Cardona, a fellow at the , through his speeches and other appearances, continues to tell students their ability to speak more than one language is an enormous asset. Not only can it bring them career success, he says, but it deepens their . 

His praise for the multilingual community runs counter to the current administration’s agenda: President Donald Trump issued an executive order in July designating , a pronouncement that immediately sparked efforts to “minimize non-essential multilingual services (and) redirect resources toward English-language education and assimilation.” 

Trump and his allies also rolled back longstanding that kept federal immigration agents . Children and their parents have been arrested during pickup and drop-off times, causing absenteeism to spike. And the schools and other groups that serve immigrants are scrambling to stay out of the spotlight, curbing outreach in many cases. 

The dismantling of the U.S. Education Department, too, has left the country’s 5 million English learners with little protection or as to their : After a historic round of cuts, the department’s Office of English Language Acquisition, for example, was left with . 

Cardona, who also works to shore up the leadership skills of other educators through his , said he’s hurt by what has happened to the department whose leadership he left in January 2025.

But even amid the chaos, Cardona sees hope. Trump’s power is temporary, he said. Education lasts a lifetime. 

“Despite what we’re hearing from this administration, the opposite is true,” Cardona said, when asked how he would advise multilingual learners today. “Just wait it out. You don’t have to change your stripes to be successful. I didn’t. Having two cultures and two languages is one of your greatest strengths.”

I caught up with Cardona last week and asked him about the future of multilingual learner education in the U.S. The 50-year-old, who began his career teaching fourth grade in his hometown of Meriden, Connecticut and will be a featured lecturer at Harvard, where he recently at the Kennedy School, was candid in his responses.

What are your three biggest concerns about the state of multilingual learner education right now?

That multilingualism is not being valued as a superpower, that the funding for basic support is up in the air and that it continues to be an ancillary afterthought in many of our communities, as opposed to a tool to provide a skill for students that can serve them well in a globally competitive society.

Programs serving multilingual learners are being sidelined. What’s happening here? 

It reminds me of when the Supreme Court made a decision about affirmative action and there was an extrapolation of intent. They said, “Now, we can’t have programs that support students from different backgrounds because that goes against what the Supreme Court said.” And so they extrapolate, they make up what it means for implementation.

It’s analogous to what is happening here. “Well, we’ve got to cut DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) so that means no parent support, no translating documents, no language line. We’re going to cut those things from the budget because we’re not sure that we want to continue to support ESL programs because the new secretary said no DEI, that we can’t favor one group over another.”

They’re extrapolating or blaming up to get away with cutting things that they don’t understand — or agree with in the first place. There is an overprescribing of an intent that was really never there. Part of it is to justify budget cut decisions or because in some places, now it’s not chic to promote multilingualism. So why bother?

There are places in our country — Arizona, for example — where there are . So, they took it further. This is what California went through in the ’90s and 2000s with (a voter-approved measure that required schools to teach immigrant children only in English). And so you have people doing underground work of multilingual education, which is sad, that in 2026 we have people hiding what they’re doing to promote multilingualism when in every other country it’s almost a prerequisite.

Because of what’s happening at the federal level, people have permission now to kind of get rid of some of the programming that we know supports students and families who are learning English — or multilingual programs where students are learning another language.

What is causing some districts and schools to do this? Is it racism or budgetary concerns? 

From my perspective, it’s a little bit of both. “Why are we spending money on these programs when we could spend it on something else?” It’s the low-hanging fruit, and quite frankly, you’re not going to see too many parents of Latino students speaking up at board meetings if they’re worried about being harassed by immigration. Because the browner you are, the more you’re subject to vilification. 

It starts at the top. You’ve got the president , murderers, painting a picture that immigrants are bad people.

To exclude racism would be Pollyannaish on my part, but to think that it’s only that would be minimizing the nuanced realities that many districts face, saying, “If I have to cut, I’m going to cut where I’m going to get the least resistance.”

How does it make you feel to see the Education Department dismantled? 

It hurts because I know the impact it’s going to have on the students furthest from opportunity. The damage that has been done in the last 12 months will take decades to correct. 

Why do you think it will take decades to repair what’s happening to multilingual education? 

I’ll start with the Office for Civil Rights. When you take out the arm of enforcement that ensures students’ civil rights are being protected, accountability is gone. So what does that mean? That it could be the Wild West and no one’s paying attention because we closed seven of the 12 offices whose job it was to make sure students’ civil rights were not being violated. 

When you cut — or threaten to cut — (English Language Acquisition grants) or you run applications for grants through an AI scanner to pick out the words “diversity” or “equity” to make sure you’re not giving grants to those grantees, you’re basically creating a culture of “don’t do this — or else.” 

And people, in order to get the funding they need to provide the basic needs in their districts, are going to move away from programs that could be viewed as helping address disparities in access and outcomes. 

And what about other moves inside the department? 

I see special education going to HHS (Department of Health and Human Services), and I often say they’re sending it to the least competent Kennedy. So, let’s look at what’s happening there. That department has been downsized as well. When you take 50% of the Office for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services and you dismiss half the people and then you take the other half and you send them over to the HHS, where they’ve diminished their staff, and now you’re asking them to do the supervision, oversight and support. When you remove that, you’re left with great variance throughout our country in the ability to provide services, support, and accountability. 

I would argue that the red states, the ones who voted for this administration, are the ones that are going to suffer the most — the rural communities where they only have their local public school. They don’t have other options. 

This administration will only last for a finite amount of time. How might a new administration roll back these changes?  

I have hope in not just the federal government picking up where it left off, but I am very encouraged by my conversations with the multilingual learner community. They’re building alliances that do not rely on the federal government — because they checked out. 

They’re developing a framework. For example, , (an advocacy group for multilingual learners) is led by the same people that fought Proposition 227 30 years ago. They built an alliance back then and they created what’s called the State Seal of Biliteracy. So, when they , they said, “We’re going to acknowledge that if you’re multilingual, you’re going to get a State Seal of Biliteracy, a badge of achievement.” And when I was secretary, all 50 states adopted that seal. 

The pendulum is going to swing back, but the federal government is only going to be one player. I’m counting on these coalitions to accelerate the remediation and innovation around English language development. I see that happening across the country.

If you could speak directly to multilingual learner teachers, what would you say? 

Consider yourself blessed and fortunate that you’re serving at a time when our students need you, where you’re providing that emotional safe harbor. Your words are the ones that they’re going to remember — not what’s being said on CNN or Fox News.

Absenteeism is rampant in the immigrant community. How can schools get these students back in the classroom?

This is not the answer for that question, but the first thing that came to mind is vote. We need to get off our asses and see the impact that this had on our students, and we need to be angry. We need to not allow for this to continue any longer than it needs to.

With regard to the students that are right now home, I struggle to look a parent in the face in a community where they’re being harassed by ICE and say, “Send them to school, don’t worry, they’re 100% safe,” because we know that’s not true.

What I will say to those families is know your rights. And also, know the culture in which you’re sending your children. Is that school protecting your child? Will you have alert calls? Does your district have a practice to prevent schools from becoming hubs of immigration (enforcement) efforts? 

In many parts of our country, we’re not protecting our students from having our schools be the places where these raids are happening. I had a student in my hometown get picked up when he was going to an immigration center to check in, as he was supposed to. He missed graduation because he was following the rules.

What do you make of this moment for us as a nation? 

We’re going through a period right now where a lot of the fundamental principles of democracy are being questioned. It’s a stain on our beautiful country’s history. The pandemic of prejudice that we’re dealing with now is harder to lead through than the pandemic of disease that we went through five years ago. We got through the pandemic of disease because we came together. What’s happening now is this pandemic of hate and prejudice is pulling us apart. But if you look deeper, you see stories of resilience and of the power of unity.

“Private school gives us peace of mind,” Rolando Zamora, a father of two, wrote to her. 

With a family of six living on one income, Chris Meija said the scholarship “certainly helped ease some of the financial burden.”

Organizations like the BASIC Fund, many of which are located in blue states, have operated out of the spotlight, quietly raising money from private donors to support kids from lower-income families. But now, with recent passage of the first-ever for private school choice, part of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,”  they could soon be thrust into a public debate over the next phase of the school choice movement.

“We’ve been much more focused on just trying to help families and don’t want to get into the political fray, necessarily,” Elginsmith said.  This fall, the BASIC Fund will help 3,100 students to attend 260 private schools. But with the federal tax credit coming in 2027, she can’t resist thinking about reaching more of the 300 to 500 applicants each year who don’t receive funding, she said. “We’re not against public schools; we just think that they aren’t the best thing for everybody.”

Ever since Trump gathered with Republicans on the South Lawn of the White House on July 4 to sign the bill, commentators have focused on one central question: What will blue states do?  The Treasury Department still has to write rules for the program, but overall, the law allows taxpayers to get a dollar-for-dollar credit, up to $1,700, if they donate to a scholarship granting organization, like the BASIC Fund. Because the legislation lets states choose whether to participate, many assume that those under Democratic control will remain firmly opposed to anything that looks like a voucher. But Colyn Ritter, a senior research associate at EdChoice, an advocacy organization, said he “wouldn’t argue with anyone” who thinks states with existing scholarship programs would be in the best position to opt in. 

BASIC is among several groups affiliated with the Children’s Scholarship Fund in New York, which annually helps about 7,000 students from low-income families across New York City attend private school. The nonprofit has partners that grant scholarships in Oregon, Massachusetts and New Jersey, to name a few other blue states. 

“Those folks presumably have relationships with some state policymakers, which we think could be helpful,” said John Schilling, a consultant and adviser to the conservative American Federation for Children, a school choice advocacy group. He worked to keep the tax credit in the Republicans’ reconciliation bill, but is now shifting his attention to the states. Listing other Democratic strongholds, like Massachusetts and Illinois, he said, “These are places where parents desperately need some additional options.”

Supporters of the tax credit describe it as “” for education and argue it’s misleading to call it a voucher because the scholarships are funded by private donations — not federal funds directly. Still, tax experts predict the could range anywhere from $8 billion to more than $100 billion per year, and opponents hope to convince political leaders and the public that the program is a bad idea. 

“Whether you call it a voucher or a scholarship program … this is what’s going to happen,” former Education Secretary Miguel Cardona warned last month on a media call. “Public education dollars will be siphoned off to pay for vouchers for private schools that don’t have to accept all students. If students in many of these private schools struggle, they’re going to be sent back to these underfunded public schools.”

Others argue that private schools participating in choice programs aren’t subject to the same accountability and anti-discrimination requirements as public schools. 

“There are no testing requirements, no standards, no teacher certification mandates or any other mechanisms to ensure that participating private schools would provide an adequate education to students,” said Patrick Cremin, a staff attorney for the Education Law Center, which is opposed to the program. 

He doesn’t want blue states to be tempted by the fact that the federal program would also allow groups like BASIC to create scholarships for students in public schools. Families could put the money toward tutoring, books, therapies and technology — to name a few uses. Despite their “constitutional obligation to fund public schools,” there’s a risk, Cremin said, that states would shortchange districts if they expect taxpayers’ donations to cover some expenses.

Powerful political forces’

Because the tax credit doesn’t take effect for another year and a half, the debate over opting in could surface in the 38 states where voters will elect governors this year and next. 

For now, choice advocates in California, where voters are expected to elect another Democrat when term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom leaves office, aren’t hopeful about their prospects. Lizette Vallas, who runs a in Los Angeles, blamed the . 

“The California Teachers Association is one of the most powerful political forces in the state. Any legislation or opt-in mechanism that diverts funding — even indirectly — from public schools to private or nontraditional models is almost always met with unified resistance,” she said. “While federal policy is nudging open the door for school choice, California continues to reinforce the frame around its own tightly held model.”

David Goldberg, the association’s president, “a distraction.” 

In other states, like and , the race for governor is , meaning the federal tax credit has the potential to become a central campaign issue, said Joshua Cowen, a Michigan State University professor and Democrat who is also running for Congress.

The bill that included the tax credit is already causing budget challenges for state leaders, he said. Michigan, for one, is facing in extra costs in 2026 because the federal package cut tax rates and shifted some nutrition and health care spending to states.. 

As a Democrat, Cowen said his party needs a platform that focuses on prioritizing support for public schools, but he said even governors who have been dead set against vouchers may have to consider how the tax credit could support programs like afterschool tutoring. 

“States like mine are going to be desperate for new sources of revenue,” he said. “I could certainly see governors’ offices taking a look at this program — not because they necessarily love it —  but because you’ve got revenue problems caused by the same exact bill that’s authorizing this.” 

‘Families who are pinched the most’

Observers speculate that Pennsylvania could be the first blue state to opt in. came close to supporting an education savings account bill in 2023, and the state already offers two tax credit programs for corporations that donate to scholarships. 

A from the conservative Commonwealth Foundation showed that only about half of the students who applied for aid in Pennsylvania during the 2022-23 school year received it. Those figures, school choice advocates say, are further evidence that is soaring. 

Illinois, another Democrat-led state, had a tax credit scholarship program, serving about 15,000 students, until lawmakers allowed it to . Nonprofits and Republican lawmakers are now urging Gov. J.B. Pritzker to participate in the federal program. 

“Families and kids have borne the brunt of the program ending with many being unable to continue at their school or having to give up on the hope of attending their dream school,” said Bobby Sylvester, vice president of the Urban Center, a think tank. The tax credit “will cost Illinois nothing, but would make all the difference to the families who lost their scholarships.”

While not as as Illinois, Colorado is the home state of ACE, another network of scholarship granting organizations. About $400,000 of the more than $11 million it awards in scholarships each year in the state goes to Mullen High School in Denver. The Christian Brothers, a Catholic congregation providing education to the poor, originally founded the school in the 1930s as an orphanage. Today, the 800-student Catholic school serves “some very rich kids and some super poor kids,” said Raul Cardenas Jr., president and CEO.

The financial support from ACE, he said, has been especially helpful to middle-income families who otherwise wouldn’t be able to fit private school in their budget. Two years ago, when he reduced scholarship awards for families in that income bracket by just $1,000, several left the school. This coming school year, leaders, he said “were very intentional about addressing that gap,” and if Colorado opts into the program, he would further expand financial assistance to those families.

“It’s always middle income families who are pinched the most,” he said. “I see this as a way to really help them.”

Voters in the Centennial State have resisted private school choice. Colorado is one of where the issue failed at the ballot box last year. A constitutional amendment would have created a right to the full array of options, including private schools and “future innovations in education.” The vote was extremely close, 50% to 49%. In two previous state elections, voters more decisively rejected vouchers, by a 2-1 margin in and with 60% of the vote in . 

Colorado might only opt into the federal program if the Treasury Department allows states the flexibility to “carefully regulate” scholarship granting organizations, said Kevin Welner,  an education researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Gov. Jared Polis, or his successor in 2026, could find the tax credit acceptable if “students in public schools receive the same level of benefits” as those in private schools, he said. 

But Schilling, with American Federation for Children, would have a problem with states that approve organizations providing financial support to public school kids, but not those that supplement tuition at private schools.

“Blue state governors who want to remain in the good graces of the teachers’ unions may say ‘OK, I’ll opt in but we only want to serve students through public schools,’ ” he said. Regardless of which students the nonprofits want to serve, states, he said, “shouldn’t be picking and choosing.” 

The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) officially released the 2025–26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) on Nov. 21, 10 days before its Dec. 1 goal and three days after opening the form to all students and families as part of .

The online FAFSA form is available to all students and families at , and the paper form is also now available for students to submit.

