This is being packaged as a way to streamline the department’s work. But out here in rural America, where I’m from, it’s clear that this kind of chaos will hurt the most vulnerable students first.

Under the plan, the Department of Labor will be responsible for overseeing K-12 programs. The Department of the Interior will run Native American education programs. The Department of Health and Human Services will ​​take over campus-based child care programs for college students. The State Department will assume international education and student-exchange functions, including programs that support global language and area-studies partnerships. And the administration has hinted that it will announce the transfer of additional programs in the coming months. 

There will be no clear authority, little technical assistance provided to districts like mine in rural areas, blurred accountability and conflicting priorities. This will interrupt funding and services that will wreak havoc on student outcomes.

Rural districts already operate with limited staff and underfunded central offices. In many places, one superintendent will be handling Title I, special education, federal grants, transportation, food service and student services all on their own — often while also overseeing district operations. Now, imagine telling that same superintendent that instead of leaning on the Department of Education for guidance, they must contact Labor for help with one set of programs, Interior for another, HHS for a third and the State Department for others. That’s not reform; it’s an obstacle course.

In addition, these agencies all use different payment systems, which only complicates the flow of funding to districts. I have extensive experience working with the G5 payment system, the Department of Education’s central online platform for managing grant funds. I’ve used earlier versions under multiple administrations — Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden. While no system is perfect, G5 has been relatively straightforward and predictable. When issues arise, there’s a clear structure for technical assistance and problem-solving.

That predictability would be lost. Requiring districts to navigate multiple payment systems across different agencies will introduce unnecessary complexity, slow reimbursements and increase the risk of errors. Small rural districts don’t have the administrative capacity to manage multiple federal accounting systems, and even short delays can disrupt payroll, special education contracts and student services.

These delays mean postponing reading interventions, suspending behavioral health services for vulnerable students or holding off on hiring staff. Since the creation of the Small Rural School Achievement program in 2001, which provides grants essential to bridging rural funding gaps, I hadn’t experienced a single delay in federal education funding — until this year. This is clear evidence that instability in Washington quickly reaches rural communities.

The students who rely most on stable federal support are the ones most harmed when a system enters a period of chaos. These include children with disabilities, Indigenous students, English learners and kids from low-income families. They depend on programs that require consistency, not fragmentation. If the Trump administration’s plan proceeds, those services will be stalled and undermined and could even vanish into bureaucratic gaps. 

If the administration really wants to support states, there are common-sense steps that won’t plunge schools into chaos, such as streamlining federal grant applications, reducing duplicate reporting requirements, updating outdated data systems and expanding technical assistance. These are practical changes that could make life easier for school staff and families.

At the end of the day, rural America survives on stability. We know what happens when a barn collapses or a herd scatters — everyone suffers, and it takes much more effort to bring things back under control than it would have taken to fortify the structure in the first place.

The same principle is true here. Breaking up the Department of Education and scattering its shards throughout the federal government isn’t reform. It’s disruption. And rural schools, tribal communities and vulnerable students will be the ones who pay the steepest price. 

North Dakota won’t see any charter schools open this year, but state education officials are busy behind the scenes laying the groundwork for next year.

Lawmakers passed during the 2025 session that authorized public charter schools in North Dakota, leaving South Dakota, Nebraska and Vermont as the only states without a public charter school law.

Supporters of charter schools said they will give families more options and may be able to cater to different learning styles or interests. Bill sponsor Sen. Michelle Axtman, R-Bismarck, gave examples during the legislative session of charter schools around the country specializing in health care or building trades, dual language or STEM-education models.

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“It expands education opportunities and provides a new way to promote innovation and offer more choice to families,” North Dakota Superintendent Kirsten Baesler said in an Aug. 5 statement.

Now the state Department of Public Instruction is developing an application process and drafting rules to license the new schools. A public hearing is expected before the end of the year.

The department has received some inquiries from teachers and organizations interested in establishing a charter school, said Arlene Wolf, director of school approvals and opportunity.

Charter schools will not be able to charge tuition or offer religious instruction, according to the new law. They will also not be able to discriminate based on ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender or income level, among other criteria.

The schools will receive state funding that follows the student. The funding is based on the state funding average, which is about $8,360 per student for 2025-26, according to the department. Charter schools also will be able to receive federal grants and private donations.

The law allows existing schools to become a public charter school if a majority of the parents of students support the change.

The Department of Public Instruction will be the sole authorizing authority for public charter schools in North Dakota, Wolf said. North Dakota plans to apply for federal grants to assist with establishing the new schools, she said.

“We want to make sure we are building the right process to ensure success,” Wolf said. “It just takes a little bit of time, but we’re certainly trying to do it right. Luckily, we had a lot of states that were ahead of us.”

State education officials have learned from other states that having a detailed application on the front end can save time during the permitting process, Wolf said. They’ve also learned the importance of having an in-person interview during a public meeting as part of the approval process, she said.

“What you really want to know is that they have the systems in place so when they open their doors, they are ready to go,” she said.

Charter schools will be held to the same standards as the state’s other public schools, Wolf said, and could face similar if student performance falls into the bottom 10% of performing schools in the state.

“We don’t want to make anything difficult, but we definitely want to ensure that students are increasing in their outcomes,” Wolf said.

Nick Archuleta, president of North Dakota United, an educator and public employee union, said it will be important that the rules that govern a school’s performance are the same for charter schools as they are for public schools.

ND United and other education organizations across the state will be monitoring the department’s rules process, he said.

“We’re also very interested to see what the governing boards of these charter schools end up looking like,” Archuleta said. “What qualifications should a person have for that sort of position? What level of professionalism is going to be expected of that governing body?”

He said the organization is worried that charter schools will be competing for funding against the public education system.

“The pie is only so big,” he said.

Idaho, which established public charter schools in 1998, initially had opposition to the new schools, but now they have been embraced in the state, said Terry Ryan, CEO of BLUUM, an Idaho-based public charter school support organization.

Similar to North Dakota, opponents in Idaho warned that charter schools would mean the “death” of rural school districts, Ryan said. But that hasn’t been the case, he said.

Idaho now has 75 charter schools, representing about 10% of the total student population, Ryan said.

The Idaho School Boards Association has become less hostile toward charter schools, Ryan said, even including charter school-specific learning sessions at its annual convention.

“I think we’ve evolved from this is ‘us against them’ to, really, we’re all in this together and the ultimate goal is to better serve our families and our children,” he said.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. North Dakota Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Amy Dalrymple for questions: info@northdakotamonitor.com.

How do you get students to remember what they learn? According to Gladys Hawk, a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, you tell them a story.

Hawk is one of dozens of tribal elders featured on the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction’s website, which now boasts more than 350 videos.

In an played for educators at the Department of Public Instruction’s annual Indian Education Summit in Bismarck on Friday, Hawk spoke of the bedtime stories her grandmother would tell her in Lakota growing up.

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Hawk said at the end of each tale, her grandmother would tie in an important life lesson.

“She would say, ‘And that’s why I want you to be good — don’t be like this one in the story,’” said Hawk. “We have to listen to what our elders have to say, because usually they’re teaching us something important.”

Sharla Steever and Scott Simpson, who worked on the videos for North Dakota’s Native American Essential Understandings project, shared Hawk’s interview as one example of how attendees can integrate Native culture and history into the classroom.

“You can pull those stories in any time you want, if you want to focus in on a concept or a theme or something historical that the elder is speaking about,” Steever said of the Teaching of Our Elders videos.

Steever said in her experience, storytelling helps to create a sense of community in the classroom. Kids tend to retain information if they have a personal anecdote to connect it to, she said.

Under a law adopted by the state Legislature in 2021, K-12 schools in North Dakota are required to teach Native history. The website is one of a number of resources the Department of Public Instruction’s Office of Indian and Multicultural Education has developed that can support schools in this area, Steever said.

She said the Department of Public Instruction is still doing interviews with elders from time to time. However, it can be difficult to arrange.

While the agency likes to give elders who participate a stipend, there’s not a ton of funding available, Steever said.

“There’s never really been a budget for that,” she said. The department also has to squeeze in time for the interviews around its other work, she added.

Steever said she’s working on an additional set of video interviews with Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate elders.

Haiden Person, a recent graduate from Bismarck High School and the conference’s youth speaker, said Friday that teaching more Native American culture and history in schools is key to combatting anti-Indigenous racism.

“They don’t know it’s wrong, you’ve just got to teach them,” said Person, a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

Person recently graduated from Bismarck High School and plans to attend United Tribes Technical College in the fall. Person said mental health is an issue close to his heart, and that he plans to become a psychiatrist.

