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A pandemic year

How the pandemic is reshaping education

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The great catch-up, schools set to attack lost learning.

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When students struggle

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D-plus school buildings

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New advances in technology are upending education, from the recent debut of new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots like ChatGPT to the growing accessibility of virtual-reality tools that expand the boundaries of the classroom. For educators, at the heart of it all is the hope that every learner gets an equal chance to develop the skills they need to succeed. But that promise is not without its pitfalls.

“Technology is a game-changer for education – it offers the prospect of universal access to high-quality learning experiences, and it creates fundamentally new ways of teaching,” said Dan Schwartz, dean of Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE), who is also a professor of educational technology at the GSE and faculty director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning . “But there are a lot of ways we teach that aren’t great, and a big fear with AI in particular is that we just get more efficient at teaching badly. This is a moment to pay attention, to do things differently.”

For K-12 schools, this year also marks the end of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding program, which has provided pandemic recovery funds that many districts used to invest in educational software and systems. With these funds running out in September 2024, schools are trying to determine their best use of technology as they face the prospect of diminishing resources.

Here, Schwartz and other Stanford education scholars weigh in on some of the technology trends taking center stage in the classroom this year.

AI in the classroom

In 2023, the big story in technology and education was generative AI, following the introduction of ChatGPT and other chatbots that produce text seemingly written by a human in response to a question or prompt. Educators immediately worried that students would use the chatbot to cheat by trying to pass its writing off as their own. As schools move to adopt policies around students’ use of the tool, many are also beginning to explore potential opportunities – for example, to generate reading assignments or coach students during the writing process.

AI can also help automate tasks like grading and lesson planning, freeing teachers to do the human work that drew them into the profession in the first place, said Victor Lee, an associate professor at the GSE and faculty lead for the AI + Education initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning. “I’m heartened to see some movement toward creating AI tools that make teachers’ lives better – not to replace them, but to give them the time to do the work that only teachers are able to do,” he said. “I hope to see more on that front.”

He also emphasized the need to teach students now to begin questioning and critiquing the development and use of AI. “AI is not going away,” said Lee, who is also director of CRAFT (Classroom-Ready Resources about AI for Teaching), which provides free resources to help teach AI literacy to high school students across subject areas. “We need to teach students how to understand and think critically about this technology.”

Immersive environments

The use of immersive technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality is also expected to surge in the classroom, especially as new high-profile devices integrating these realities hit the marketplace in 2024.

The educational possibilities now go beyond putting on a headset and experiencing life in a distant location. With new technologies, students can create their own local interactive 360-degree scenarios, using just a cell phone or inexpensive camera and simple online tools.

“This is an area that’s really going to explode over the next couple of years,” said Kristen Pilner Blair, director of research for the Digital Learning initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, which runs a program exploring the use of virtual field trips to promote learning. “Students can learn about the effects of climate change, say, by virtually experiencing the impact on a particular environment. But they can also become creators, documenting and sharing immersive media that shows the effects where they live.”

Integrating AI into virtual simulations could also soon take the experience to another level, Schwartz said. “If your VR experience brings me to a redwood tree, you could have a window pop up that allows me to ask questions about the tree, and AI can deliver the answers.”

Gamification

Another trend expected to intensify this year is the gamification of learning activities, often featuring dynamic videos with interactive elements to engage and hold students’ attention.

“Gamification is a good motivator, because one key aspect is reward, which is very powerful,” said Schwartz. The downside? Rewards are specific to the activity at hand, which may not extend to learning more generally. “If I get rewarded for doing math in a space-age video game, it doesn’t mean I’m going to be motivated to do math anywhere else.”

Gamification sometimes tries to make “chocolate-covered broccoli,” Schwartz said, by adding art and rewards to make speeded response tasks involving single-answer, factual questions more fun. He hopes to see more creative play patterns that give students points for rethinking an approach or adapting their strategy, rather than only rewarding them for quickly producing a correct response.

Data-gathering and analysis

The growing use of technology in schools is producing massive amounts of data on students’ activities in the classroom and online. “We’re now able to capture moment-to-moment data, every keystroke a kid makes,” said Schwartz – data that can reveal areas of struggle and different learning opportunities, from solving a math problem to approaching a writing assignment.

But outside of research settings, he said, that type of granular data – now owned by tech companies – is more likely used to refine the design of the software than to provide teachers with actionable information.

