Evie Blad
@evieblad.bsky.social
journalist covering K-12 education for Education Week
Middle Schoolers' Reading Scores Are Still Stuck at Post-Pandemic Lows: New data shows that the lowest-performing students are falling the furthest behind.
Middle Schoolers' Reading Scores Are Still Stuck at Post-Pandemic Lows
New data shows that the lowest-performing students are falling the furthest behind.
edweek.org
New: Education Week is tracking how states are overhauling math education. www.edweek.org/teaching-lea...
Which States Are Overhauling Math Education? See Our Tracker
Our tracker follows and summarizes states legislation shaping math teaching, instruction, and intervention.
edweek.org
Don't sleep on EdWeek's tracker page. Our teams track everything from science of reading bills to school cell phone bans. www.edweek.org/trackers
Guidance from pediatricians drove home the idea that parents reading with their children from birth can help build crucial literacy skills. These govs want similar guidance on number games and math play to build numeracy at home. www.edweek.org/teaching-lea...
Parents Can Build Numeracy Skills at Home. These Governors Want Guidance on How
Governors want the American Academy of Pediatrics to issue guidance urging parents to use games to help children build numeracy skills.
edweek.org
Was a national civics competition for high-school kids ... Rigged? Biased? Botched? I followed one family through Trump's patriotic contest and found a remarkable story about our age of suspicion. For @notus.com: www.notus.org/national/ame...
Suspicion and Doubt at the National Civics Contest
America’s finest young scholars competed to mark their country's birthday. It led to a disputed finish in the age of mistrust.
notus.org
"Anybody can love the mountains. It takes a soul to love the prairie."
Delivering another major blow to LGBTQ rights, the Supreme Court upheld state laws that ban transgender athletes from participating in girls' and women's sports. nbcnews.to/4gIGar2
"The Ed Dept’s functions are best carried out as a synergistic whole, not scattered about. The sole reason to scatter them is to render the dept ineffective—a step toward the unabashed goal of this admin to close the dept entirely." -OCR alumni www.edweek.org/policy-polit...
‘None of This Is Abstract’: The Real Harm of Trump’s Ed. Dept. Civil Rights Move (Opinion)
Here’s why families will feel it when student civil rights enforcement moves to the Justice Dept.
edweek.org
"This feels deeply harmful and deeply unserious," a civil rights attorney who worked for three prior administrations said.
Trump's Justice Dept. Investigates Dozens of Districts Over LGBTQ+ Curricula
The investigations target how schools discuss sexuality and gender identity and whether parents can opt their children out of lessons.
edweek.org
As treasury previews guidance on new fed tax-credit scholarship program this week, debates continue about how much public schools will benefit—and whether states should opt in. www.edweek.org/policy-polit...
How Can Public Schools Participate in Trump's Federal Choice Program?
The Trump administration has confirmed public schools can receive federal scholarship funds. Here's how.
edweek.org
9-year-olds perform better in NAEP long-term trend math and reading than three years ago, and lowest-performing students made large strides. But 13-year-olds' scores stagnated, showing no statistically significant changes from the last test administration in 2023. www.edweek.org/leadership/r...
Reading and Math Scores Rise for Younger Kids, Stall for Teens
New results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress show diverging trends for 9- and 13-year-olds.
edweek.org
People don't seem to know what shoes to wear with seersucker. We don't talk about this enough.
Jamie Dupree@jamiedupree.bsky.social · 2mo agoSeersucker Day in the U.S. Senate
Matt Barnum@mattbarnum.bsky.social · 2mo agoNew: The conventional narrative is that Dems need to embrace school choice, even vouchers, to win on education. In his run for Iowa governor, @robsandia.bsky.social is taking a very different approach. I spoke to him about his educational views and vision. www.chalkbeat.org/2026/06/02/r...
The Senate has not confirmed Trump's surgeon general pick, but the office released an advisory on screen time without her.
Education Week@edweek.org · 3mo agoTrump's Surgeon General's Office Advises Schools to Limit Screen Time: Schools should emphasize paper-and-pencil assignments, Trump administration recommends.
Read my story about schools (including large high schools) that use AI platforms to pronounce students' names at graduation. Here's why they do it and why graduates and communities push back. www.edweek.org/leadership/a...
A New Use for AI: Pronouncing Students' Names at Graduation
High schools adopt AI platforms to pronounce students' names at graduation ceremonies, sparking pushback.
edweek.org
Alex Hanna@alexhanna.bsky.social · 3mo agoSir, another graduation ceremony in which the students booed AI has dropped. "College graduates were pissed after their school used AI to announce graduates’ names and missed hundreds of names" (via @/FearedBuck on Twitter)
Some high schools now use AI to pronounce student names at graduation. Is it a tool to be sure a flubbed name reading doesn't ruin a grad's big moment? Or is it an impersonal use of tech at an event meant to evoke pomp and circumstance? Depends who you ask. www.edweek.org/leadership/a...
