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The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has released the 19th edition of its annual Report Card on American Education, where it ranks states’ education policy based on six areas: state academic standards, charter school laws, home-school regulations, private school choice programs, overall teacher quality and policies, and digital learning opportunities. Its findings highlight an old fact: more spending does not translate into better outcomes for K-12 students. States spend an average of $11,153 per pupil on education. The District of Columbia topped the list at $29,029 per student – nearly triple the national average – yet achieved only mediocre results....

A student with a "blank stare" opened fire in the cafeteria of a high school north of Seattle on Friday, killing one person and wounding at least three others before fatally shooting himself, police and witnesses said. A hospital official said three patients were in "very critical condition" after the 10:30 a.m. PDT shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck High School. A 14-year-old boy was in serious condition at another hospital with a jaw wound.

Students at a Mapleton Junior High School in Utah County were asked to take inventory of the things inside their family medicine cabinet and then turn that list into their health teacher. A parent, Onika Nugent, was not pleased with the assignment, so she posted the assignment on Facebook and sent a note to the teacher and the principal. She shared a portion of the letter she sent school officials: “I said, ‘Although it may be a good idea for parents to do an inventory of their medicine cabinet, I believe it is inappropriate for students to counsel their parents,...

At least three people are dead and several are injured in a school shooting that has taken place at Marysville Pilchuck High School in Marysville, Washington. News reports state that the gunman was a student. The school is currently in a lockdown. All after school activities have been cancelled. Unconfirmed reports from local news sources say at least three people are dead and six are injured. The shooter reported that the gunman walked into the cafeteria and opened fire.

High school students in Florida will soon be given free copies of a Bible-bashing booklet promoted by an atheist organization — a publication whose front cover depicts a lecherous, cartoon Bible sexually assaulting a screaming woman. The pamphlet entitled “An X-Rated Book: Sex and Obscenity in the Bible” will be distributed in 11 public high schools in Orange County, Florida. An atheist organization, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), pressured reluctant school officials who eventually agreed to allow the booklet to be handed out to students. And when will this little purple pamphlet be offered to Florida teens for free...

Parents in Massachusetts were upset when they found out Islam is being taught as part of the school curriculum. But what was most upsetting to one parent is that it included a declaration that Allah is the only god:

Some students in Burlington County are being kept home from school due to fears stemming from the Ebola outbreak. A message on the Maple Shade School District's website says students who have spent time in an unspecified part of eastern Africa were scheduled to begin classes in the district today.

The lawsuits surrounding Risperdal allege inappropriate marketing as well as failure to warn issues. While Johnson & Johnson alleges Risperdal helps countless people throughout the world who suffer from debilitating mental illnesses, it also has caused embarrassing side effects further contributing to the problems it claims to address. In September of 2012, Johnson & Johnson settled one such lawsuit with a 21 year old who had taken Risperdal and grown breasts which had to be surgically removed. The settlement was allegedly agreed to by Johnson & Johnson in order to avoid having the Judge in the trial order Chief Executive...

An openly transgender Georgia teen was elected to her high school's homecoming court in an election believed to be the first of its kind in the state. Sage Lovell, 16, of Marietta, was elected to Walton High School's homecoming court among four other women chosen out of 50 nominees at the school. 'I couldn't stop smiling,' said Lovell told CBS 46, who said she heard word of her victory while in her homeroom class. 'My entire homeroom erupted in very loud cheering. Apparently it was able to be heard from across the school.' On Friday night, the Walton High School...

RANDLE, Wash. — When administrators at White Pass Jr. Sr. High School asked students to dress up as their favorite celebrities for Spirit Week, Mason Mudge and Chandler Krueger did just that. Mudge came as Miss America. And Krueger dressed up as Nicki Minaj.

Full title: Caught on camera: Shocking moment a fed-up Baltimore teacher attacked student and slammed her into a locker yelling 'I'll kill you' after the senior hurled a book at her A Baltimore teacher is under fire after a cellphone video emerged of her fighting a 17-year-old student, slamming the girl against a locker and threatening to kill her. The beginning of the video, taken last Friday and obtained by local stations WBAL and WBFF, shows the girl shoving a chair in the teacher’s direction inside a classroom at Carver Vocational-Technical High in west Baltimore. The 17-year-old senior reportedly became...