The promise of personalized learning is being able to generate content aligned with students’ interests and skill levels, and making lessons more accessible for multilingual learners and students with disabilities. Realizing that promise requires that educators can make sense of the data that’s being collected, said Schwartz – and while advances in AI are making it easier to identify patterns and findings, the data also needs to be in a system and form educators can access and analyze for decision-making. Developing a usable infrastructure for that data, Schwartz said, is an important next step.

With the accumulation of student data comes privacy concerns: How is the data being collected? Are there regulations or guidelines around its use in decision-making? What steps are being taken to prevent unauthorized access? In 2023 K-12 schools experienced a rise in cyberattacks, underscoring the need to implement strong systems to safeguard student data.

Technology is “requiring people to check their assumptions about education,” said Schwartz, noting that AI in particular is very efficient at replicating biases and automating the way things have been done in the past, including poor models of instruction. “But it’s also opening up new possibilities for students producing material, and for being able to identify children who are not average so we can customize toward them. It’s an opportunity to think of entirely new ways of teaching – this is the path I hope to see.”

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About half of Americans say public K-12 education is going in the wrong direction

About half of U.S. adults (51%) say the country’s public K-12 education system is generally going in the wrong direction. A far smaller share (16%) say it’s going in the right direction, and about a third (32%) are not sure, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in November 2023.

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand how Americans view the K-12 public education system. We surveyed 5,029 U.S. adults from Nov. 9 to Nov. 16, 2023.

The survey was conducted by Ipsos for Pew Research Center on the Ipsos KnowledgePanel Omnibus. The KnowledgePanel is a probability-based web panel recruited primarily through national, random sampling of residential addresses. The survey is weighted by gender, age, race, ethnicity, education, income and other categories.

Here are the questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and the survey methodology .

A majority of those who say it’s headed in the wrong direction say a major reason is that schools are not spending enough time on core academic subjects.

These findings come amid debates about what is taught in schools , as well as concerns about school budget cuts and students falling behind academically.

Related: Race and LGBTQ Issues in K-12 Schools

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say the public K-12 education system is going in the wrong direction. About two-thirds of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (65%) say this, compared with 40% of Democrats and Democratic leaners. In turn, 23% of Democrats and 10% of Republicans say it’s headed in the right direction.

Among Republicans, conservatives are the most likely to say public education is headed in the wrong direction: 75% say this, compared with 52% of moderate or liberal Republicans. There are no significant differences among Democrats by ideology.

Similar shares of K-12 parents and adults who don’t have a child in K-12 schools say the system is going in the wrong direction.

A separate Center survey of public K-12 teachers found that 82% think the overall state of public K-12 education has gotten worse in the past five years. And many teachers are pessimistic about the future.

Related: What’s It Like To Be A Teacher in America Today?

Why do Americans think public K-12 education is going in the wrong direction?

We asked adults who say the public education system is going in the wrong direction why that might be. About half or more say the following are major reasons:

• Schools not spending enough time on core academic subjects, like reading, math, science and social studies (69%)
• Teachers bringing their personal political and social views into the classroom (54%)
• Schools not having the funding and resources they need (52%)

About a quarter (26%) say a major reason is that parents have too much influence in decisions about what schools are teaching.

How views vary by party

Americans in each party point to different reasons why public education is headed in the wrong direction.

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say major reasons are:

• A lack of focus on core academic subjects (79% vs. 55%)
• Teachers bringing their personal views into the classroom (76% vs. 23%)

In turn, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to point to:

• Insufficient school funding and resources (78% vs. 33%)
• Parents having too much say in what schools are teaching (46% vs. 13%)

Views also vary within each party by ideology.

Among Republicans, conservatives are particularly likely to cite a lack of focus on core academic subjects and teachers bringing their personal views into the classroom.

Among Democrats, liberals are especially likely to cite schools lacking resources and parents having too much say in the curriculum.

Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and the survey methodology .

• Partisanship & Issues
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Rachel Minkin is a research associate focusing on social and demographic trends research at Pew Research Center .

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The U.S. Education System Isn’t Giving Students What Employers Need

• Michael Hansen

Companies also need to stop fixating on the four-year degree.

