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Awesome Articles for Students: Websites and Other Resources

All of these sites are free.

In today’s digital world, we seem to be surrounded by news. Clickbait, anyone? Yet the pervasive and often intrusive nature of internet news articles belies the fact that many of these sites are behind a paywall, biased, or feature low-quality reporting.

Still, online articles are a great starting point for all kinds of learning assignments across the curriculum. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the best free article websites for students. Many of these sites offer not only high-quality topical articles on every subject, but also ideas for lessons, such as questions, quizzes, and discussion prompts.

Student Article Websites

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CommonLit With thousands of high-quality, Common Core-aligned reading passages for grades 3-12, this easy-to-use literacy site is a rich source of English and Spanish texts and lessons. Search by theme, grade, Lexile score, genre, and even literary devices such as alliteration or foreshadowing. Texts are accompanied by teacher guides, paired texts activities, and assessments. Teachers can share lessons and track student progress with a free account. 

DOGOnews News articles featuring current events, science, social studies, world events, civics, environment, sports, weird/fun news, and more. Free access to all articles. Premium accounts offer extras such as simplified and audio versions, quizzes, and critical thinking challenges. 

CNN10 Replacing the popular CNN Student News, CNN 10 provides 10-minute video news stories on current events of international importance, explaining how the event fits into the broader news narrative. 

KiwiKids News Created by a New Zealand primary school educator, Kiwi Kids News features free articles about health, science, politics (including U.S. political topics), animals, and the Olympics. Kids will love the “Odd Stuff” articles, which focus on unusual news, from the world’s biggest potato to centenarian athletes. 

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PBS NewsHour Daily News Lessons Daily articles covering current events in video format. Each lesson includes a full transcript, fact list, summary, and focus questions. 

NYT Daily Lessons/Article of the Day The New York Times Daily Lessons builds a classroom lesson around a new article each day, offering thoughtful questions for writing and discussion, as well as related ideas for further study. Perfect for practicing critical thinking and literacy skills for middle and high school students, it’s a part of the larger NYT Learning Network , which provides an abundance of activities for students and resources for teachers.

The Learning Network Current event articles, student opinion essays, movie reviews, students review contests, and more. The educator resource section offers top-notch teaching and professional development resources. 

News For Kids With the motto “Real News, Told Simply,” News for Kids strives to present the latest topics in U.S. and world news, science, sports, and the arts in a way that’s accessible to most readers. Features a coronavirus update page .

ReadWorks A fully free research-based platform, Readworks provides thousands of nonfiction and fiction passages searchable by topic, activity type, grade, and Lexile level. Educator guides cover differentiation, hybrid and remote learning, and free professional development. Great resource for teachers.

Science News for Students Winner of multiple awards for journalism, Science News for Students publishes original science, technology, and health features for readers ages 9-14. Stories are accompanied by citations, recommended readings, glossaries, readability scores, and classroom extras. Be sure to check out Top 10 tips to stay safe during an epidemic . 

Teaching Kids News A terrific site that publishes readable and teachable articles on news, art, science, politics, and more for students grades 2-8. Bonus: The Fake News resource section links to online games about fake news and images. A must for any digital citizen.

Smithsonian Tween Tribune An excellent resource for articles on a wide range of topics, including animals, national/world news, sports, science, and much more. Searchable by topic, grade, and Lexile reading score. Lesson plans offer great ideas for the classroom and simple, usable frameworks for implementing these in any grade. 

Wonderopolis Have you ever wondered if llamas really spit or if animals like art? Every day, the award-winning Wonderopolis posts a new standard-based article exploring intriguing questions such as these. Students may submit their own questions and vote for their favorites. Be sure to check out “Wonders with Charlie,” featuring acclaimed writer, producer, and director Charlie Engelman.

Youngzine A unique news site for young people that focuses on climate science, solutions, and policies to address the myriad effects of global warming. Kids have an opportunity to express their views and literary creativity by submitting poetry or essays. 

Scholastic Kids Press A multinational group of young journalists ages 10-14 report the latest news and fascinating stories about the natural world. Features sections dedicated to coronavirus and civics.