“I’m pleased to announce that after four successful rounds of beta testing, the 2025–26 FAFSA form is now available to all students and families,”  U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “After months of hard work and lots of feedback from students, schools, and other stakeholders, we can say with confidence that FAFSA is working and will serve as the gateway to college access and affordability to millions of students.”

The beta testing for the 2025-26 FAFSA followed the rocky launch of the “Better FAFSA” , which saw multiple glitches and delays and caused stress for students and families seeking help paying for college.

While many students experienced delays, students from mixed-status families, or those whose parents don’t have a social security number, were . DOE officials previously told members of the press that “many” mixed-status students successfully submitted their applications during Beta 1, which started Oct. 1.

Beta 2 testing started on Oct. 15, and Beta 3 started in early November. The final stage of testing, Beta 4, started on Nov. 13, expanding the testing to thousands of additional students recruited by various community and education organizations. On Nov. 18, the DOE entered its final stage of beta testing, “Expanded Beta 4,” which allowed all students to submit forms.

According to , more than 167,000 students successfully submitted their 2025-26 FAFSA during the beta testing period. The Department has sent records to more than 5,200 schools across the U.S., the release said.

“Already, over 650,000 more applicants are eligible for Pell Grants, and more students are receiving Pell Grants, this school year compared to last year,” Cardona said. “We stand ready to help millions more students complete the FAFSA and get the financial aid they need to pursue their dreams of a college education.”

The College Foundation of North Carolina (CFNC) is encouraging students and families to fill out the FAFSA as soon as possible.

“Last year the FAFSA was revamped into a new form that delayed the process, and some families experienced issues submitting it,” CFNC said in a press release. “But so far this year the application process has been running smoothly, with no critical errors reported so far, so there is no need to wait to get started.”

The 2025–26 FAFSA form is available now for the award year that runs from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026. Here’s what you need to know about the FAFSA and how to apply.

How to apply

First, you’ll need to .

Your contributors will also need to create their own accounts. Your contributors are anyone required to provide information on your FAFSA form, such as your parents or your spouse.

If you are a student, you will be required to enter your Social Security number (SSN) to create a StudentAid.gov account unless you’re a citizen of the  (the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau).

If your contributors do not have a SSN, they can still create an account to complete their section of your FAFSA form. However, if your contributors do have a SSN, you are required to provide the number when inviting them to contribute to your FAFSA form.

Next, gather the documents needed to apply. The FAFSA asks for information about you (your name, date of birth, address, etc.) and your financial situation. Here are some examples of the information you might need:

• Your parents’ SSNs if they have SSNs and you’re a 
• Tax returns
• Records of child support received
• Current balances of cash, savings, and checking accounts
• Net worth of investments, businesses, and farms

The financial data determines a family’s expected out-of-pocket college payments. If those returns don’t reflect your current financial situation, you can file an appeal for a  with the school you plan to attend.

File your FAFSA form online at , by completing a  and mailing it, or by requesting a print-out of the FAFSA PDF at 1-800-433-3243 and mailing it. Check out this resource for information on .

If you need help filling out the FAFSA, you can speak with someone at the DOE’s contact center at 1-800-433-3243 or by live chat . The Department is also offering expanded FAFSA-only hours at the center Nov. 22 through March 2.

Students and families can reach agents at the contact center in English or in Spanish. Interpretation services in additional languages can be accessed .

Why the FAFSA matters

According to the CFNC, completing the FAFSA is “an important step toward paying for college.”

Completing a FAFSA makes you eligible for federal aid, , and previous Covid-19 relief. Many North Carolina colleges and universities also use the form to divvy up state aid.

Affordability is one of the main barriers to postsecondary attainment. The FAFSA helps many students access money for college they otherwise couldn’t. In North Carolina, , as of Sept. 27, 2024.

However, barriers to filling out the form exist for many students. , and first-generation prospective college students and their families also face barriers.

A lack of reliable internet access and language barriers can also be a challenge. Community colleges across the state have hosted FAFSA events to help provide in-person assistance filling out the forms.

“We are very fortunate to have our community colleges be an advocate for that,” Amy Denton, a regional representative at CFNC,

This year, CFNC is encouraging students and families to apply for the 2025-26 FAFSA early.

One reason is to maximize your financial aid opportunities. According to a CFNC release, some funding is allocated first-come, first-served, and some scholarships have early deadlines.

“So get all the aid you qualify for by submitting your FAFSA early,” the release says.

Applying early also means you will receive your financial aid package award letters sooner.

“Knowing how much federal, state and college-based aid you’re awarded can help you decide which options fit your budget,” CFNC said.

In North Carolina, applying for the FAFSA also automatically enrolls you for the . That scholarship covers tuition and fees at any North Carolina community college for students from families making $80,000 a year or less. If interested in a university, students can get a minimum of $5,000 towards tuition and fees at any of the 16 UNC system schools.

What to do if you don’t or can’t complete it

Most individual colleges have their own scholarship and aid dashboards.

While many need-based funds require a FAFSA, some allow other documentation of your financial situation. Many scholarships don’t require any financial documentation.

If you’re not a U.S. citizen, you might not . In this case, you can use your Alien Registration number to apply. Non-citizen students can also seek aid at individual colleges with funds that don’t require the FAFSA, like these resources at  and .

You can learn more about other FAFSA barriers .

More resources

The Department recently released several new resources to assist students and families in completing and submitting the FAFSA form during the 2025–26 cycle:

• : A new resource that explains what families and partners need to know about creating a StudentAid.gov account.
• : Updated tips for preparing to fill out and submitting the FAFSA form. This resource is also linked to the StudentAid.gov Dashboard to promote easier access for students and their required contributor(s).
• : Provides an estimate of the 2025–26 Student Aid Index (SAI) and Federal Pell Grant eligibility calculation.
• : A new, stand-alone tool to help students and families determine who will need to provide contributor information on the 2025–26 FAFSA form prior to starting the application.
• : Updated videos to help students and families understand the importance of the FAFSA form, who is a FAFSA contributor, and what happens after submitting the form.

Here are other resources:

• : Updated resources for school counselors, college access professionals, and mentors with information about the FAFSA process.
• : A list of known issues with the form updated in real-time as bugs are fixed in beta testing.
• FAFSA videos: Updated videos to help students and families understand the importance of the FAFSA, who is a FAFSA contributor, and what happens after submitting the form:

If you are a student reapplying for the FAFSA, your college’s counseling office is also a great resource.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

The White House, which has faced criticism for not doing enough for students who fell dramatically behind in math and reading, had something to show for it Thursday. An estimated 323,000 college students, volunteers and school staff signed up — not only exceeding the administration’s goal, but hitting it ahead of schedule. 

“This problem is not getting solved by somebody in Washington D.C. We launched the vision. We sent out money,” Deputy Secretary of Education Cindy Marten said at an event to celebrate the milestone. But those resources, she said, “helped to galvanize” volunteers and staff at the local level. “I’m proud that we can see the results of this collective effort.”

In the 2023-24 school year, over a quarter of principals reported offering more tutoring, mentoring or other support services than they did the previous year, according to a of over a thousand school leaders released ahead of the event. In all, roughly 24,500 schools added an average of 5.5 additional adults focused on supporting students.

While it’s too early to determine what effect the extra help had on student performance, over 30% of principals said they were able to employ research-backed, high-dosage tutoring, according to from the Rand Corp. That means trained tutors worked with the same students over time for at least 90 minutes per week.

Demand for tutors has received significant national attention, given students’ steep decline in learning. But the White House count also reflects a variety of added positions, including mentors to help re-engage chronically absent students and those who help students navigate college applications. About $20 million in federal relief money, flowing through AmeriCorps, the national service organization, fueled the partnership’s work. Districts also dipped in to other COVID funding to support the extra positions.

But the initiative, led by the National Partnership for Student Success at Johns Hopkins University, faces an uncertain future. Districts are using up what’s left of that money, and Republicans want to for AmeriCorps, as they have for years.

“One hundred percent depends on the election,” said Robert Balfanz, the Johns Hopkins professor who leads the partnership. He expects the effort to continue “in some form” if Vice President Kamala Harris wins. 

It’s unclear whether Donald Trump would do the same, but the educational effects of the pandemic will linger regardless of who’s in office, he said. 

“We have kids that are disengaged. We have kids that have greater out-of-school problems. We have kids that are more confused about what they want to do after high school,” Balfanz said. “It’s very hard to address those kids with your school staff alone.” 

Launched six months after U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona issued the charge for more tutors, the initiative serves as a hub for connecting local groups and individuals to schools that need them. Some leaders from the partnership’s national network of 200 districts have tried new strategies to motivate students.

In hopes of reducing a chronic absenteeism rate of about 30%, Principal Scott Hale at Johnstown High School, north of Albany, New York, tapped existing staff members, like teaching assistants, secretaries and coaches, to serve as mentors.

“Success mentors” at the school are matched with students to better understand why they’re absent and what incentives might lure them back. Keeping track of absences on a simple paper calendar drives home how quickly they can add up, Hale said.

“Many students don’t realize how many days they have missed until they see it,” he said. Reducing schoolwide chronic absenteeism has been tough, he added. But over half of the 125 students with mentors increased their attendance. “To see a kid improve from 80 absences to 30 is a huge win for us.”

‘Must be doing the right thing’ 

College students, who saw their own educations disrupted by the pandemic, have been integral to school recovery efforts, said Josh Fryday, for California Volunteers. 

“This generation experienced COVID in high school,” Fryday said. “I think they understand how important it is to be connected and have this extra support.”

Devin Blankenship was among those who signed up for the organization’s College Corps. She was earning a degree in sociology from Vanguard University, south of Los Angeles, and wanted some nonprofit experience. To avoid commuting through Los Angeles traffic, she took a virtual tutoring position with Los Angeles-based Step Up Tutoring. 

Over the next year, she worked with a third grader from the Los Angeles Unified School District whose reading skills had been so severely impacted by school closures that he barely knew letter sounds. Before she could focus on a lesson, another student confided in Blankenship about getting bullied at school.

“Students told me they were excited to come to tutoring for that hour,” she said. “I said, ‘Wow, I must be doing the right thing.’ ” 

Blankenship’s experience also points to some of the challenges tutors have faced, especially in a district as large as Los Angeles. At times, she didn’t know where to go with questions about helping a student or working with a family. She said she had to initiate Zoom or phone calls with her supervisor for answers. 

There were also moments when she felt ill-equipped to help. She recalls watching YouTube videos on improper fractions late at night while trying to meet a midnight deadline for a college paper.

“I was like, ‘Man, I wish there were tutoring sessions for me,’ ” she said.

With interest in a career in education, she sometimes felt frustrated that she didn’t have more interaction with students’ teachers. But those limitations didn’t drive Blankenship away. She now works as a teaching assistant in a special education class at Palms Elementary School in Perris, California, east of Los Angeles. She’s part of a program that fast-tracks interns into classroom positions to help address a teaching shortage.

‘Solved the problem’ 

In addition to giving future teachers practical experience, the national effort has spawned connections between tutoring organizations and college students looking for work. 

Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, struggled while schools were closed to find community service jobs for its students. Then an official who runs its federal work-study program learned about Step Up Tutoring through a local .

Pepperdine was “really interested in partnering with Step Up because we solved the problem for them,” said Sam Olivieri, Step Up’s CEO. “We were able during COVID to fill those community service slots through a virtual program.”

Word of their partnership spread and Step Up Tutoring now draws college students from 17 institutions. Virtual tutoring options have helped universities meet Cardona’s 2023 for higher education leaders to spend 15% of their work-study funds on community service — more than double the .

Olivieri thinks that the higher commitment from colleges to helping K-12 students will be a “durable” impact of the partnership’s work. 

Rand’s data shows that despite the additional funding and personnel, a third of principals said only some of the students who needed the services received them.

“The waters are not receding,” Balfanz said at the event. “The challenge remains.”

WASHINGTON — U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announced last month he is launching a “2024 Back to School Bus Tour” that will include stops in multiple battleground states across the United States as he and other Biden administration officials highlight their work in investing in public education.

While not a campaign event, the Sept. 3-6 tour will take place in the swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, along with stops in Indiana and Illinois. As schools are getting back in session, the department said Cardona, Deputy Secretary of Education Cindy Marten and Under Secretary of Education  will shed light on the administration’s “commitment to helping students and communities recover from the impacts of the pandemic by improving academic achievement and succeed from cradle to college and career.”

Cardona said “this year’s Back to School Bus Tour will remind the American people why the Biden-Harris Administration has unapologetically fought for public education, the foundation of opportunity in this country, and the contrast between our efforts and those who wish to destroy public education,” per a statement.

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The Education secretary added that he is “looking forward to lifting up what’s working in public education and celebrating the exciting work taking place in our schools and communities to ensure that all students, no matter their race, place, or background, have opportunities to succeed and contribute to our country.”

Cardona and other officials will be talking about some of the Biden administration’s initiatives in education, such as promoting the importance of regular attendance, providing student debt relief — including through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program — expanding full-service community schools and widening mental health support access at schools.

The department said it has invested more than $357 billion under the Biden administration to “strengthen education across America.”

This year’s tour, with a “Fighting for Public Education” theme, will kick off in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Sept. 3. Other stops in the Badger State will include Madison and Milwaukee. The Education Department said White House domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden and Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will also be at some of the stops.

Officials will also visit Chicago, Illinois, and La Porte, Indiana.

Cardona and other administration officials will then take the tour to Michigan, with stops in Grand Rapids, Lansing and Detroit. Becky Pringle, president of the , will join the tour in Grand Rapids, according to the department. NEA is the largest labor union in the country.

The tour will wrap up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and feature U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. Both the �����Ի��� have endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, the vice president.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com. Follow Iowa Capital Dispatch on and .

The Supreme Court on Friday denied the Biden administration’s request to allow its new Title IX rule to be partially implemented in 10 states.

In a , the justices agreed with the appellate courts that the parts related to LGBTQ students “are not readily severable from the remaining provisions” and that it would be difficult for schools “to apply the rule for a temporary period with some provisions in effect and some enjoined.”

For now, that means 26 states and hundreds of schools in other states can’t enforce the rule.  Meanwhile, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has scheduled oral arguments in one of the lawsuits challenging the new rule for October. The court will hear  from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. 

New protections against sexual harassment and discrimination, including for LGBTQ students, went into effect in less than half the country on Thursday as legal challenges to the Biden administration’s Title IX rewrite pile up.

Nonetheless, in a webinar with district and college officials, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona called the new rule a major “milestone” and the “culmination of a lengthy and thorough process that included unprecedented public input.” He also noted resistance from Republicans in a legal battle that changes almost daily.

“I want to loudly and unapologetically reject any efforts to politicize Title IX or efforts to sow more division in our country,” he said. “These rules are about living up to America’s highest ideals.”

On Wednesday, federal courts blocked the regulation in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Oklahoma, bringing to 26 the total number of GOP-led states where schools are still operating under the 2020 Trump-era rule. Further demonstrating the uncharted territory in which the long-awaited rule takes effect, hundreds of schools and colleges in blue states are also prohibited from implementing it under a court order that applies to children of members of the conservative Moms for Liberty organization  and students involved in two other advocacy groups.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the department to move ahead with most of the rule in 10 states except for provisions related to trans students that have caused the most controversy. By Thursday morning, the court still had not acted on those appeals. 

One of President Joe ��������’s earliest priorities, the new rule extends protections to LGBTQ students and requires schools to promptly investigate accusations of sexual misconduct and discrimination. But every Republican attorney general who sued to stop implementation until the courts weigh the legal merits of the rule got their wish. 
The overhaul replaced the rule issued under former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, which required live hearings so male students could face their accusers and narrowed the types of complaints that schools had to investigate. Republicans argue that the administration had no authority to apply a about protections for LGBTQ employees in the workplace to a law intended to provide equal educational opportunities for women.