The summit also welcomed Daniel Kish, an expert in human echolocation — using sound to locate objects — and president of World Access for the Blind, for a keynote address.

Kish has been blind since he was a year old. He said he gained the ability to echolocate because his parents wanted him to be self-sufficient despite his disability. He now helps teach the skill to other blind people.

“It’s an ability that provides you with awareness of the environment that’s way out beyond the length of your cane,” he said.

He said a broader goal of his is studying how people develop a sense of personal identity and agency. Kish said he appreciated hearing Person talk about mental health and the importance of leaning on others in your community.

“Haiden had it right, don’t be afraid to ask for help,” Kish said.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. North Dakota Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Amy Dalrymple for questions: info@northdakotamonitor.com.

North Dakota Superintendent of Schools Kirsten Baesler has been nominated to be part of President Donald Trump’s administration, Gov. Kelly Armstrong said Wednesday in a statement congratulating her.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Baesler would be the next assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education.

The position oversees the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the Department of Education. One of the roles of the office is to assist state and local school districts in improving outcomes for students from preschool through high school.

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Baesler said in a statement late Wednesday she is excited for an opportunity to support the education of more than 49 million children and their families.

“This is an opportunity to build on the relationships I’ve formed with fellow state education leaders over the past 12 years to implement the changes that will help our students become future-ready citizens,” Baesler said. “I look forward to working alongside Secretary-designate (Linda) McMahon to deliver on President Trump’s education agenda and return education decisions to the states.”

The news comes at a time when the Department of Education is being ’s Department of Government Efficiency to find budget cuts. In a Monday, the department said it terminated 89 contracts at the Education Department.

Armstrong said Baesler’s experience as state superintendent, an educator, vice principal and school board member put her in a position to bring “common sense” to the Department of Education.

“She understands that decisions affecting local schools are best left to local school districts, with guidance from the state and limited involvement from the federal government,” Armstrong said in a statement.

Armstrong said Baesler plans on staying on as state superintendent until she is confirmed by the U.S. Senate. He added he will appoint a new superintendent once she resigns from her position at the Department of Public Instruction and an election for the office will be held in November 2026.

The position is nonpartisan, though Baesler has in the past sought a letter of support from the Republican Party.

Baesler, a native of Flasher, was first elected state superintendent in 2012 and has won reelection to the position three times, defeating Jason Heitkamp in 2024 with 57% of the vote.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. North Dakota Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Amy Dalrymple for questions: info@northdakotamonitor.com.

A dozen state leaders, all from Republican-led states, wrote to Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump’s education secretary nominee, last week asking her to push for greater state control over federal education funds and to avoid issuing guidance they say is “not anchored in law.”

In the Jan. 28 letter, shared exclusively with The 74, they also want McMahon, former head of World Wrestling Entertainment, to send large buckets of funding for schools, like Title I money for low-income students, as a block grant. But they stopped short of stating support for abolishing the U.S. Department of Education — President Donald Trump’s top education policy goal. 

“By prioritizing state leadership and flexibility, the Trump administration can unleash the full potential of America’s schools and students,” they wrote. “Please defer to state and local decision-making as much as possible.”

The letter outlines conservative chiefs’ priorities as Trump takes aggressive steps to reshape the federal role in education. He frequently to “send education back to the states” and is expected to issue an executive order before the end of the month that would call on Congress to close the department.

The memo offers specifics that have been lacking in many discussions over how the relationship between the federal government and the states might change. But some experts wonder if the freedom GOP leaders seek will leave high-need students without services currently provided under law. Madi Biedermann, a department spokeswoman, confirmed they’d received the letter, but said officials wouldn’t share it with McMahon until she’s confirmed. 

The 12 leaders who penned the letter, both elected and appointed, are from Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming. 

Oklahoma state Superintendent Ryan Walters was not among them, despite the fact that he has been the most vocal about and at one point, threatened to . 

The proposals should provide additional talking points for committee members during McMahon’s confirmation hearing Feb. 13. While it would require congressional approval, the chiefs want to see the of funding under the Every Student Succeeds Act — like Title I and Title III for English learners — consolidated into a single block grant for “maximum flexibility.” 

They want to design their own formulas for distributing the money to districts so they can address the needs of rural areas, for example, and state-specific learning initiatives. In the meantime, they want the new secretary to grant as many waivers as possible from the accountability requirements of the law so they can “present new ideas” for how to spend the money.

‘Dilute the protections’

Rebecca Sibilia, executive director of EdFund, a research and policy organization, said she wasn’t surprised that the chiefs didn’t advocate eliminating the education department outright. Many of their states on federal funds and spend less state money on schools. The department, she said, is doing those states “a great service.”

While some state leaders might view the federal requirements as “overly burdensome,” she said their push for more control could come at the expense of students who require extra help, like those in poverty, English learners and homeless students. 

“Once you start blending all of those titles together you start to really dilute the protections that are going to individual students,” she said. 

The letter doesn’t mention the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which under , would move to the Department of Health and Human Services.

“IDEA oversight is giving some people pause,” she said. “That piece of legislation is very specific to education.”

Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, say they have “serious concerns” about any attempts to shutter the department. On Thursday, they to Acting Education Secretary Denise Carter asking for more transparency on how the department plans to continue running programs it oversees, like financial aid and afterschool programs.

“We will not stand by and allow the impact that dismantling the Department of Education would have on the nation’s students, parents, borrowers, educators and communities,” they wrote.

In their letter, the state chiefs pushed back on the department’s practice of using “dear colleague” letters to enforce its priorities, which they said have often been “treated as legally binding policy.” Guidance from the department, they said, should merely be a suggestion “so as not to force behavior change.”  

During the Obama administration, for example, Republicans fought guidance that said students should be able to use bathrooms that match their and another that said districts could risk civil rights investigations if Black and Hispanic students were . 

On Wednesday, the Education Department issued stating that it would no longer enforce the Biden administration’s Title IX rule, which extended protections to LGBTQ students, and that any investigations based on the 2024 rule would be “reevaluated.” 

Nat Malkus, deputy director of education policy at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said he hopes Trump honors the chiefs’ request, but noted the “chaos” that has marked Trump’s first few weeks in office. Trump’s efforts to freeze federal funding have been . And even some have questioned Elon Musk’s authority to gain access to government payment systems and disable an agency that provides foreign aid.

“The ‘pen and phone’ approach, to quote Obama, whipsaws state leaders across administrations and is lousy federal governance,” he said. “My worry is less about the secretary nominee and more about the ‘move fast and break things’ approach we’ve seen so far in many other dimensions of this young administration.”

A bill proposes to reduce the years needed for a lifetime teaching license in North Dakota, but a state licensing board says ongoing education is critical to the career field.

The House Education Committee held a public hearing Tuesday for that would reduce the years needed for teachers to acquire a lifetime license from 30 years to 20 years. The bill would also mandate teachers with lifetime licenses to file a report with the North Dakota Education Standards and Practices Board every five years to self-report any criminal violations, or any other information that could cause the teacher’s license to be revoked or suspended.

Rep. Zac Ista, D-Grand Forks, the bill’s chief sponsor, said a 20-year benchmark for lifetime licensing will reduce out-of-pocket costs for educators and improve workforce retention in education.

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Teachers could save about $1,000 by eliminating two license renewal cycles, he said, and save the time it takes to do college-level continuing education credits.

The North Dakota Education Standards and Practices Board opposes the bill, Executive Director Rebecca Pitkin told lawmakers. She said lowering the requirements for ongoing education does not “promote the profession.”

“Requiring six reeducation college credits in five years should not be a reason to leave the profession,” Pitkin said. She added many of those credits can be obtained at the district level with little to no cost to the educator.

There are about 18,000 licensed teachers in North Dakota with about 10,000 currently employed in the state’s school districts, according to the Department of Public Instruction.

North Dakota United, an educator and public employee union, supports the bill. President Nick Archuleta told lawmakers it could help the state address an .

“While these teachers are qualified and fulfill a need in many communities, we believe that recruiting, retaining and respecting teachers here is the best way to meet our needs for the long term,” Archuleta said.

He also said the state has made accommodations for new teachers, including allowing student teachers to become teachers-of-record through , but have done very little to benefit teachers with decades of experience.

“Please stand up for teachers,” Archuleta said. “Please show them that their dedication to the students of North Dakota is appreciated.”