National Geographic Kids A fine library of articles about animals, history, science, space, and—of course—geography. Students will enjoy the “Weird But True” short videos, featuring fun animations about oddball topics.  

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Florida A&M University announced a "transformative" donation earlier this month — but the school said it ceased contact with the donor after questions arose about the funds. Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images hide caption

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Due to the success of the State Department's J-1 Visa program, the Kuspuk School District and other rural districts in Alaska are looking at ways to utilize other visa programs to keep foreign teachers in classrooms for longer. Emily Schwing for NPR/Emily Schwing hide caption

Visa program draws foreign teachers to a rural Alaska school district facing a staffing crisis

Kyuk service.

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Robert Hale gives an envelope with cash to a graduating UMass Dartmouth student at last week's commencement. Each of the 1,200 graduates received $1,000 onstage, half to keep and half to donate. Karl Christoff Dominey/University of Massachusetts Dartmouth hide caption

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Graduate students and demonstrators at the University of Texas at Austin protest the war in Gaza after walking out of commencement at the DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium on May 11, 2024 in Austin. Brandon Bell/Getty Images hide caption

Student protests caused mostly minor disruptions at several graduation ceremonies

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Students and protesters raise peace signs in the air while listening to speakers at the encampment for Palestine on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, at the University of Washington Quad in Seattle. Large crowds amassed ahead of a speech by Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk at the HUB on UW's campus. Megan Farmer/KUOW hide caption

The Picture Show

Photos: campus protests continue, police make arrests and clear encampments.

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Student protesters demanding university divestment from Israel have set up encampments over the past month at dozens of campuses across the nation, including at MIT in Cambridge, Mass. Steven Senne/AP hide caption

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Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

Our Best Education Articles of 2020

In February of 2020, we launched the new website Greater Good in Education , a collection of free, research-based and -informed strategies and practices for the social, emotional, and ethical development of students, for the well-being of the adults who work with them, and for cultivating positive school cultures. Little did we know how much more crucial these resources would become over the course of the year during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, as we head back to school in 2021, things are looking a lot different than in past years. Our most popular education articles of 2020 can help you manage difficult emotions and other challenges at school in the pandemic, all while supporting the social-emotional well-being of your students.

In addition to these articles, you can also find tips, tools, and recommended readings in two resource guides we created in 2020: Supporting Learning and Well-Being During the Coronavirus Crisis and Resources to Support Anti-Racist Learning , which helps educators take action to undo the racism within themselves, encourage their colleagues to do the same, and teach and support their students in forming anti-racist identities.

Here are the 10 best education articles of 2020, based on a composite ranking of pageviews and editors’ picks.

Can the Lockdown Push Schools in a Positive Direction? , by Patrick Cook-Deegan: Here are five ways that COVID-19 could change education for the better.

How Teachers Can Navigate Difficult Emotions During School Closures , by Amy L. Eva: Here are some tools for staying calm and centered amid the coronavirus crisis.

Six Online Activities to Help Students Cope With COVID-19 , by Lea Waters: These well-being practices can help students feel connected and resilient during the pandemic.

Help Students Process COVID-19 Emotions With This Lesson Plan , by Maurice Elias: Music and the arts can help students transition back to school this year.

How to Teach Online So All Students Feel Like They Belong , by Becki Cohn-Vargas and Kathe Gogolewski: Educators can foster belonging and inclusion for all students, even online.

How Teachers Can Help Students With Special Needs Navigate Distance Learning , by Rebecca Branstetter: Kids with disabilities are often shortchanged by pandemic classroom conditions. Here are three tips for educators to boost their engagement and connection.

How to Reduce the Stress of Homeschooling on Everyone , by Rebecca Branstetter: A school psychologist offers advice to parents on how to support their child during school closures.

Three Ways to Help Your Kids Succeed at Distance Learning , by Christine Carter: How can parents support their children at the start of an uncertain school year?

How Schools Are Meeting Social-Emotional Needs During the Pandemic , by Frances Messano, Jason Atwood, and Stacey Childress: A new report looks at how schools have been grappling with the challenges imposed by COVID-19.

Six Ways to Help Your Students Make Sense of a Divisive Election , by Julie Halterman: The election is over, but many young people will need help understanding what just happened.