Conservatives have directed much of their opposition to a draft rule for trans students’ participation in sports, but the Education Department has not finalized it yet.

“This Title IX rule is a slap in the face to the women and girls who prepare for competition and will now have to compete on an uneven playing field,” North Carolina Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx, chair of the House education committee, said Wednesday on a call with the Independent Women’s Forum. The advocacy organization joined over the rule filed by Alabama, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina. “This rule is unjust and directly in conflict with athletics’ core principles of integrity and fairness.”

The rapidly changing legal landscape has created a chaotic rollout, especially in districts where the rule can be implemented in some schools, but not others, like serving children of Moms for Liberty members.

“The mixed messages coming from state officials have been detrimental to not just implementation of the rule, but also to broader efforts to create safer school environments,” said Brian Dittmeier, the director of public policy for GLSEN, which advocates for LGBTQ students in K-12 schools. “Families have been long awaiting clarity about the protections available to them. From the administrative side, folks really want to move forward and implement the rule.”

LGBTQ students are less likely than straight students to report bullying and sexual harassment, he said. But they are more likely to file complaints when school policies expressly say they are protected. Among the resources the department issued last week are nondiscrimination statements. 

In schools where the new rule is implemented, “you’ll likely see higher rates of reporting,” among LGBTQ students, Dittmeier said, “and then school staff are accountable for that.” 

Compared to the 2020 rule, the rewritten regulations “fill troubling gaps,” said Catherine Lhamon, assistant education secretary for civil rights. The previous rule focused more on sexual harassment, while the 2024 provisions address sex discrimination more broadly, including protections for pregnant and parenting students and employees. 

As for the provisions regarding LGBTQ students, she said, “We anticipated this moment when we were finalizing the 2024 regulations and we know they are legally sound.”

The DeVos rule defined a hostile environment as being “severe, pervasive and objectively offensive.” The new rule lowers the bar a bit, stating that such harassment can be  subjective and either severe or pervasive enough to prevent a student from participating in learning or other school-related programs and activities.

Opponents of the rule object the most to three specific sections — one that says sex discrimination includes LGBTQ students, another that states trans students can use locker rooms and restrooms that match their gender identity and a third discussing “hostile-environment harassment.” 

Some states, , already have laws allowing trans students to use the bathrooms or locker rooms where they are most comfortable. In those cases, that practice can continue even in schools with children of Moms for Liberty members. San Diego Unified, for example, has 23 schools on the list. 

The injunction “does not create a new law that would supersede state law,” explained W. Scott Lewis, managing partner with TNG Consulting, which trains districts across the country on Title IX. 

But under the injunction, a student would not be able to file a Title IX claim if a teacher doesn’t use their new name or pronoun. 

For now, the courts are only deciding whether states can delay implementation, and experts say if arguments over the rule itself eventually reach the Supreme Court, it likely won’t happen until 2025. But Dittmeier said none of the injunctions keep LGBTQ students from filing complaints or lawsuits under the old rule or other legal provisions.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, for example, that a trans girl in West Virginia, who sued under the 2020 rule and brought an equal protection claim, can continue to compete on a girls cross-country track team. The state has the case to the Supreme Court. 

States suing over the rule are “exposing themselves to greater litigation risk because students can still sue them for failure to ensure their civil rights,” he said. “While the new rule is significant, it is not the only remedy available to LGBTQ students.”

The proposed Academic Acceleration and Achievement Grants, part of the administration’s for fiscal year 2025, would target three strategies Education Secretary Miguel Cardona highlighted in January — addressing chronic absenteeism, offering high-impact tutoring and extending learning afterschool and during the summer. 

In a call with reporters, an education department official said the competitive grant program would help put the recovery efforts districts launched with relief dollars “on an even faster track and sustain the improvements that states have put into place.” But to make space for the administration’s priorities, leaders are recommending a few cuts, including a $40 million reduction to a program that provides start-up funds for charter schools.

The announcement of the grant program follows the showing most students still haven’t caught up to pre-pandemic performance levels. But with the current fiscal year budget still delayed by partisan over spending for defense and the IRS, advocates acknowledged that passing a substantial new program will be tough.

The proposal will face “the political realities of heading into an election year and the limitations of the budget,” said Nakia Towns, chief operating officer of Accelerate, a national initiative funding tutoring research and programs. The organization’s leaders began discussing how to provide new funds for tutoring efforts with department officials and the White House last fall, Towns said. But she added that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed concerns about students struggling to catch up.

“Everybody has been in agreement that kids still need more support, schools still need more support for learning recovery,” she said. “Now it’s about what actually gets over the goal posts in the budget process.”

Overall, the Education Department is asking for $82 billion for next fiscal year — a $3.1 billion increase. The proposal keeps spending in line with the caps enacted last year in a to avoid the federal government defaulting on its financial obligations. In his comments, Cardona contrasted the Biden administration’s track record on education with that of his presidential challenger Donald Trump and his Republican colleagues in Congress. 

“This is a budget request that comes on top of three years of historic investments proposed by President Biden and delivered with support from many in Congress,” he said. “It blows the Trump budgets out of the water.”

It includes $18.6 billion for Title I, a $200 million increase over the current 2023 level; a $25 million preschool grant program; and $14.4 billion for special education, also a $200 million increase.

But to keep spending within the federal spending limit, the department targeted the Charter Schools Program, recommending a $40 million cut to the $440 million program. In response, Eric Paisner, acting president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said the budget proposal “falls disappointingly short of prioritizing public charter schools and public educational options for parents who are looking for something better.”

The National Parents Union also criticized the move, saying the program “has played a vital role in empowering communities to establish public, accountable schools tailored to the unique needs of students.”

But the advocacy group welcomed the new competitive grant program, calling it part of the administration’s “deep-seated commitment to not only recovering from the setbacks of recent years, but also to advancing our educational system to new heights.”

The proposal is unlikely to receive a friendly reception in the House, where the Republican majority has frequently reminded the public of the harmful impact of long school closures, particularly in blue states and cities with strong teachers unions. During a , some members suggested districts had either or have little to show for the historic investment.

“I think it unlikely that congressional Republicans would want to shower another $8 billion on school systems,” said Rick Hess, director of education policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “Schools took far too long to open, express any urgency about absenteeism or learning loss, or start trying to convince the public and policymakers that the dollars were being spent effectively.”

In a statement, North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx, who chairs the House education committee, said the budget plan “would gobble up more taxpayer dollars without any shred of accountability.”

Charting ‘a path forward’

Towns, former deputy superintendent for the Gwinnett County Public Schools, near Atlanta, noted that the American Rescue Plan, which required districts to spend 20% of their funds to address learning loss, lacked requirements to ensure the dollars were spent on effective programs. 

Accelerate, however, has urged the administration to ask for more data from districts so they can demonstrate that “kids are getting the intensity and consistency of tutoring that we know is needed in order for it to actually make a difference,” she said. 

Many districts used relief funds to implement strong tutoring programs, added Liz Cohen, policy director at FutureEd, a think tank at Georgetown University. In January, FutureEd released her report highlighting some of those efforts, including Teach for America’s Ignite program, which this year has over 1,500 college students tutoring 3,500 elementary and middle school students in 21 states. 

She also noted Texas’s Ector County Independent School District, which implemented a contract that rewards tutoring providers with higher pay if students make significant progress.

“There is so much great tutoring happening already and I would love to see us learn from what’s working right now as we chart a path forward,” Cohen said.

One sign that districts are more focused on results for students is the growth of , a technology company that offers an online platform for districts to store tutoring data, such as the number of sessions scheduled and whether students attend. The business received a from Accelerate in 2022. 

Some states and districts initially signed contracts with online, on-demand tutoring providers, but research later showed that students often didn’t use the services. Pearl founder John Failla said he’s noticed greater interest in districts using models that experts recommend.

“All of our data is pointing towards states and districts wanting to run their own programs with their own tutors … versus working with online vendors,” he said.

Almost 450 districts now use the system, with the number of sessions growing from about 13,600 in February 2023 to almost 80,000 a year later.

Cohen added that GOP-led states are among those that have made tutoring and summer learning programs a high priority. Tennessee launched its tutoring program in 2020, which is expected to reach 200,000 students by this summer. And Alabama has concentrated recovery efforts during the summer, with .

As they weigh the president’s budget request, Cohen said she hopes “Republicans choose to consider the success we’ve seen in many red states.”

A newly-revamped online application requires at least one parent to independently log in and sign the form. But the system wouldn’t verify his father’s Social Security number. When his mother tried, “it just gave us an error message,” he said. 

Those are among the snags that thousands of students are experiencing due to delays with the rollout of the new FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The U.S. Department of Education overhauled the form last year for the first time since the mid-1980s. The changes were supposed to simplify the process and make more low-income students eligible for aid, but students now face a time crunch. Many have already received college admission offers, but don’t know how much financial aid they could receive. Others haven’t been able to complete the application because of computer glitches. And some have watched the disarray and are hesitant to apply at all.

On Tuesday, the department offered a temporary solution for students like Martinez that allows parents to complete their portion of the form, but it could be March before a complete fix is available. The problems help explain why the number of students completing the FAFSA is from last year — and why the department is under bipartisan pressure to speed up the process,

“I fear that many of these students may not attend college this fall due to the frustration of submitting the FAFSA and the delay in receiving aid offers,” said Tam Doane, an adviser with  , a Colorado Springs nonprofit that works to improve college enrollment rates. 

In recent weeks, federal officials have to help the nation’s universities catch up with some of the four million new federal financial aid forms submitted since the new application opened in January. 

They have assigned federal staff to institutions serving high-need populations and set aside $50 million for nonprofits that specialize in financial aid. But some advocates would like some of the money to go to organizations like Peak, or for the department to create another pot of funding forK-12 districts. 

“We’d like to see summer support hours … and more resources to support counseling right now,” said Catherine Brown, senior director of policy and advocacy for the National College Attainment Network, whose members  include school districts and nonprofits.

Federal officials say they are providing “targeted outreach” to K-12 districts and nonprofit groups and have created that shows administrators how many students in their high schools have completed the FAFSA. For parents, they’re holding webinars to explain the changes and answer questions, including one set for . 

Carlos Jiménez, CEO of Peak Education, isn’t surprised by students’ low completion rates.

“They’re like, ‘[The application] just opened, and I’ve got some time,’ or ‘It’s a mess, so I’m going to wait a little bit longer to figure it out,’ ” he said. “Hearing about how it’s been bungled adds a layer of anxiety.” 

‘A broken system’

The changes that are overwhelming the system are the result of a 2020 law that . It now includes fewer questions and is intended to make more low-income students eligible for the maximum Pell Grant amount. But the form is usually available in October — not January — and the department said it won’t begin to colleges until mid-March, giving students less time to make  decisions.

Advocates and members of Congress fear the delays are harming students that the revisions were supposed to help the most. 

Republicans called the implementation “botched” and asked the , a watchdog agency, to investigate. 

The situation has also roused the ire of Congressional , who last week asked Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to ensure that low-income students most in need of financial aid won’t be further harmed by these delays. 

Cardona, in a call with reporters earlier this month, said the work is complex.

“We’re completely overhauling a broken system,” he said. Ultimately, he added, the new process will be “transformational.” “When we make FAFSA simpler and easier, we make the decision to pursue higher education simpler and easier.” 

Those aren’t the words Priya Linson would use to describe this year’s process. 

“Students have reported that their family is sitting on a helpline for hours until it literally times out and they get disconnected,” said Linson, executive director of OneGoal Chicago, a nonprofit helping students like Martinez prepare for college. “That’s the kind of experience that is pushing students to wait or potentially just question if this is even the right decision.” 

Students whose parents are noncitizens have been most affected. Without s, they can still submit a paper form, but that just creates more delays, Jiménez said. 

“If you have ever sent a paper form to the government, you know that’s going to be a four-to-six-week process,”  he said. “That’s a real disadvantage if you’re trying to make a decision on where you’re going to college.” 

At two high schools, Peak runs “blitz sessions” in the computer lab every Wednesday to help students create the usernames and passwords needed to complete the form. Doane, the Peak adviser, gets students to take out their phones and locate the most recent FAFSA messages. 

In some cases, she said, once a parent electronically signs the online form, the student’s signature is removed and they can’t make corrections. 

“It will be months — and additional work — before they know what federal aid they may be eligible for,” she said. Some students, she added, might miss out on scholarships as well. 

In Illinois, counselors have asked administrators to fund summer hours to help students after they receive financial aid offers, said Vince Walsh-Rock, executive director of the Illinois School Counselor Association.

But Jiménez, with Peak, said organizations already set to work over the summer need additional funding to help more students.

“You’re asking [counselors] to either volunteer or get extra hours if you have some money,” he said. “Maybe they would do that, but maybe it’s, ‘Hey, it’s been a tough year. I care about my kids, but I’m out.'”  

Higher education have asked colleges to push their enrollment deadlines past the traditional May 1 “decision day” so families have more time to consider financial aid offers. Some university systems have already . 

But delaying some deadlines, Linson said, doesn’t mean schools will be flexible about tuition deposits, housing arrangements and “all of the other things that pile up once a student gets admitted.”

In a November , Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona encouraged chief state school officers to rethink state assessment programs and offered guidance on how to do it using the Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority. This program, tucked into the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, allows approved states to pilot new assessment approaches and to scale them statewide over time.  

Although the authority has been around for nearly a decade, many chiefs have shrugged it off as irrelevant — having too many requirements, affording too little time and providing no additional funding for exploring new methods of assessment. Only a few states have bothered to apply; of those, some were not selected, and two that were felt and dropped out. 

But in Cardona’s letter, we see a fresh federal desire to support states with assessment innovation, through the authority or otherwise. And that matters if states are to finally create to measure learning and report progress that is relevant and meaningful — not just to federal policymakers, but also to educators, students and families. 

Two things stood out to us. In addition to clarifying flexibilities in some of the technical requirements, the letter encourages chiefs to enter planning status with the department before submitting a formal application, and to pursue funding through other federal programs.

Combined with other indications, like the recent permitting Montana to pilot a program that administers smaller tests throughout the year instead of the current end-of-year assessment, the department is signaling that it wants to make assessment reform more feasible. 

How might state leaders seize the moment? We suggest four steps:

First, take the pulse of impacted communities.

State leaders should begin by understanding how people at different levels of the education system see the benefits and drawbacks of current assessment and accountability methods. It’s important to know who favors change (and who doesn’t) and to address concerns early on. 

Chiefs could do this through familiar methods like listening tours and town hall meetings, or go a step further to create design teams of students, parents, community advocates, educators and technical experts. Smart partnerships with organizations that convene and build the skills of district leaders, school leaders and educators; research institutions; research institutions; and leaders from the governor’s office, legislature and state Board of Education can also support assessment design and implementation.

Kentucky is one state that has successfully pursued this approach. After leading a Commissioner’s Listening Tour, Kentucky partnered with the Center for Innovation in Education to launch a tasked with co-creating a new vision for education. 

Engaging many parties to collaboratively design new assessment and accountability models helps build public and political will for change. People begin to support a new system when they see their needs and concerns represented in it — or, at least, when they feel listened to and understand the rationale for inevitable compromises.

Second, start a dialogue with the U.S. Department of Education.

Once state leaders have engaged design collaborators, they should reach out to the department to start a dialogue about their ideas. Then, they should make a formal request to enter planning status. Cardona’s letter clarifies that states can do this even if their vision for innovative assessments — and with it, their formal intention to apply to the authority — is still emerging. We see planning status as a low-stakes arrangement that states can request without having to complete a full proposal.