There’s a direct disconnect between education and employability in the U.S., where employers view universities and colleges as the gatekeepers of workforce talent, yet those same institutions aren’t prioritizing job skills and career readiness. This not only hurts employers, but also sets the average American worker up for failure before they’ve even begun their career, as new employees who have been hired based on their four-year educational background often lack the actual skills needed to perform in their role. To create change as an industry, we must provide greater credibility to alternate education paths that allow students to gain employable skills. Now is the time for employers to increase credibility for skills-based hiring, to remove stigmas around vocational education, and to move forward to create equal opportunities for all students.

The Covid-19 pandemic stripped millions of Americans of their jobs. As of April 2021, the economy was still down 4 million jobs compared to February 2020. At the same time, we are seeing unprecedented labor shortages, with 8.1 million jobs open and unfilled across the U.S. Markets that saw explosive growth due to the pandemic, such as cybersecurity and technology , are struggling to maintain the levels of innovation needed to continue that trend, because they can’t find the right talent.

• MH Michael Hansen is the Chief Executive Officer of Cengage, an education technology company serving millions of learners worldwide.

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U.S. students are starting to catch up in school — unless they're from a poor area

Mary Louise Kelly

Lauren Hodges

Justine Kenin

New reports show a big academic recovery after schools reopened. But not for all students. Stanford professor Sean Reardon tells NPR's Mary Louise Kelly how the pandemic worsened education inequality.

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Disrupted schooling, learning loss will have effects long after pandemic, say education experts

Already vulnerable students 'are facing a kind of shadow pandemic,' unesco education expert warns.

Social Sharing

Compared to last spring's nationwide school shutdown, Monica Belyea and her children are having a slightly easier time with remote learning this winter term. But the Toronto parent is already worried about the next school year.

While her kids Maddie and Ben have "amazing teachers who are doing the very best they can" amid Ontario's current school closure during a COVID-19 lockdown, Belyea wonders about how much curriculum is being covered in their respective Grade 6 and Grade 4 classes.

During her kids' remote classes, Belyea hears the teachers' time taken up troubleshooting tech problems and repeatedly walking students through online tools. Opportunities for one-on-one assistance have also waned. Ben, who is nine, shies away from asking for help online because he's self-conscious about classmates hearing him struggle.

"What happens in September? Are there going to be accommodations made for the fact that [many students] are going to be behind?" Belyea said.

"It's obviously not fair to the kids if they're suddenly just thrown back into — hopefully — a regular school in September and be expected to go full speed into the regular curriculum, if they're already behind from the year before."

From switches between remote and in-person learning to juggling class quarantines due to school-related cases, Canadian students continue to grapple with a tumultuous education experience amid COVID-19. Education advocates and international experts alike are highlighting pandemic-disrupted schooling and learning loss as longer-term concerns that will persist even after COVID-19 wanes.

A year into the coronavirus pandemic, more than 800 million students — representing more than half the world's student population — continue to experience major disruptions in their schooling, according to a new report from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) .

In-person schools were completely shuttered for an average of 3.5 months since the global emergency began, UNESCO said. The figure rises to an average of 5.5 months when localized school closures are factored in, according to the report.

"The global shift to remote learning... has not served everyone equally in the world," said Stefania Giannini, UNESCO's assistant director general of education.

🔴 NEW DATA<br><br>Two thirds of an academic year lost on average worldwide due to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COVID19</a> school closure.<br><br>Closures of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/education?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#education</a> systems are impacting the most vulnerable. They must be a last resort &amp; reopening them safely a priority.<br><br>ℹ️ <a href="https://t.co/DPfjoTkMYV">https://t.co/DPfjoTkMYV</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EducationDay?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EducationDay</a> <a href="https://t.co/vaAVHyzUOL">pic.twitter.com/vaAVHyzUOL</a> &mdash; @UNESCO

More than 450 million students around the globe have been unable to access education during the pandemic, including many excluded from online learning due to lack of internet access at home, Giannini said. UNESCO currently projects that about 24 million children and youth are at risk of dropping out of school worldwide.

"It's about … those who were already behind being left behind more," Giannini said in an interview from Paris. "They are facing a kind of shadow pandemic." 

Major school disruptions are something that countries like Canada cannot ignore, she said.

• Missing students: Edmonton educators tackle truancy for online classes during COVID-19

"We talk about the more marginalized in advanced countries as well," Giannini said. "It is a global crisis which is affecting children who are more disadvantaged because of their background, family background and not being so supported as the richest [students]." 

Some students were 'already scrambling to catch up'

UNESCO's findings didn't come as any surprise to Toronto teacher Sam Tecle, who works with Success Beyond Limits, an education support, enrichment and mentoring organization based in the Jane and Finch neighbourhood where he grew up.