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The 15 Best School Websites in 2023

Published: April 03, 2024

School websites can be overwhelming because they typically house a lot of information. Additionally, figuring out the target audience of your school website can be tricky, as there are visitors with different search intents landing on your site. From parents to potential students to educators to currently enrolled students, school websites have to speak to users with various reasons for visiting.

We've rounded up 15 school websites that effectively balance function and aesthetic appeal. Here are our favorites.

What are the best school websites?

The best school websites balance function and aesthetics

Ready to check out our favorite school websites? Here are 15 examples that demonstrate what excellence looks like. And when you're ready to get started creating your own for your educational institution, you can begin for free with Content Hub .

1. LIM London

Additionally, the font is easy to read and contrasts nicely. We love the color combination and how the homepage features testimonials and frequently asked questions as you scroll down.

2. Metropolitan Montessori School

The homepage flows well , offering an image that shows students at the school, then providing information regarding the education students receive. A section for recent updates also demonstrates the institution's commitment to transparency.

3. Ocean School

We also love that there are separate sections for parents, educators, and "explorers" to discover what the school offers, as each user has a different intent by visiting the site.

4. Solanco School District

The site also features links to the school's social media accounts, allowing visitors to connect with the institution there. We also enjoy the icons adjacent to related links , such as the middle school menu and the site's built-in calendar of upcoming events.

This site also stands out to us because it's accessible, thanks to the color contrast toggle and font-size toggle.

5. Marist College

As you scroll down, Marist College presents compelling statistics regarding its reputation, post-grad employment rate, and study abroad program. Also on the homepage is a section highlighting announcement blog posts. The footer also has many options, making navigating the site simple.

6. Canterbury School

We love how this homepage features a focus on upcoming events. The Canterbury School also provides visitors with statistics on the institution, its campus, and what it offers, which is effective for potential students landing on the site.

7. LIM College

This demonstrates that you can (and should!) lean into what your institution does when creating your website. Let your school's branding influence the site design. We love how this site puts announcement blog posts front and center, plus how you can learn more about alumni employers as you scroll down.

8. Washington Market School

9. School of X

10. New York University

11. Columbia Business School

12. Porto Business School

13. The New School

14. Parsons at The New School

15. Westbourne Grammar School

The best school websites balance function and aesthetics.

As you can tell from these examples, the best school websites can successfully tell the institution's story in an engaging yet aesthetically appealing manner.

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Food for thought: study links key nutrients to slower brain aging.

5 days ago · 4 min read

Food for thought: Study links key nutrients to slower brain aging

Scientists have long been studying the brain with a goal of aiding healthier aging. While much is known about risk factors for accelerated brain aging, less has been uncovered to identify ways to reduce cognitive decline.

There is evidence that nutrition matters, and a novel study from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign further signals how specific nutrients may play a pivotal role in the healthy aging of the brain. The findings were published in Nature Publishing Group Aging.

The team of scientists, led by Aron Barbey, director of the Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior, with Jisheng Wu, a doctoral student at Nebraska, and Christopher Zwilling, research scientist at UIUC, performed the multimodal study — combining state-of-the-art innovations in neuroscience and nutritional science — and identified a specific nutrient profile in participants who performed better cognitively.

The cross-sectional study enrolled 100 cognitively healthy participants, aged 65-75. These participants completed a questionnaire with demographic information, along with measures of body composition and physical fitness. Blood plasma was collected following a fasting period to analyze the nutrient biomarkers. Participants also underwent cognitive assessments and MRI scans. Analysis of this large set of measures revealed two types of brain aging among the participants — accelerated and slower-than-expected. Those with slower brain aging had a distinct nutrient profile.

The beneficial nutrient blood biomarkers were a combination of fatty acids (vaccenic, gondoic, alpha linolenic, elcosapentaenoic, eicosadienoic and lignoceric acids); antioxidants and carotenoids including cis-lutein, trans-lutein and zeaxanthin; two forms of vitamin E and choline. This profile is correlated with nutrients found in the Mediterranean diet, which research has previously associated with healthy brain aging.