In this way, states can receive feedback on their nascent assessment designs. And, while non-binding, planning status can confer some formality to a state’s intentions, which can help garner support and funding back home.

Third, states should leverage other federal programs for funding.

Cardona’s letter suggests that states don’t have to fund assessment innovation entirely on their own; instead, it invites leaders to consider other federal funding sources, particularly the Competitive Grants for State Assessments program. Kentucky is one state that’s using program funds received in 2022 to design a new model for school and district accountability based on what it learns from districts that are piloting competency-based assessments of learning. The new state system that emerges may become codified in a future application. 

Other federal grant programs, such as school improvement funds in Title I, may be even more useful in supporting local engagement in assessment innovation, as this money could be used in pre-planning and preparing to apply to the grant program.

Fourth, they should seek federal flexibility.

It’s true that states can layer new tests on top of federally mandated assessments without needing federal approval, or just charge ahead and ask forgiveness later. But we believe there’s now a more viable path toward having conversations about innovation out in the open. That’s how states can create a single that generates information useful for state-level oversight while adding value to teaching and learning in the classroom.

State education leaders should move quickly, if they haven’t already started. They need to hit the ground running and start engaging communities across the state, gathering eager innovators, listening to myriad perspectives and learning from one another. Windows of opportunity can open and close as supporters move in and out of positions of influence, but a groundswell of local demand is hard to ignore. 

We have seen how bold, sustained leadership that is informed and supported by changemakers on the ground can convince federal authorities to give something new a try. New Hampshire proved that in 2015 with its for the Performance Assessment of Competency Education pilot, and we think the department is even more open-minded today. 

One thing is certain: State education leaders can’t stand still. They must heed the department’s strong signals – and put them to the test.

“These three strategies have one central goal — giving students more time and more support to succeed,” U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Wednesday at a White House gathering to outline the president’s K-12 agenda. “We’ll use all the tools at our disposal to advance these three pillars.”

The event, featuring three governors and three state chiefs, highlighted successful efforts to spend pandemic relief funds on proven models, like to improve student attendance and the that now reaches 245 of the state’s 600 districts. The administration aims to make sure more states and districts are implementing effective programs.

But some feel there was scant attention to the role of families in such efforts. 

“Amidst all the happy talk, there was no mention that far too many families seem unconvinced that they need to send students to school regularly, or to engage in additional learning opportunities,” said Nat Malkus, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. The “supply side” of the equation — offering extra opportunities for learning — won’t make any difference if parents don’t see the value, he said.

Since the pandemic, researchers have documented a disconnect between parents and educators over pandemic learning loss. A University of Southern California study released in December documented what some have called an “urgency gap,” with parents expressing little alarm over long-term effects of school closures. 

Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, said there are other reasons why students aren’t in class everyday or aren’t taking advantage of tutoring opportunities. Schools, she said, aren’t giving students enough reasons to be there.

“Kids are watching movies and listening to people read books on YouTube in the classroom,” she said. And studies conducted in the wake of the pandemic show schools are requiring less effort from students. “Grade inflation will get you a C without even showing up.” 

An analysis of federal data from Attendance Works and the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University shows that roughly 14 million students were chronically absent during the 2021-22 school year, with significant increases among Latino students and those in suburban and rural districts. 

The administration hopes to reverse those trends by encouraging more states to regularly track chronic absenteeism and plans to publish examples from districts using strategies such as text messages and home visits. The White House urged more states to include chronic absenteeism as an indicator in their state accountability plans. Currently, 14 states don’t, according to the department.

Officials also outlined ways to use the department’s existing accountability structure under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act to push research-based tutoring programs. A growing points to models that connect students with the same tutor at least three times a week.

The department plans to monitor whether states with tutoring programs ensure that low-performing schools use high-dosage models. And the White House said states should to districts where test scores still trail pre-COVID performance.

“My guess is they have seen states sign contracts for large-scale online homework help, which isn’t evidence-driven,” said Kevin Huffman, CEO of Accelerate, which last year awarded $1 million each to five states to support high-dosage tutoring.

To Phillip Lovell, associate executive director at All4Ed, a nonprofit advocacy group, ��������’s agenda signals a shift from using federal relief funds effectively to ensuring successful programs continue to reach students in the lowest-performing schools. While the department is offering states the for an extension, the pandemic aid officially expires later this year. 

“The reality is that it is going to take much longer than the amount of time states and districts have to spend [relief] dollars to recover academically,” Lovell said. 

The it plans to run grant competitions supporting a long list of programs — not just tutoring, but also afterschool programs, and math and literacy coaching for teachers. But funding those programs is still up to Congress, which has not yet reached agreement on the budget for this fiscal year. 

Beyond monitoring districts’ use of Title I funds and promoting best practices, the administration was unclear about what other “tools” it might use to get districts to implement evidence-based programs. But some state leaders wish the department could do more to hold districts accountable. 

“I could use some help getting schools to really understand the value,” said New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishamsaid, joining the event remotely. She said “far too many” districts in her state weren’t offering extended learning programs or high-dosage tutoring. “It has been harder than it ought to be to get everybody on the same page dedicated to improved outcomes and well-being for New Mexico students.”

WASHINGTON — Community colleges and four-year universities can work together to improve the transfer student experience, a data report from the U.S. Department of Education suggests.

The U.S. Department of Education released  about the institutions where transfer students have the highest graduation rates in each state, with New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Maryland, and Virginia doing the best. At the other end were South Dakota, Delaware, Indiana, New Mexico, and Louisiana.

The announcement of this report came in conjunction with a November summit featuring  of higher education leaders, at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Virginia.

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The Department of Education data highlighted an ongoing problem of poor graduation outcomes among college transfer students.

While attending community college has become increasingly common for students in recent decades, schools have not accommodated their practices to match this demand, said Josh Wyner, who is a founder and executive director of the College Excellence Program at the Aspen Institute.

“When community colleges only educated a small percentage of Americans back in the 1950s and before, there just weren’t a lot of students that were starting at community college and moving onto a four-year school,” Wyner said.

Today, about  attend community colleges, Wyner said, and most of them plan to earn a bachelor’s degree.

In a  announcing the Northern Virginia summit and data report, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said there needs to be increased support for transfer students.

“Our current higher education system stacks the deck against community college students who aspire to earn four-year degrees — denying acceptance of their credits, forcing them to retake courses, and ultimately making their educational journeys longer and costlier than they need to be,” Cardona said in the press release.

Pairing two-year and four-year institutions

The Department of Education data also focus on the “dyads,” or community college and four-year institution pairings, that have the highest graduation rates for transfer students.

The report particularly highlights the “top-performing” partnership between Northern Virginia Community College, known as NOVA, and George Mason University’s  program. George Mason is a public four-year institution in Fairfax, Virginia.

ADVANCE, launched in 2018, aims to improve the transfer experience and graduation rates for students, said Jennifer Nelson, director of university transfer and initiatives at NOVA.

Of the students who transferred from NOVA to George Mason University, 13% graduated with a bachelor’s degree within eight years, according to the Department of Education.

Jason Dodge, the executive director of ADVANCE at George Mason University and NOVA, said there are about 4,500 students in the ADVANCE program.

Nelson said that when ADVANCE was first developed in 2017, four key goals were defined to help transfer students. These goals “tend to be the hallmarks” of why students participate in the program, Nelson said.

First, the program seeks to increase associate’s and bachelor’s degree attainment for transfer students, since “completion leads to completion,” Nelson said. The program aims to decrease the amount of time spent earning a degree, as well as lower the cost to do so, Nelson said.

The fourth goal of the program is to increase support for transfer students, including academic advising, Nelson said.

Nelson and Dodge said the ADVANCE program’s collaboration between schools is what makes it special.

“This is a 50/50 program,” Nelson said. “Every decision that’s made regarding this program is a joint decision.”

Support for transfer students

Nelson said the ADVANCE program offers a “streamlined admission process” for community college students seeking to transfer from NOVA to George Mason.

Students join the program early in their time at NOVA, before they have completed over 30 credit hours, Nelson said. Transfer students can spend “no more than five minutes” to complete the ADVANCE program’s free declaration form, Nelson said.

The final part of a student’s onboarding process is to select a curricular pathway, or their major, Nelson said. This pathway serves as a “guide” for transfer students as they work to earn their associate’s degree and move on to George Mason University, Nelson said.

There is no transfer application or application fee for students in the ADVANCE program, which makes the transition process “seamless” for students, Dodge said.

ADVANCE offers financial aid specifically for these transfer students, and has so far awarded over $2 million in scholarships and grants to participating students at NOVA and GMU, Dodge said.

In addition to having an academic adviser and access to resources at both institutions, students in the ADVANCE program have a coach. This coach “serves as a student’s primary point of contact for the program,” Nelson said.

Nelson said the coach helps make sure the students are sticking to their pathways and taking the right classes, as well as helps connect students to resources at both institutions.

These certified coaches recognize “that what happens outside of the classroom has a direct impact on a student’s ability to excel inside of the classroom,” Nelson said.

Patterns in transfer student data

Wyner said he sees “similar patterns” between his research with the Community College Research Center on National Student Clearinghouse data and the Department of Education’s data.

The data collected from the National Student Clearinghouse represent 90% of college students, which is more inclusive than the Department of Education’s data report, Wyner said. The Department of Education’s data only represent students who receive financial aid, he said.

Wyner was a presenter at the Department of Education’s November summit at NOVA.

The first pattern, Wyner said, is that both data sets showcase low graduation rates for community college students transferring to four-year universities.

The second pattern is “incredibly variable bachelor’s attainment rates among dyads of institutions,” Wyner said, and these variations exist even within state lines.

“That huge variation, even within states, says that what matters is institutional practice,” Wyner said.

Wyner said that while state policies can make a difference, it’s concerning that “some institutions are doing radically better than others” within the same state. This is “troubling,” he said, because a student’s chance of graduation appears to be tied to the dyad they attend.

If a transfer student attends a community college-university pair with lower graduation rates, that student has “a very small chance of getting a bachelor’s degree,” he said.

“It shouldn’t be a matter of luck as to where you enter community college, in terms of whether you’re ultimately going to get a bachelor’s degree,” Wyner said.

Ensuring success

Wyner said that after the Pell Grant program was established in the 1970s, community college enrollment “dramatically increased” after primarily serving as “access institutions.”

Despite this surge of community college enrollments, “colleges fundamentally didn’t change their practices,” Wyner said.

Community colleges have since been focused on helping students complete their associate degree, but “haven’t worked as hard as they needed to make sure that students succeed after they graduate, that they actually go on to earn the bachelor’s degree that they came for in the first place,” Wyner said.

Four-year universities have primarily focused on first-year student enrollments, Wyner said, even though “the community college population of freshmen and sophomores in our country is as big as the one that starts at four-year schools.”

“Our systems have not caught up to the realities of where students enter college,” Wyner said.

Four-year universities also prioritize first-year students over transfer students when it comes to financial aid, Wyner said.

Steps toward transfer student success

With the Community College Research Center, Wyner has studied the colleges with high and improving success rates of transfer students.

These schools demonstrated three characteristics that made this success possible, he said. The colleges prioritize transfer students, create defined programs of study “that extend from the community college into the four-year school with clear course sequences and strong learning outcomes,” as well as offer advising tailored to transfer students, Wyner said.

The first step to improving transfer student success is for leaders at both community colleges and universities to come together and analyze transfer student population data, Wyner said.

Wyner said that schools can further prioritize transfer students by bringing together faculty from individual areas of study from both the two-year- and four-year colleges for shared discussions. This can help ensure that those programs of study are “perfectly well-aligned” for a smooth transition from the community college to the four-year college, he said.

“They need to sit down and say, ‘Alright, we’re gonna map out exactly the courses students should take, and we’re going to work hard together to make sure that we’re aligned on our expectations for students and that we’re delivering what students need,’ ” Wyner said.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Diane Rado for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on and .

Since 2021, the company has seen more than a tenfold increase in sales from government contracts, primarily with school districts — from $174,000 to $2.13 million, according to , a data service. The , and Akron, Ohio, districts are among those requiring all middle and high school students to slip their phones into the rubbery envelopes each morning and unlock them with a magnet at the end of the day.

“All signs point to 2024 being even busier,” said Sarah Leader, the company’s spokeswoman. With an using the pouches this year, the company has doubled in size to 80 employees to meet the demand. 

“It’s a game changer,” said Patricia Shipe, president of the Akron Education Association. She worked with district leaders to pilot and then adopt the Yondr system this year. Students are less distracted and schools feel calmer, she said. “The transitions between classes are faster because kids are not on their phones.”

Most districts already students from using phones in class for non-academic reasons. But phone-free advocates say tighter restrictions are necessary to refocus students on learning following the pandemic and to minimize the negative impact of social media on .

Such moves typically draw strong reactions. Some parents see phones as integral to staying in touch with their children during emergencies.

But many welcome the opportunity to curb frequent disruption. Teens report being on social media “almost constantly,” according to from the Pew Research Center. Efforts to break their habit, at least during school hours, could get a critical boost if Congress passes that would create a $5 million grant program to cover the costs of “secure containers” like Yondr or wall-mounted .  

“Widespread use of cellphones in schools are at best a distraction for young Americans; at worst, they expose schoolchildren to content that is harmful and addictive,” Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a Republican, said in about his bipartisan proposal with Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat. “Our legislation will make schools remain centers of learning.”

Congress would still need to approve funding for the program. The legislation also directs the Education and Health and Human Services departments to study the impact of cellphone bans on student achievement, mental health and behavior. 

A ‘security nightmare’

Getting student violence and bullying under control is one reason the Akron school board approved its with Yondr in June for 10,446 pouches. Leaders hope locking up phones during the day will halt a troubling pattern of students not only using them to on social media, but record the altercations on video. 

“It was happening daily in our buildings and multiple times a day,” Shipe said. As in many districts, physical attacks against teachers had also increased. “It was just a real security nightmare.”

Many students have rebelled against the changes. And Shipe warned that opposition to losing what she described as “an appendage” for most teens “gets worse before it gets better.” Online discussion threads among students include ways to destroy the pouches, and demonstrations on TikTok show how bending the magnetic closure prevents them from locking.

But as Shipe notes, those who sabotage the pouches typically keep their phones hidden during class, if only to avoid getting suspended. 

“There are just a lot of positives,” she said. 

Many researchers and advocates agree that school phone bans have more benefits than drawbacks. In October, nearly 70 child advocates, educators and mental health experts sent Education Secretary Miguel Cardona asking him to urge schools to adopt phone-free policies. Late last month, an author of the letter met with a senior department official, but didn’t get the response she wanted. 

“The secretary does not intend to act on our phone-free schools letter,” said Lisa Cline, part of the , a coalition focused on limiting children’s use of digital devices. 

Cardona has yet to reveal his opinion on banning phones, but he’s frequently mentioned the role social media plays in the mental health problems facing students. In March, Cardona said media companies should be for “the experiment they are running on our children.” Two months later, the that the department would work with other agencies to issue model policies for districts on phone use.

An Education Department spokesman said officials are still preparing that guidance and are working “in close partnership” with on the issue.

Under the Senate bill, districts would need to get feedback from parents on cellphone restrictions before applying for funding, and the bill directs Cardona to choose grantees that will “likely yield helpful information” on the impact of phone bans. The program also would allow exceptions for students with disabilities and those who need phones for translation apps or to treat health conditions.

