In his annual year-end report, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court John Roberts, Jr., focused on civics education, calling for increased confidence in and education about the judicial system.
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Aspiring educators could be required to “regularly reflect on the impact of biases and microaggressions” in order to be a licensed teacher in Minnesota.
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A Minnesota nonprofit seeking to protect children from “exploitation, indoctrination, and violence” was denied booth space at the Minnesota School Boards Association’s (MSBA) annual “Leadership Conference.”
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Fourth and eighth grade students in the U.S. again showed no to little improvement in their average reading and mathematics scores, according to a report released this week, a decrease that correlates with the enactment of the Common Core.
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An elementary school in California has seen improvements among students for the first time in more than 10 years — something that was unthinkable just last year.
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Star News Digital Media is a Nashville-based company that owns and operates five online news sites–The Tennessee Star, The Ohio Star, The Minnesota Sun, The Michigan Star, and Battleground State News–and publishes textbooks for secondary school students.
Our reporting on K-12 education is based on our philosophical perspective, which is reflected in our statement of principles.
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The 2020 elections will afford us the chance to pass judgment on the immediate threat to our democracy posed by the intelligence agencies, the Democratic party, and the media in their grab for power through a bastardized impeachment process. But no such opportunity exists for us to deal with the most serious, most fundamental threat to our way of life, namely our thoroughly rotten educational establishment.
The problem has been festering for decades, and keeps getting worse.
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More and more parents are electing to opt-out of having their children take the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs), making the exam irrelevant as a performance measure in some districts.
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The Minnesota Department of Education maintains that the “state of our students is promising” despite continued drops in reading and math scores, and a persistent achievement gap.
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A U.S. magistrate judge has ruled that Aaron Benner, a former St. Paul Public Schools (SPPS) teacher, can seek punitive damages against his former employer, which allegedly retaliated against him after he criticized its “racial equity” policy.
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A Freedom of Information Act request has uncovered evidence of “a well-orchestrated Islamic propaganda campaign aimed at teachers in school systems throughout Michigan and several other states.”
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Lawrence M. Ludlow, who holds a master’s degree in Medieval Studies and has taught in the Detroit and Gross Pointe areas, recently wrote an article on his experience of returning to the classroom.
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A group of Rhode Island students who have done out-of-class homework are trying to get the court system to rule they have a right to receive a well-rounded education that includes civics.
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In July 2018, President Donald Trump signed the “Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act” into law. The bill reauthorized the 2006 Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, which provides an “increased focus on the academic achievement” of CTE students, according to the Minnesota Department of Education.
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More than three in four Americans think that parents should be able to decide which public school their child attends, according to a new poll.
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by Scott McClallen The fate of Benton Harbor High School remains unclear after school district officials last week rejected a state plan to improve poor academic performance and pay down the district’s high debt. The state initially said it had agreed with the school district on a plan to improve…
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Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, along with nine other Democratic presidential candidates, unveiled her education plan at the National Education Association (NEA) conference. During Friday’s speech in Houston, Klobuchar unveiled her “Progress Partnership,” which would give states federal funding to implement specific programs. The senator’s plan aims to increase teacher…
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by Ethan Cai The Chinese government will completely suspend certain Advanced Placement (AP) history tests by 2020 in an attempt to hide “unfriendly” material. Chinese students seeking college credit for U.S. colleges will no longer be able to take the U.S. history, European history, world history, and human geography…
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by Kerry McDonald A recent NPR article, titled “What Economists Think About Democrats’ New Education Proposals,” caught my eye. FEE, after all, is an economic education organization that looks at how free markets and individual liberty lead to more progress, greater prosperity, and better outcomes for all than any…
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by Hezekiah Kantor As an adolescent, just beginning my education as a Catholic, I had Catechism classes. There, for usually an hour, we learned some of the basic tenets of the Roman Catholic faith. In other denominations, this is known as Sunday School. I suppose the true purpose of Sunday…
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by Mike Margeson and Justin Spears While it’s almost universally understood that the American school system is underperforming, “reform,” too, is almost universally prescribed as the solution. Yet in other walks of life, bad ideas are not reformed – they are eliminated and replaced with better ones. Our school system is…
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by Kerry MacDonald Childhood exuberance is now a liability. Behaviors that were once accepted as normal, even if mildly irritating to adults, are increasingly viewed as unacceptable and cause for medical intervention. High energy, lack of impulse control, inability to sit still and listen, lack of organizational skills, fidgeting,…
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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) was back in her home district Friday visiting students at elementary and middle schools throughout the area, but parents and press were allegedly not allowed to attend. On Thursday evening, ahead of Omar’s visit to St. Anthony Middle School in Minneapolis, conservative activist Alley Waterbury altered…
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by Daniel Buck Every year, the union reps make their rounds and talk to every teacher in the district. This year, my building’s representative sat in a student desk across from mine and asked if I had any feedback or thoughts I’d like to share. I summarized my discontent,…
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by Faiza Elmasry As recently as a half-century ago, young American students would spend many lessons writing curved loops and diagonal lines, as they learned how to write in cursive. Over the years, though, computer keyboards and voice to text programs have replaced pens and pencils, and made handwriting –…
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By Andrew I. Fillat and Henry I. Miller Retired teacher Mary Hudson recently wrote a damning exposé based on her experiences in the New York City public school system. Hudson taught in three different public high schools and her observations from those years lead her to implicate the students…
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by Joe Carter Over the past week America has been fascinated and appalled by the latest college admissions cheating scandal. Much of the attention has been focused on the bribing of coaches to get kids into school with fake athletic credentials. But the even more absurd part of the…