“We investigated specific nutrient biomarkers, such as fatty acid profiles, known in nutritional science to potentially offer health benefits. This aligns with the extensive body of research in the field demonstrating the positive health effects of the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes foods rich in these beneficial nutrients,” said Barbey, Mildred Francis Thompson Professor of Psychology. “The present study identifies particular nutrient biomarker patterns that are promising and have favorable associations with measures of cognitive performance and brain health.”

Barbey noted that previous research on nutrition and brain aging has mostly relied on food frequency questionnaires, which are dependent on participants’ own recall. This study is one of the first and the largest to combine brain imaging, blood biomarkers and validated cognitive assessments.

“The unique aspect of our study lies in its comprehensive approach, integrating data on nutrition, cognitive function and brain imaging,” Barbey said. “This allows us to build a more robust understanding of the relationship between these factors. We move beyond simply measuring cognitive performance with traditional neuropsychological tests. Instead, we simultaneously examine brain structure, function and metabolism, demonstrating a direct link between these brain properties and cognitive abilities. Furthermore, we show that these brain properties are directly linked to diet and nutrition, as revealed by the patterns observed in nutrient biomarkers.”

The researchers will continue to explore this nutrient profile as it relates to healthy brain aging. Barbey said it’s possible, in the future, that the findings will aid in developing therapies and interventions to promote brain health.

“An important next step involves conducting randomized controlled trials. In these trials, we will isolate specific nutrients with favorable associations with cognitive function and brain health, and administer them in the form of nutraceuticals,” Barbey said. “This will allow us to definitively assess whether increasing the levels of these specific nutrient profiles reliably leads to improvements in cognitive test performance and measures of brain structure, function and metabolism.”

Barbey is also co-editing an upcoming special collection for the Journal of Nutrition, “Nutrition and the Brain — Exploring Pathways to Optimal Brain Health Through Nutrition,” which is currently inviting submissions for consideration, and articles will begin publishing next year.

“There’s immense scientific and medical interest in understanding the profound impact of nutrition on brain health,” Barbey said. “Recognizing this, the Office of Nutrition Research at the National Institutes of Health recently launched a 10-year strategic plan to significantly accelerate nutrition research. Our work directly aligns with this critical initiative, aiming to contribute valuable insights into how dietary patterns influence brain health and cognitive function.”

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What to watch for in Trump trial’s closing arguments, from a law school professor who teaches and studies them

Professor of Law and Director of Advocacy Programs, Temple University

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After more than four weeks of often sordid testimony , accusations of lying and even a warning from Judge Juan M. Merchan to a witness to stop giving him the side-eye , lawyers in the hush-money case involving former President Donald Trump are expected to make their closing arguments on May 28, 2024.

In a jury trial, opening statements are meant to provide jurors a narrative framework to organize all the bits and pieces of evidence and testimony.

Closing arguments are not meant to simply regurgitate the testimonies of all 22 witnesses or review the roughly 200 exhibits. For both prosecutors and defense attorneys, the closing arguments serve to tell the jury why the evidence is believable or not, why and how the facts are linked or not and, most importantly, why their decision to either acquit or convict is moral and just.

Keep it simple

As a I teach law school students and practitioners , that moral message in closing arguments should link back to themes already woven into the trial.

In this criminal case, one of four filed against Trump , Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged the former president with 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels as part of an effort to influence voters’ knowledge about him before the 2016 presidential election.

Trump entered a plea of not guilty and did not testify .

For the prosecution, that moral message, as prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said earlier in the trial, is this: “It was election fraud, pure and simple.”

For the defense, its closing argument should include an equally direct statement, much like what Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche has said: “President Trump is innocent. President Trump did not commit any crimes. The Manhattan district attorney’s office should never have brought this case.”

There is at least one more purpose in closing arguments. It is to arm jurors with the arguments they need – either to shut down naysayers or gently persuade those in doubt – for when the real battle occurs, inside the jury room during deliberations. One way to do that is to find language from the instructions the judge will give to the jury, restate them in plain English and, in effect, make it look as if they are aligned with the judge and the law.

