and equity in Quality Counts 2018: Finance with this interactive map, grade-summary table, and top-to-bottom ranking.
Education Funding
Equity in K-12 Funding More Complex Than Just Dollars
School finance experts and civil rights advocates increasingly focus on how school aid is distributed under state funding formulas, not simply on funding levels.
Law & Courts
States Squeezed by Fiscal, Political Pressures on Funding
Regional economics, tax-averse voters, and other factors complicate the picture for policymakers aiming resources at K-12.
Education Funding
School Funding Data Shine a Bright Light on States' Priorities
This special Quality Counts report on school finance digs into how much the nation and the states spend on K-12 and how equitably that public education money is distributed.
Education Funding
A User's Guide to the Grading and Methodology
Here's a quick and easy guide to the grading scale and each of the indicators that go into making up the 50-state grades for school finance.
Ed-Tech Policy
Opinion
How Do We Know If Ed Tech Even Works?
We have an obligation to test educational technology before widespread adoption, write Britt Neuhaus, Philip Oreopoulos, and Thomas J. Kane.
Every Student Succeeds Act
What's in ESSA's Big Flexible-Spending Pot
The $1.1 billion Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants, better known as Title IV, can be used for everything from school safety training and suicide prevention to drama clubs and science programs.
Law & Courts
Courts Take Expansive View in Transgender-Rights Cases
Two recent federal court rulings add to the growing body of decisions finding legal protections for transgender students in federal antidiscrimination law.
Special Education
Ed. Dept. Sued Over New Approach to Civil Rights Complaints
Three advocacy organizations say that the Education Department's office for civil rights can't simply ignore the complaints of those who have filed serial complaints and must investigate first.
Federal
Scant Focus on Gun Issue at Trump's School-Safety Panel's Outing
There was little said at a Maryland school visit about controversial topics the school safety commission is likely to tackle, including whether teachers should be armed.
College & Workforce Readiness
After-School Programs Enter Career-Tech Space
A pair of after-school programs in Portland offer high school students a glimpse of what it's like to work in building design and construction.
Curriculum
Educators Scramble for Texts to Match Science Standards
Five years after the Next Generation Science Standards were rolled out, curricular options for teaching them have been slow to materialize.
Every Student Succeeds Act
Opinion
A Better Way to Talk About Education
Without a common vocabulary for naming what we want of education, many people default to prioritizing test scores, notes Helen F. Ladd.
School Climate & Safety
News in Brief
Death Toll Higher in Puerto Rico
A new study estimating that more than 4,600 people died as a result of last fall's devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico has reignited anxieties among educators still reeling from the storm's damage to the island's school system.
School & District Management
Report Roundup
School Closures
The largest school closure to date hurt learning among affected students, finds a new report by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research.
Assessment
Report Roundup
Student Motivation
The historic "marshmallow test" has tied young children's ability to delay gratification to their long-term success, but a new, larger replication study in Psychological Science puts those long-term results in doubt.
Special Education
Report Roundup
Students With Disabilities
Services for students with disabilities are full of gaps and navigating the systems to get them is burdensome to children and families, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Ed-Tech Policy
Report Roundup
Student Privacy
The nonprofit Common Sense found what it called "a widespread lack of transparency, as well as inconsistent privacy and security practices" in its three-year review of how student information is collected, used, and disclosed.
Teaching Profession
News in Brief
Nearly Half of Public School Teachers Say They Are Satisfied With Salaries
Forty-five percent of public school teachers say they are satisfied with their salary, while 55 percent say they are not, according to data from the 2015-16 National Teacher and Principal Survey.
Mathematics
News in Brief
For D.C. Students Receiving Vouchers, Evaluation Reveals Weaker Math Gains
Low-income students who received vouchers to attend private schools in the nation's capital scored significantly lower on math tests than their peers, finds the most recent congressionally mandated evaluation of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.
School Climate & Safety
News in Brief
Online Company Abandons Plans to Launch School Shooter Game
A gaming website last week canceled the release of a video game that allows players to pose as school shooters wielding semiautomatic rifles after it drew condemnation from parents of students killed in the Parkland, Fla., shooting, along with politicians, education groups, and the public.
School Climate & Safety
News in Brief
Texas Governor Proposes Methods to Keep Students Safe at School
Gov. Greg Abbott unveiled a broad school safety plan last week that could bring more armed staff, as well as an expanded police force, into Texas' schools, a little more than a week after a student gunman killed 10 people at Santa Fe High School.
Every Student Succeeds Act
News in Brief
Many States Are Lowering Goals for English-Learners, Analysis Finds
Many states' plans for educating English-language learners under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act fall short of equity and send clear signals on how they value the educational progress of the students, an analysis by Achieve and UnidosUS finds.
English-Language Learners
News in Brief
Congress Pushes Back on Plan From DeVos to Scrap ELL Office
Democratic members of Congress are pushing back against a proposal from U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos that would scrap the federal office that guides education policy and practice for millions of English-language-learner and immigrant students.
School & District Management
News in Brief
More Young People Say They Feel Politically Empowered, Poll Shows
A small—but significant—surge of young people say they feel politically empowered, in the latest Youth Political Pulse survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and MTV.
Education
News in Brief
Transition
Don Kirkegaard has announced that he will leave his post this summer as South Dakota's education secretary after only six months on the job. He's moving on to become the schools superintendent for the West Bend district in Wisconsin.
School Climate & Safety
Ready for a Shooter? 1 in 5 School Police Say No
One in five school officers say their school is not prepared to handle an active-shooter situation, according to a nationally representative survey of school resource officers conducted by the Education Week Research Center.
School Climate & Safety
Survey Data: School Officers: Who They Are; What They Do
School resource officers began increasing after the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School, but little is known about this specialized law enforcement profession. The Education Week Research Center surveyed SROs to provide insights into their training and roles.