While Yondr’s growth is one piece of evidence on the trend, pointed to the popularity of phone bans among parents. In a sample of nearly 11,000 parents with a child in school, 61% agreed with getting phones out of the classroom. The National Parents Union is currently collecting more data on the issue, but the stance of its president, Keri Rodrigues, is firm.

“The data is clear,” she said. “[Phones] should absolutely be banned during the school day. Every parent I talk to has agreed.”

International points to higher test scores when phones are out of sight, and say students tune in to class more when they’re not scrolling on social media. In Massachusetts, where Rodrigues lives, the state education department already for districts that clamp down on use, and Commissioner Jeffrey Riley has hinted at .

But aren’t on board.

“Parents are afraid because of school shootings,” said Melissa Erickson, executive director of Alliance for Public Schools, a Florida nonprofit that aims to inform parents about education policy. “That’s a statement of the times.”

She called those in favor of strict bans “tone deaf” to the way students socialize. Kids depended on devices to stay connected to friends and teachers during the pandemic. Banning them, she said, sends a mixed message.

“We told them that one-to-one is everything and now we’re taking it away,” she said. 

‘The extreme end’

Florida has gone further than any state to curb use during school hours. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in May that prohibits students from accessing social media, especially TikTok, and from using phones except when teachers approve their use for educational purposes.

Districts, however, have some discretion. After instituting limits on use during class this year, Pasco County Schools Superintendent is calling for a by the 2024-25 school year. The Hillsborough district board that allows students to keep their phones if they are “powered down, silenced, and stored out of sight unless authorized by staff.”

Last year, teachers tended to set their own rules, said Kendal Coulbertson, who graduated in May from Armwood High in Hillsborough. Some teachers, she said, didn’t mind if students used their phones as long as they were turning in their assignments and getting good grades.

But she thinks a ban goes too far.

“I was engaged in conversation. I was engaged in learning, and I think, honestly, that should be the goal rather than going to the extreme end,” she said. She added that are a “real issue” and students want to be able to reach their parents in case of an emergency. “There could be some type of middle ground.”

Like parents, educators are split on the issue. In some districts, including Akron and Florida’s , bans on phones extend through lunch, a time when teens typically check in with social media. 

“It has to be all or nothing,” said Shipe, the Akron union leader. Teachers, she added, shouldn’t have to haggle with students to lock their phones back up after lunch. 

Enforcement was a daily struggle for Dina Hoeynck, a former teacher in Cleveland who taught graphic design. At her school, students had access to their phones between class periods and teachers were in charge of ensuring they were locked up — a system she described as “impractical.”

“Going through the rigamarole of having students lock their phones at the start of class and unlock them at the end felt like a massive waste of time,” said Hoeynck, who kept needle nose pliers on hand to straighten pins on pouches when students bent them. “It led to a significant loss of instructional time and created unnecessary power struggles between teachers and students.” 

Mark Benigni, superintendent of Connecticut’s Meriden Public Schools, is among those who oppose a blanket policy,

“We must educate our students on the appropriate and effective use of cellphones as we do for all technology,” he said. “We also need to recognize that today’s cellphones offer numerous opportunities to enhance learning, organization and communication. Many students are emailing teachers using their cellphone and district-provided emails.”

Benigni happens to be Cardona’s former boss. Before President Joe Biden tapped him to be secretary, Cardona served as assistant superintendent in Meriden until becoming Connecticut’s education chief. While the district didn’t pass its until April 2021, Benigni said it closely follows practices in place when Cardona worked there: Students can’t use phones during instructional time unless a teacher permits it or if they’re necessary to access the district’s online learning platform. 

“The secretary always supported the safe use of technology when he was here,” Benigni said. “There are times when teachers need to have students put them away.”

in ensuring parents, communities and the broader public have accurate information about the academic progress of K-12 students. But getting this information into the hands of parents has been tricky, as the data has been and even harder to understand.

Four years ago, my organization launched to provide a simple and easy way to access statewide academic assessment data from across the country, as well as make it easier to stay up to date on changes across the K-12 testing landscape. Our most recent update encompasses 42 states and Washington, D.C., which have released assessment results for the 2022-23 school year.

This level of transparency is a critical first step in ensuring parents have a window into how well school systems are serving their children, as well as insight into achievement gaps, areas for needed investment and successful efforts. Too often, results from statewide tests are buried on confusing and outdated state education department websites or delivered in formats that don’t readily help parents identify gaps in their child’s learning. Collecting and displaying all available data from across states and in an easy-to-read format helps to address this challenge.

Assessment HQ also provides a snapshot of state compliance with federal reporting requirements (as measured by the Every Student Succeeds Act) to provide participation data for all students and student groups — an important element of full transparency. Of those that have released data, 26 are fully compliant with federal law. This information, while seemingly wonky, allows anyone exploring state student assessment data to understand the extent to which their state’s report is accurate, reliable and inclusive of all students. 

Along with compliance, accessibility to statewide assessment data is critical to ensuring that decisions and policies impacting young people are grounded in real evidence and results, as well as keeping families adequately informed of student progress. Equipping parents with information enables them to make the important, necessary decisions about their child’s education — such as enrolling in summer school or tutoring if their students are below grade level.

In the , Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona describes how his office plans on supporting and incentivizing states to pilot and adopt new approaches to assessment that may provide better information to parents on how their children are progressing toward grade-level standards. Cardona is right that current assessment systems could be improved upon, but he should also recognize that many complaints about standardized exams have nothing to do with the tests themselves.

For example, when looking at results across the country, it is immediately clear that the effective reporting and use of data is uneven, at best, with most states releasing results months after tests are administered. Indeed, reporting is generally — an issue of timing rather than testing. 

This has a huge effect on parents. Newly conducted by Gallup and nonprofit Learning Heroes finds that almost 9 out of 10 parents believe their child is performing at grade level — a perception that unfortunately does not meet reality, as statewide assessments show that far fewer students are on track. Having access to student assessment data earlier expands the options for parents and educators if a student is struggling. 

That’s why I’m encouraged by actions taken in states , where the state legislature now requires that the results of annual statewide assessments be released no later than June 30.

With the federal government calling for states to pursue more innovation in testing, it’s critical that elected and appointed education leaders — from the federal Education Department to state legislators to district superintendents — remain clear-eyed and transparent about which aspects of K-12 state assessment systems must be preserved to ensure schools can identify and meet students needs — and which must be improved upon.

Ensuring that parents, teachers and education leaders have accurate, timely information about learning is the first critical step in empowering data-driven decisions on behalf of students. In encouraging testing innovation, the federal government must make sure that states focus on strengthening the aspects of K-12 testing that work, like accurate measurement of student achievement, while acknowledging and tackling issues like slow reporting and the lack of guidance for educators and families.

Disclosure: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies and Walton Family Foundation provide financial support to the Collaborative for Student Success and The 74.

Des Moines Area Community College student Jay McCord has been working as a paraeducator in the Perry Community School District for three years, and is taking advantage of the community college’s teacher pipeline program to further his education.

He and other Iowa educators got to share their experiences last week with the U.S. secretary of education in the hopes of eventually spreading the opportunities they’ve utilized through DMACC to schools and teachers across the country.

“Education was really something that was hard for me just because I needed an awful lot of extra help,” McCord said. “So this program really helped me with being in the classroom while taking those classes, and being able to connect my schoolwork to what I’m actually doing.”

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U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona visited Iowa Dec. 7 to hear from students, both in lower and higher education, and teachers about the triumphs and trials, and how programs like those implemented at DMACC open doors for those wanting to work as an educator.

After a tour and discussion at Perry Elementary, which was named a 2023 National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence, Cardona spoke to DMACC students, who also work as educators in Perry and other schools, about the community college program and the opportunities it has afforded them.

Each group emphasized that schools need more teachers to support students, and that programs like DMACC’s Teacher Paraeducator Registered Apprenticeship program, housed at the DMACC Perry VanKirk Career Academy, are necessary to make earning an education degree more accessible.

“I heard it from college students and a college president, but earlier today, I heard it from second-graders,” Cardona said. “They said the same thing — we need to support teachers and we need more teachers. Seven-year-olds.”

He said the earn-and-learn program does just that. It allows anyone from high school students to adults to current paraeducators in the district to take classes and work at the same time, getting career experience while learning the curriculum that will eventually lead them to getting the degree to have a classroom of their own, if they wish.

Students get access to support from professors and mentors, and are able to offset costs with up to $7,000 provided for tuition and fees for up to two years. To qualify for the program through the Perry school district, students must be committed to remaining in the district for three years after graduation. Students also support each other, DMACC student Emilie Cross said, as they work and learn in the same cohorts.

“We feel like we have somebody to lean on,” Cross said.

One thing that McCord said would help the DMACC program is more exposure — if more students and educators learned about what the program offers, more would join, eventually swelling the workforce.

Just under 30 states have teaching apprenticeship programs like the one at DMACC, Cardona said, and he hopes to spread the idea systematically and ensure every state can create pipelines for potential teachers.

“What you’re doing over here is an example of what we want to replicate,” Cardona said. “I want to get to 50 (states), I want all of them.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com. Follow Iowa Capital Dispatch on and .

And schools in which at least 75% of students are Black and Latino offer fewer math, science and computer science courses than those with a low-minority population.

Those are among the racial disparities noted Wednesday in the Civil Rights Data Collection — the first released since 2017-18. Considering the data was collected when the vast majority of districts offered only virtual or hybrid learning, officials cautioned against making direct comparisons to previous years. But they also noted that among the many topics covered in the survey, including suspension rates, sexual harassment and school staffing data, course-taking trends might be less affected by the pandemic. 

“Sadly, the inequities that have long persisted in our education system are on full display,” said Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, noting the department’s efforts to expand access to STEM learning through with NASA, nonprofits and the private sector. “We spent years fighting COVID; now we must fight complacency.”

COVID disrupted all aspects of the U.S. education system, and that includes federal efforts to measure how schools are protecting students’ civil rights. Officials canceled the and moved it to the following year, without knowing how COVID would continue to upend normal school operations. Many U.S. schools did not return to in-person learning full time until . Prior to that, steep declines in areas such as out-of-school suspension or the use of corporal punishment are likely because many students were learning at home — not because schools stopped disciplining students. 

That doesn’t mean the data isn’t useful for examining gaps based on race and disability. Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon called the release “crucial civil rights data specific to students’ pandemic experience.” Others agreed that the data will help the nation better understand how the pandemic exacerbated inequities for vulnerable students. 

“It won’t be an apples-to-apples comparison,” said David Hinojosa, director of the Educational Opportunities Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “At the same time, the whole intent behind the collection of this data is for schools, communities and civil rights enforcement agencies to identify and correct any civil rights disparities.”

‘Discipline looked very different’

As the primary source of information on school discipline, the survey shows that despite school closures, students missed more than 2 million days of school due to out-of-school suspensions during the 2020-21 school year.

Black boys were suspended at higher rates than boys of other races — a longstanding disparity. Black boys represented 8% of the total K-12 population but 18% of those that received one or more out-of-school suspensions. Black girls represented 7% of student enrollment, but accounted for 9% of students with one or more out-of-school suspensions. White girls made up 22% of the student population, but represented 13% of out-of-school suspensions. 

This data was especially impacted by remote learning, noted Nancy Duchesneau, a senior P-12 research associate at EdTrust, an advocacy organization that focuses on educational equity. 

“Exclusionary discipline looked very different during virtual learning,” she said. “Students were locked out of accounts, or removed from virtual learning environments, without official suspensions or expulsions. These instances of unofficial exclusionary discipline will not be reflected in the data.”

Despite 2020-21 being an unusual school year, districts still referred 61,900 students to law enforcement, which officials described as alarming, and 19,400 students received corporal punishment. Earlier this year, the department urging schools to replace physical punishment with other methods.

The department also collected 2021-22 data and , districts can begin to submit responses for the current 2023-24 school year, putting the program back on its regular biennial schedule.

The 2020-21 findings confirm what some researchers captured during the pandemic — the decline in preschool enrollment, for example. In 2017-18, 1.4 million children attended a school district preschool program, but that dropped to 1.2 million, according to the latest data. 

“People did not equitably have access to the internet,” Hinojosa said, “and they weren’t going to have their 4-year-old in front of the screen where they couldn’t learn.” 

The survey, for the first time, included questions about students’ access to the internet and devices. Ninety-three percent of schools offer high-speed internet, and there’s little variation between high-minority and low-minority schools. But there were state-level differences.

Students in Alaska have the least access, where 59% of schools reported a high-speed connection, followed by Florida with 66%. Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia all reported 99% or more. 

While most of the questions focused on in-school availability, the survey also showed that 87% of schools allowed students to take home devices. 

Along with a series of national snapshots, the department also launched a with access to state and local data. That will allow for comparisons between states and districts that had different rates of in-person learning and home internet access, said Jennifer Bell-Ellwanger, president and CEO of the nonprofit Data Quality Campaign.

“We need this data even if it’s not as clear or clean as we might want,” she said. But she added, “It’s almost like a new baseline.”

Other top takeaways from the results are:

• Black students made up 15% of the total high school enrollment, but represented 6% of students enrolled in an AP math course. Latino students represented 27% of high school students, but 19% of those in AP math. 

• Boys were more likely than girls to take Algebra I, physics and computer science. But girls had higher enrollment rates than boys in Algebra II, advanced math classes, biology and chemistry. 

• White and Asian high schoolers were overrepresented in college dual enrollment courses, while Black and Hispanic students, English learners and students with disabilities were underrepresented. 

• American Indian or Alaska Native students were 3.4 times more likely than white students to attend a school with a police officer or security guard, but without a school counselor, social worker, nurse or psychologist. 

• There were 20,800 students disciplined for sex-based bullying or harassment in the 2020-21 schools year. White boys made up 24% of the total K-12 student enrollment but accounted for almost half of those disciplined for harassment or bullying on the basis of sex.

The proposal never received serious consideration from Congressional Republicans. But the Department of Education didn’t give up and won approval from to apply a far more modest amount of existing funds toward helping districts stem increasing racial isolation in the nation’s schools.

“It has been a priority for our administration since day one to really build on our country’s greatest strength, which is our diversity,” said Roberto Rodriguez, the department’s assistant secretary for the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development. 

in California, the , Tennessee district, which includes Chattanooga, and a are among the recipients. They plan to use the funds on family engagement, college and career programs and improving student performance in high-poverty neighborhoods. The will work with five districts to increase diversity in pre-K, expand dual language programs and push more minority students to apply for selective schools and programs. 

The grants, totaling $14 million, follow a from the department that connected widening achievement gaps to the end of major desegregation efforts in the 1980s and ‘90s. Nearly one-third of all students now attend schools where the vast majority of their peers are minorities. The Fostering Diverse Schools program also comes in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to end race-conscious college admissions, which Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said calls for a“courageous commitment to equal opportunity and justice.” The court is now considering whether to take up an appeal over a competitive high school admissions policy in Virginia. 

At the state level, meanwhile, conservative lawmakers have restricted how educators can discuss or address — all of which makes integration efforts “tricky politically,” said Richard Kahlenberg, a Georgetown University researcher and senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute.

“These grants will help showcase models for school leaders across the country who might be nervous about tackling segregation and are looking for concrete ways integration can be accomplished,” he said. 

With House Republicans wanting to and the fiscal year 2024 budget over issues like aid to Israel and Ukraine, it’s unclear if the department will be able to award more grants next year. But Rodriguez said officials see the need for “a stronger investment from the federal level to encourage and partner with districts that are doing more to intentionally enhance diversity and in their schools.” 

‘Thinking across sectors’

During the Obama years, former Education Secretary John King launched a similar initiative, called . The department allocated $12 million for the program and 26 districts applied. But former President Donald Trump eliminated it once he took office. 

