Arizona ban on ethnic studies ruled unconstitutional

A federal judge has overturned an Arizona ban on ethnic studies courses aimed at Hispanic students, saying it was motivated by racial discrimination and violated pupils' constitutional rights. The lawsuit was challenging the law, which ended a Mexican American Studies program run by the Tucson school district. Read more>>

Top lawmakers are discussing giving Chicago Public Schools the authority to raise its property tax levy above a state cap, which limits an increase to 5 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. The state granted similar power last year, paving the way for a $250 million tax increase to boost contributions to the pension fund for CPS teachers. Read more>>

West Windsor-Plainsboro Schools has disbanded its varsity football team as the sport continues to grapple with growing concerns from parents about safety. The decision comes as youth football teams across the country deal with declining participation rates fueled by such safety concerns, and funding cuts and demographic changes. Read more>>

A new law states elementary and secondary schools shall display a framed picture or poster of "In God We Trust" above an American flag in their libraries and classrooms. But the money to do so either has to be donated from a private organization or purchased with funds made available through voluntary contributions to the local school boards. Read more>>

A new law changes how snow days are made up, allowing school districts to come up with an online learning plan that students can do from home instead of staying in school at the end of the year to make up the days. Read more>>

A recent series of sex assault cases by public school employees against students revealed possible safety vulnerabilities for children, according to an investigation. In each of the cases, the adult charged is an unlicensed school employee, not formally licensed by the state department of education, but still able to have private, one-on-one access to children inside buildings. Read more>>

Superintendent Bilal Tawwab of Flint Community Schools in Michigan has expanded staff to support students harmed by lead-tainted water. Read more>>

The honest and complex truth is that there are incredible things happening in every school in the country and there are massive challenges being faced by every school as well. Read more>>

Teacher education programs do their best to equip the teachers of the future with the know-how to bring digital media into the classes they’ll soon tackle. The rapidly changing nature of technology unfortunately means they will need ongoing upgrades to their skills. Today it is smartphones, tomorrow it may be artificial intelligence or digital implants. Read more>>

Children who start school at an older age do better than their younger classmates and have better odds of attending college and graduating from an elite institution. That's according to a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Read more>>

Three years into PARCC, Maryland educators surely had hoped for greater improvement. And yet, the fact that the scores reflect quite the spacious room for improvement tends to support the mission of PARCC. It is a harder test than what it replaced, the Maryland School Assessments—and it needs to be. Read more>>

The new visitor management kiosk provides comprehensive and automated visitor management, built into the flagship Software House C•CURE 9000 security and event management platform. The kiosk allows visitors to self-register using the new visitor management Kiosk Application for iOS iPad devices. Read more>>

Open Up Resources' first openly licensed core program, the Illustrative Mathematics 6–8 Math curriculum, is now available for free to school districts. The problem-based curriculum is available in both digital and print formats. Read more>>

TenMarks Writing, an online curriculum designed for teachers to help their students become better writers, brings to life storytelling and expository writing using the scaffolding instructional technique. It also incorporates natural language processing technology to provide students with automatic, personalized feedback. Read more>>

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Communities have done their part in raising funds through local bonds, and now need the Legislature and the governor to do their part. If the state doesn’t accelerate bond sales, districts will end up paying more for less since construction costs typically rise by 6 percent annually. Read more>>

A number of major projects are in limbo due to stalls with the state capital budget process. The ramifications are significant since the funding issue directly impacts the state’s School Construction Assistance Program, which provides funding assistance to school districts that are in the midst of major new construction or improvement projects. Read more>>

Two high schools would be rebuilt along with a middle school and four elementary schools under a $283 million bond proposal approved by the Canyons Board of Education to be placed on the November 7 ballot. Read more>>