Tag: education

L.A. School District to Ban Fifth-Grade Plays About U.S. History: ‘Culturally Insensitive’

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is banning a celebrated series of fifth-grade musical plays about American history at a local charter school because, the district says, they are “culturally insensitive.”

For nearly three decades, the fifth-graders at Marquez Charter Elementary in Pacific Palisades have performed musicals about crucial periods in the formation of the United States.

These include Miracle in Philadelphia, about the Constitutional Convention; Hello, Louisiana!, about the voyage of Lewis and Clark; and Water and Power, about the Industrial Revolution. (A fourth-grade play, Gold Dust or Bust, focuses on the history of California.)

The musicals, co-written by Jeff Lantos (with music composed by the late jazz pianist Bill Augustine), are so successful in conveying historical details that Marquez students consistently score off the charts in history assessments.

A 2004 academic study of the Marquez plays observed: “Students who attended Marquez Elementary School scored more than twice as many items correctly [on history tests] as did students from other schools.”

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Educational Crisis: Baltimore High School Fails To Produce A Single Proficient Math Student In Four Straight Years

President Trump’s executive order earlier this year to dismantle the Department of Education comes as the president highlighted a disturbing and inconvenient truth about Baltimore City’s Democratic Party-run “failure factory” school system: 40% of public high schools have zero students proficient in math. This damning statistic follows eight years of Fox45 investigative reporter Chris Papst’s coverage of the crime-ridden city’s education crisis. Keep in mind, the metro area is mainly controlled by leftists at City Hall, with virtually no diversity when it comes to Republicans holding positions of power.

A new report by Papst released this past week may catch the White House’s attention, highlighting yet another inconvenient truth about the stunning failure of Baltimore City Public Schools in terms of academic outcomes, proving that simply throwing more taxpayer funds at the problem is not a viable solution.

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Twelfth Grade Math And Reading Scores Are Worse Than Ever, Thanks To ‘Equity’  

The U.S. Department of Education recently released test results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, showing that American high school seniors’ math and reading scores have dropped to a new historical low.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “Twelfth-graders’ average math score was the worst since the current test began in 2005, and reading was below any point since that assessment started in 1992.” Among these high school seniors, only 35 percent of high school seniors are proficient in reading, and a mere 22 percent in math. These troubling statistics contribute to an ongoing downward trend in educational outcomes that we have witnessed in recent years.

Extensive research confirms that extended school closures and remote learning during the Covid pandemic — largely influenced by the demands of teachers’ unions — have played a major role in the significant learning loss students are grappling with today. However, it’s crucial to recognize, as noted by the Journal, that declines in reading and math scores were already evident before the pandemic, and school closures only intensified an already alarming trend. The root cause of the troubling test scores among American youth lies in progressive education policies that undermine merit, favor ideological indoctrination over substantive learning, and promote the reduction of discipline in schools. These policies led to a crisis in education that we now must address.

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Damning Report Card: California Schools Get An ‘F’

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression Free Speech Rankings crowned California’s Claremont McKenna College with a grade of B- as the best college in the U.S. for free speech, while a string of other California schools received F grades amid anti-free speech environments across campuses.

FIRE released its sixth annual College Free Speech Rankings, which pulled responses on free-speech topics from 68,510 students attending 257 American colleges. The survey highlighted a decline in support for free speech among all students. 

Students on both sides of the political aisle are showing a deep “unwillingness” to face controversial ideas, the press releases stated. 

“This year, students largely opposed allowing any controversial campus speaker, no matter that speaker’s politics,” said FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff. “Rather than hearing out and then responding to an ideological opponent, both liberal and conservative college students are retreating from the encounter entirely … We must champion free speech on campus as a remedy to our culture’s deep polarization.”

According to the FIRE survey, Claremont McKenna College is ranked in the top 10 best schools for free speech on  “Comfort Expressing Ideas,” “Openness” and “Self-Censorship,” among other categories. 

Shortly after the horrific assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk at a Utah college campus event, Claremont Independent, the college newspaper, wrote a story on how CMC students reacted to the killing of Kirk.

“Even those who despise Kirk and everything he stood for should mourn the damage his assassination will do to America’s fragile architecture of free speech and civil discourse. There can be no picking and choosing in the world of free expression. It’s free speech for all, or free speech for none,” the editorial board wrote.

Out of the 257 schools surveyed, 166 of them received an F for their free speech climate. Only 10 schools received a free speech grade of C. Claremont McKenna was the only college to get a better grade than a C.

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Florida To Investigate Teachers Found Celebrating Charlie Kirk Assassination

Florida’s Department of Education announced on Sept. 11 that it will look into public school teachers who, on social media, celebrated or justified the assassination of Turning Point USA CEO and founder Charlie Kirk.

Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas sent a letter to school district superintendents telling them that he would be investigating after it was brought to his attention that some educators had posted “despicable comments on social media regarding the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk.”

“These few are not a reflection of the great, high-quality teachers who make up the vast majority of Florida’s educators,” he wrote.