Reviving the effort by using funds dedicated for student support and enrichment will allow the department to “get this off the ground,” said Halley Potter of The Century Foundation, a left-leaning that is part of the , a network of almost 60 organizations. The Foundation, she said, worked with “champions on The Hill” to tap funds for providing students a “well-rounded education.”

Three districts — , , and — received the largest awards to implement programs intended to attract a broader cross section of families to public schools. 

The department awarded the New York City schools two separate grants totaling over $3 million to further integration efforts, even as the district continues to face opposition over efforts to diversify elite schools and programs. 

Under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, the district to increase the number of Black and Hispanic students from low-income schools considered for admission to the district’s specialized high schools. But Asian American groups sued, saying the change is discriminatory. 

, pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, shows how controversial such changes can be. The city’s efforts to increase diversity in and middle school have also received pushback. 

The district aims to create more racially and socioeconomically balanced schools in other ways. In District 3, on the West Side of Manhattan, schools will focus on “culturally affirming” learning, according to a of the application. The goal in Brooklyn’s District 13 will be to attract more minority families to the city’s middle schools — including those who attend charters, which can minimally contribute to segregation.

“If your goal is to have integration in your schools, you really need to be thinking across sectors,” Potter said.

The other 10 grants are smaller and will support planning efforts, giving districts a chance to “piggyback” integration efforts onto other priorities, such as school construction and renovation projects, she said.

The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools in North Carolina will use the $445,000 it received to take a fresh look at its school assignment plan, which hasn’t changed in 30 years. The district is among the top 10 most in the state, with predominantly white schools concentrated in the western part of the county, schools with a higher enrollment of Hispanic students in the southern region and those in the urban core with a majority-Black student population. 

The district will use the funds to hire mapping experts and gather input from families and district employees on school attendance boundaries, with the goal of reaching at least 5,000 students, parents and educators over the next nine months. As a bonus, leaders hope that redrawing attendance boundaries will reduce commute times for students. 

“These zones have not been adjusted to reflect population shifts since the 90s,” said Effie McMillian, the district’s chief equity officer. It’s important, she added, to give “students an opportunity to interact with people that they may not always interact with within their local community of where they live.”

U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona made stops in Kansas and Missouri Tuesday as part of a multi-state tour, labeling internet access “the new pencil” as he discussed the government’s efforts to expand broadband connectivity.

During events in Overland Park, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, Cardona discussed a program that subsidizes internet access and community engagement. While speaking to superintendents and education leaders in Kansas, he declared lack of access the “equity issue of our moment.”

“This president is going to put the digital divide in your rearview mirror, and not just through talk but through action,” he said.

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The Kansas City leg of the tour began at the central resource branch of the Johnson County Library in Overland Park, Kansas, where Cardona was joined by Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

The pair crashed a meeting where teachers were learning about the FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program, a benefit providing up to $30 per month for qualifying households to pay their internet bills and a one-time $100 discount to purchase a device.

“In order for students to achieve at high levels, (internet access) is a necessity,” Cardona told educators.

The FCC tracks internet connectivity nationwide and maps where residents have access to various speeds of broadband connections. shows five spots in Missouri and 10 spots in Kansas where residents have no access to the internet. The spots appear to be the size of some of Missouri’s smallest towns.

There are many areas throughout both Missouri and Kansas where less than 20% of residents have broadband access.

Rosenworcel said the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed by Congress in 2021 should also address this issue, with money earmarked for states to use on their needs.

“We’re now committed to building this infrastructure everywhere as a result of (the Bipartisan Infrastructure) law,” she told reporters after the Overland Park event.

To discuss the “digital divide,” Cardona and Rosenworcel spoke to school superintendents and education leaders from corporate and nonprofit companies.

The superintendents represented some of Kansas’ largest school districts, all speaking of connectivity initiatives.

Michelle Hubbard, superintendent of the Shawnee Mission School District, said her school district sent a questionnaire to students, and 93% responded that they had internet access.

“That is just not true outside of where we sit right now,” Hubbard said, alluding to the wealth in the surrounding community.

Blue Valley School District Superintendent Tonya Merrigan said her district’s counselors and social workers are trained to ask about student’s internet connectivity because some families were too “afraid” or “embarrassed” to ask for help.

Local programs are reaching out to families about the federal program, said Kansas City Digital Drive managing director Aaron Deacon.

Rosenworcel hopes that communication from community partners will help form trust around the Affordable Connectivity Program to reach those who may not otherwise sign up for the federal program.

“We know when people hear about it locally from teachers, from their principals, from somebody who runs an institution in their own backyard, they’re more likely to trust it and sign up,” she said to reporters.

Effective communication with families was the focus of the secretary’s stop in northeast Kansas City where he chatted in a gathering at the Mattie Rhodes Center, a community center with a multicultural focus.

Cardona walked off his tour bus and into the center’s parking lot for a series of photo opportunities and informal meetings. He head-butted a soccer ball with teenage musicians and ate paletas with U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver before sitting down with parents.

Cleaver and Missouri’s Commissioner of Education Margie Vandeven joined him at the table with parents.

Cardona said the parents’ concerns ranged from their children’s safety to their desire for their kids to be challenged in the classroom.

“We need to support our public schools; we need to support our parents, our educators,” he said. “Ultimately, all that goes to our students.”

Talking to reporters, he referenced part of the proverb “it takes a village,” as he pointed toward the gathering of kids, parents and educators in the Mattie Rhodes parking lot.

Cardona’s bus tour, named “Raise the Bar,” is titled after his desire to raise student achievement, he said.

“Our students should be leading the world right now,” he said. “We rank somewhere in the 30s compared to other countries. That’s unacceptable.”

The United States’ ranked 21st in the latest (2018) ​​Programme for International Student Assessment, a global test of student achievement.

Cardona is scheduled to make stops in St. Louis as he continues to Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com. Follow Missouri Independent on and .

What’s more: As districts approach this fiscal cliff, they are likely to cut the interventions they implemented with pandemic relief money even if they show early signs of promise.

Now is not the time to dial back effective student interventions or teacher supports. And if districts are to avoid backsliding into the old way of doing things, they need ways to use old resources differently.

Sustainably building back means getting real about spending federal funds strategically. The good news: There’s a lot Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona can do to push districts in this direction. The secret is making the right thing the easy thing.

Any superintendent will tell you: Even in the best of years, securing federal education dollars is difficult. That’s because the federal school funding system is composed of a patchwork of grants, each with its own application, requirements and timelines, and each managed by a separate office within the U.S. Department of Education. These distinct offices communicate with distinct offices at state departments of education that then communicate with an individual at the district level responsible for that one grant program. This disjointed process stymies districts’ ability to develop and deliver on a set of coherent priorities.

At the Louisiana Department of Education, where I served as an executive leader for a decade, we saw this play out in school districts across the state. Districts were often juggling 30 different strategic plans and 30 different budgets on 30 different timelines. To make matters worse, each of these was managed by a different, isolated district office.

The result was an incoherent — and often contradictory — set of priorities, products and services that created confusion for educators about what mattered most and why. It wasn’t uncommon to see multiple departments in the same district request and receive grants for the same solutions. Conversely, I once witnessed a district purchase different technology products to help the same struggling readers because various teams at the central office had not coordinated or collaborated. Not only was this a waste of valuable dollars, it was a disservice to teachers and students who were left to make sense of  the varied products.

These missed opportunities drove our department to create the . This priority setting, planning and budgeting process and digital tool streamlined the state’s disjointed electronic grants management system and refocused districts on the most critical priorities for kids. Rather than requiring a separate application for practically each state and federal funding source, the Super App provides a single in-depth form and prompts districts to detail how they intend to fulfill their plans.

For example, during my tenure, a top priority in Louisiana was the statewide adoption and implementation of high-quality instructional materials. Historically, districts would first use local dollars to purchase curriculum. Three months later, they would learn about the Comprehensive Literacy State Development grant and ask for additional curriculum money from there. Even later, they would apply for federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act grant dollars to buy products and services to help students with disabilities with reading and writing. In contrast, using the Super App, districts provide an overview of the purchases they will make to meet the goal of adopting and implementing high-quality instructional materials — regardless of funding stream. This enables districts to more easily combine funding from multiple sources to purchase the materials they need, eliminates redundant effort and saves staff time.

The Super App also ensures that districts’ spending complies with state and federal regulations, and it enables them to submit their plan easily and efficiently through an electronic portal and receive notification approval more quickly. In its first year, all but one district in Louisiana switched from poorer-quality curricula to high-quality instructional materials and partnered with organizations that train teachers on how to use them. 

Across the country, governors and state education chiefs are calling for better literacy instruction, tutors for students who are struggling and clearer pathways from high school into college and career. State education agencies can encourage school districts to allocate their limited dollars to these priorities through a Super App. 

Imagine what might be possible if Cardona took a similar approach at the federal level. Here’s how to set it in action:

• Break down the department’s internal silos. In the same way districts are managing too many plans and budgets, so are states. The department should streamline and synchronize federal grants for states, which are managed by too many offices that may or may not communicate with one another. Having different grant applications ask for the same information or data creates inefficiency at the state level, and the department’s grant reporting, monitoring and oversight mechanisms create an undue burden. Streamlined processes could save thousands of hours lost to dealing with the grantmaking bureaucracy.
  
• Help states provide districts with planning and budgeting guidance. States are motivated to create coherent planning and budgeting processes for districts, but they often worry that creating a more streamlined process, like Super App, risks violating federal rules. States and districts need both clearer guidance and more flexibility in how to use their federal dollars so they can achieve priority initiatives. Many districts aren’t aware, for example, they can combine funds from different sources toward single purchases. The department should elevate models like Louisiana’s to guide states in pushing districts to plan and spend smarter.

The idea of a Super App may not be flashy, but if educators and policymakers want a shot at changing students’ trajectory despite limited means, this is how to make it happen: by making it easier for districts to invest their dollars in what will make the biggest impact for kids.

The parsing is part of a package of materials responding to the June in admissions. The education and justice departments — which argued in favor of maintaining racial preferences in admissions — said summer enrichment camps for students from groups underrepresented in college are also allowed, as well as “pathway” programs that guarantee high school graduates a spot in the freshman class. Awarding slots in those programs based on race, however, would “trigger … strict scrutiny” from courts in light of the ruling against Harvard and the University of North Carolina.

“This moment demands a sense of urgency,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a call with reporters. “This moment demands the same courageous commitment to equal opportunity and justice we saw from leaders at the height of the civil rights movement.”

The release of the resources — a and a question-and-answer — is the second formal action the administration has taken on admissions since the decision. Last month, the Education Department held a day-long summit on ways colleges and K-12 schools can continue to legally foster diversity. And in a few weeks, Cardona said, the department will issue a report on strategies colleges already use. 

Rep. Bobby Scott, ranking Democrat on the House education committee, welcomed the guidance, but wants the department to investigate racial disparities in K-12 schools in areas like discipline, and college practices like legacy admissions that have historically favored white students. Following the court’s decision, Lawyers for Civil Rights, a Boston nonprofit, over such policies. 

“This is important because race-conscious admissions policies were able to provide a counterbalance to factors — such as inequitable K-12 schools, racially biased admissions tests, and developmental and legacy admissions — that have discriminatory impact against students of color,” Scott said in a statement. 

He argued that some Republican leaders have misinterpreted the court’s decision, pointing to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s , for example, that racial preferences in scholarships and employment would violate the law. 

Biden officials did not specifically discuss scholarships Monday, but the document suggests institutions review policies — such as application fees, standardized testing requirements, early decision deadlines and prerequisite courses, like calculus — that could prevent Black, Hispanic and low-income students from applying to a selective institution.

Universities can still collect race and ethnicity data to plan which geographic areas to target for recruitment, for example, or where to participate in college fairs, the Biden administration said, so long as the resulting information doesn’t influence admissions decisions

Universities don’t have to “unsee” the racial makeup of their applicants, a senior department official said on the call. Students may continue to discuss race in their admissions essays, and guidance counselors can discuss a student’s battles with discrimination in a letter of recommendation. 

“Although this decision changes the landscape for admissions and higher education, it should not be used as an excuse to turn away from long-standing efforts to make those institutions more inclusive,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. 

Richard Kahlenberg, a school integration expert who served as an expert witness for Students for Fair Admissions and is a non-resident scholar at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, said some higher education institutions have taken the court’s ruling seriously and are pursuing “authentic race-neutral alternatives to achieve diversity.” Those “perfectly legal” strategies include increasing financial aid for low-income students and adopting plans like those in that accept a percentage of top students from every high school.

But he said he’s also hearing that some universities are taking the “much riskier route” of basing admissions decisions on what students say about race in their personal essays.

“If universities magically get similar racial numbers without announcing new race-neutral alternatives or showing an increase in socioeconomic diversity,” he said, “I think they’re putting a litigation target on their backs.”

That’s what grabbed Jaison Noralez when he visited the downtown high school last year. A sophomore this fall at Roybal’s celebrity-backed Film and Television Production Magnet program, he’s training to become part of the next generation of behind-the-scenes movie professionals: sound and lighting technicians, make-up artists and other production staff who never appear in front of a camera.

On a recent Wednesday, he and classmate Aiyanna Randolph worked on a concept for a post-apocalyptic science fiction feature set in the year 2053.

“It’s not writing a script. We’re designing the set, make-up, hair and costumes,” he said about their assignment in Brittany Hilgers’s first period film production class. “She wants us to understand how those aspects could affect the movie. If you’re in a horror movie, you wouldn’t wear a bright dress or something. That wouldn’t match up.”

Launched last fall, the program opened with the fanfare of a blockbuster premiere, with Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Alberto Carvalho joining actors George Clooney, Don Cheadle and Mindy Kaling. Studios, networks and streaming services like Amazon and Disney have put up $4 million to launch the program, but leaders know that to keep it going, they’ll need sustainable public funding.

The goal is to give Black, Hispanic and Asian students who might lack the right connections to break into Hollywood a pathway into good-paying jobs in the industry and make them “part of the machinery of storytelling,” said Bryan Lourd, Clooney’s agent and an executive at Creative Artists Agency. 

Traditionally, in entertainment, “it’s who you know and who … gives you just enough of a vocabulary to get into it,” said Lourd, a member of the magnet program’s advisory board. “George called me and said, ‘Shouldn’t we do something?’ ”

Before he resigned in 2021, then-L.A. Superintendent Austin Beutner connected them with Roybal Principal Blanca Cruz and her staff. At the time, the school had a fledgling music and film production magnet program, but lacked resources to give students real-world experience.

“We wanted to do something that wasn’t available in the immediate area,” Cruz said, “We knew nothing about the industry.”

But now she exposes students to those who do. During Hilgers’s first period class, Cruz popped in to announce that the following week, students would spend the day at the Universal Studios Hollywood backlot and tour the local NBC affiliate.

“You can see what behind the scenes of a broadcast looks like,” she said.

The school’s faculty includes teachers with strong industry credentials. Hilgers is a former production assistant and screenwriter whose resume includes movies like “Jerry McGuire” and seven seasons of the comedy-crime drama “Psych.”

In her lesson for the day, she told students they could make a diorama, digital presentation or moodboard — a poster that displays the setting and feel of a film — to display their concepts for a story set after a catastrophe wipes out most of civilization. She offered an example of a moodboard from the Netflix period drama , a collage with photos of furniture and clothing styles typical of the early 1800s.

“This designer probably researched that time frame quite thoroughly,” she told them.