Success Beyond Limits formed in 2010 to help tackle the Jane and Finch neighbourhood's higher-than-normal high-school dropout rate and to work with incoming high school students who had already faced a difficult school experience before Grade 9.

"The kind of learning gaps UNESCO has just detailed in their recent report, we've been seeing that in communities like Jane and Finch — or others like it in Toronto —  for the last 10 years," said Tecle, who is also a university professor and community advocate.

"Often we find that the students … who do not find success in the school system just find it difficult to find success, period — in the city, city life and social life. So that's the danger." 

WATCH | Sociology prof Janice Aurini explains how learning losses develop:

How learning gaps develop when students are out of school

For students already working through challenges at school, the pandemic exacerbated their struggle to have an enriching educational experience, Tecle said. 

"They were already scrambling to catch up."

The sudden changes and major structural shifts to education made amidst the pandemic — including the pivot to learning remotely online — have hit marginalized communities hard and taken them longer to adjust to, he said.

Many marginalized families face multiple challenges. They might include adequate internet access, a sufficient number of devices for online learning, parents who are unable to work from home and support their children, and a lack of supervised care for younger children.

• Class divide: Catching vulnerable young learners before they fall through the cracks

Beyond what individual educators or groups like Success Beyond Limits are doing to address learning loss, "we know that our program alone cannot mitigate the tide," says Tecle. He believes school districts and governments must pay greater attention to it and invest in fixing the problem.

"It always, always comes back to haunt us when we don't invest in education and our young people's futures, which is our future," he said.

Education investments needed, says UNESCO

Outside of a pandemic, teachers are typically already on the lookout for students struggling with learning loss and subsequently working toward eliminating that gap. Canada also has pre-existing summer school programs designed to help students catch up. Ontario, for instance, funds two- to three-week summer programs. They are offered by nearly every school board in the province to support students with learning loss.  

• Schools scramble to make up for learning losses that have already occurred in the pandemic

Beyond what's in place, Ontario is exploring measures to support learning recovery and working on a further plan to target learning loss "head on — with enhanced supports for reading and math for all students, for vulnerable children, including students with exceptionalities and from underrepresented communities," said Caitlin Clark, spokesperson for Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce. 

Protecting and increasing investments into education is what UNESCO's Giannini wants to see. It was first among the priorities in a "roadmap" that came out of the organization's  global education meeting , held virtually last October.

Next is reopening schools with layers of preventative health and safety measures in place, followed by supporting teachers receiving "better and more training," as well as prioritizing them as "classroom front-line workers" in vaccination campaigns, according to Giannini.

Equitably bridging the digital divide and reimagining education systems to make schools more resilient and adaptable for the future are also on UNESCO's to-do list.

"Political leaders have to realize that not investing in education today is about compromising the future of our young people [and] it's also compromising development and and economic growth," Giannini said. 

"It's not a competition … between reopening schools and reopening restaurants or pubs. It's about prioritizing education as the real basic human right."

With files from Deana Sumanac-Johnson and Nigel Hunt

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Review of Tasmania's education system announced following calls for system reform

• In short: The Tasmanian government has announced an independent review of the state's education system to improve poor education outcomes, following calls from the opposition and stakeholders.
• The review will be undertaken by Vicki Baylis, the former chief executive of the Northern Territory Department of Education.
• What's next? The review's terms of reference will be released in the coming weeks and will be presented to the government by the end of 2024.

An independent review into Tasmania's education system has been announced, with an eye to fixing low education outcomes that trail the rest of the country.

Education Minister Jo Palmer announced the review on Monday, which would focus on improving the education system, including literacy and numeracy outcomes over the next 10 years.

Vicki Baylis, the former chief executive of the Northern Territory Department of Education, will lead the review, in consultation with the Department of Education, Children and Young People.

The details so far are scarce, with the terms of reference and scope of the review to be released in the coming weeks, and a final report to be delivered by the end of the year.

Tasmania's education system has already drawn attention this year due to its ongoing battle with low year 12 completion rates , and the number of young people leaving the state for better tertiary education opportunities elsewhere.

Calls for political action to address the education system aren't new. The current Liberal government came to power a decade ago promising to lift year 12 retention and attainment rates.

In recent weeks, the pressure for the Tasmanian government to act has increased.

The Labor opposition called on the government to implement an independent education system review in May.