The committee took no immediate action on the bill. A similar bill proposed in the 2023 session failed in the Senate.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. North Dakota Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Amy Dalrymple for questions: info@northdakotamonitor.com.

Senior reporter Jo Napolitano spent nearly a year and a half calling 630 high schools in every state plus Washington, D.C. to test whether they would admit a 19-year-old Venezuelan transplant who spoke little English and whose education was interrupted after ninth grade. Using her own name, she told school officials the new arrival was her nephew, that he had recently moved to their district and was eager to resume his studies. 

“Hector Guerrero,” a stand-in for others like him, was refused 330 times, including more than 200 denials in states where he had a legal right to attend according to his age. Many schools, including those that reluctantly accepted him, tried hard to steer Hector to GED programs, adult education or community college — anything but public school.

The 74’s investigation, which exposed a pervasive hostility and suspicion toward older newcomers, proved enrollment for this group is arbitrary across the map, with little consistency within states, counties or school districts: Staffers within the very same building sometimes disagreed. 

And those answering these high-stakes enrollment questions — from temporary office workers to school principals — often provided bad information. 

Almost all 50 states and D.C. have laws establishing a maximum age for public school enrollment. In 35 states and the District of Columbia, general education students can attend high school to at least 20 — often to 21. 

The 74 reached out to 25 states and the U.S. Capitol where Hector was within the maximum enrollment age but faced a high volume of rejections to alert education department officials to our findings.

“It is very concerning that there is confusion among school districts about this issue,” said Jackie Matthews of the Illinois State Board of Education. “We are updating our enrollment to clarify the maximum age of enrollment and are issuing additional guidance to address specific questions about enrolling newcomer students. We hope to bring greater clarity to the field.”

Illinois, where students can stay in high school until age 21, had among the highest refusal rates of any state in the country — 25 out of 32 schools turned Hector away.

In Chicago alone, he was rejected by seven out of eight high schools — and was likely to be refused by one other. Among the rejections: Benito Juarez Community Academy, founded in 1977 when a group of Latina mothers in their neighborhood.

“We are concerned anytime we hear reports that a prospective student and/or family member may have been turned away from their right to a free public education,” a spokeswoman for the city’s public schools, which serve , wrote in an email. “We have shared the findings on specific schools and are doubling down on our efforts to ensure those particular schools — and all staff — understand the law and our own CPS policies.”

The school system, like many other districts and state education departments around the country, noted it has long taken steps to educate staff about newcomers’ rights. Chicago Public Schools, which at the district level has — many arriving to the city after being bused from southern states — called it “a matter of rightful presence.”

The New Mexico Public Education Department’s general counsel drafted a memorandum to all districts and charters outlining their legal obligations to these and other students. A spokeswoman there confirmed the action is in response to The 74’s findings. The memo was sent out in early August.

“School districts and charter schools have a responsibility to educate these students regardless of  their relative academic ability or likelihood of success,” it reads. “They are entitled to receive as much education as other students, until graduation or equivalent, or aging out of the public school system.” 

State education officials in Michigan say they need additional legislative action to guarantee students’ rights. Spokesman Bob Wheaton said current state law is silent on whether districts must enroll prospective students who will turn 19 or 20 during the school year — even though the law states such students are eligible to attend and school districts receive state aid for supporting them. 

“State law says these students are eligible to attend but doesn’t say schools must enroll them,” Wheaton wrote. “That’s why we support legislation to change that.” 

Hector was turned down by 11 of 16 Michigan high schools with one other saying it would likely refuse him. Wheaton said a team of staffers within the department is working to explore and recommend a change to the statute’s language.

He said The 74’s investigation “shines a light on the need for states to improve not just their policy in this area but the implementation of their policy.”

Officials in D.C., where Hector was rejected by 6 out of 7 schools, also vowed to take action on the issue before the start of the academic year. The Office of the State Superintendent of Education will “ensure staff consistently share key resources and information with any student or family that contacts a school about enrollment, so that the correct process can be followed and the student enrolled,” a spokesman wrote. 

The 74 called 20 high schools in Georgia, where students have a right to attend until age 21, and received 14 refusals and two likely rejections. The state education department did not pledge to take any additional steps to ensure immigrant students’ rights based on our findings — but the Atlanta Public Schools had a starkly different reaction. 

A district administrator who works with multilingual learners reached out to The 74 two days after our story published and said the 50,000-student school system had been “diligently educating our registrars to ensure no eligible student is denied enrollment in our district.” She said it intended to take further steps based on our findings. 

State education department officials in Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, Mississippi and South Carolina said they will reach out to all of the individual schools that refused Hector — in addition to numerous other measures — while Colorado said it will contact the districts as a whole.   

Colorado will also advise school superintendents of their responsibility toward these students at upcoming presentations and conferences, a spokesman said. It will highlight enrollment in the commissioner’s monthly communication to superintendents for August and include periodic reminders throughout the school year.

Virginia, where Hector was accepted by just 1 out of 11 schools, also pledged to act on our findings. 

“Your reporting showed that a number of our school divisions could use a refresher on the current enrollment requirements, so we are using the start of the school year as an opportunity to remind all divisions of the obligations involving enrollment,” state education officials said. “It is not something we would usually send.”

The North Dakota Department of Public Instruction holds an annual workshop in the summer for school administrators, typically in August, to help prepare for the new school year. At this year’s gathering, a spokesperson said, the department will remind administrators of the state law about maximum age for school admittance — and ask that they ensure staffers who handle enrollment are made aware of it. 

North Dakota must admit all students who have not turned 21 by Aug. 1 of that school year.

“This reminder will certainly be verbal and I suspect there will also be a written reminder as well,” the spokesperson said. “I’m sure your story will be mentioned.”

The department has also reached out to the two high schools that refused Hector. 

The 74 contacted a minimum of five high schools in each state. Napolitano then added hundreds more in various locations across the country based primarily on the number and percentage of Hispanic and immigrant residents living there. The calls, which numbered in the thousands, were made between February 2023 and May 2024. They were recorded in those states that allow for one-party consent. 

Roughly 1.1 million people ages 18 to 20 entered the United States between 2012 and 2021, according to the Migration Policy Institute. 

The 74 aimed to expose how schools handle enrollment requests for older immigrant  students in this openly xenophobic era, one in which the southern border has become a and more and more Americans say for the country despite newcomers bring. 

Conservative forces have been from school for . They now want schools to collect information on students’ immigration status when they enroll and charge tuition for undocumented children or the children of undocumented parents. Such steps would defy — and potentially set the stage to overturn — Plyler v. Doe, the landmark 1982 Supreme Court ruling that a child cannot be denied a public education based on immigration status. 

Texas, which has and is constantly pushing for even more , had among the worst acceptance rates in the nation: 18 of 29 schools refused to admit Hector. Two others said they were likely to turn him away. 

The Texas Education Agency said it shared The 74’s findings with the state’s Special Investigations Unit. It’s unclear what action may be taken. In Texas, where roughly is an immigrant, students can remain in high school until age 21 and, if a school district accepts them, . 

State education officials in Alaska, Hawaii and Maine — where Hector was denied by 16 of 27 total schools — did not respond to repeated calls and emails asking for comment. 

Educators and advocates from across the country reached out to The 74 on their own shortly after our June 17 investigation was published to report that these discriminatory enrollment practices were widespread — sometimes involving immigrants as young as 17.

Several said they were heartened to hear at least some states are moving quickly to re-enforce the law.

“I believe that when people are reminded of the facts and stop to think about the importance of allowing all students to pursue an education, they will push for positive change,” said student immigration advocate and policy expert Timothy Boals. 

Adam Strom, of Re-Imagining Migration, said immigrant students still face barriers once they enter school, but getting through the door is a crucial first step.

“That work begins, but does not end, with ensuring that all eligible students have unfettered access to education,” he said. “There is more work to be done to ensure equitable educational opportunities, however this is a hopeful start.”

This story was produced with support from the Education Writers Association Reporting Fellowship program.

North Dakota tribal schools need better support — especially when it comes to serving low-income students, Shayla Davis, a member of Superintendent Kirsten Baesler’s Student Cabinet, told a crowd of tribal educators Friday.

“There should be no gaps in education,” Davis, a 2023 graduate of Devils Lake High School and member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, said.

Davis and other advocates for Native education gathered at the North Dakota Capitol on Thursday and Friday for the Department of Public Instruction’s 10th annual Indian Education Summit.

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The two-day conference — which included speeches, presentations and breakout sessions — drew about 200 attendees, according to the Department of Public Instruction. The goal is to strengthen tribal education in North Dakota, according to the agency’s website.