Local newspapers in the US don't cover education in any depth. Maybe they’ll tell you superficial and trivial stuff (for example, that a superintendent was hired or fired, that there will be a meeting next month of the school board). But you won’t find anything about the nuts and bolts that determine whether you child learns to read, or learns anything at all. At first glance, this non-coverage can seem to be a mystery. Everybody's interested in education, especially parents and grandparents with kids in K-12. Probably one of the most valuable things that you could tell these people is...

In an effort to make classrooms more gender-inclusive, teachers at a middle school in Lincoln, Nebraska were given teaching guidelines advising them not to use "gendered expressions" by calling students "boys and girls." The Lincoln Journal Star reports that the teachers have been advised to use more gender-neutral expressions like campers, readers, athletes or even purple penguins. The teaching handout called "12 easy steps on the way to gender inclusiveness" advised teachers to avoid separating students by gender, but instead by birth dates or preferences. For example, they could ask students whether they prefer skateboards or bikes, milk or juice,...

MOBILE, Alabama (WPMI) – An Alabama mother is furious that her 5-year-old daughter was forced to sign a school contract stating she wouldn’t kill herself or anyone else at school. School officials told Rebecca, who did not want to give her last name, they had to send 5-year-old Elizabeth home after an incident in class. “They told me she drew something that resembled a gun. According to them she pointed a crayon at another student and said ‘pew pew’,” Rebecca explained.

We exploit information on compulsory schooling reforms in 11 European countries, implemented mostly in the 1960s and 70s, to identify the impact of education on religious adherence and religious practices. Using micro data from the European Social Survey, conducted in various years between 2002 and 2013, we find consistently large negative effects of schooling on self-reported religiosity, social religious acts (attending religious services), as well as solitary religious acts (the frequency of praying). We also use data from European Values Survey to apply the same empirical design to analyze the impact of schooling on superstitious beliefs. We find that more...

Attention, parents: Have your little ones been subjected to "TS Gold" in school yet? If you care about student privacy, data mining and classroom intrusions, you might want to start asking questions and protecting your children now before it's too late. What's happening here in Colorado with this onerous testing regime is happening everywhere. Informed families and teachers from all parts of the political spectrum agree: It's a Big Government/Big Business "gold" rush you don't want to join. "TS Gold" stands for Teaching Strategies Gold. This "school readiness assessment system" was mandated in our state several years ago. It has...

Viral Infection Blamed As More Than 120 Students At Schererville School Stay Home Sick October 8, 2014 10:04 PM Health, Peifer Elementary School, Schereville, schools, sick Brad Edwards Latest News Headlines: (CBS) — A viral infection is being blamed for more than a hundred sick kids at a school in Schererville, Ind. CBS 2’s Brad Edwards reports, with the sterility of operation room precision, from Hoosier Hall to nurse Schmidt’s office, it’s a scrub down at Peifer Elementary School. “It’s a little alarming just because that’s a lot of kids,” said Jennifer Howard, a parent of two kids at the...

Educators at Ward Melville High School are either woefully ignorant of the U.S. Constitution or they really don’t like Christian teenagers.For the second year in a row, the Long Island, New York high school has denied students the right to form a Christian club.“I feel like they have something against me and my faith,” 17-year-old John Raney told me. “I feel marginalized.”John is the founder of Students United in Faith, a service-oriented Christian club. Nearly 20 young people wanted to join the club – but the school said no.“I wanted to start the club because I thought it would provide...

The Michigan Department of Education will make its quarterly presentation on the number of school districts in deficit to the state legislature Dec. 12. But perhaps lost in the discussion about funding is that the state and federal government have budgeted $563 million more dollars for public school K-12 education in Michigan in 2013-14 than last year despite a drop of 6,100 students. The state's School Aid Budget, which funds K-12 education, increased from $12.9 billion in 2012-13 to $13.4 billion in 2013-14. Federal dollars jumped from $1.701 billion last year to $1.764 billion in 2013-14. However, student enrollment over...

A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a former Alcoa City Schools staffer to 40 months in prison in a $428,000 embezzlement scheme. In a six-year scheme, Kathy Ann Winters siphoned money from the school district and two state educational groups where she served as treasurer. Her thievery was discovered in a 2012 audit by the state Comptroller's Office. When confronted by federal authorities in April 2013, she confessed forging her supervisor's name on various documents, crafting faux invoices and drafting checks to squirrel away money for her personal use, including paying her bills and paying her way into a partnership...