A month later, in an interview with ABC's Stateline, the University of Tasmania's vice-chancellor Rufus Black called on the government to make lifting year 12 completion rates a top priority, warning the state wasn't "ready for the future".

Ms Palmer said while the state had improved "in leaps and bounds" there were areas of "clear concern" that needed to be addressed.

"We have delivered significant change in the education system over the past 10 years, including extending high schools to years 11 and 12, and changing the law to ensure young people are in education or training," she said.

"This is paying off with 80.2 per cent of 15 to 19-year-olds in formal education or training, which is in line with the national average."

Appeal to 'remove the politics'

Independent economist Saul Eslake, demographer Lisa Denny and Emeritus Professor Michael Rowan have also been vocal supporters of educational reform in Tasmania.

Earlier this month the three penned a letter urging an independent review to "remove the politics that has undermined previous attempts to reform" the education system.

A report Mr Eslake produced earlier this month highlighted the role education would play in the state's "three Ps": population growth, workforce participation rate and economic productivity.

"The single most important reason why we are so far behind the rest of Australia on each of the 'three Ps' is our under-performing education system, which produces the worst outcomes of any state," Mr Eslake wrote.

The gap between Tasmania and the rest of the country appears to be growing.

Data from the Productivity Commission shows the number of Tasmanians completing a year 12 qualification or equivalent fell to 53 per cent in 2023 , the lowest level since 2015.

The national average is 76 per cent.

And the retention rate, the percentage of students progressing from year 10 to year 12, fell to a decade low of 69 per cent in 2022.

Highest student investment but worst outcome 

For the review to effect the desired outcome, a system-wide approach that includes the early childhood, vocational, public and university system was needed, Ms Denny said.

"I hope that this inquiry … will be about the whole system and about how it integrates with other areas of education," Ms Denny said.

"We spend more money per student and get the worst outcomes in any jurisdiction.

"That's exactly what we need to know: Why does this occur?"

Labor education spokesperson Sarah Lovell welcomed the review, noting the short turnaround for the review's publication.

"We need this to be an inquiry that is done quickly, thoroughly," Ms Lovell said.

"We've seen educational outcomes get worse and worse. That's already an entire education for some students."

The Australian Education Union (AEU) Tasmania said any cuts to education must be ruled out if the "review is to be taken seriously".

"The department doesn't currently even have the resources to engage in a review, let alone make improvements based on recommendations that may follow," AEU Tasmania president David Genford said.

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Tasmania's public education system is 'in trouble'. the state's only university says schools have to change.

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A vocational school student stuns China by besting university competitors in a math contest

Students review their exam preparation materials in the last minutes before the National College Entrance Exam, or Gaokao, outside an exam venue in Hai’an city in east China’s Jiangsu province Friday, June 7, 2024. A 17-year-old vocational school student from rural China in Jiangsu province has become a celebrity on Chinese social media after getting into the final round of a math competition, beating many others from elite universities while raising questions about the education system. . (Chinatopix via AP)

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A 17-year-old vocational school student from rural China became a celebrity on social media after reaching the final round of a math competition, beating many others from top universities and raising questions about the education system .

Jiang Ping, who is studying fashion design, finished 12th in the Alibaba Global Math Competition, one of 802 who made it to the final round — an eight-hour test that takes place Saturday.

A video that included an interview with Jiang got more than 800,000 likes and 90,000 comments after it was posted on social media by Damo Academy, the organizer of the contest. Most expressed their amazement, while some questioned if it was real.

Jiang says in the video interview that she didn’t think she deserved to join the competition, even though she enjoys working on advanced math as it “brings out my desire to explore.”

Congratulations poured in. People visited her parents’ home in a village in Jiangsu province on China’s east coast with alcohol and money to show support. Her pictures were shown on the walls of shopping malls in her hometown, Lianshui. Zhejiang University and Jiangsu University praised her on their Weibo accounts.

While it was unclear how Jiang ended up in vocational school, her story still reminded some in China of the inequality between rural and urban areas and how that can make it harder for even talented students to climb the economic ladder.

“While Jiang Ping is openly celebrated, many Chinese feel deep down inside that her story highlights the hopelessness of Chinese education,” said Jiang Xueqin, a China-based education researcher. “The odds are fundamentally stacked against ordinary Chinese, without power, wealth, or ‘guanxi,’” the Chinese term for connections.