For Davis, that means giving all students the opportunities they need to succeed. She said she could name more than 50 teachers that positively impacted her. But not all Native students in North Dakota have been as lucky, she said.

“I realized the socioeconomic challenges that were keeping other students just miles away from the same important educational opportunities we receive at Devils Lake High School — the same opportunities that truly made me the person that I am today,” Davis said.

She encouraged schools to find creative ways to serve students in need. She pointed to a Cass County nonprofit started in 2019 that created a school food and supply pantry for students.

“I believe that this can be done in tribal schools,” Davis said.

Davis also urged teachers to provide more opportunities for education on tribal history and culture.

“We must know who we are and where we come from,” she said.

Teachers and administrators that work in Native communities had similar feedback for the state, Ellie Shockley, a researcher for the North Dakota University System, said at a Friday breakout session.

Shockley worked with the Department of Public Instruction’s Indian and Multicultural Education Office to conduct the state’s 2023 survey on Native student needs.

The survey was taken by teachers and administrators at 35 North Dakota public schools with high Native populations, Shockley said. Overall, schools reported making an effort to engage with Native communities and to integrate tribal culture into the classroom, but still felt there was still considerable room for improvement.

“A number of respondents advocated for adding classes that enhance understanding of Native American culture,” Shockley said. She said the responses also highlighted issues faced by Native students, like school attendance and poverty.

“One bright spot is that respondents agree that Native American language instruction is commonly incorporated into daily and weekly activities,” Shockley said.

Schools seemed to be less familiar with state resources related to Native education, however.

The survey found just 50% of teachers and 72% of administrators were aware of the Department of Public Instructions’ Native American Essential Understandings project. The project, , works with Native elders to develop educational resources on Native history and culture in North Dakota.

The results also indicate schools may be struggling to implement a new requirement for K-12 schools to teach Native history adopted by the state Legislature in 2021. Shockley said just 75% of teachers and 89% of administrators were aware of the legislation. Much fewer — 57% of teachers and 67% of administrators — said they were aware of educational resources published by the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction related to the bill.

In a separate presentation, representatives from the Department of Public Instruction shared updates about an ongoing project to update a series of five ’90s-era textbooks on the history of North Dakota tribes.

Four of the textbooks focus on the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and Spirit Lake Nation, respectively. Another provides an introduction to the history of North Dakota Tribes. The series was authored by representatives of the tribes and published by the state roughly 30 years ago.

Lucy Fredericks, director of Indian and Multicultural Education for the Department of Public Instruction, is leading the effort to reprint the books in partnership with groups including the Indian Education Coalition, United Tribes Technical College, North Dakota State University and the University of North Dakota.

The Indian Education Coalition is currently working on making revisions to the textbooks, as well as writing about 30 pages of new material detailing the last three decades of each tribe’s history, Fredericks said. She said the books will be free to teachers and schools across the state.

“This definitely will be authentic, because it’s coming exactly from the tribes,” she said.

The project is funded by a grant through the federal CARES Act, said Fredericks.

The original textbooks did not include a history of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate. Nick Asbury of the Department of Public Instruction said the agency would be open to adding another textbook dedicated to the tribe.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. North Dakota Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Amy Dalrymple for questions: info@northdakotamonitor.com. Follow North Dakota Monitor on and .

WASHINGTON — The only reason John Arthur is able to be a public school teacher is because his wife makes much more money than he does.

Arthur —  the 2021 Utah Teacher of the Year  — testified on Thursday at a hearing in the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on the challenges facing public school teachers.

Arthur, who is also a member of the National Education Association and holds National Board Certification, pointed to pay as the main reason for both teachers leaving the profession and parents not wanting their children to become teachers.

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“The No. 1 solution to addressing the issues we face must be increasing teachers’ salaries,” said Arthur, who teaches at Meadowlark Elementary School in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Gemayel Keyes, a teacher at Gilbert Spruance Elementary School in Philadelphia, told the committee that even as an educator, he still has an additional part-time job.

The special education teacher spent most of his career in education as a paraprofessional. At the time he moved into that role, the starting annual salary was $16,000 and the maximum was $30,000.

“It’s still pretty much the same,” he said.

Minimum teacher salary 

Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, in March 2023 that would set an of $60,000 for public elementary and secondary school teachers.

“We understand that the children, young people of this country, are our future and there is, in fact … nothing more important that we can do to provide a quality education to all of our young people, and yet, for decades, public school teachers have been overworked, underpaid, understaffed, and maybe most importantly, underappreciated,” Sanders said in his opening remarks.

“Compared to many other occupations, our public school teachers are more likely to experience high levels of anxiety, stress and burnout, which was only exacerbated by the pandemic,” he said.

Sanders said 44% of public school teachers are quitting their profession within five years, citing “the extremely low pay teachers receive” as one of the primary reasons for a massive U.S. teacher shortage.

For the 2023-24 school year, a whopping 86% of K-12 public schools in the country documented challenges in hiring teachers, according to an October report from the .

Maryland sets $60,000 minimum  

But a minimum annual teacher salary of $60,000 is not far off for every state.

In Maryland, the raises the starting salary for teachers to $60,000 a year by July 2026.

William E. Kirwan, vice chair of Maryland’s Accountability and Implementation Board, said the multi-year comprehensive plan, passed in 2021 in the Maryland General Assembly, “addresses all aspects of children’s education from birth to high school completion, including most especially, the recruitment, retention and compensation of high quality teachers.”

Kirwan said the “Blueprint’s principle for teacher compensation is that, as professionals, teachers should be compensated at the same level as other professionals requiring similar levels of education, such as architects and CPAs.”

An “allocation issue”  

Sen. Bill Cassidy, ranking member of the committee, dubbed Democrats’ solution of creating a federal minimum salary for teachers as a “laudable goal.”

But he noted that “the federal government dictating how states spend their money does not address the root cause of why teachers are struggling to teach in the classroom.”

“More mandates and funding cannot be the only answer we come up with. We must examine broken policies that got us here and find solutions to improve,” the Louisiana Republican said.

Nicole Neily, president and founder of Parents Defending Education, a parents’ rights group, argued that “schools don’t have a resource issue” but rather an “allocation issue.”

“There’s a saying: ‘Don’t tell me where your priorities are, show me where you spend your money, and I’ll tell you what they are.’ Education leaders routinely choose to spend money on programs and personnel that don’t directly benefit students,” said Neily.

Neily pointed to a 2021 report from the , which found that “standardized test results show that achievement gaps are growing wider over time in districts with (chief diversity officers).” Such staff members commonly encourage efforts at diversity, equity and inclusion in schools.

Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said “higher pay does not ease the burden we place on teachers or add hours to their day.”

“By all means, raise teacher pay, but do not assume that it will solve teacher shortages or keep good teachers in the classroom. Poor training, deteriorating classroom conditions, shoddy curriculum and spiraling demands have made an already challenging job nearly impossible to do well and sustainably,” he added.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. North Dakota Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Amy Dalrymple for questions: info@northdakotamonitor.com. Follow North Dakota Monitor on and .

It’s graduation weekend for North Dakota’s public colleges, with the University of North Dakota and North Dakota State University accounting for more than half of the degrees and certificates to be handed out.

Which of the nine remaining schools would be next in line? If you guessed Bismarck State College, you get an A.

UND accounts for about 33% of the graduates and NDSU 28%, according to 2023 figures. Bismarck State accounts for 9.6% of program completions.

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Not all the program completions mean a two-year or four-year degree.

Bismarck State offers a list of certificate programs that are less than one year, such as mobile app development, as well as  two-year programs such as nursing and a few four-year programs.

She said that in the last year alone, out of the 210 academic programs that came through the North Dakota University System office and were approved by the State Board of Higher Education, 142 out of those were certificate programs.

“Some of that is just campuses looking at programs, for example, an associate degree, and thinking about how to bundle, how to repackage existing programs into smaller sort of increments that students might complete as a certificate, possibly even as a student in high school,” Johnson said.

While the number of graduates from North Dakota colleges and universities has declined almost 6% in the past five years, the number of program completions is down only about 3%, with some students completing multiple degrees or certificates.

Johnson looked at data from 2019 through 2023, the last year of complete data on program completions that includes fall, spring and summer graduates.

While the 11 public colleges are having their graduations either Friday or Saturday this weekend, Johnson said the data for the 2024 class isn’t finalized just yet.

She said the graduation trend aligns with the enrollment trend.

