Category: New Articles (page 2)

January 29, 2025, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), released data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the “Nation’s Report Card.” In addition to nationwide reading scores continuing the decline started in 2019, gaps between students with and without disabilities increased.
NCES Commissioner Peggy G. Carr said, “Overall, student achievement has not returned to pre-pandemic performance . . . Where there are signs of recovery, they are mostly in math and largely driven by higher-performing students. Lower-performing students are struggling, especially in reading.” Governor Glenn Youngkin and Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Coons confirmed this to be the case for Virginia, too.

Student decline can no longer be blamed on the COVID pandemic.

Data released today by National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) supports that the decline in reading and math that started pre-COVID was compounded by the pandemic, and then continued downward despite the millions of dollars funneled to schools nationwide to address COVID-era learning loss. The data collected by NCES was included in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

“Office for Civil Rights’ new report, Protecting Civil Rights:  Highlights of Activities, Office for Civil Rights 2021-25”, covers OCR’s enforcement records during the Biden-Harris Administration. According to OCR, this period marked the “most productive four years in history” and marked a dramatic decline in staffing.

Between January 18 and January 23, 2025, over 900 pages of content were removed from U.S. Department of Education’s site. The content removed focuses on topics such as Office for Civil Rights findings and new guidance documents.

New guidance to assist students who have disabilities and are transitioning out of high school is now available from U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP).