Michigan districts with biggest losses to school choice in 2018-19

By Julie Mack Second grade teachers greet their new students during the first day of school on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2019 at Doyle-Ryder Elementary School in Flint, as Flint Community Schools transition into a balanced calendar for the first time. (Jake May | MLive.com) The list of Michigan school districts hit hardest by school choice includes…

Are Minnetonka Public Schools secretly monitoring students’ social media posts?

By Greta Kaul | 11/07/2019 MinnPost photo by Tony Nelson Minnetonka Public Schools Superintendent Dennis Peterson signed a three-year contract, at $23,500 annually, with a company that pledged to alert the district to “threats shared publicly.” In the summer of 2017, Minnetonka Public Schools Superintendent Dennis Peterson attended a conference in Baltimore put on by the Education Research and Development…

Portland Public Schools voters say yes to tax that funds 1 in 3 teachers

Updated Nov 06, 2019;Posted Nov 05, 2019 Mark Graves After waiting two years for a massive remodel to be finished, Grant High School students were able to return to their High School 2019-2020 school year Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019. Mark Graves/The Oregonian By Eder Campuzano  11/6/19 Voters in Portland Public Schools on Tuesday renewed the yearly…

Here’s a look at Alabama’s ‘failing’ public schools

November 5, 2019 Alabama school officials released the “failing” public schools list on Nov. 1, 2019. By Trisha Powell Crain On the eighth annual list of “failing” Alabama schools, released Friday morning, all but 10 of the 75 public schools on the list were making a repeat appearance. Fifty-two of the schools made the list last year, too. And…

Here’s how much each Alabama school spent on students

Spending in Alabama’s public schools By Trisha Powell Crain August 9, 2019 As the result of a new requirement under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, the public is getting a close look at how much money public schools—not just districts—spent educating Alabama’s children. And those numbers, from the 2017-18 school year, are all over the…

Illinois teachers get new minimum base salary

By Michael Urbanec 8:26 pm The Times files A new minimum salary for Illinois teachers passed through the House and Senate around the same time lawmakers worked on recreational marijuana legalization and a gambling expansion. The bill is aimed at addressing the state’s teacher shortage. The new legislation sets the salary floor at $40,000 for public…