A factor in recruiting students is the strong job market. The unemployment rate in North Dakota was at just 2% as of March.

The number of graduates for the spring semester, as compiled by the NDUS office, are:

• North Dakota State University – 1,988
• University of North Dakota – 1,896
• Bismarck State College – 903
• North Dakota State College of Science – 660
• Minot State University – 385
• Dickinson State University – 224
• Dakota College at Bottineau – 179
• Lake Region State College – 145
• Mayville State University –  138
• Williston State College – 136
• Valley City State University – 119

Many of the certificate programs are aimed at filling specific needs in the workforce, such as meat cutting at North Dakota State College of Science and Dickinson State University.

Some are designed to help professionals acquire or maintain a license.

“Sometimes teachers will come back and get a certificate, for example, working with individuals on the autism spectrum, because that was something they didn’t have when they went through college,” Johnson said. “But maybe they’ve changed jobs, or they’re trying to have some additional job responsibilities, so these certificates nicely complement those without having to return to get an entire two year or four year degree in these very specific areas.”

Other certifications may be for personal enjoyment or a side business.

“You’ll see photography and digital design, and those two meet the needs of the community from a different angle,” Johnson said.

North Dakota state agencies are urging high school students to turn in their FAFSA applications amid a roughly 30% drop in statewide applications to the federal financial assistance program compared to 2023.

The North Dakota University System, Bank of North Dakota, North Dakota Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, Department of Public Instruction and Governor’s Office have put together resources to encourage high school seniors across the finish line — including a new on the Bank of North Dakota’s website.

To that end, Gov. Doug Burgum on Monday officially declared this week “Finish the FAFSA Week.”

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The FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, is the main way students access federal loans, grants and work-study funding to help with college tuition costs.

In December, the U.S. Department of Education introduced an updated version of the FAFSA — one the agency said would be easier than ever to apply to.

Brenda Zastoupil, director of financial aid for the North Dakota University System, called it the most significant change to the program in roughly 40 years. Implementation has been rocky, she said. Unforeseen snags in the application process have made it difficult for students to complete the FAFSA properly.

“That caused significant delays for not only the institutions to receive the FAFSA results, and then subsequently issue award letters to students, but it also obviously caused a delay for families to really understand and be fully transparent on what their awards will be for the upcoming fall semester,” Zastoupil said.

Those issues have coincided with a nationwide drop in FAFSA applications.

In North Dakota, about 27.8% fewer high school seniors had completed FAFSA applications as of April 12 compared to the same time a year ago, according to an analysis of Office of Federal Student Aid data by the National College Attainment Network.

Nationally, applications had fallen by 36% as of April 12 compared to last year, the nonprofit found.

Zastoupil said North Dakota institutions are worried about a drop-off of students who decide to postpone attending college because of all the tangles in the FAFSA process.

The Bank of North Dakota, the North Dakota University System, and a handful of North Dakota colleges and universities are offering extended hours Monday through Thursday to help students and families with applications. The bank will also host a webinar on the FAFSA on Tuesday from 7-8 p.m.

To view a list of the institutions’ office hours and contact info, and to register for the webinar, visit the Bank of North Dakota’s FAFSA .

Mark Hagerott, chancellor of the North Dakota University System, said in a Monday announcement from the Governor’s Office that some North Dakota colleges and universities are moving back enrollment deadlines to accommodate delayed FAFSA applications.

While not everything with the application process has been fixed, Zastoupil encouraged students to get their FAFSAs done as soon as possible. Often, higher ed institutions only have a limited amount of financial aid per school year, she said.

“For instance, our office administers the North Dakota State Grant,” she said. “And that is a need-based grant, so we use FAFSA data, but it’s also limited so once our funds are exhausted, we wouldn’t be able to issue additional awards for students.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. North Dakota Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Amy Dalrymple for questions: info@northdakotamonitor.com. Follow North Dakota Monitor on and .

North Dakota has launched an online financial education website as part of a larger effort to make the state the most financially literate in the U.S. by 2027.

The effort is spearheaded by Superintendent of Public Instruction Kirsten Baesler, Treasurer Thomas Beadle, the Bank of North Dakota, Gov. Doug Burgum’s Office and a handful of other state agencies.

North Dakota residents can create a free account on to access education modules on budgeting, decreasing credit card debt and other topics, Kelvin Hullet, chief business development officer for the Bank of North Dakota, said at a Tuesday press conference announcing the website. The site also includes a research-based financial personality test to help residents reflect on how they use their money.

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“This is a unique website,” Hullet said. “It dives in deeper than maybe typically what you would see with other types of education or other websites.”

Those who complete assignments on the are eligible to win cash prizes.

“When residents are financially healthy, there are far-reaching positive impacts on their personal well-being and the state’s economy,” Burgum said in a Tuesday announcement. “Reducing financial stress improves mental health. Making good financial decisions decreases the number of people with excessive credit card debt. More people are able to purchase homes, start or expand a business, and have increased expendable income.”

A 2021 survey published by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority asked Americans across the country to answer a seven-question financial literacy quiz. In North Dakota, only 37% of respondents got more correct answers than the median. In Minnesota and South Dakota, those figures were 41% and 38%, respectively, according to the Tuesday announcement from the governor’s office.

The state’s goal is for about two-thirds of North Dakotans to beat the median score in 2027.

North Dakota’s other performance targets for the 2027 survey include:

For roughly two-thirds of surveyed residents to report having at least three months’ worth of emergency funds. In 2021, just 52% of North Dakota respondents met this standard.For only one-third of respondents to report experiencing financial anxiety. In 2021, this figure was 56%.For about two-thirds of surveyed residents to participate in employer-based retirement plans, compared to 57% in 2021.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. North Dakota Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Amy Dalrymple for questions: info@northdakotamonitor.com. Follow North Dakota Monitor on and .

One day he was chatting with an 8th-grade student, who he described as a “superstar,” and asked if she had studied for that day’s exam. He was shocked to hear she hadn’t.

“Well Mr. Guskey,” he remembers her saying, a quizzical look on her face, “I worked it out. I only need a 50.2 to get an A [in the class]. I don’t need to study for a 50.2.”

This was a moment of realization for him. “This 8th grader had worked it out to the tenth decimal place what she needed to do to get an A in my class,” he said. “And she was surprised I didn’t get it. And I thought, ‘Wow. What have I done?’” 

For this student — and so many others — school was not about learning. It was about getting a good grade. And with flawed traditional grading systems, those two outcomes didn’t always coincide.

Every time Guskey tells this story to other teachers, he said they shake their heads and share similar anecdotes of their own. Other experts in the field echo these sentiments, noting that schools have spent far too long grading students based on whether or not they turned in a pile of work or showed up to class on time, rather than focusing on if a student has learned academic content. This can ultimately lead to final grades that inaccurately reflect and communicate what kids actually know. 

Today, as schools combat post-pandemic learning gaps, it’s become even clearer that traditional grades are not precise communicators of learning. In some cases, this leads parents to believe their kids are performing at grade level, when in reality they’re falling behind. 

As educators push for more clarity and transparency, a number of schools and districts are turning to what’s known as standards-based grading, a system and communication tool that separates academic mastery from behavioral factors. When done correctly, it should more accurately reflect what students know and correct for both inflating — and deflating — grades. 

But a misunderstanding of standards-based grading’s true principles, a lack of proper training for educators and a rush to quickly adopt a complex new system often leads to messy implementation, various experts told The 74. And, they warn, districts looking for support are turning to grading consultants, a number of whom aren’t qualified in the field.

“So many districts are getting into this and they’re failing miserably,” said Guskey, the grading and assessment expert and professor emeritus at the University of Kentucky College of Education. “Schools are jumping into this without a clear notion of what they’re doing and what the prerequisites are to being standards based,” he continued. “And then when problems arise, they have no recourse except to abandon [it] completely.”

As schools look for an effective fix to learning gaps, “standards-based grading is one that seems like it can be a quickly adopted effort. But it could backfire and does backfire very easily,” said Laura Link, associate professor of teaching and leadership at the University of North Dakota.

In a she and Guskey wrote, “although many schools today are initiating SBG reforms, there’s little consensus on what ‘standards-based grading’ actually means. As a result, SBG implementation is widely inconsistent.” This creates uncertainty, confusion, frustration — and resistance, which can ultimately lead to it being tossed aside, the authors said.

The many meanings of a “C”

Standards-based grading is not new. While it’s challenging to pin down just how many schools are currently using it, post-pandemic interest in a system that’s seen as more accurate and equitable appears to be growing. 