Less is more

A major goal of both prosecutors and defense attorneys is to untangle all of the evidence and testimony. They must cut through the distracting details and tell jurors, in effect, “Now you know why this witness was important” or “the document doesn’t lie – it shows you …”

Prosecutors in this case must focus on why Trump was involved in the alleged conspiracy and what he knew about the alleged payments.

In my experience over 45 years, the wise path is to start the closing argument with the big picture of “What did we have to prove?” and then answering in a series of bullet points that explain how they proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

To this end, a limited and focused use of exhibits is best – not each and every bit of evidence. Less is more also regarding salacious details, the adultery and Trump’s own vulgar words . The jury just needs the reminder – they’ll recall the details.

With star witness Michael Cohen , an attorney and Trump’s former fixer, it may be different. The prosecution can’t hide from his lies and flaws, which Trump’s defense attorneys hammered home to the jury, so it’s up to the prosecution to embrace Cohen’s failures .

Put simply, prosecutors must show that it doesn’t matter how big a liar Cohen has been in his past if, in this case, he has the receipts to back up his testimony.

A reasonable doubt?

For defense attorneys, their goal is to reassert Trump’s innocence and argue that there is plenty of reasonable doubt in the prosecution’s case.

That means pounding away at Cohen’s lack of credibility and denying that any crime was committed. If anything, they may argue, these alleged crimes were no more than bookkeeping errors that Trump didn’t know about.

But if the defense portrays everything as lies, as Trump has claimed, they may paint themselves into a corner. If the jury believes, for example, that Stormy Daniels was telling the truth when she said she had sex with Trump, then Trump’s denials may work against his lawyer’s defense strategy.

The defense has one more daunting task: to strike the balance between attacking Cohen and explaining why the lawyer Trump hired is not corroborated by the reams of evidence – and Trump’s own words.

And the defense must decide what its goal is. Is it an outright acquittal, or a hung jury in which a unanimous decision was unable to be reached?

If it is the latter, expect to have a major push on Cohen’s failings and a lack of corroboration in the hope that at least one juror will stand firm and say, “That’s just not enough.”

But the last word in these final arguments goes to the prosecutors. Because they must prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt, they will give their closing argument last and know what they have to respond to.

• Donald Trump
• Stormy Daniels
• Michael Cohen
• Election fraud
• Alvin Bragg
• Business fraud
• 2024 election

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In major change, college athletes set to be paid directly by schools

The NCAA and major conferences agreed to a settlement that would establish a revenue-sharing model for athletes beginning in the fall of 2025, though many steps remain to finalize the arrangement.

The NCAA and its five power conferences have approved a deal that paves the way for schools to pay athletes directly, a change that would crush any last notions of amateurism in major college sports.

The agreement, which settles three antitrust cases and was voted on throughout this week, includes almost $2.8 billion in damages. That money will be distributed to current and former athletes, who sued in House v. NCAA over not being compensated for the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL) on television broadcasts.

In a joint statement Thursday night, the NCAA and its conferences announced that they had agreed to the settlement terms, which also resolve Hubbard v. NCAA and Carter v. NCAA . And no matter how high the damages are, the most far-reaching component is a new revenue-sharing model, which would pay athletes a cut of money their schools generate from broadcast rights deals, ticket sales and sponsorships, among other streams.

Should the settlement go through, revenue sharing would likely begin at the start of the 2025-26 academic year, a seismic shift considering how long the NCAA has refused to have schools compensate athletes. Yet many steps remain before that can happen.

For the next four to six weeks, lawyers from both sides will hammer out the details, though NCAA representatives don’t expect them to look much different than the initial agreement. Judge Claudia Wilken — who presided over major college sports cases such as O’Bannon v. NCAA and Alston v. NCAA — would then call a hearing to review the settlement terms. If she approves, current athletes would have a chance to object or opt out of the agreement. Then, as a final step, Wilken would consider any objections before making her final decision. Attorneys estimate the whole process could take between six and eight months.

“The five autonomy conferences and the NCAA agreeing to settlement terms is an important step in the continuing reform of college sports that will provide benefits to student-athletes and provide clarity in college athletics across all divisions for years to come,” the NCAA and conferences said in their joint statement. “This settlement is also a road map for college sports leaders and Congress to ensure this uniquely American institution can continue to provide unmatched opportunity for millions of students.”

