In the middle of night, students at Utah’s Kings Peak High School are wide awake — taking mandatory exams.At this online-only school, which opened during the pandemic and has seen its enrollment boom ever since, students take tests from their homes at times that work best with their schedules. Principal Ammon Wiemers says it’s this flexibility that attracts students — including athletes and teens with part-time jobs — from across the state.Any student who feels compelled to cheat while their teacher is sound asleep, however, should know they’re still being watched.

Missy Testerman has enjoyed a teaching career that is decades longer than most, spending more than 30 years in first- and second-grade classrooms.But when she saw that her K-8 school district in rural Appalachia was quietly becoming a refuge for families from Mexico, Central America and Asia, she shifted gears and became an English as a second language teacher, pushing to smooth her students’ — and their families’ — transition to life in the U.S.

For the first time in 35 years, a Tennessee teacher is the National Teacher of the Year.The Council of Chief State School Officers awarded Rogersville City Schools K-8 English as a second language (ESL) teacher Missy Testerman the honor, recognizing her dedication to students and community. She’ll spend the next year serving as an ambassador and advocate for teachers and students across the nation.

Craig and Joy Stevens raise goats and chickens on a 60-acre homestead about 80 miles south of Oklahoma City — a 35-minute drive from the church where they attend mass every Sunday and more than an hour away from the closest Catholic school.That’s why they’ve applied to send their daughter Chloe to St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, a first-of-its kind religious charter at the center of a national dispute over separation of church and state.

About one-third of 12th graders across the country reported using marijuana over the past year, according to a study released March 12.During that same period, about 11% of 12-grade students reported using a lesser-known product, delta-8-THC, a psychoactive substance typically derived from hemp. It can produce a fuzzy, euphoric high similar to — but typically milder than — the THC effects delivered in cannabis.

Hamilton County Schools became the latest in a growing number of Tennessee school districts that are joining a national lawsuit against social media companies for allegedly targeting students.School board members unanimously voted Thursday night to join the suit against social media giants including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube.The lawsuit argues these companies are deliberately targeting students and young people for commercial gain and fostering antisocial behavior through things such as insufficient parental controls and the way platforms are designed to expose children to harmful content.

Before Thomas Guskey became a leading academic expert on grading and assessments, he was a middle school math teacher. One day he was chatting with an 8th-grade student, who he described as a “superstar,” and asked if she had studied for that day’s exam. He was shocked to hear she hadn’t.

At 5 feet tall, Uyen Tieu doesn’t tower over anyone, including many students. So when a superior said she was too petite to be anything but an elementary school principal, she figured he was probably right.A decade later, Tieu has not only been an assistant principal and principal, she’s now in charge of student support services for the Houston Independent School District — the eighth-largest school system in the U.S. But as an Asian woman and a single mother, she still feels pressure to prove herself in a male-dominated field.

A new poll from the National Parents Union (NPU) found a growing concern for the negative effects of social media consumption.That survey found 83 percent of parents believe there should be a minimum age restriction for when kids can have their own social media account.Most social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter) require their users to be at least 13. Out of more than 1,200 parents polled, 20 percent found this to be the appropriate age restriction for children having their own social media accounts. Slightly less (16 percent) believe that age should be 16.

Memphis parent advocate Sarah Carpenter is among those blasting President Biden’s proposed FY 2025 budget for potentially cutting valuable support for public charter schools.The president’s budget plan includes a $40 million cut to the Charter School Program (CSP) that provides grants to support the startup of new public charter schools and the replication and expansion of existing public charter schools.

The Rutherford County Board of Education is joining a national lawsuit against social media companies for alleged damages to students.School board members unanimously voted Thursday evening to join the suit against multiple companies including Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Snapchat and YouTube.Multiple lawsuits across the nation are currently arguing that social media is contributing to the teen mental health crisis due to the lack of adequate age verification measures, insufficient parental control, and how the platforms endless scrolling is designed to lure and attract teens and expose them to harmful content.

Jose Martinez, a senior at Senn High School in Chicago, wants to teach someday — maybe English. He’s applied to several top colleges in Illinois, but for now, he’s in limbo, unable to complete the financial aid forms he’ll need to attend.

When the American Federation of Teachers, America’s second-largest teachers’ union, officially called for a cessation of hostilities in Gaza on January 30, its language was clear, but careful.The resolution listed the conditions necessary for a bilateral ceasefire, including the release of Israeli hostages and the provision of more humanitarian aid. It excoriated Hamas, both for its Oct. 7 terrorist assault and the brutal repression suffered by Gazans under its control, as well as the Netanyahu government for obstructing the possibility of a two-state solution.

Vanderbilt professor and researcher Jason Grissom told members of the Metro Nashville Board of Education that the nationwide recognition the district is getting for how students recovered from the pandemic didn’t come by accident.Grissom said thinking on two levels is what made it work. That includes the direct instructional intervention district leaders spearheaded, like investing in high-dosage tutoring, and the indirect building systems to support instruction, including mental health and family engagement.

A new report produced by Harvard and Stanford Universities known as the Education Recovery Scorecard, credits MNPS for surpassing national trends for pandemic recovery.The research found MNPS ranked third among the top 100 districts in math growth from 2022 to 2023 and the district is ranked sixth among the top 100 districts in reading (English language arts) growth during that same period. The district was one of just two large urban school districts to rank in the top ten for both subjects.

Harvard University researcher Tom Kane stood before a captive audience at Washington’s Omni Shoreham hotel last Wednesday, just hours after dropping the report everyone was talking about. Offering the best look yet at students’ recovery from pandemic learning loss, the report showed that students actually made impressive academic gains last school year. But achievement gaps grew wider during the pandemic, and students in some high-poverty districts performed worse than they did before COVID. 

Enrollment in U.S. schools was fairly steady between 2021 and 2022, but the number of K-12 students remained below pre-pandemic levels, according to new federal data released Monday.The release, from the National Center for Education Statistics, shows that with nearly 50 million students, enrollment was still 2% less than 2019 figures. Only Idaho and North Dakota saw enrollment increase about 2% over that time period, while multiple states, including California, Mississippi and New York saw declines of at least 5%.

Most states have revised their strategies for teaching children to read over the last half-decade, a reflection of both long-held frustration with slow academic progress and newer concerns around COVID-related learning loss. An attempt to incorporate evidence-based insights into everyday school practice, the nationwide campaign has been touted as a promising development for student achievement.But many states don’t adequately train or help teachers to carry out those ambitious plans, according to a new analysis.

Days before Christmas, the school board in Jackson, Mississippi, voted to close 11 schools and merge two more — a drastic move that parents in the district had long feared. Some on the list have lost 30% or more of their students since 2018.Despite the district’s high poverty, Superintendent Errick Greene said he could no longer afford to staff social workers and counselors at schools with long stretches of declining enrollment. Many older buildings were falling apart. It made no sense, he said, to have plumbers and HVAC technicians “racing hither and yon across the city” each morning to keep them running.