This year, students made fake movie trailers and wrote, produced, filmed and edited a horror adaptation of “The Wizard of Oz.” In the process, they learned technical skills such as cinematography and where to position a boom mic to pick up voices.

Next year, the school will add a studio, courtesy of , an editing software company. Post-production is one of three concentrations students can pick for 11th and 12th grade, along with technical and craft areas.

The school will match students with mentors in the industry and eventually develop an apprenticeship program to give them early experience in their chosen field. The goal, said Deborah Marcus, who manages education efforts at Creative Artists, is for graduates to not only land their first job on a crew, but their second and third as well. 

Aiyanna applied for the program after her mother saw an article about it.

“She was like … ‘I’m gonna sign you up right now.’ I guess she wanted me to have something going for me,” she said. “The people who run it, like the actors Mindy Kaling and George Clooney, those are like big people.”

‘A lot of hard work’

Those already in the field know students’ future success hinges on more than technical knowledge or creative ability.

“I tell production assistants all the time: ‘Half of your position is personality. The other half is skill,’” said Frankie Pagnotta, first assistant director of “Abbott Elementary,” the hit ABC sitcom about teachers in a Philadelphia school.

Pagnotta graduated from , a Los Angeles nonprofit that runs a private school with a mission similar to Roybal’s — diversifying the entertainment industry. Now, she mentors young Black production assistants, urging them to be early on set, know their way around the city and not get distracted by talking to friends on the job.

She said she’s worked with a range of young people, from those who balk at menial tasks like passing out call sheets to children of successful directors who are still hungry to prove themselves. 

“It’s a lot of hard work,” she said, “and someone is not going to just hand you a career.”

The magnet program generated lots of favorable buzz at Roybal this year, but like many film characters, the school has a complicated backstory.

The former Belmont Learning Complex sits between two major Los Angeles freeways, atop an abandoned oil field and an earthquake fault. Beset by numerous delays and investigations over potential health and safety hazards, the cost of the project ballooned to nearly . 

The fiasco prompted then-mayor Richard Riordan to support a slate of school board members who ousted the superintendent. When it finally opened in 2008, more than 10 years after construction began, the school was renamed for Edward R. Roybal, the first Latino city councilman in Los Angeles who later served 30 years in Congress. Other programs at the school focus on careers like social work, business and computer science.

Today, the boxy green and tan facility — with its grassy quad and views of the city’s skyscrapers — figures prominently in student-made videos. U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona holds up the new magnet program as a model for other districts. 

“I’m asking superintendents … to learn Roybal’s example,” he said in March during a panel discussion . He visited the school in January with second gentleman Douglas Emhoff and said he wants schools in production hubs like New York, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta to replicate the magnet’s model.

In California, magnet schools don’t receive more funding than traditional schools, despite higher costs for specially trained teachers and industry-specific equipment and facilities. At Roybal, the initial funding from Amazon Studios, Fox Corp., Paramount and other entertainment companies pays for a managing director who serves as a liaison between the school and the studios. A program coordinator plans events like field trips and master classes taught by professionals. 

The partners also hired a curriculum consultant and are developing online lessons to share with students around the world. But in another year, they’ll need to secure future funding. Cardona noted that the Biden administration’s includes $200 million to support “career-connected learning.” 

For now, Jaison and Aiyanna are soaking up as much as they can. Jaison is an aspiring animator who already knows how to edit manga panels — the comic book style that originated in Japan. 

Aiyanna said she’s “sampling” and wants to learn all aspects of the business, but is leaning toward writing.

Despite its entertainment focus, the program doesn’t ignore traditional high school content. Hilgers and an English teacher collaborated on a project inspired by The History Channel in which students researched female poets and made 30-second documentaries about their work.

“Say you’re doing a horror film, and [a character has] a deep cut. You want to have the right body parts in place,” he said. “You need to know about science to make a science film.”

When Lourd and Clooney visited the school, they observed a math lesson based on production budgets and the daily cost of making a film like “Black Panther.”

Lourd said, “George and I were standing there saying, ‘I wish I’d gone to this high school.’ ”

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]]> /article/biden-administration-warns-u-s-house-gop-debt-limit-bill-would-slash-education/ Thu, 04 May 2023 18:01:00 +0000 /?post_type=article&p=708462 This article was originally published in

U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona last week said House Republicans’ debt limit proposal would cut vital education programs and harm vulnerable students across the U.S., such as those who are low income or have a disability.

“It would be taking us backwards,” Cardona said on a call with reporters.

U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s would lift the nation’s borrowing capacity by $1.5 trillion or suspend it through March.

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It would also set discretionary spending levels during the upcoming fiscal year to last year’s levels, meaning at least $130 billion in spending reductions to federal agencies.

McCarthy, a California Republican, plans to put the on the House floor as soon as Wednesday for a vote, and the administration stepped up its criticism in advance.

The White House said in a Tuesday statement that President Joe Biden the proposal, calling it “a reckless attempt to extract extreme concessions as a condition for the United States simply paying the bills it has already incurred.” Biden has said debt limit legislation should not be tied to spending reductions.

Even if the bill is passed in the House, it’s highly unlikely to gain the 60 votes needed to move past the legislative filibuster in the Senate, where Democrats hold a slim majority.

At least 26 million students who are low income would see Title I funding levels for their schools drop, and more than 7 million students with disabilities would be affected by cuts in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Cardona said.

He added that those cuts are equivalent to eliminating 60,000 teachers for low-income students and eliminating 48,000 teachers and related services providers from the classroom for students with disabilities.

The plan would also require states to return unspent pandemic funding, much of which went to helping schools reopen. Pandemic funding also provided mental health services for students.

“During the pandemic, students with disabilities were amongst the hardest impacted by the disruption of learning,” Cardona said.

State-by-state cuts

The Department of Education released a breakdown of cuts to education-related programs in the GOP plan.

Among the estimated effects in Iowa:

• Cut about $25 million in Title I funding for Iowa schools serving low-income children, affecting an estimated 110,000 students.
• Cut Title IV, Part A funding for Iowa schools by about $1.9 million, limiting educators’ abilities to address student mental health issues, including through violence, suicide, and drug abuse prevention.
• Cancel President ��������’s student debt relief plan, keeping emergency student loan relief of up to $20,000 from 169,000 approved applicants across Iowa.

Potentially eliminate Pell Grants for 700 students in Iowa and also reduce the maximum award by nearly $1,000 for the remaining 169,000 students who receive Pell Grants.

A senior Department of Education official said the cuts in the debt relief plan also would make it harder for students to afford higher education.

Across the nation, it would mean an elimination of Pell Grants for about 80,000 students and more than 6 million Pell Grant recipients would have cuts of about $1,000 each annually, the administration said. Grants are tied to family income.

The Republican proposal would also nullify the executive order Biden issued last year to cancel federal student loan debt.

The bill would also prevent the agency from finalizing its , which sets a monthly repayment plan based on the borrowers’ income.

��������’s on student loans would cancel up to $10,000 in federal student debt for borrowers earning up to $125,000 annually, or up to $250,000 for married couples, with the boost to $20,000 in forgiveness for Pell Grant recipients.

The program only applies to current borrowers, not future ones, and income levels for the 2020 and 2021 tax years would be considered. Those who have private student loans are not eligible.

But the policy is from taking effect due to two lawsuits, one from six Republican attorneys general and another by two student loan borrowers who do not qualify for the program.

The Department of Education has collected more than 24 million applications for the relief program,

The Supreme Court will make a decision on the policy in the coming months.

Regardless of the outcome, the Department of Education announced that the pandemic-era pause on federal student loan repayments will , and those borrowers will be required to begin repayments either after the Supreme Court’s decision or 60 days after the June deadline.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com. Follow Iowa Capital Dispatch on and .

]]> /article/2-5m-gen-z-program-aims-to-expand-career-options-for-high-school-students/ Thu, 04 May 2023 14:00:00 +0000 /?post_type=article&p=708406 Communities looking to bolster work-based learning programs can vie for funding – and clout – through a new grant program launched in April by the U.S. Department of Education.

The Career Z Challenge is designed to highlight innovative efforts to provide real-world learning to high school students. It’s part of a Biden Administration initiative launched last fall called aimed at helping prepare students to fill millions of jobs as they graduate high school. Finalists will receive a portion of $2.5 million in funding to help guide the department’s efforts to expand sustainable, high-quality programs nationally. 

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“An education system reimagined for the 21st century engages youth of all ages in the power of career-connected learning and provides every student with the opportunity to gain real-life work experience, earn college credits and make progress towards an industry credential before they graduate high school,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona . 

Amy Loyd, assistant secretary of the department’s Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education said they hope to expand promising examples of collaborative work between educators, businesses, industries, nonprofits and other community stakeholders.

What these efforts look like will vary, she acknowledged, pointing to examples like , a nonprofit that embeds college and career readiness advisers in public high schools in Minneapolis and St. Paul, and to match students with employers offering work-based learning opportunities. 

The administration wants to scale up apprenticeship programs in high schools, particularly in rural areas where students struggle to find lucrative careers and companies often have trouble finding skilled workers. 

Loyd also emphasized the department’s interest in helping communities access remote work-based learning opportunities.

She hopes to see career pathways that may be “leveraging technology in new ways so that students can stay in their hometown … and stay connected to the community and the global economy.” 

The deadline to for the is June 7. The department will reward new work-based learning programs and expansions of existing ones.

Apprenticeships, trade schools expand

of all U.S. high school graduates were ready for college or career last year as employers scrambled to fill more than 11 million job openings, especially in sectors like tech, clean energy and health care, according to a report from the Education Trust.

There has been a growing movement to create more internships and apprenticeships for young people, both to help their job training and fill open positions as people shift careers after the pandemic and Baby Boomers retire. 

The number of , before dipping during the pandemic. The department’s is part of a national push. 

At the same time, — just as enrollment at traditional four-year colleges and universities has .  

Enrollment in mechanic, culinary and repair programs saw enrollment increases of more than 11% from spring 2021 to 2022, . And enrollment in construction courses increased by 19.3%. 

Students typically cite affordability and a desire for a clearer career path as rationales for choosing trade programs over a more traditional college path.

To prepare students for such programs, career academies and similar efforts that allow students to earn college credit in high school have grown. But such programs hinge on the needs of local communities.

That’s why the department is looking at how such communities are designing work-based learning programs to “respond to the needs that employers have today and the needs that we’re projecting into the future,” Loyd said.

]]> /article/the-education-community-braced-for-guidance-on-student-discipline-it-never-came/ Thu, 20 Apr 2023 11:01:00 +0000 /?post_type=article&p=707646 During a heated Senate confirmation hearing in July 2021, civil rights attorney Catherine Lhamon made clear her goal to confront longstanding, dramatic racial disparities in school discipline at a moment when racial inequities — in policing, education and society more broadly — were at the center of the national discourse. 

She’d done it before, to fanfare and criticism. As the head of the Education Department’s civil rights division during the Obama administration, Lhamon wrote in 2014 that put districts nationwide on notice: stark racial gaps in suspension rates could indicate discrimination, and the federal Office for Civil Rights planned to hold them accountable to civil rights laws. The guidance led education leaders nationwide to reform their school discipline policies while conservative pundits and politicians accused the department of using the threat of investigations to force districts into creating “racial quotas” and coercing them to adopt school discipline reforms in place of suspensions and expulsions. 

At the hearing to consider her return to her post as the Education Department’s assistant secretary for civil rights and six months after President Joe Biden signed across the federal government, Lhamon said it was critical for the Biden administration to reinstate the discipline guidance, which the of mass school shootings. 

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“I think it’s crucial to reinstate guidance on the topic and I think it’s crucial to be clear with school communities about what the civil rights obligations are and how best to do the work in their classrooms,” Lhamon said during the confirmation hearing, where she was grilled by Republican lawmakers on a range of contentious issues, including efforts to combat campus sexual assault and the inclusion of transgender students in school athletics. Republicans leveraged the issues in a failed bid to block Lhamon’s nomination, and Vice President Kamala Harris cast a tie-breaking vote to confirm Lhamon for a second stint in the department.

Yet more than two years into ��������’s presidency, updated guidance on racial disparities in school discipline are nowhere to be found — and civil rights advocates have begun to wonder whether the department ever plans to release them. Rather than taking heat from Republicans, the inaction has generated outrage from the left. 

In , advocates with the Federal School Discipline and Climate Coalition demanded the department “immediately release a revised and updated version” of the guidance and accused officials of failing “to provide adequate accountability, oversight and enforcement of civil rights laws.”

“The persistence of egregious exclusionary and disproportionate discipline throughout the nation must be laid directly at the feet of this administration’s unwillingness to lead in the area of school discipline and civil rights,” according to the coalition, a group of racial justice activists and researchers who’ve been advocating for police-free schools and non-punitive discipline policies since 2011. “In many districts, the lack of leadership and guidance from [the Education Department] has weakened communities’ abilities to advocate for policies that reduce and eliminate exclusionary discipline.”

In an interview with The 74, a senior Education Department official declined to say whether updated guidance is in the works or to provide a timeline. But the department’s Office for Civil Rights, the official said, is currently investigating 343 cases related to racial discrimination in student discipline. The 2014 guidance outlined the department’s interpretation of federal civil rights rules and urged districts to adopt restorative justice and other discipline reforms, but the senior department official said the civil rights office has no difficulty enforcing federal discrimination rules aside from the challenges that come with taking on an “enormous caseload.” 

In one case from last year, the Education Department came to a resolution agreement with the Victor Valley Union High School District in California after a federal investigation found the school system disciplined Black students more frequently and harshly than their white classmates. Along with “statistical evidence” of racial disparities in student discipline, investigators observed a pattern where Black and white students were disciplined differently for committing similar infractions. Under the agreement, the district was required to revise its student discipline policies and implement a plan to eliminate disparities.

“We are as always grateful to school communities that effectively instruct all students without discrimination and we look forward to working with those school communities that need further assistance to comply with the law,” Lhamon said in a written statement when asked by The 74 about criticism that the department had failed to act. 

Faced with a record number of civil rights complaints, which are set to be outlined in an annual report later this month, the to allow a greater use of mediation to resolve cases more quickly. 

Even critics of the 2014 “Dear Colleague” letter are left wondering why the department hasn’t released an update to the student discipline guidance — particularly after officials suggested they were forthcoming. In June 2021, the Office for Civil Rights on strategies to implement school discipline in a nondiscriminatory manner. That callout led to more than 3,600 comments from people across the political spectrum. 

A year later, in July 2022, the Education Department released guidance that sought to address school discipline disparities between children with disabilities and those who are not enrolled in special education. Reporting at the time suggested that similar guidance, related to racial disparities in discipline, would be released later that summer. 

A political liability

That the guidance was never released, observers said, likely comes down to one factor: politics.

“It shouldn’t take this much time, especially if they were going to largely dust off what was published in 2014,” said Michael Petrilli, president of The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, who worked at the Education Department during the George W. Bush administration and has been an outspoken critic of school discipline reform. He said the Biden administration would be rightly concerned over the issue becoming a campaign platform for Republicans, who have already rallied supporters to condemn schools that teach about racism in American history or that allow transgender students to participate in school sports. 

“The only thing that makes sense to me is that somebody relatively senior, either at the Department of Education or in the White House, has decided that this is not a good time,” Petrilli said. “Either they decided not to do it, or they’re waiting until the time seems right — and it never seems like a good time with the news in the real world.”

Biden entered office at a moment of heightened attention to persistent racial inequities. After a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd in 2020 and Black Lives Matter protests swept the country, dozens of districts removed school-based police officers from their campuses. But the issue was reminiscent of “defund the police” movement, and several school systems that banished cops from classrooms reversed course just months later. 