Link is now working with the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania school district on implementation. It can also be found in at least one school district in the San Francisco Bay Area and is particularly prevalent in schools in Wyoming, New Hampshire, Maine and Wisconsin, with more cropping up in Connecticut, New Mexico, and Oregon, in November.

Another expert, Cathy Vatterott, who wrote Rethinking Grading: Meaningful Assessment for Standards-Based Learning and is professor emeritus of education at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, said: “After we got through COVID, all of a sudden I started getting offers to come and speak to people about standards-based grading.” 

Regardless of what model teachers practice, they typically grade using three different criteria: what academic skills students have learned and are able to do, such as solving for “x” in an algebraic equation; what behaviors they bring that enable learning, such as attendance and turning in work on time; and how much they’ve grown and improved.

In traditional models, teachers combine these three, muddling them together and assigning a single mark for an assignment — often a letter grade or a percentage. At the end of a semester, these assignment scores get averaged into a final grade that goes onto a transcript or report card. Proponents of standards-based grading argue that this presents an unclear and inaccurate picture to parents, students and colleges. 

“It makes the grade impossible to interpret,” according to Guskey. For example, a “C” on a paper could mean the student really only understood the material at a “C” level or it could mean they turned in an excellent paper but two weeks late. Further adding to the confusion: what goes into a grade is inconsistent from teacher to teacher and school to school.

Traditional grading not only presents accuracy concerns but also equity ones, according to Matt Townsley, assistant professor of educational leadership at the University of Northern Iowa. “For example, if we award points for assignments that are completed on a daily basis — called homework — outside of class, you can imagine a scenario where some families are more privileged in their ability to do it,” he said. 

Some students have access to a quiet place to work, tutors, parents who can help them with assignments, and other key resources, while others work after-school jobs or take care of younger siblings. When teachers grade homework, experts like Townsley argue, they are grading for these factors, rather than what students have actually learned. 

To combat this, standards-based grading does it differently. Rather than lumping together academic, behavioral and improvement grades, it separates them and reports them out individually in what Link calls a “dashboard of information.” 

Too often, she said, consultants and other self-proclaimed experts, who are not researchers, will push to throw away behavioral grades altogether. But she warned “that becomes problematic very, very quickly. We shouldn’t be using our gradebooks to punish and control. But those factors — those behavioral factors — are academic enablers, and we know that to be true as well.”

Reporting it out separately makes students recognize that these other components still count and, in some ways, it makes them each count more because they can no longer be disguised by other factors, like extra credit, according to Guskey.

It’s important for schools to decide upfront what behaviors they want to prioritize — whether that’s attendance, work ethic, responsibility— and then build a guide on how teachers will score for them. “By giving these kinds of dashboards of information, it helps colleges, trade schools, etc. have a deeper understanding of what kind of students they’re accepting into the programs and what kind of support they will need in college,” Link said. 

The academic grades should be based on grade-level standards and learning objectives, like the ability to find strong evidence to support a claim if a student is writing a paper or answering a test question.

A second key criteria is moving away from handing out percentage grades based on 100 to using a much smaller measurement scale, like 0 to 4. On each standard, students could also be graded as “exceeding,”, “meeting,” “almost” or “not yet.” Guskey noted that while this all may sound novel and unusual, other countries around the world, including Canada, have been using these practices for decades.

A third component — providing students multiple opportunities to demonstrate their understanding and mastery of a standard — is often where the greatest controversy crops up and things are most likely to go awry. Some educators argue that students should receive limitless opportunities to redo specific assignments. Researchers such as Link, though, argue that while students need multiple opportunities to demonstrate their understanding, that does not necessarily mean redoing the same assignment. 

“This is where a lot of non-academic proponents encourage that standards-based grading means you give as many retakes as it takes for mastery. Not true. Not true. That’s an assessment issue. That’s not a grading issue.”

So, while a second chance at one assignment is perhaps the fair thing to do, it is not inherent to the ethos of standards-based grading. She emphasized that if schools do implement retake policies, the process needs to be purposeful: If a student doesn’t get it the first time, they need to get corrective feedback and instruction. But “if they don’t get it on the second chance, you’re going to record their grade and move on,” she said. 

There is no empirical evidence supporting the benefits of endless retakes and, she added, such practices can be a time-consuming and unrealistic ask of teachers. 

Because many of the people who write about and consult on testing don’t fully understand what’s behind assessing students more than once, Guskey said, their recommendations on how best to do it are often untested and can’t be supported in practice. Their inconsistent advice, he said, can lead teachers and administrators to forsake efforts to reform grading. 

While it’s important to understand what standards-based grading is, it’s also essential to debunk what it’s not. At its core, experts say, it’s purely a communication tool. It doesn’t tell educators how to create assessments, build curriculum or manage behavior. It can make space for teachers to provide more individualized feedback and for students to move through the skills and knowledge they need to master at their own pace. But these things aren’t inherently a part of it. 

“Basically everything is just to pass.”

When Kenny Rodrequez became superintendent of the Grandview school district a decade ago, he knew the grading system needed to change. He was concerned that as it stood, the traditional grading model they relied on wasn’t communicating students’ progress to their parents accurately. Leaders in the district, located just outside of Kansas City, ultimately decided to shift to standards-based grading for kindergarten through 6th grade. 

Now, in his eighth year as superintendent and ninth year overseeing the transition, he feels good about what they’ve accomplished. One key factor of the successful implementation, he said, was “not trying to do it all at once.” It can be tempting to “just say, ‘Let’s bite the bullet and let’s just roll it all out at the same time,’” he added. It was important, though, to fight this urge and instead find a balance that allowed for deliberate policy shifts that still didn’t take an inordinate amount of time to implement.

Another key factor: making sure there was strong teacher and parent buy-in. The first year in particular, staff was nervous to explain this new system to parents before they even fully understood it themselves. Rodrequez said they created talking points for teachers and gave them the resources they needed. 

In the future, the district plans to bring standards-based grading to 7th-12th grade classrooms, but he anticipates at the high school level this will be trickier. “Our challenge … is nationally we still have a system that’s still pretty based upon our letter grades. And that system’s been around for so long and never was designed to do what we’re trying to get it to do right now.” Demands for GPAs and class rankings, in particular, are incongruous with the standards-based model but often necessary for college applications.

These very challenges have played out in one New York City high school, according to parent Talia Matz. When her stepson started 9th grade at Future High School in Manhattan, the school had orientation sessions to explain to parents how their standards-based grading system works. Still, she and her husband were skeptical. And over the past three years, they’ve only become more concerned, she told The 74. 

Some of the major assignments that the school uses instead of statewide Regents exams “are a bit of a joke,” she said, and students are not held accountable. “Basically everything is just to pass. It doesn’t matter how well you do,” she said, adding, “it doesn’t seem like there’s any love of learning. It’s just kind of to get it done.” 

Contrary to best practices, on his report card there are no separated out comments or grades about behaviors. All standards are scored on a 0-4 scale, and parents and students can see grades on an online platform called JumpRope. But, the school then converts this scale into a traditional percentage grade, which is ultimately sent to colleges — another big no-no, according to experts. (According to the , schools may choose from a number of grading scales, including A-F, but it appears that regardless of what they select, all grades are ultimately converted into percentages.)

Students have a number of opportunities to redo assignments and no clear consequences for late work, Matz said. Rather than getting grades on daily assignments, he gets a “Work Habits/Independent Practice” score, which his stepmom said never appears on a transcript. This, she said, provides no incentive to turn assignments in on time or get them right the first time.

School administrators did not respond to requests for comment. The school’s website contests this point: Their official policy states that the “Work Habits/Independent Practice” score becomes 10% of a student’s final grade. Never reporting the behavior grade or averaging it into a single final grade would both go against standards-based grading best practices. 

Matz fears all this lends itself to lowered standards, which will leave her son unprepared for college. In the fall, he’ll enroll at SUNY Buffalo, “but we’re concerned because there’s going to be different expectations … You have to study on your own, you don’t necessarily get second or third chances.”

Two performers are seated in the middle of the stage, shooting the breeze as they pretend to get ready for an upcoming performance.

“We never know what the future holds,” one actor laments to his friend. “I mean, they thought computers can’t write poetry or compose music, but now they can.”

“There are AI-generated characters in some places, but nothing can replace the magic of live performance,” the other performer replies.

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This one-act, titled “Theatre Kids At The End of the World,” is one of 16 recently performed by Bismarck State College as part of “The AI Plays,” a production reflecting on recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and its implications for ordinary life.

