The two states are the first in 20 years to add such a requirement.

Three Oregon school employees sued their union in federal court last week, arguing it's unfair that the teachers' union only lets members drop out and stop paying dues during the month of September.

An Ohio appellate court struck down a district's policy allowing staff members to carry concealed weapons in school with 24 hours of "active shooter/killer training."

The state, which earned a B, saw its educational strength buoyed by strong performance in areas that measure socioeconomic factors that can affect the educational environment.

The state, which earned a B-plus, led the nation in K-12 achievement rankings and outperformed other states in several key academic indicators, but fell short on funding equity.

School districts are competing against each other for purchases of digital devices as remote learning expands to schools across the country.

The state's "Influence 100" project includes a leadership development program that will give aspiring district leaders a hands-on opportunity to work through an equity issue in their home districts.

The state, which earned a D-plus, was weak on socioeconomic factors that can affect the educational environment, and also in the school finance area.

The state's elected superintendent and the governor-appointed state board have been in a legal dispute since 2016 over who should oversee the many tasks of the education department.

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.

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

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.

The demand for substitute teacher positions is outpacing the supply, and the quality of those applying is a concern in many places.

Concerns about local school systems can pose recruitment and retention hurdles for the armed services as they seek to meet the needs of military families.

The Tennessee department of education is proposing unsually comprehensive legislation that will require all current and new K-3 teachers, and those who train them, to know evidence-based reading instruction.

The firing of a black staff member for repeating the n-word while telling a black student not to use it underscores how uneasy many districts, schools, and educators are with handling the use of racist language in any context.

Members of the special state panel felt the Palmyra-Eagle district needs more time to explore options to stay alive, though many residents, including the local school board, believe the district faces a fiscal cliff.

Recent Census data finds households in the South and Midwest lagging those in other regions in access to remote learning technologies and learning interactions with teachers and family members.

The Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now, or ConnCAN, has profiled five successful early childhood education programs in other states for ideas to help programs in Connecticut.

The state, which earned a B, is one of the nation’s wealthiest and turned in strong performances in the school finance arena and in areas such as preschool and kindergarten enrollment.

"It has become clear over time that [the edTPA] caused unintended barriers and burdens for teachers entering the profession," Georgia's state superintendent said.

As lawmakers weigh expansion of the state’s voucher and tax-credit scholarship programs, some renew a push for anti-discrimination protection for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer students.

Instead of creating change through compliance and extrinsic motivators, the new era of education and education policy will require ecosystems of policy, regulation, investment, and operating structure that enable, rather than dictate. Under New Hampshire's PACE accountability system districts and sc

Controversy over an intiative aimed a reducing inequities in Lee's Summit, Mo., schools led the police department to provide security protection for the district's first African-American superintendent. Now the school board has reversed course.

Resurrecting an old idea about assessing school quality could allow schools to examine a broad range of data on performance and practices and lead to improvement.

Recent Census data finds households in the South and Midwest lagging those in other regions in access to remote learning technologies and learning interactions with teachers and family members.

The Winnipeg Jets will be without defenceman Logan Stanley for the short-term future.

While thousands of students in wildfire-ravaged Northern California resumed classes last week, thousands of others in Alaska stayed home after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Nov. 30.

The state, which earned a D-plus, scored low on the Chance for Success Index, which tracks a host of socioeconomic factors that can affect the educational environment.

The U.S. Supreme Court took up the question of whether courts must find a juvenile offender permanently incorrigible before a sentence of life without parole.

Onward State published a story this week that contained on-the-record comments from former Marquette players about Carolyn Kieger's coaching style.

Holly Oakley
Oct 4, 2006; 26:10129-10140
Neurobiology of Disease

Sharon G. Kujawa
Nov 11, 2009; 29:14077-14085
BehavioralSystemsCognitive

Mahsa Altafi
Oct 23, 2024; 44:e0518242024-e0518242024
Systems/Circuits

Corey M. Ziemba
Oct 16, 2024; 44:e0349242024-e0349242024
Systems/Circuits

Holly Oakley
Oct 4, 2006; 26:10129-10140
Neurobiology of Disease

α-Neurexins are essential and highly expressed presynaptic cell-adhesion molecules that are frequently linked to neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. Despite their importance, how the elaborate extracellular sequences of α-neurexins contribute to synapse function is poorly understood. We recently characterized the presynaptic gain-of-function phenotype caused by a missense mutation in an evolutionarily conserved extracellular sequence of neurexin-3α (A687T) that we identified in a patient diagnosed with profound intellectual disability and epilepsy. The striking A687T gain-of-function mutation on neurexin-3α prompted us to systematically test using mutants whether the presynaptic gain-of-function phenotype is a consequence of the addition of side-chain bulk (i.e., A687V) or polar/hydrophilic properties (i.e., A687S). We used multidisciplinary approaches in mixed-sex primary hippocampal cultures to assess the impact of the neurexin-3α^A687 residue on synapse morphology, function and ligand binding. Unexpectedly, neither A687V nor A687S recapitulated the neurexin-3α A687T phenotype. Instead, distinct from A687T, molecular replacement with A687S significantly enhanced postsynaptic properties exclusively at excitatory synapses and selectively increased binding to neuroligin-1 and neuroligin-3 without changing binding to neuroligin-2 or LRRTM2. Importantly, we provide the first experimental evidence supporting the notion that the position A687 of neurexin-3α and the N-terminal sequences of neuroligins may contribute to the stability of α-neurexin–neuroligin-1 trans-synaptic interactions and that these interactions may specifically regulate the postsynaptic strength of excitatory synapses.

Vertebrate nervous systems use the axon initial segment (AIS) to initiate action potentials and maintain neuronal polarity. The microtubule-associated protein tripartite motif containing 46 (TRIM46) was reported to regulate axon specification, AIS assembly, and neuronal polarity through the bundling, or fasciculation, of microtubules in the proximal axon. However, these claims are based on TRIM46 knockdown in cultured neurons. To investigate TRIM46 function in vivo, we examined male and female TRIM46 knock-out mice. Contrary to previous reports, we find that TRIM46 is dispensable for axon specification and AIS formation. TRIM46 knock-out mice are viable, have normal behavior, and have normal brain structure. Thus, TRIM46 is not required for AIS formation, axon specification, or nervous system function. However, we confirm that TRIM46 is required for microtubule fasciculation. We also show TRIM46 enrichment in the first ~100 μm of axon occurs independently of ankyrinG (AnkG) in vivo, although AnkG is required to restrict TRIM46 only to the AIS. Our results highlight the need for further investigation of the mechanisms by which the AIS and microtubules interact to shape neuronal structure and function.