As pandemic-era remote learning came to an end and students returned to school buildings, educators sounded the alarm about an uptick in student misbehavior and disruptions. In a , more than 8 in 10 school leaders said the pandemic had a negative effect on students’ behavioral development. More than a third reported an uptick in physical attacks or fights between students, and more than half reported increased classroom disruptions due to student misconduct. 

A recent teachers union poll reached similar findings. Nearly 90% of teachers said that “poor student discipline and a lack of support for dealing with disruptive students” is a serious problem, the American Federation of Teachers found. 

Lawmakers with state legislation that would make it easier for schools to punish students, including with bipartisan support that allows schools to “permanently remove” disruptive students. After a 6-year-old boy with a history of disturbing behavior shot his teacher in January at a Virginia elementary school, that school leaders had become too lenient with students. In response to the drumbeat of school shootings, districts have bolstered school security, including with armed police officers. 

“You’re seeing states across the country passing these return-to-zero-tolerance and mass exclusion laws in several states, and I think that could have been avoided had the Biden administration been taking a strong stand throughout and reissuing the guidance,” said Russ Skiba, professor emeritus at Indiana University whose research focuses on school discipline.

Yet it’s this exact movement toward harsher student punishment rules that make discipline reform efforts a politically fraught undertaking, Petrilli said. 

“You can imagine somebody with a political perspective saying, ‘You know, is this really a good issue to run on when we’re getting clobbered on the defund the police stuff, on the crime issue?’” Petrilli said. “I would certainly think this would be dangerous for Democrats to be associated with a soft on discipline kind of approach in the same way it is dangerous for them to be associated with a soft on crime approach.” 

Meanwhile, racial justice advocate Breon Wells called the administration’s failure to address the issue a political miscalculation and accused Biden of failing to act on the promises of his campaign, which .

“To us what it feels like is that they are choosing the politically comfortable way over the delivering of these promises to people and, more specifically, Black and brown students,” said Wells, a member of the Federal School Discipline and Climate Coalition and the CEO and founder of The Daniel Initiative, a strategic communications firm. “There is no convenient path to rectify the wrongs and the injustices that have prevailed and been baked into a system.”

Persistent disparities

Nationally, stark racial disparities have persisted for years. For about as long, the factors that drive those disparities have been the subject of heated partisan debate. 

Black youth represented 15% of students nationwide during the 2017-18 school year but were the subject of 29% of law enforcement referrals, according to the most recent . Black youth also accounted for 38% of students who received one or more out of school suspensions and 33% of those who were expelled.

The 2014 guidance sought to close the gap. In a move that led to controversy, the department warned schools that discipline policies could constitute “unlawful discrimination” under federal civil rights law if they didn’t explicitly mention race but had a “disproportionate and unjustified effect on students of a particular race,” known as disparate impact. Such statistical evidence is a key indicator of potential violations, the letter noted, but civil rights investigators would review “all relevant circumstances” before imposing sanctions. 

While the document acknowledged that racial disparities in student discipline rates may be “caused by a range of factors,” it said that the “substantial racial disparities” couldn’t be attributed entirely to “more frequent or more serious misbehavior by students of color.”

A growing body of academic research has dug into the root causes of racial disparities in school discipline, including evidence that educators discipline Black students differently than their white classmates. in the peer-reviewed journal Social Forces, found that nearly half of the racial disparities in school discipline could be attributed to teachers treating Black and white students differently, suggesting that the “difference in punishment may be due to racial bias” among educators. In fact, just 9% of the variations could be attributed to different behaviors between Black and white children, researchers found. , by the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans, found that Black and low-income students received longer suspensions than their white and better-off classmates for the same types of infractions. 

Meanwhile, a significant body of research suggests that suspensions, expulsions and school-based arrests , including lowered academic performance and an increased likelihood of dropping out. Yet research on alternatives promoted in the 2014 discipline guidance, including restorative justice, has found that even as suspensions have decreased, they’ve generally . 

Petrilli has acknowledged that racial discrimination exists in school discipline but maintains that the harmful effects of suspensions and the influence of discriminatory bias in racial disparities is overblown, arguing that other factors, like poverty and the effects of growing up in a single-parent home, are key contributors. The 2014 guidance, he said, overstated the degree to which bias influenced the disparities. Any updated guidance from the Biden administration, Petrelli said, should remove threats of investigations based on a district’s racially disparate discipline data.

“If, after controlling for differences in socioeconomic status, for example, there’s still large disparities, that is a time that we would dig in and do an investigation,” he said. “That would be a middle ground.”

Yet for members of the Federal School Discipline and Climate Coalition, guidance on racial disparities in school discipline is the lowest denominator in a larger need to overhaul the country’s approach to school safety and student discipline. But the administration has failed to take a strong position, the group argued, on several critical civil rights issues. 

In last month, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona urged local policymakers to “move swiftly toward condemning and eliminating” corporal punishment in schools, which remains legal in 19 states. On the same day, it released that districts review their student discipline policies and ensure they “do not unfairly disadvantage a group of students,” including “unclear language that results in disproportionate discipline of certain students.”

But the corporal punishment guidance, the advocates argued, amounted to “cherry picking politically safe issues,” and called Cardona’s letter “halfhearted.” The guiding principles document, the group said, was “woefully inadequate” and appeared to be thrown together last minute. 

Coalition convener Christopher Scott said it’s time for the administration and Education Department leaders to stop shying away from tough conversations about race.

“They are failing to protect the civil rights of Black and brown students, youth and children because they don’t want to tackle the issue of race because it is taboo for them and is seen as not being politically efficient or leading to political wins,” said Scott, a senior program manager at the Open Society Policy Center. “It is not about what is going to keep you in office, it is about doing your job and protecting the civil rights of Black and brown students, youth and children. That’s why you exist.” 

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]]> /article/despite-crisis-states-and-districts-slow-to-spend-1b-in-mental-health-funds/ Sat, 15 Apr 2023 12:01:00 +0000 /?post_type=article&p=707481 Like many state leaders this year, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers used his to call for expanding student mental health services. 

“We cannot overstate the profound impact that the past few years have had on our kids,” he said. 

But his state is among 40 that haven’t begun to distribute their share of nearly $1 billion in federal funding for school safety and mental health services approved last year as part of a bipartisan gun safety law. the legislation in the aftermath of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting that left 19 students and two adults dead. 

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Education Secretary Miguel Cardona pressed state chiefs last month on why most of them hadn’t even launched competitions for districts to apply for funds, during a “.”

Parents who saw the pandemic’s impact on their children’s well-being agree.

“We have to address the real trauma,” said Ericka Thompson, an Atlanta-area parent. She said it’s important for students to have access to therapists — not just guidance counselors — especially at the high school level.

After months of remote learning, her oldest son, a senior at Westlake High School, said he was feeling apathetic and had “zero drive to do anything.” She found him a private therapist who recently finished his master’s degree.  Her ninth grader Matthew said it’s “baffling” that their school doesn’t have therapists because teens face more “real-world pressure” than younger students.

State leaders attribute the delay to their offices and district staff still trying to get billions of pandemic relief funds out the door with fast-approaching spending deadlines.

“They are working hard to invest historic amounts of federal funds effectively in a short amount of time,” said Marc Seigel, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Education, which received $8.2 million from the safety program, known as Strong Connections. The state is one of 23, plus the District of Columbia, that plans to open up an application period this spring. “We want to ensure that the timing of these grant dollars [comes] at a time where districts can meaningfully direct the funding.”

Another 10 states are now accepting or reviewing applications for the program, and 17 haven’t said when they plan to open up for applications. 

Only one — Oklahoma — has already distributed the money. Former state Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, who recently lost her race for governor to incumbent Republican Kevin Stitt, prioritized the expansion of mental health services before she left office because she wanted to “ensure that this didn’t get lost” when she left office.

The federal government awarded the funds, including $11.7 million to Oklahoma, on Sept. 15, 2022. By November, the state’s application was open and districts had about six weeks to apply.  , out of over 120 that applied, received funding, Hofmeister said. 

The new grants will allow districts to keep funding positions for counselors and other mental health professionals that they hired with federal relief funds.

Even though most students have been back in the classroom for almost two full school years, educators say many are still relearning social skills that got neglected during the pandemic.

“It’s  amazing how many of these kids don’t know how to address you in the hallway,” said Virginia DeLong, a counselor at Norwich Technical High School in Connecticut. “They are at a loss.”

Because many students at her school go straight into the workforce after graduation, DeLong spends a lot of her time teaching them skills such as how to prepare for an interview or follow-up on an application. For individual needs, the school has a therapist who meets with students three days a week.

“It’s great, but it’s not enough,” she said. “Honestly, we could have that five days a week and add another person.”

‘A drop in the ocean’

In addition to the $1 billion grant to states, which districts can use for efforts like anti-bullying programs and staff training, districts competed for an additional over five years directly from the Education Department to add mental health professionals. Another $500 million is available to expand university training programs. 

The Guilford County Schools in North Carolina has so far received $2.9 million of the $14 million it was awarded, which Superintendent Whitney Oakley said will allow the district to add more counselors, social workers and psychologists.

“It’s kind of like a drop in the ocean,” said Oakley. “We just have so much work to do.”

The safety and well-being of our students is one of my top priorities as Superintendent and a parent. Thank you to the dozens of students who answered the call to join me in discussing how to best foster healthy and safe schools at today's student safety summit

— Dr. Whitney Oakley (@Super_GCS)

In November, she met with at least 100 students for a safety “summit,” and again last month for a similar discussion on mental health. She said they told her they want someone they can talk to if they’re “having a panic attack” and that they “want mental health to be part of the fabric of public education.”

She attributed last year’s 30% chronic absenteeism rate among students in part to psychological issues. 

“It doesn’t matter how strong an instructional program is, or how great the teacher, if students don’t come,” she said.

The district, she said, plans to add 16 full-time clinicians. And building off its experience recruiting tutors from local universities, the district will hire graduate students preparing to work in school mental health to provide additional services. 

Medicaid guidance

Cardona said recently that he wants the funds for mental health “drawn down quicker.” 

But Kayla Tawa, youth policy analyst at the left-leaning , said there’s a reason some states might be taking their time. That’s because they’re waiting for instructions from Washington on how to for mental health services for low-income students who qualify.  That would free up grant dollars for other programs that benefit all students.  Guidance on that provision in the law is expected this spring.

“Advocates have been asking for this for a long time,” she said. “For schools that have high low-income populations, it’s very worthwhile for them.”

But some mental health providers and advocates would like to see a more direct, permanent solution that relieves districts from having to patch together multiple sources of funding. 

“This is a defining education and public health issue,” said Duncan Young, CEO of New Jersey-based Effective School Solutions. The company works in nine states to provide psychological services to schools with students at-risk of being placed in a mental health facility.

He pointed to a new from Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro for school-based mental health services as one example of the sustainable approach school officials want. 

“Grants — both state and federal — have expiration dates,” he said. “Unfortunately, for the mental health challenges that our young people are experiencing, we don’t see an expiration date.”

]]> /article/anti-trans-sports-bans-in-schools-would-violate-federal-law-under-biden-proposal/ Thu, 06 Apr 2023 23:06:57 +0000 /?post_type=article&p=707193 School districts that ban transgender athletes in school sports risk losing millions of dollars in federal education funds under released by the U.S. Department of Education Thursday. 

If adopted, school systems in that “categorically” ban transgender athletes could find themselves caught between state and federal laws, a tension that is likely to play out in the courts.

Under the proposed rule, however, schools and colleges could “adopt policies that limit transgender students’ participation” in specific sports — particularly at the more competitive high school and college levels. That would effectively bar some transgender girls from participation.

“Some sex-related distinctions in sports are permissible as long as the school ensures overall equal athletic participation opportunities,” a senior administration official said in a briefing with reporters, noting the department’s effort to address the shifting legal landscape on an issue that has sharply divided the country since President Joe Biden took office. 

The rule will be published in the coming weeks, the official said, and available for public comment for 30 days.

“Every student should be able to have the full experience of attending school in America, including participating in athletics, free from discrimination,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. 

The proposed rule makes good on a promise Biden issued on his first day as president, when he released an stating that Title IX protections against discrimination extend to students based on their gender identity and sexual orientation. Since then, banning transgender students from competing in girls sports has become a defining issue for Republicans. Just this week, Kansas lawmakers overrode the veto of Gov. Laura Kelly and imposed a ban on transgender athletes competing in kindergarten through college. And 17 states that they would sue if the department went through with efforts to “redefine biological sex to include gender identity.” 

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But administration officials believe they’ve struck an appropriate compromise. “The proposed rule that we offer today is our best judgment,” the department official said. “We are confident in our legal opinion.”

The proposal would require schools to carefully balance issues of inclusion and fairness, and nods toward evolving understanding of how children’s bodies develop during puberty. It states that most students in the elementary grades would be able to play sports consistent with their gender identity and likely be able to continue doing so in middle school. At higher levels, schools would have to consider the specific sport and competitiveness level before determining if transgender students should be excluded. Schools would be allowed to decide for themselves, the official said, whether limiting trans students’ participation meets an educational goal.

“This is a high, demanding standard that will be difficult for schools to meet,” said Scott Skinner-Thompson, an associate law professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder. 

The administration’s measure may not go far enough for transgender student activists or those who think inclusion hinders the goals of women’s sports.

Conservatives who have opposed the administration’s stance on the issue said it puts school districts in the middle. The proposal, according to , places “the onus on school districts” to determine whether their policy would violate the law.

Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. went further, promising in a statement that “we will never allow boys to play in girls’ sports. We will fight this overreach tooth and nail. And we will stop at nothing to uphold the protections afforded women under Title IX.” 

LGBTQ advocates say conservatives are discriminating against vulnerable students who make up just . 

Some advocates welcomed the proposed rule’s language that across-the-board bans on trans girls participating in girls and women’s sports violate the law, but expressed concern that some trans students would still face discrimination.

Title IX “protections don’t stop when a student leaves the classroom to go out onto the soccer field or a volleyball court or into a bathroom,” said Sasha Buchert, nonbinary and transgender rights project director at Lambda Legal, a law firm and advocacy organization. 

The draft rule also comes as the GOP-led House prepares to vote on — the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act — that would essentially turn state bans into federal policy. The legislation is not expected to pass in the Senate. 

The state bans have been the subject of numerous legal challenges. The release of the rule late in the afternoon before a holiday weekend coincided with the Thursday of West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrissey’s emergency request to allow its 2021 Save Women’s Sports law to go into effect. Becky Pepper-Jackson, identified male at birth, and her mother Heather Jackson to prevent the law from being implemented, saying that it violates Title IX and the U.S. Constitution. 

The court’s ruling means that Pepper-Jackson, 12, can continue participating on her school’s cross country and track teams while the U.S, Appeals Court for the 4th Circuit considers her case.

The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia and Lambda Legal called the state’s request “a baseless and cruel effort to keep Becky from where she belongs — playing alongside her peers as a teammate and as a friend.”

The draft is the second part of the administration’s rewrite of Title IX. Released last year, the initial draft extended Title IX protections to LGBTQ students but left unanswered questions about school sports.

The administration largely aims to reverse a Trump-era rule that required live hearings as part of investigations into sexual harassment and misconduct. The proposed rule also removes a requirement that defines harassment as “severe, pervasive and objectively offensive.” 

The department had to review nearly 350,000 comments on Title IX, with many focusing on sports. 

“We’ve been very grateful to be able to take account of the very wide variety of views on this topic,” the official said. Comments from students, professional athletes, teachers and others were incorporated to “inform that proposed law.” 

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