Districts look to new year with new leaders
Larry Huff was named superintendent of Rockford Public Schools in Illinois after having led Elkhart Community Schools in Indiana since 2024. Huff is credited with leading major gains in student learning, teacher support and school-community partnerships at Elkhart Community Schools.
In Wisconsin, Superintendent Glenda Butterfield-Boldig is moving to the Clinton Community School District from the Bowler School District. Butterfield-Boldig also served as superintendent of the White Lake School District.
Matthew Cheeseman, who has served as superintendent of Beaufort County Schools since 2019, will take the helm of Craven County Schools in North Carolina on Feb 1. Cheeseman led Perquimans County Schools from 2016 to 2019 and was recently named the 2025–2026 Southeast Region 2 Superintendent of the Year.
School Shootings in 2025: The Fewest Incidents and Deaths in 5 Years
The overall number of U.S. school shootings in 2025 that resulted in injuries or deaths was lower than in any year since 2020, according to Education Week’s school shootings tracker.
Seventeen school shootings this year met the criteria for Education Week’s tracker—fewer than half the number that took place in each of the previous four years.
Seven people died in school shootings this year—down from 18 last year, 21 the year before, and 40 in 2022
Week In Review: Fallout from the Education Department’s breakup
We’re rounding up last week’s news, from 8th grade algebra to the latest legal pushes on religion in schools.
The U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday that it is transferring management of six programs to other federal agencies as the Trump administration continues pushing toward the agency’s closure. The move, the administration said, will give states more control over education funding decisions.
Among the program shifts are the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education to the U.S. Department of Labor, and international education and foreign language studies programs to the U.S. Department of State.
Parents Should Continue to File Disability Rights Complaints, Say Special Ed. Advocates
Parents of students with disabilities have long seen federal civil rights complaints as their last, best hope of ensuring schools meet their legal obligations to address their children’s needs. Changes and staff reductions at the U.S. Department of Education have eroded trust in that process, advocates said.
Their message to those parents: File the complaints anyway.
“Families feel like, ‘If it’s going to take a long time to get a resolution, what is the point?’” said Robyn Linscott, the director of education and family policy for The Arc of the United States, an organization that advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The Looming $90 Trillion Cost of Learning Loss — and the Policy Solutions to Address It
America’s economic future is being shaped in its classrooms. Unfortunately, latest results on the Nation’s Report Card show too many students are falling behind in reading and math — the foundation of productivity and prosperity.
These scores are not just numbers; they signal lost earning potential for today’s children and weakened competitiveness for tomorrow’s workforce. The pandemic deepened the decline, but students were already behind. Without action, the cost will be measured in lost opportunity and billions in economic losses.
Should Kids Miss School for Vacation? Parents Say Yes, Teachers Aren’t So Sure
It’s a common refrain among educators: Even as schools focus time and resources on driving down rates of chronic absenteeism, some parents make the uphill climb even steeper by pulling their children out of class for non-urgent family trips.
Since the pandemic, families appear more relaxed about missing two or three days of school so they can take a trip to Disneyland or go skiing, they say. And it doesn’t take long for those missed days to add up, landing a student at or near the 10% of missed school days necessary to be considered chronically absent.
Gen Z Teachers Are Ready to Reinvent Education. Schools Need to Catch Up
The teaching profession is facing historic lows in both morale and retention across the nation. From falling student reading scores to exhausted teachers leaving classrooms, America’s schools face immense hurdles. Yet amid these challenges, a new generation of educators is stepping forward — driven by purpose, community and an unshakable belief that schools can be places of possibility.
Gen Z educators, born between the late 1990s and early 2010s, are entering classrooms with fresh energy and an innovative approach. They are digital natives and are eager to leverage technology thoughtfully. They bring a keen understanding of student needs because they were students themselves recently. They are naturally inclined to collaborate, provide more choice and individualized learning in their classrooms, and work alongside students and families with more frequent communication and care.
Tense board relationships fuel high superintendent turnover
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, high superintendent turnover rates have not let up — and that’s not surprising, said Wendy Birhanzel, a district leader in Colorado.
Nearly a quarter (23%) of the 500 largest districts experienced a change in their superintendency between July 1, 2024 and July 1, 2025, according to a September report by ILO Group, a national education strategy and policy firm. This turnover is up from last year’s survey results showing a 20% rate and a notable uptick from pre-pandemic averages ranging from 14% to 16%, ILO Group found.
Survey: Nearly Half of Families with Young Kids Struggling to Meet Basic Needs
Nearly half of American families with children under 6 are struggling to meet at least one basic need, according to new data from the Stanford Center on Early Childhood.
The 49% of families who reported not being able to access these necessities — including food, housing, utilities and child care — marks a 13 percentage-point jump since June and one of the highest rates recorded since the RAPID Survey Project began collecting data in 2020.
The economic struggles were paired with significant emotional distress among parents, including anxiety and depression.
Why cell phone bans are worth the pushback
Cellphone bans lead to improved academic outcomes once schools get past the disciplinary phase, which typically lasts a year after enforcement begins.
Researchers from the National Bureau of Economic Research examined the effects of cell phone bans on test scores, suspensions and absences in Florida, which implemented a statewide ban in May 2023.
Here’s what the researchers found.