A New Use for AI: Pronouncing Students' Names at Graduation
High schools adopt AI platforms to pronounce students' names at graduation ceremonies, sparking pushback.
edweek.org
Six people are injured, including several who were stabbed, in an altercation at a Washington state high school, authorities say.
6 injured in high school stabbing in Washington state
Five students, including the suspect, and a security guard were injured in the incident at Tacoma's Foss High School, officials said.
nbcnews.to
New: On Capitol Hill today, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said she still wants to relocate special education programs to other agencies: "“We have not made that determination yet.” www.edweek.org/policy-polit...
McMahon Still Wants to Relocate Special Ed.—And Other Budget Hearing Takeaways
The education secretary also told skeptical lawmakers that Ed. Dept. program transfers are working.
edweek.org
Concerned about threats to cut McKinney-Vento funding for homeless students, some legislatures have written federal protections into their states' codes. www.edweek.org/policy-polit...
With Federal Commitment Shaky, States Move to Codify Protections for Homeless Students
Washington and Oregon have taken action, and others states are considering moves of their own.
edweek.org
The latest in my archive analysis series: Murphy Brown, Dan Quayle, and the latest push to teach the "success sequence" in schools. www.edweek.org/leadership/s...
Schools and 'Family Values': A Reboot of a Familiar Debate
The "success sequence" is the latest in a long line of proposals to have schools take up character-building.
edweek.org
Artists, filmmakers and singers once championed Chavez as a hero. Now, they must rethink how to tell his story. "It's just been gut-wrenching," one muralist says. n.pr/4v9nTIr
'We're all in grief': Chicano artists reckon with Cesar Chavez abuse allegations
Artists, filmmakers and singers once championed Chavez as a hero. Now, they must rethink how to tell his story. "It's just been gut-wrenching," one muralist says.
n.pr
I wonder how visuals like this play with folks who want less tech and screen time in schools.
Reuters@reuters.com · 4mo agoUS first lady Melania Trump walks next to a humanoid robot as she hosts a roundtable event during the inaugural Fostering the Future Together Global Coalition Summit, at the White House. More of the latest generation of robots: reut.rs/4d5SEr3 📷 Kylie Cooper
“A lot of schools are going to have to have some really interesting and really difficult conversations about what it means to publicly commemorate the past." www.edweek.org/leadership/s...
Schools Named for César Chavez Face Renaming Debates After Assault Allegations
Dozens of schools named for César Chavez face decisions about renaming.
edweek.org
There are at least 86 public schools named for César Chavez. They face tough, unexpected conversations about changing their names after and investigation surfaced new allegations about the labor leader. www.edweek.org/leadership/s...
Schools Named for César Chavez Face Renaming Debates After Assault Allegations
Dozens of schools named for César Chavez face decisions about renaming.
edweek.org
My heart goes out to the hard working folks at the Washington Post today.
A Waymo recently hit a student as she ran across the street to her school. In Austin and Atlanta, the robotaxis have been cited for illegally passing stopped school buses. www.edweek.org/leadership/s...
Schools Flag Safety Incidents As Driverless Cars Enter More Cities
Agencies are examining reports of Waymos illegally passing buses; in another case, one struck a student.
edweek.org
Informal discipline practices raise equity concerns because schools cannot monitor their use to ensure they don't echo racial and ethnic disparities common in formal discipline, according to recent research in AERA Open, via @edweek.org @evieblad.bsky.social: www.edweek.org/leadership/i...
Informal Classroom Discipline Is Hard to Track, Raising Big Equity Concerns
Without adequate support, teachers might resort to these tactics to circumvent prohibitions on suspensions.
edweek.org
While most schools deem students chronically absent after they miss at least 10% of school days, poor attendance habits may affect academic achievement well before they reach that threshold, a new study finds. www.edweek.org/leadership/a...
Absenteeism May Hurt Academics Long Before It Becomes 'Chronic'
The 10% threshold for chronic absenteeism may be too high to predict academic risk, study says.
edweek.org
New: Congress is on the verge of (largely) rebuking President Trump's budget proposal for education. No major funding cuts, no block grants...but also no explicit block on ED efforts to shift program staff elsewhere. www.edweek.org/policy-polit...
Rebuking Trump, Congress Moves to Maintain Most Federal Education Funding
Funding for key programs like Title I and IDEA are on track to remain level year over year.
edweek.org
