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Governors Direct Federal COVID-19 Aid to Private School Scholarships

The governors of Oklahoma and South Carolina have directed significant portions of their states' federal education relief aid to fund private school scholarships.




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Oklahoma Ranks 49th on Quality Counts Annual Report Card

The state, which earned a D-plus, has struggled with school finance issues and endured teacher strikes and battles over pay, but also earned B-plus for funding equity.




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Educational Opportunities and Performance in Oklahoma

This Quality Counts 2019 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.




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Educational Opportunities and Performance in Oklahoma

This Quality Counts 2020 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.




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Aging Buildings. Poor Ventilation. What Will It Take to Keep Coronavirus Out of Schools?

Spending millions to guard against COVID-19 spread, district leaders also must convince parents school buildings are safe.




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High Court Backs Oklahoma Tribe's Reservation Status, With Potential School Implications

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a large swath of land in Oklahoma is still an American Indian reservation, a decision that may have ramifications for education.




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Supreme Court Declines Indian Gaming Case Said to Affect School Revenues

Writing in dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas said a lower court had disrupted state property tax revenue for schools and other government services.




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Briefly Stated: Stories You May Have Missed

A collection of stories from the previous week that you may have missed.




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Oklahoma schools may offer in-school quarantine of students




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Maine Governor to Serve As Education Commissioner

Maine Gov. Paul LePage says he plans to forgo the process of selecting a new commissioner for the state education department and will instead take on the role himself.




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Betsy DeVos Approves Vermont and Maine ESSA Plans

The latest approvals mean 12 of the 17 state plans submitted so far for Every Student Succeeds Act implementation have been given the federal go-ahead.




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Maine Teachers Are Trading in Their iPads for Laptops

Teachers felt that iPads "provide no educational function in the classroom" and are often used to play games in class.




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Maine Teachers Trade IPads for Laptops

Middle and high schools in Maine are returning their iPads and switching back to laptops after a survey found that 88.5 percent of teachers and 74 percent of students in one district preferred laptops for schoolwork and instruction, reports the Lewiston-Auburn Sun Journal.




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Gov. Seeks Consolidation Of Superintendents in Maine

Gov. Paul LePage believes Maine has a glut of school superintendents, and he intends to pressure districts into consolidating administrations with the two-year budget he will propose in early 2017.




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Maine




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Maine




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Maine

State of the States: Education highlights from latest governor's address before the legislature.




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Maine

By September 2005, Maine hopes to reach its goal of giving every 9th grader in the state a laptop computer, state officials say.




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Where They Are: The Nation's Small But Growing Population of Black English-Learners

In five northern U.S. states, black students comprise more than a fifth of ELL enrollment.




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Maine

After a year in which a push by Gov. Baldacci to reorganize the education bureaucracy dominated public debate, he used much of his State of the State address to highlight issues such as prison reform and the economy.




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Maine




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Justice Dept. Backs Religious School Choice in Case on Maine Tuition Program

The Trump administration backs three families seeking to require the state of Maine to pay tuition for their children to attend religious high schools.




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Educational Opportunities and Performance in Maine

This Quality Counts 2019 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.




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Schools Lean on Staff Who Speak Students' Language to Keep English-Learners Connected

The rocky shift to remote learning has exacerbated inequities for the nation's 5 million English-learners. An army of multilingual liaisons work round the clock to plug widening gaps.




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Educational Opportunities and Performance in Maine

This Quality Counts 2020 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.




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Supreme Court Won't Hear Challenge to Union Exclusive Representation

The justices declined to take up a major challenge to exclusive-bargaining arrangements for teachers' unions and other public employee labor organizations.




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How One School Avoided a COVID-19 Outbreak and Shutdown

Strict protocols and limited community spread helped a Maine high school stay open for in person instruction when its first coronavirus case turned up.




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Federal Appeals Court Upholds Maine Bar on Tuition Aid to Religious Schools

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit turns away claims of religious discrimination by families seeking to use Maine's "tuitioning" program.




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New investigator picked for Bangor High School racism probe




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Stop Scapegoating Gifted Students for Inequality

Eliminating gifted programs all together is the wrong solution to fixing racial and economic imbalances, argues James R. Delisle.




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Yonkers, N.Y., District Commits to More Inclusion of Students with Disabilities

The U.S. Department of Education's office for civil rights said that some students were placed in self-contained special education settings without an individualized justification for doing so.




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Elementary Principal Touts Benefits of Extended School Day

Students at Bellevue Elementary in Syracuse, N.Y., spend an extra 70 minutes at school each day, and their principal says the extended school day has improved their academic performance.




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N.Y. Private Schools Didn't Have to Report Abuse to Police. A New Law Changes That.

Private schools in New York soon will be required to report suspected sexual abuse of students in their schools to law enforcement, bringing the independent schools under the same rules as public schools.




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Educational Opportunities and Performance in New York

This Quality Counts 2020 Highlights Report captures all the data you need to assess your state's performance on key educational outcomes.




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Schools Are Required to Teach Mental-Health Lessons This Fall in Two States. And That's a First.

Students returning to schools in Virginia and New York this fall will be required to participate in mental-health education as part of their health and physical education courses.




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New York Denied ESSA Waiver to Test Students With Disabilities Off Grade Level

The state will be required to test all students using grade level tests, except for those with significant cognitive disabilities.




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School Accessibility Gets $150 Million Boost in N.Y.C. Budget

The money, which will be allocated over three years, is expected to make major and minor improvements to schools throughout the city.




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New York Takes Final Step to Separate State Test Scores From Teacher Evaluations

The New York state legislature passed a bill that would make the use of state test scores in these evaluations optional, leaving the decision up to districts and making it subject to collective bargaining.




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A Teacher's Diary of a Week of School Closure

It's hard to keep the coronavirus crisis in perspective, especially when that perspective keeps shifting, writes New York City teacher Colin Lieu.




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'Bright Star' Principal, 36, Dies From Coronavirus

Dez-Ann Romain, a Brooklyn principal, is believed to be the first full-time, front-line educator to die from COVID-19.




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One Teacher's Life in a Coronavirus Epicenter

The days are a technology overload, mixed with the joy of seeing her students' faces and worry about her own family's health and safety, New York City teacher Ariel Sacks writes.




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New York City Schools Will Stay Closed for Academic Year, Mayor Says

Gov. Andrew Cuomo pushed back on the Mayor Bill de Blasio's announcement, however, saying "no decision" had been made about reopening schools in New York City or elsewhere in the state.




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School Closures for Coronavirus Could Extend to the End of School Year, Some Say

More than half of all states have ordered schools closed for multiple weeks to help slow the pandemic.




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Briefly Stated: Stories You May Have Missed

A collection of articles you may have missed from the previous week.




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State targets emerging virus clusters in western, central NY




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NYC schools stay open, deputies break up illegal fight club




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NYC virus rate stays below school-closing threshold, for now




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NYC to reopen schools, even as virus spread intensifies




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Mayor: No in-person learning for upper grades until new year




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Civics-Test Bills Hit State Legislatures Again in 2016

A bill in Nebraska would require high school students to take a civics examination before graduating.