The works are purposely self-referential and introspective, with the actors often playing the role of students, performers or both.

And the whole thing was written by ChatGPT, the famous chatbot by OpenAI.

ChatGPT is primarily a text tool; you tell it to write something, and it whips up an answer. Its ability to handle sophisticated instructions has attracted a level of attention unlike any AI before it.

A study by the Union Bank of Switzerland named ChatGPT the fastest-growing consumer app in history, Reuters .

But that’s also inspired widespread anxiety, even existential fear, about the future of creative work.

The recent strikes by Hollywood writers and actors, for instance, were spurred in part by concerns that generative AI would sideline creative workers. Both successfully bargained for regulations on how the technology can be used by film and television producers.

In “The AI Plays,” students at Bismarck State College Theatre throw their two cents into the debate.

“I think we, as artists, need to get in front of this,” said Director Dean Bellin, associate professor of technical theater at the Bismarck State College.

The group decided to have ChatGPT write the scripts as an interesting way to show people just how far the technology has come.

He and his students wrote the general outline of each scene. They fed ChatGPT writing prompts based on their real feelings toward AI — from reverent, to skeptical, to indifferent.

Then, they performed the scripts completely unedited – quirks and all.

In one scene, a woman chopping vegetables bemoans the constant frustration of living in a world where technology is advancing so quickly. (ChatGPT did not feel it necessary to explain who the woman is or why she was chopping vegetables.)

“I have seen the rise and fall of Tamagotchi, lived through Y2K, and even managed to scan a QR code” — she pauses, still bent over her cutting board — “ … once.”

“At the rate we’re going, I’m afraid I’ll blink, and then my toaster is giving me life advice,” she continues.

Government oversight

Lawmakers in 2023 grappled with definitions, standards and regulation of artificial intelligence, and Congress and more. Senators from both sides of the aisle agree there’s a need . Legislators and officials in many states are studying the issue and weighing AI legislation in upcoming sessions.

The North Dakota Legislature is also on the bandwagon; this interim session, the Information Technology Committee is researching potential paths for AI investment and regulation.

At its next meeting on Dec. 14, lawmakers will hear from the Department of Public Instruction, the university system, the attorney general’s office and other groups about the future of AI in the state.

Earlier this year, the statehouse passed a law preventing AI from gaining human rights. (The law extends the same ban to animals, the environment, and inanimate objects.)

Sponsor Rep. Cole Christensen, R-Rogers, told fellow lawmakers during the session the legislation was intended “to define personhood and to retain its exclusive rights to human beings.”

Several acts explore the concept of AI sentience. In one scene, a medieval court goes on a witch hunt for a robot masquerading among them as a human. The village ultimately accepts the machine with open arms.

Even though the work it produces can be uncannily similar to human writing, tools like ChatGPT don’t think like people.

ChatGPT and other so-called “generative” AI — like DALL-E, which makes images — are trained on massive hordes of data that help them approximate human language, photography, art and so on.

But it’s only an approximation. When ChatGPT asked to write creatively, it’s often choppy, repetitive and lacking depth.

The dialogue became circular in several scenes of “The AI Plays,” with characters making the same two or three points over and over again until a scene ended.

Bellin said he and his students learned a lot about scriptwriting by studying where ChatGPT’s writing missed the mark.

Bismarck State College isn’t the first higher ed institution to experiment with AI theater.

This summer, students at University of Wollongong in Australia performed a three-act drama written by ChatGPT, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation .

In that case, the performers may have been a little more involved in the writing process. The show’s director said he and his students had to tinker with the app quite a bit before it spit out something they liked.

Earthquakes in academia

There are plenty of other reasons why AI may be front-of-mind for colleges and universities — say, how it makes it easier for students to cheat on homework.

AI may not be good enough to write a flawless essay, but a student might be able to pass ChatGPT-generated work off as their own if they proofread it and introduce a few minor tweaks, Bellin said.

Many higher ed institutions have already adopted policies regulating AI. One survey published in June by UNESCO — the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — estimated that globally, about 13% of universities have issued official guidance on the technology.

For the moment, the North Dakota University System, of which Bismarck State College is a member, isn’t one of them.

Not that it isn’t giving the subject any attention.

In the wake of ChatGPT’s release, the university system convened a task force to help it navigate the many opportunities and obstacles AI presents to higher ed.

At a Dec. 7 State Board of Higher Education meeting, Chancellor Mark Hagerott urged the University System to invest in AI technology.

He pointed to a handful of other higher ed institutions scrambling to get ahead in what he likened to an “arms race.”

“We have to be able to adapt and move and change to the landscape that’s in front of us,” said Hagerott, who has a background in cyber security. “And we have to plan for the unknown.”

In 2020, the University of Florida hired 100 new faculty members to study artificial intelligence. The University of Albany announced this year it would set aside $200 million toward AI. It says it wants to integrate the technology in all of its academic programs. Meanwhile, Arizona State University formed a schoolwide community of practice this fall to figure out how to integrate AI into its classrooms.

“This is an earthquake,” Hagerott said.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. North Dakota Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Amy Dalrymple for questions: info@northdakotamonitor.com. Follow North Dakota Monitor on and .

Rep. Pat Heinert says North Dakota should think about throwing some federal driver’s licensing requirements under the bus.

“I’ve come up with the wild idea of creating a bus driver’s license for North Dakota,” Heinert said during a school funding committee meeting on Nov. 28.

Maybe it’s not so crazy. Maybe it is.

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Mike Heilman, executive director of the , said his group and others have been looking into waivers for parts of the federal commercial driver’s license requirements that bus drivers are required to have.

Specifically, the state may be able to waive the “under-the-hood” requirement as part of the CDL training.

“There are several states that have an under-the-hood exemption,” Heilman told the committee on Nov. 28.

Part of the pre-bus inspection requires knowing how to spot potential problems with the engine.

“The mechanic needs to know this but not necessarily the bus driver,” Heilman said.

Brad Schaffer, driver license director for the North Dakota Department of Transportation, says that yes, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which sets the rules for CDL requirements, does allow states to grant the “under the hood” exemption. But he said his department has decided against the move.

He said that someone obtaining a Class B CDL with the waiver would limit their driving:

They would only be able to drive a school bus, preventing them from driving a bus for another purpose, such as for a church group.It would mean they couldn’t drive across state lines.

He said there also is a possibility that the federal agency could decide to discontinue the waivers, forcing drivers to start over.

Schaffer said his department looked at other states that offer under-the-hood waiver and didn’t see much benefit.

Schaffer said the department can grant individual requests for under-the-hood waivers, but when potential CDL drivers learn about the restrictions, they back off. The department has not issued any such waivers this year.

He also said he didn’t think there would be a significant time savings on training with the waiver.

Other options?

Could there be other ways to create a light version of the CDL?

Levi Bachmeier, business manager for West Fargo Public Schools and a former policy adviser to Gov. Doug Burgum, said ideas are worth exploring.

Making it easier to get a CDL is one strategy to address the bus driver shortage in North Dakota and around the country.

A national survey on school busing released in 2021 showed 51% of respondents described their driver shortage as “severe” or “desperate;” and 78% indicated that the driver shortage is getting “much worse” or “a little worse.”

That has forced school districts to rethink transportation routes and services.

Alexis Baxley, executive director of the , said districts of all sizes are struggling to fill driving spots.

In Bismarck, she said drivers are having to drive two routes. The Northern Cass School District had to temporarily drop rural service this fall, offering only in-town pickup.

Other options include dropping door-to-door service, instead creating bus stops, and running longer routes. Baxley said longer routes can be especially hard on young students.

“Getting them to school is the most important thing,” Baxley said.

She said her group and the Small Organized Schools want to gather data.

“In order to identify a solution, we feel that we need to dig in and get some really hard data, something more than anecdotal, and see if we can really identify perhaps the biggest barriers to recruitment or the biggest barriers in the licensure process,” Baxley said.

Added safety requirement, fewer tests

The feds in February actually added a safety training requirement, though Schaffer said anyone who has held a CDL for two or more years qualifies as a trainer, and there is no time requirement.

Still, North Dakota has administered fewer CDL tests in 2023 than in years past.

As of Dec. 5, the state had given about 2,000 CDLs, on pace for between 2,200 and 2,300 for the year.

That’s behind 2022’s 3,000 tests and 2,700 in 2021.

Competition with industry

Bachmeier said West Fargo has covered most of the cost for drivers to obtain a CDL but that has been abused by drivers leaving for higher-paying jobs in private industry.