“Nevertheless, I will be conducting an investigation of every educator who engages in this vile, sanctionable behavior.”

Florida’s Department of Education told The Epoch Times in an email that the commissioner was prepared to use all of his power to hold educators responsible if the investigation proves they should not be in a classroom based on their behavior.

That power includes revoking their educator certificate.

“Although educators have First Amendment rights, these rights do not extend without limit into their professional duties,” Kamoutsas said.

“An educator’s personal views that are made public may undermine the trust of the students and families that they serve.”

The commissioner cited Rule 6A-10.081 of the Florida Administrative Code (F.A.C.), titled “Principles of Professional Conduct for the Education Profession in Florida,” which holds the state’s certified educators to a set of ethical guidelines.

Kamoutsas said that a teacher could violate that rule if his or her conduct “causes a student or his or her family to feel unwelcome or unwilling to participate in the learning environment.”

He also cited sections of two Florida statutes that authorized the commissioner to discipline and sanction the certificate of an educator who “upon investigation, has been found guilty of personal conduct that seriously reduces that person’s effectiveness as an employee of the district school board.”

“Teachers are held to a higher standard as public servants and must ensure their conduct does not undermine the trust of the students and families they serve,” the commissioner said on X.

“We will hold teachers who choose to make disgusting comments about the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk accountable. Govern yourselves accordingly.”

The official action came after several voices across social media were raised to flag and speak out against people justifying or even cheering the assassination of the conservative influencer.

The social media app BlueSky was required to speak out against some of its users’ comments.

“Glorifying violence or harm violates Bluesky’s Community Guidelines,” the company said. “We review reports and take action on content that celebrates harm against anyone.

“Violence has no place in healthy public discourse, and we’re committed to fostering healthy, open conversations.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis praised Kamoutsas’s actions to hold the state’s teachers accountable.

“Celebrating the assassination of a 31-year-old father of two young kids is disturbing; that teachers would be among those who do so is completely unacceptable,” he said.

Since that announcement, several people began posting screenshots on X of teachers they caught publicly celebrating the assassination, and tagging Florida leaders and the respective school districts.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Foundation of Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), an organization known for defending First Amendment rights on school campuses across the country, to get its take on this move by the Sunshine State.

Senior Program Counsel Stephanie Jablonsky told The Epoch Times in an email on Sept. 12 that while public school teachers retain their First Amendment right to speak as private citizens on matters of public concern, they do not have unlimited protection. However, the actions could be seen as unconstitutional if termination of employment is solely based on the disapproval of a person’s opinion.

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Britain Bans Israelis From Prestigious Military Academy

Israelis have been barred from one of Britain’s top defence academies because of the war in Gaza. The Telegraph has the story.

The Royal College of Defence Studies will not accept students from Israel from next year, the Government confirmed.

Amir Baram, the Director General of Israel’s Defence ministry, who studied at the college, said the decision was “a profoundly dishonourable act of disloyalty to an ally at war”.

In a letter to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), shared with the Telegraph, he called it a “discriminatory act” that amounted to a “disgraceful break with Britain’s proud tradition of tolerance – and plain decency”.

It is the first time that the college has excluded Israelis.

Maj Gen Baram said the decision came at a time when Israel was “defending international shipping from Houthi aggression, preventing nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of an Islamist regime that chants ‘Death to England’, and fighting to bring home 48 hostages from Hamas captivity”. …

An MoD spokesman said British military educational courses had long been open to personnel from a “wide range of countries, with all UK military courses emphasising compliance with international humanitarian law”.

He added: “However, the Israeli Government’s decision to further escalate its military operation in Gaza is wrong.” …

The Israeli Ministry of Defence said that the ban was on all Israeli citizens enrolling, not just soldiers. …

The exclusion of Israelis from the college is the latest in a string of punitive actions against Israel taken by Downing Street.

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Reading and Math Test Scores for American 12th Graders Hit 20 Year Low, Despite Massive Spending on Education

The reading and test scores for American 12th graders have hit a 20 year low, new analysis has found.

This is despite the fact that the United States spends more on education than most countries. New York City is currently poised to spend up to $42,000 per student this school year.

The closure of schools during Covid can be blamed in part for this, but there has to be more to the story than that.

NBC News in Chicago reported:

Nationwide test scores show U.S. high school students falling behind in math and reading

A decade-long slide in high schoolers’ reading and math performance persisted during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 12th graders’ scores dropping to their lowest level in more than 20 years, according to results released Tuesday from an exam known as the nation’s report card.

Eighth-grade students also lost significant ground in science skills, according to the results from the National Assessment of Education Progress.

The assessments were the first since the pandemic for eighth graders in science and 12th graders in reading and math. They reflect a downward drift across grade levels and subject areas in previous releases from NAEP, which is considered one of the best gauges of the academic progress of U.S. schools.

“Scores for our lowest-performing students are at historic lows,” said Matthew Soldner, the acting commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics. “These results should galvanize all of us to take concerted and focused action to accelerate student learning.”