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The Minnesota House Education Policy Committee held its first hearing Friday for a bill that would require public-school teachers to discuss “healthy relationships, including relationships involving diverse sexual orientations and gender identities in the classroom.” Rep. Todd Lippert (D-Northfield), a freshman House member and lead sponsor of the bill, said…
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A DFL-backed bill on “sexual health education” in the Minnesota House would require public-school teachers to discuss “healthy relationships, including relationships involving diverse sexual orientations and gender identities.” House File (HF) 1414 was introduced February 21 and referred to the Education Policy Committee. It would mandate that the commissioner of…
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by Annie Holmquist By now, many parents know there is something seriously wrong with the average American school. Time and again, children go into the school system as bright bundles of energy, curious about the surrounding world, and time and again, they stagger through the system frustrated and losing their…
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by Jay Schalin If somebody wanted to fundamentally transform society to its roots, where would he or she start? The most logical starting point would be education. And if there were one part of the educational system that would produce this transformation most broadly, effectively, and efficiently, it would…
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by Lindsey M. Burke Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Friday that the state legislature intends to establish Equal Opportunity Scholarships designed to end the current waiting list on the tax credit scholarship program – a move the Republican chief executive supports. The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship – which provides scholarships…
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by Daniel Davis President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address Tuesday night, and Heritage Foundation experts weighed in with analysis of the president’s policy proposals. Here’s what they had to say. Immigration Economy Law Defense & Foreign Policy Life Energy & Infrastructure Health Care Education Immigration…
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A group of state Democratic senators want to amend the Minnesota education statutes to mandate a “cultural competency training” on topics such as “gender identity” and “implicit bias” for all public school teachers. According to Senate File (SF) 289, the training program would promote “self-reflection, effective interaction with people of…
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Minnesota received an overall C grade in parent empowerment on the Center for Education Reform’s annual Parent Power Index, which factors school choice, charter schools, personalized learning, teacher quality, and transparency into its grading system. With two school-choice programs, Minnesota received an F grading in the area of school choice,…
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Bob Luddy had already experienced massive success as a businessman and entrepreneur before launching Thales Academy, one of North Carolina’s most innovative private schools. In 1976, Luddy founded CaptiveAire Systems, now the leading manufacturer of commercial kitchen ventilation systems in the U.S. with annual sales of more than $300 million.…
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by Molly Prince Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduced legislation on Tuesday that would establish a government-run pharmaceutical manufacturer to effectively compete with the private market. The Affordable Drug Manufacturing Act seeks to address the increasing prices of prescription drugs by injecting competition into the marketplace, consequently lowering the cost…
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By Garland Tucker The violent events in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 have fueled a deep-seated leftist desire to re-write American history. Demands to topple statues, remove portraits, rename buildings, and repudiate founders—all in an effort to cleanse any objectionable reality from our history—have reached a fever pitch. The parallel…
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Minnesota Gov.-elect Tim Walz said Friday that while he is open to discussion on the topic, his administration plans to account for two years of free public college for families making under $125,000 a year in his first budget. During a Friday appearance on TPT Almanac, Walz was asked about…
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by Joseph Sunde “You are trained in Cuba and our education is free. Health care is free, but at what price? You wind up paying for it your whole life.” –Dr. Yaili Jiménez Gutierrez In 2013, the World Health Organization brokered a deal through which Cuba would export doctors to…
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by Jude Schwalbach After less than 10 years in the classroom, Common Core could soon be on its way out. The Obama administration introduced Common Core in 2010, imposing burdensome new standards and tests in an attempt to create uniform educational content across the nation. Despite loud objections from parents,…
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by Jonathan Butcher Teacher unions and progressive special-interest groups cried foul earlier this year when the White House suggested that federal directives on school safety could be rescinded. But if a recent hearing held by the Federal Commission on School Safety is any indication, state and local policymakers don’t need Washington to micromanage…
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The 2019 Ohio Star Constitution Bee is open for registration! If you have a secondary school-level student enrolled in a public or private school, or an accredited homeschool program, they are eligible to participate in this original, one-day event to be held Saturday, April 13, 2019. This will…
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All stakeholders want to get testing right. However, the emphasis on testing misses the bigger issue: student academic growth measured by flawed testing. Then the results being used in educator evaluations. This is certainly more problematic to educators than the actual tests themselves.
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by Rob Shimshock An Illinois professor who focuses on “equity” in mathematics will present her plan to redefine the field of study to oppose “objects, truths, and knowledge” at a 2019 conference. University of Illinois education professor Dr. Rochelle Gutierrez will give her talk, titled “Mathematx: Towards a way of Being,”…
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Professional Educators of Tennessee will continue to lobby for public education. However, we will never endorse political parties or candidates as an organization on behalf of our members. We also do not have a PAC, nor do we plan to ever start one. It would harm our effectiveness. We must advance public education without the divisive tribalism of partisan politics, and we will only get involved in education related issues.
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The battle lines over common sense in public education have been drawn in the gubernatorial battle between Republican Bill Lee and Democrat Karl Dean, and Round One goes to Bill Lee. Lee, the outsider business executive, wants to reduce the current level of student testing while Dean, the former Mayor…
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A report examining findings from a randomized controlled trial of Tennessee’s $87 million voluntary prekindergarten program for low-income children casts doubt on its effectiveness. Indeed, the report’s authors say the data show adverse effects on math and science achievements.
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by Rob Shimshock Almost 20 percent of K-12 students in North Carolina are not attending traditional public schools. Enrollment in the state’s traditional public schools has fallen during the past few years as more and more students attend private, charter or home schools, The News & Observer reported Friday. North Carolina’s…
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by James Agresti During recent teacher walkouts in Oklahoma that captured national attention, many major media outlets reported misleadingly small figures for teacher pay. By failing to reveal all aspects of teacher compensation, these outlets hid the true costs to taxpayers—which now amount to an annualized average of about $120,000 for every…
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