Tag: State Board of Education

New Member Appointed to Arizona State Board of Education

The Center Square
Dr. Jose Luis Cruz Rivera

Northern Arizona University President Dr. Jose Luis Cruz Rivera was appointed by Gov. Katie Hobbs to the state Board of Education this week.

“He has been a steadfast leader for the students and faculty at NAU, and he will bring that leadership to the State Board of Education. As a Lumberjack, I could not be more thrilled to appoint him to this position, and know that he will work tirelessly to create a public education system that ensures every Arizonan has a chance to thrive,” Hobbs stated about the appointment to the board, which focuses on K-12 education.

Read the full story

Analysis: New Georgia Teachers Earn Less than Two Decades Ago

The Center Square
Student with Teacher

A new report shows schools nationwide, including in Georgia, have trouble filling teacher positions, with low salaries being a primary cause.

An analysis from MyElearningWorld.com found that — even accounting for inflation — new teachers nationwide earn nearly 20% less than they did about two decades ago. Georgia’s findings align with the national findings, with Peach State teachers earning 20% less.

Read the full story

Grants Approved to Fund Safety Officers on 301 Arizona Schools

Neil Jones

The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) announced Monday that the State Board of Education has approved grant funding for 301 statewide schools to finance a school resource officer (SRO) on campus. This shows a significant increase in schools seeking armed security, as 190 campuses utilized the grant for officers during the previous cycle.

Additionally, it is not only more SROs coming to campuses, as Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne also got payments approved for 566 counselors and social workers around the state in over $45 million in grants. In total, the School Safety Program offered nearly $100 million in funding from state and federal monies. The grants will go into effect in the Fall of 2023 and last until the 2025/26 school year.

Read the full story

Arizona Department of Education Pushes for Phoenix School Safety Grants Despite Delays from District Board

Neil Jones

The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) announced Friday it would be recommending the State Board of Education (SBE) approve public safety grant requests presented by six Phoenix schools, despite inaction from the district board.

“Our first responsibility is to protect the safety and the lives of students and staff. The worst tragedy would be for a maniac to invade a school and kill students with no police officer there to protect them. In addition, the police officers are there all year, befriend the students, so students view them as friends rather than as the enemy, and the police officers also teach courses,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne (R).

Read the full story

Ohio Lawmakers Move to Strip State’s Education Board of Power

Admin

Ohio Republican lawmakers are pushing to take away some of the State Board of Education’s powers and give them to the governor, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

The state senate heard Senate Bill 178 on Tuesday which would take power over K-12 curriculum standards and textbooks from the state’s board of education and give it to members of the governor’s executive workforce board, according to the Columbus Dispatch. The board would be left with control over the state superintendent and teacher licensing.

Read the full story

Rulemaking Approval Process Advances for New Tennessee School Funding Formula

Admin

Tennessee’s new public school funding program, the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement, continues to move forward and soon rulemaking for the program will begin a review by Tennessee’s Attorney General before publication for 90 days on the Secretary of State’s website.

While many details of TISA were spelled out in legislation passed in April and signed into law in May by Gov. Bill Lee, rulemaking is required to give more detailed specifics on how the funding formula will operate. Those rules passed the Tennessee State Board of Education’s review before moving on to the Attorney General review.

Read the full story

Georgia State Senator Proposes Amending Georgia’s Constitution on School Funding in Certain Circumstances

Chris Butler

Senator Butch Miller (R-Gainesville) has proposed amending the Georgia Constitution to give each resident of a school district the right to claim an ad valorem tax exemption for school district taxes under certain circumstances. This, assuming the State Board of Education declares that the school district in question “has substantially deviated from the board’s approved course curriculum.”

Read the full story

Tennessee Legislature Entertaining Expansion of Black History and Culture Education for Fifth and Eighth Grades

Corinne Murdock

Legislators are looking to standardize Black history curriculum in grades 5 and 8, and have the state provide additional resources by 2025. The bill in question specified that fifth and eighth-grade students would learn about Black heritage, culture, experience, and the “ultimate destiny of all social, ethnic, gender and national groups and individuals, and that such are represented as interdependent, interactive, and complementary.” It also specified that the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) would provide internet resources and materials for K-12 instruction in the subject.

State Senator Katrina Robinson (D-Memphis) first introduced the bill, followed with a companion bill filed by State Representative Yusuf Hakeem (D-Chattanooga). Senate committees recommended the bill for passage with amendments. Although senators applauded the basis for the idea, they expressed concern over the fiscal impact of the bill. They also questioned the reality of schools’ ability to craft a new curriculum of that magnitude by this fall, as the bill required originally.

Read the full story

Confusion Over Controversial 1619 Curriculum Appearing in Ohio Schools

Ben Kolodny

State Senator Andrew Brenner (R-Powell) took to Facebook Wednesday to ease fears that the controversial 1619 Project may be included in the standards or curriculum for Ohio’s K-12 schools.

A rumor had been going around that the Ohio Board of Education would be voting on whether or not to approve the project’s works as part of the states’ history curriculum.

Read the full story

Rumor Control: Setting the Record Straight on PreK/Kindergarten Portfolios

JC Bowman
JC Bowman

Social media was hard at it this weekend over the PreK/Kindergarten Student Growth Portfolio Model.  While Professional Educators of Tennessee is not sold on the portfolio process, it is the current law (see T.C.A. §§ 49-6-103–49-6-110).  We believe the current portfolio system takes up too much time for our educators.  However, the inaccurate information about pre-K and kindergarten portfolios was spreading way faster than a speeding bullet.  So, let’s set the record straight with some accurate details. There was no computer glitch or computer error related to portfolios. We confirmed this with a simple phone call to the Tennessee Department of Education.  There statement was:  “There was no error by our vendor, and there was no computer glitch.”  The Department further explained:  Teachers receive an overall portfolio growth score based on their scores on four separate collections, which look at students’ growth over the course of the school year on specific standards. Some teachers mismatched students and/or standards when they were inputting their portfolio information. In those cases, the issue was flagged by a peer reviewer and the teacher received a score of a 1 on that specific collection, which was by design if this mismatch occurred. For example, a…

Read the full story