Budget season isn't any easier for school finance officials this year than it was last year, when they were bracing for a pandemic-driven recession, extra expenses, and ever-changing logistical demands due to COVID-19. This second of three Quality Counts 2021 installments surveys school- and district-level leaders on their spending hurdles,…

"Quality Counts 2019: School Finance," is the second installment of "Education Week's" annual evaluation of the nation's K-12 school system. This report in the series focuses on an issue of immediate practical concern to every school leader, policymaker, parent, and member of the public: money--how much there is for schools,…

The COVID-19 pandemic has school leaders searching for ways to keep the fiscal ship afloat amid plummeting revenues, unexpected costs, and state and local budget uncertainty. This second of three Quality Counts 2020 installments offers lessons from past economic downturns and survey data capturing district-level views of the current crisis, along…

The latest edition of "Quality Counts 2018" takes a detailed look at what is behind this year's school finance grades from the Education Week Research Center, first reported as part of the annual state-by-state ranking of the nation's schools released in January. Under the new "Quality Counts" format, this second of three…

During the past year, teachers have pushed their technology skills to the next level, improving their understanding of how to use learning management systems effectively; integrating digital curricula, online assessments, and interactive games into learning; and upgrading their skills for using modern communication tools such as Zoom. This new…

Stagnation or promise? The third and final installment of "Quality Counts 2019" offers evidence for both in an annual summing up of the nation's K-12 system. The Education Week Research Center analyzed dozens of factors ranging from the academic to the socioeconomic in coming up with its all-inclusive state rankings and A-F grades. The…

This 22nd edition of "Quality Counts" offers a fresh take on the annual top-to-bottom ranking of the nation's school systems on a state-by-state basis published by "Education Week". The first of three "Quality Counts" reports being rolled out over the course of the year, "Grading the States" aims to…

For years, the St. Louis school district has experienced the convergence of two trend lines school superintendents hope never to see: rising employee-pension costs and falling student enrollment. Despite years of fully funding its share of the teacher-pension plan, the proportion of the St. Louis district's budget tied up in paying benefits for…

Education advocates and the Obama administration are anxiously eyeing a series of across-the-board cuts set to hit a broad swath of federal domestic and military spending programs early next year, unless a sharply divided Congress can agree on a long-term plan to put the nation's fiscal house in order. Most education lobbyists expect such a deal…

President Barack Obama's latest budget proposal envisions a sweeping, multi-billion-dollar expansion of prekindergarten programs and doubles down on the administration's strategy of using competitive grants to drive big change in states and districts--all as school districts try to cope with the largest cuts to federal education spending in recent…

State lawmakers will attempt to tackle a range of issues in legislative sessions getting under way this month, from making common academic standards a reality and funding schools based on performance, to allowing armed teachers and staff members on school grounds. Their task may be complicated by the still small and spotty economic recovery in…

Even as they seek to quantify the impact of across-the-board federal budget cuts on K-12 programs, some of the nation's neediest school districts are bracing for tough choices. The pinch from sequestration--or "the sequester," in Washington shorthand--is expected to be particularly painful for districts that depend on the most on the federal…

K12 Inc., the nation's largest provider of online precollegiate education, was launched in 2000 and went public seven years later after raising about $140 million in revenue. Like other companies, it moved from being privately held to being publicly traded to raise more money quickly, increase brand awareness, and accelerate business goals. The…

With just months to go until the nation's overhauled K-12 law goes into effect, state policymakers are still scrambling to firm up the infrastructure for their education systems, under the new blueprint laid out in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). They're doing it at a time of political change and policy uncertainty at the national level,…

After more than a year of heated campaigning, President Barack Obama remains in the White House, Democrats continue to control the U.S. Senate, and Republicans are still in charge of the House of Representatives--leaving unchanged a political landscape that has paralyzed congressional action on education policy and led the president to flex his…