Trump’s Education Secretary Linda McMahon spoke about this recently and explained that this is one of the reasons why the Trump administration wants to return education authority to the states, so that parents and local communities can get more involved in fixing the problem.

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Texas attorney general wants students to pray in school – unless they’re Muslim

Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general running for US Senate, has long believed in school prayer. Now, he’s prescribing precisely what type of prayer he wants the state’s 6 million public school students to recite.

“In Texas classrooms, we want the Word of God opened, the Ten Commandments displayed, and prayers lifted up,” Paxton said in a statement on Tuesday, encouraging students to say “the Lord’s Prayer, as taught by Jesus Christ”.

The press release included the full text of the Lord’s Prayer as it is written in the King James version of the Bible, the latest example of Paxton and other Texas officials seeming to endorse Christianity over other faiths.

“Twisted, radical liberals want to erase Truth, dismantle the solid foundation that America’s success and strength were built upon, and erode the moral fabric of our society,” Paxton said. “Our nation was founded on the rock of Biblical Truth, and I will not stand by while the far-left attempts to push our country into the sinking sand.”

Paxton’s statement was released as Senate Bill 11 went into effect across Texas; it’s a piece of Republican legislation allowing schools to set aside time for “prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious texts” during the school day. Critics have condemned the bill as an attempt to imbue a secular public education in the state with the practice of Christianity, in violation of the US constitution’s separation of church and state.

“They’re blowing right through separation of church and state,” said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.

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Ed Dept ends ‘abusive’ Biden policy that funded left-wing work-study election jobs

Conservative election integrity advocates praised the Trump administration for rescinding a Biden-era guidance that allowed Federal Work-Study funds to be used to employ students to perform election jobs. 

The announcement came after The College Fix reported on multiple incidents of the work-study program being used to fund left-wing get-out-the-vote efforts.

Hans von Spakovsky, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese Center, called the Biden-era work-study guidance an “abusive misuse” of tax dollars, intent on ensuring “liberal organizations supporting the Biden reelection effort and the Democrat Party were provided with interns … to enhance the party’s prospects of winning elections.”

The Trump administration rescinded Biden’s guidance on Aug. 19, according to a press release by the Department of Education.

The new guidance prohibits work-study jobs that involve “any partisan or nonpartisan political activity.”

The department told higher education institutions that they “must have proper controls in place to avoid employing students in FWS jobs where they engage in any political activity or in work that serves the interests of a particular group.”

Additionally, while institutions under the Higher Education Act are required to make a “good faith effort” to distribute voter registration forms to students, they also have a duty to ensure said students are “eligible voters,” the department stated in its guidance.

von Spakovsky, a former Federal Election Commission member, told The Fix in a recent email that the government shouldn’t engage in “any type of voter registration activity” because it’s “inevitable” that any such activity will eventually be aimed at aiding “the political party in power.”

“There is too much danger of individuals who depend on government benefits and resources being intimidated and thinking that they must support the political party in power or risk losing such benefits and resources,” Spakovsky said.

When asked what this decision could signal about the direction the Trump administration is taking the Education Department, he told The Fix that it is trying to “rid” the department of “partisan politics and bring it back within its legal statutory authority.”

The work-study program should focus on “furthering educational opportunities” rather than “help[ing] the election prospects of the political party in power,” he said.

The federal, taxpayer-funded program provides paid jobs to low-income students as a way to help pay for their college tuition.

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Fake Students Plague California Community Colleges, Displacing Real Enrollees

California’s community colleges are grappling with a surge in fraudulent enrollments, with 1.2 million fake applicants last year accounting for nearly 30 percent of new students, blocking real students from classes and costing millions in stolen financial aid, according to college officials.

The problem, exacerbated by the shift to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, affects at least 90 of the state’s 116 campuses, said Marvin Martinez, chancellor of the Rancho Santiago Community College District, and Jeannie Kim, president of Santiago Canyon College.

Before the pandemic, most classes were in-person, making fraud more difficult, Martinez said. But with 80 percent of courses moving online, bots and fake students can enroll from anywhere, including other states or countries.

“It’s happened on a massive scale,” Martinez told Epoch TV’s California Insider host Siyamak Khorrami.

“What’s made this situation of fraudulent enrollment so different than anything that I’ve seen before in my 36 years in higher ed is that it’s happened in almost 80 percent now of the campuses.”

At Santiago Canyon College, fall 2024 enrollment initially spiked 10 percent to 13 percent, Kim said, but faculty discovered many registrants were fraudulent. In one anthropology course, administrators raised the enrollment cap by 30 daily, only for bots to fill slots instantly, leaving just 12 to 15 genuine students. 

Faculty identified fakes through non-engagement, identical assignments, or invalid contact details, like phone numbers tied to businesses or defunct entities. Removing fraudulent enrollments cut the college’s headcount by 10,000 to 12,000 spots, with some bad actors enrolled in up to five classes each.

The fallout is severe. Real students are denied access to required courses, delaying graduations, certificates, and transfers to four-year universities.

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