Inequality in education appears to have worsened in recent years. Spending on education in rural areas was 17% less than in cities in 2019 for the nine years of compulsory education in China, which does not include high school. It was only 2% lower in 2013, based on calculations from data in a Peking University report on the urban-rural gap in per capita expenditure.

Ministry of Education data show that 70% of students in China’s vocational schools are from rural areas. The high percentage suggests that the education system works like a caste system, Jiang, the researcher said.

Jiang, the math whiz, is the only vocational school student among all the finalists. The others, who are mostly Chinese, mainly come from top-tier universities such as Cambridge, MIT and Caltech, as well as China’s top two, Tsinghua and Peking University. Winners will be awarded $2,000 to $30,000 in prize money.

The competition was started six years ago by Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce giant. Jack Ma, then-executive chair of Alibaba Group , said the goal was to find students who enjoy math and encourage and support them.

Jiang did well enough on the entrance exam to go to high school, the Communist Party secretary of her vocational school told state broadcaster CCTV.

The secretary said she applied to the vocational school instead of a high school because her older sister and good friends were students there. Other Chinese media said it was because she came from a poor family, and vocational school gave her a scholarship.

Attempts to reach Jiang were unsuccessful. A call to her school was unanswered and Damo Academy, an affiliate of Alibaba, didn’t respond to an email.

Jiang says in the video interview that her plan is to get into a good university. It’s not impossible, though vocational school students only have access to certain institutions.

Education | UC graduate worker strike is over, officials say

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The strike was halted earlier this month by a temporary restraining order from an Orange County Superior Court judge that was set to expire on June 27. 

The strike was halted earlier this month by a temporary restraining order from an Orange County Superior Court judge that was set to expire on Thursday, June 27. When the temporary restraining order was issued on June 7 – right before finals began at some UC schools – the strike affected six campuses, including UC Irvine and UCLA, with more than 30,000 unionized workers.

Now, officials say the UC system and the UAW union have agreed to extend the temporary restraining order through June 30, the date through which union members had originally authorized the strike. Thus, the strike is over, a UC spokesperson said.

Graduate teachers and research assistants at UC campuses statewide authorized the strike in mid-May in response to what they said were unfair labor practices by the UC system related to how the administration responded to Palestinian solidarity encampments and protests at multiple UC campuses. The union argues that UC administrators unilaterally applied unfair labor practices by issuing suspensions to student workers without proper notices or hearings and, in the case of UC Irvine, interrupting the normal course of business by calling for remote classes after a protest there ended with a police response.

The California Public Employment Relations Board, the quasi-judicial administrative agency charged with administering the collective bargaining statutes covering state employees,  continues to review the unfair labor practice charges filed by both sides.

The UAW contends the issue never should have gone to the Superior Court after PERB twice denied an injunction to stop the strike sought by the UC system.

However, the underlying Superior Court lawsuit filed by the UC system regarding what they say is a breach of contract by the union will proceed. The next hearing on the case is scheduled for Nov. 8.

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Oklahoma’s State Superintendent Requires Public Schools to Teach the Bible

The state superintendent, Ryan Walters, said the Bible was a “necessary historical document.” The mandate comes as part of a conservative movement to infuse Christian values in public schools.

By Sarah Mervosh and Elizabeth Dias

Sarah Mervosh covers education, and Elizabeth Dias covers religion.

Oklahoma’s state superintendent on Thursday directed all public schools to teach the Bible, including the Ten Commandments, in an extraordinary move that blurs the lines between religious instruction and public education.

The superintendent, Ryan Walters, who is a Republican, described the Bible as an “indispensable historical and cultural touchstone” and said it must be taught in certain, unspecified grade levels.

The move comes a week after Louisiana became the first state to mandate that public schools display the Ten Commandments in every classroom, which was quickly challenged in court.

The Oklahoma directive could also be challenged and is likely to provoke another fight over the role of religion in public schools.

The efforts to bring religious texts into the classroom reflect a growing national movement among conservatives — particularly Catholics and evangelicals who oppose abortion, transgender rights and what they view as liberal school curriculums — to openly embrace the idea that America’s democracy needs to be grounded in their Christian values.

That movement had a major victory in overturning Roe v. Wade two years ago, and its supporters see ending abortion as only a starting point in a broader campaign to preserve and expand the presence of their Christian values in American life. Many conservative Christians see schools as a frontier of their fight, as they seek to shape the next generation.

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