Heinert, a Republican from Bismarck and a former sheriff, admitted that a North Dakota-specific license may not be practical with the federal regulations that exist.

But Bachmeier agreed with Heinert that a lower training standard would help address the problem.

“If we can find a way to lower the training barriers, we can find a way to lower our competition with private providers that are always going to always out-compete us on a wage perspective, we may be able to affect some of the supply and demand issues that we have with bus drivers.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. North Dakota Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Amy Dalrymple for questions: info@northdakotamonitor.com. Follow North Dakota Monitor on and .

Daniel Brinks, who chairs the government department at the University of Texas at Austin, doesn’t usually have a tough time recruiting professors. After all, UT is one of the best research universities in the country, located in a high-tech boomtown with a thriving music scene, a warm climate and first-rate enchiladas.

But this year, in “a pretty significant change,” Brinks said, eight candidates turned down job offers. Several of them cited events transpiring a few blocks south of campus, at the Texas Capitol, where some Republican lawmakers were pushing to eliminate tenure at state colleges and universities.

Anti-tenure Republicans in Texas — and in other states including , , , ,  and  — have said they want to rein in unaccountable professors who are pushing a liberal agenda in the classroom.

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Supporters of tenure, which professors typically must earn after years of teaching and publishing original research, argue that it protects academic freedom. Without it, they say, professors might be wary of taking on controversial topics for fear of being fired.

“American higher education is the envy of the world because of the current system,” Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors, told Stateline. “These bills that weaken tenure or limit tenure are bills that will undermine the quality of education in the state.”

But defenders of tenure — a practice adopted in its current form in 1940 — have deployed another argument that goes beyond academic freedom: Attacks on tenure are a threat to state economies. That argument, used by Brinks in Texas and others elsewhere, has figured prominently in debates over tenure in several states.

“If you no longer can attract the top researchers, you no longer have people developing cutting-edge technologies, cutting-edge medical innovations,” Brinks told Stateline, echoing testimony he delivered to Texas legislators.

The top teachers and researchers receive federal grants, Brinks noted, “and if you don’t have the top researchers in the various fields here, then that source of funds, which is millions and millions of dollars, it just goes away.”

Despite such concerns, the Texas Senate in April approved legislation that would have prohibited public colleges and universities from granting tenure to faculty members, starting in 2024.

“Tenured university professors are the only people in our society that have the guarantee of a job,” Texas Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate, . “These professors claim ‘academic freedom’ and hide behind their tenure to continue blatantly advancing their agenda of societal division.”

But the Texas House last month approved a much milder version, allowing schools to fire tenured faculty for “professional incompetence” or “conduct involving moral turpitude.” is the one the legislature sent to the desk of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who is expected to .

State Rep. John Kuempel, the Republican who authored the House version, it would “provide accountability while maintaining an environment that is conducive to recruiting and retaining the best faculty and researchers in the state and nation.”

The economic argument also has surfaced in Ohio, where the state Senate a sweeping that aims to promote “intellectual diversity” on campuses. The measure would mandate a yearly performance review for faculty, including those with tenure.

Shortly before the vote, state Sen. Jerry Cirino, the Republican sponsor of the bill, argued that the legislation would attract more students and faculty to Ohio. The bill is still .

“When all is said and done here, our universities are going to be better,” Cirino said. “We are going to attract more people who have been turned away because of the liberal bias that is incontrovertible in our institutions in Ohio.”

But Democratic state Rep. Joe Miller argued the opposite, citing released last month which found that Ohio’s 14 public universities had a $68.9 billion impact on the state’s economy in fiscal year 2021-2022 — 8.8% of Ohio’s total gross state product. The study also found that the universities and their students supported nearly 867,000 jobs, 1 in 8 in Ohio.

The legislation would “make it extremely difficult to attract students and faculty to Ohio, which will be extraordinarily damaging to our economy, financially impacting cities from Akron, to Athens, Kent and Columbus,” Miller .

Economic concerns over curbing tenure also have been raised in and .

“We’re one of the few states, particularly of our size, to have two tier-one research institutions, so doing things to damage their reputation has broad implications,” Dustin Miller, executive director of the Iowa Chamber Alliance,  in explaining his group’s opposition to anti-tenure bills in his state.

There is little doubt that research universities are economic engines.

In a recent review of relevant research, the Brookings Institution think tank showing that higher state spending on universities to more patents and entrepreneurship; that each new patent outside the university in the local economy; and that regions that to a land grant university over a century ago have stronger economies than regions without one.

Joshua Drucker, a University of Illinois Chicago associate professor who about the economic impact of research institutions, said the millions of dollars that top researchers bring into their universities are “pure addition to a region,” and that curbing tenure could diminish that flow.

“What I expect to happen if tenure is severely weakened, but only in some places, [is that] those places would then have to spend a lot more to get top talent or they will lose the top talent,” he said.

Brinks, a top expert in his field who has secured funding from the National Science Foundation and worked with researchers around the world, said he always thought the University of Texas “was the perfect place for me.”

“I really like the mission of a public university in a place like Texas. I think we do something that’s really important to the state,” he said. “But to the extent that this atmosphere of questioning and even hostility to our mission and what we do continues, then it does occasionally raise questions about going to a private university or going out of state.

“It’s dispiriting to find that you’re the object of suspicion when you think what you’re doing is really important and valuable.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. Follow Stateline on and .

To put your trust in the citizens. If governments provide citizens with clear data, in a transparent manner and with the freedom to exercise personal responsibility, they will come through and make the best choice for their family and community. North Dakotans have proven this time and time again, whether through floods, droughts, other natural disasters and now a pandemic, that they care about their neighbors’ health as much as their own.

2. What are your biggest concerns for young children and their families during the pandemic and how is the state working to address them?

Over the past five months, families and children have faced an unprecedented level of disruption and adversity. Citizens across the globe have had to learn new ways to work, learn and interact. This adversity has also provided families an opportunity to re-engage in quality time together, away from distractions. Children have had an opportunity to reignite their imagination in the outdoors and focused time with their immediate family.

While this has provided the opportunity for greater connection with family, our children have faced adversity through limited social interaction and the ability to create meaningful friendships during child care, school and extracurricular activities. We’ve also been concerned about a suspected increase in unreported instances of child abuse because of reduced interaction with mandatory reporters in schools.

Working with the Department of Human Services, North Dakota acted quickly to ensure that we provided the necessary resources to support child care services. We worked with the Department of Public Instruction to guarantee every child had the food they needed to survive and thrive. Our teams are working daily to create systems and health protocols to allow our children as many opportunities for social interaction, learning and support as possible. Whether this be in socially distanced activities, traditional classrooms or virtual education, North Dakota is committed to supporting parents and families to provide healthy, safe and quality care during these trying times.

3. North Dakota was one of the very first states to provide financial supports to sustain child care providers during the outbreak. Why was this such an important priority for the administration?

We understand that the child care industry is not only vital for the care and development of children across the state, but it also ensures that essential workforce can maintain services needed for everyday society. Caring for the children of our citizens is what allows teachers, health care providers, law enforcement, emergency responders, energy and food producers, manufacturers, and many other essential workers, to continue providing safe, reliable child care. Therefore, it was vital for North Dakota to use a portion of its CARES Act funding to support the childcare industry by maintaining service during the pandemic and ensuring long-term stability in the industry.

4. 2019-2020 was the fourth year of North Dakota’s Early Childhood Education Program for 4-year-olds. What are the major lessons learned from the program so far — and do you foresee opportunities for it to expand to serve additional children over the coming years?

The early childhood education grant program was advanced by the 2015 64^th Legislative Assembly to assist North Dakota communities with public, private, nonprofit or partnership entities offering early childhood education. While the program has been successful, we are constantly reviewing this program and others to ensure we are providing strategic support for child care to ensure the success of the industry and to address the true challenges for families in North Dakota. There are opportunities to work with the upcoming 2021 legislature to expand these services based on the feedback from families and child care providers.

5. You’re a father of three. What did fatherhood teach you about the importance of the early years?

Children in the early years have an amazing ability to use their imagination and curiosity to drive learning, relationships and a world understanding. Encouraging and embracing that curiosity is something that I instilled in my children each day. When I dropped my kids off at school every day, the last thing I would say is “Ask good questions,” and when they would come home from school, I wouldn’t ask them what they learned, but rather what questions they asked. Curiosity takes thoughtfulness, courage and humility, all of which are critical to the development of children into responsible, contributing members of society.