This year's November elections—a preview to next year's nationwide showdowns—cast their own spotlight on education, a dynamic that played out most prominently in the Kentucky governor's race, where teachers organized to unseat a combative incumbent who'd sparred with them.

With many school buildings closed for the rest of the academic year—and more to follow—district leaders turn their attention to making up for what may be deep learning losses.

The momentum to raise teacher salaries in several states has ground to a halt amid fears of coronavirus’ massive economic blow.

President Donald Trump has tapped Mark Schultz, a deputy commissioner of education in Nebraska, to serve as commissioner of the rehabilitation services administration at the Education Department.

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

A Nebraska senator introduced a bill that would give teachers legal cover to physically restraint disruptive students, prompting a strong positive response from members of the state teachers' union.

U.S. Ed Secretary DeVos has approved plans for 46 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Still waiting: California, Florida, Oklahoma, and Utah.

A school cook in Nebraska was canned after he mixed kangaroo meat into chili made for students.

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is not famous for pressuring states into desired outcomes, but did put at least two states' Title I funding on "high-risk" status last year.

"Educators are completely redesigning instructional delivery while constantly being thrown new rules. It's like 'flying the plane as you build it,'" says Maddie Fennell.

A collection of short news stories from this week.

The political landscape for updating school finance systems won’t be any easier in the 2020 legislative season, despite a surging economy, state flexibility under ESSA, and single-party control in many states.

Maryland's legislature has proposed a unique way to fund schools and also wants to hold school districts more accountable for how they spend their money as part of a new funding formula.

Schools may have to continue closures in the fall if the coronavirus resurges, state schools chiefs in Maryland and Washington said. The warnings came the same week thata key federal official predicted schools would be able to reopen for the 2020-21 school year.

While most teachers have online access at home, internet service for many educators in rural areas is spotty, expensive, or nonexistent.

A task force is recommending that the state lowers the score required on the controversial national edTPA exam.

New York, which has had a politically contentious history assessing its students, will seek three waivers from how the Every Student Succeeds Act requires states to test students.

The city's prekindergarten program is approaching universal access, which was a campaign promise of Mayor Bill de Blasio, who convinced the state legislature to provide $300 million to help launch it.

New York state is considering adopting a new set of K-12 reading and math standards that differ somewhat from the Common Core State Standards, which have had rocky reception in the state since they went into place in 2010.

New York superintendents who shared services reported more cost savings and improved service quality than improved student achievement, according to a new research brief.

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos railed against state constitutional prohibitions on public funds going to religious institutions in a speech to the Alfred E. Smith Foundation in New York City.

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

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.

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.

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

A group of teachers and literacy advocates are pushing back after Richard Allington, one of the country's most prominent experts on early literacy, made inflammatory claims about dyslexia at a Tennessee literacy conference this week.

Hopson became the interim superintendent in Shelby County, Tenn., in 2013 after the Memphis City School system merged with Shelby County schools. That merger then led six suburban communities to break away from the merged school system to form their own school districts.

A state department leader outlines what Tennessee is learning about teacher improvement and where the state still needs to learn more.

Tennessee improved its teacher evaluation and training systems by integrating data and teacher voice, according to a new report. But value-added measures that evaluate teachers based on student test scores remain controversial.

A court said legislators violated the state's constitution when they passed a law that targeted specific areas to be included in the program without local consent.

Can a Democrat with a record of tying test scores to teacher evaluations win a U.S. Senate seat in Colorado? Mike Johnston, a former Obama campaign adviser, wants to find out.

Dozens of Colorado school districts are asking voters next month for more funding for education through bond issues, mill levy overrides, or renewal of a city sales tax.

Teachers and other education advocates hope that tax-wary voters will be willing to approve an amendment that would pour more than $1.6 billion more into schools each year.

In Denver, teachers will go on strike Monday to protest a performance-pay system that’s been in place for 15 years. The dispute is illustrative of a larger national shift away from differentiated pay.

Frank DeAngelis, who was the principal of Columbine High School from 1996-2014, talks about the steps he took to heal students and staff in the wake of the school shooting.

The STEM School shooting underscores the huge challenges educators face in keeping students safe, even as fatal and injurious gunfire inside K-12 schools remains statistically rare.

All 46 schools in the Mesa County Valley School District closed last Thursday and Friday after students and staff at more than a dozen schools experienced norovirus-like symptoms.

A push to open a center devoted to research and professional development for rural K-12 holds promise for educators who work in small, isolated communities.

Students engaged in a protest against a culture they saw as punitive; their principal suspended them. What did a court say?