On January 17, 2024, the White House announced a Fact Sheet titled Improving Student Achievement Agenda for 2024, which is focused on proven strategies that will accelerate academic performance for every child in school. The Fact Sheet lays out an agenda for academic achievement for every school in the country, using all of its tools—including accountability, reporting, grants, and technical assistance—to intensify its drive for adoption of three evidence-based strategies that improve student learning: (1) increasing student attendance; (2) providing high-dosage tutoring; and (3) increasing summer learning and extended or afterschool learning time. In addition, the Biden administration also published examples of activities from states, districts and education nonprofits that show progress made toward these strategies, as well as  a raft of supports and resources.

In conjunction with the Fact Sheet release, at a livestreamed event involving governors, state education superintendents and White House officials, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said we are at “a moment of truth in education in our country” with both “big challenges” and “immense opportunity.”

In addition, the Biden administration also said it would publish examples of activities from states, districts and education nonprofits that show progress made toward these strategies. Likewise, states should target any school districts not showing progress toward reducing achievement gaps with extra supports and resources.

To access the Fact Sheet, click here.

For an article from K12 Dive, click here.

On January 18, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the release of a report on its critical incident review of the law enforcement response to the tragic school shooting at Robb Elementary School. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced the review shortly after the tragedy on May 24, 2022, in which 19 children and two teachers died at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The 575-page report is the most thorough description of the critical incident review that has taken place over the past 20 months since the May 2022 school shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead.

According to the report, “The law enforcement response at Robb Elementary on May 24th, 2022 — and the response by officials in the hours and days after — was a failure. As a consequence of failed leadership, training, and policies, 33 students and three of their teachers — many of whom had been shot — were trapped in a room with an active shooter for over an hour as law enforcement officials remained outside. We hope to honor the victims and survivors by working together to try to prevent anything like this from happening again, here or anywhere.”

The report examines the multiple failures in the response to the tragedy, including the breakdowns in leadership, decision-making, tactics, policy, and training that contributed to those failures. It describes the responding officers’ most significant failure as not treating the incident throughout as an active shooter situation and using the available and sufficient resources and equipment to push forward immediately and continuously to eliminate the threat. Although several of the first officers on the scene initially acted consistent with generally accepted practices to try to engage the subject, once they retreated after being met with gunfire, the law enforcement responders began treating the incident as a barricaded subject scenario rather than as an active shooter situation. In all, there was a 77-minute gap between when officers first arrived on the scene and when they finally confronted and killed the subject.

To view the DOJ press release, click here.

On January 16, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) declined to consider a case on involving an Indiana school district’s policies banning transgender students from using bathrooms that align with their gender identities. It was hoped that SCOTUS would settle the ongoing controversy over the use of student restrooms by transgender students. Presently, confusion over conflicting lower court decisions have created an unsettling atmosphere with regard to whether Title IX allows students to access restroom facilities that differ from their sex assigned at birth. In fact, appellate court decisions are inconsistent, and school districts are adopting policies that vary across the country according to state and local laws.

According to a report by K12 Dive, in deciding not to hear the case, SCOTUS let stand an August 2023 decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the Metropolitan School District of Martinsville, IN and the student’s former principal likely violated Title IX by barring transgender students from bathrooms aligning with their gender identities.

The Metropolitan School District v. A.C. case is not the first of its kind to appear before SCOTUS. In fact, in 2020 SCOTUS decided in the landmark case Bostock v. Clayton County that LGBTQ+ discrimination falls under unlawful sex discrimination in the workplace. However, in Bostock SCOTUS specifically declined to address transgender policies in schools.

Source: K12 Dive and the SCOTUS Blog.