On Wednesday, the NCAA’s Board of Governors voted to implement the settlement terms. It was a landmark moment in that, though they had been heavily prodded, the NCAA’s top decision-makers approved a system for schools to directly pay athletes. The SEC and Pac-12, the last of the five conferences to vote, approved the settlement Thursday. The defendants in House , the most significant of the cases, were the NCAA, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC and Pac-12.

If Wilken ultimately approves the settlement, the NCAA would reshape its budget to account for about 41 percent of the nearly $2.8 billion in damages. The other 59 percent would be paid by schools across the next decade, most notably through the NCAA withholding some of its March Madness revenue distributions each year. Beyond revenue sharing, the settlement could also establish a new model for at least the power conferences to make and enforce their own rules, according to Yahoo. It’s just another sign of how stratified college sports are in 2024.

As for the revenue-sharing cap, the exact number is still being finalized. But people familiar with the negotiations have mentioned a cap of about $20 million, formulated by taking about 22 percent of the average power conference school’s main revenue streams. The cap will rise slightly each year, then be reset every three years to keep pace with revenue growth. According to Yahoo, a school’s cap spending could include up to $5 million in education-related payments — known as Alston money — and additional scholarships. NIL collectives, the donor-funded groups that have paid quasi-salaries to athletes in revenue sports, should maintain a heavy influence in football and men’s basketball recruiting, though the NCAA is hoping to reimpose stricter rules on how and when collectives can negotiate with athletes.

In the past month, settlement talks went into overdrive because the NCAA and the power conferences wanted to avoid a January trial at all costs. Given the NCAA’s recent track record in court, the defendants clearly didn’t like their chances. If they would have lost at trial, the damages would have tripled. They also would have had to pay them immediately instead of over a 10-year period. But in the past week — despite being happy with the overall outcome — nonpower conferences have voiced displeasure about how the financial liability will be distributed.

Again, the NCAA national office is responsible for about 41 percent. Then the power conference schools will pay 24 percent of the total damages; group of five schools will pay 10 percent; Football Championship Series schools will pay 13 percent; and non-football Division I schools will pay 12 percent, according to an NCAA representative. That means, within the portion paid by schools, 40 percent will be from the power conferences and 60 percent from the other 27 leagues.

Beyond damages, the power conferences will pay for legal fees and the potential addition of scholarships. Many power conference schools would also spend to the revenue-sharing cap. (Because revenue sharing will be optional, lower-revenue leagues are expected to refrain.) Either way, the nonpower conferences’ argument about the damages payments is simple: Not only are they not defendants in the suit, but a large share of the damages will be paid out to former power conference football and men’s basketball players.

“Based on the numbers we have reviewed, the liability of the … non-[Football Bowl Subdivision] conferences under the proposed formula appears disproportionately high, particularly because the primary beneficiaries of the NIL ‘back pay’ amounts are expected to be FBS football players,” Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman wrote in an email to her schools, which was first publicized by Yahoo on Sunday .

“I have voiced the Big East’s strong objections to the proposed damages framework through recent emails to [NCAA President] Charlie Baker and his counsel and through comments during commissioner calls over the past two weeks.”

While the settlement agreement answers some questions, it leaves many more unanswered. One potential complication is Fontenot v. NCAA , a fourth antitrust case brought by a different set of lawyers.

Jeffrey Kessler, a lead plaintiffs’ attorney in House along with Steve Berman, is also representing athletes in Hubbard and Carter , making it easier to consolidate those three cases. Kessler and Berman had hoped to fold in Fontenot , too, which would have offered more clarity on how much antitrust protection the NCAA (and its schools and conferences) would get from a settlement. But on Thursday, a Colorado judge denied the motion to consolidate Fontenot with the other cases.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys in Fontenot, who are against consolidating , have signaled that some athletes would oppose the settlement terms for House, Hubbard and Carter . How many athletes — and whether it would be enough to shake up a reshaped system — is unclear, though those answers will probably depend on what the final settlement looks like. It is also possible Fontenot could be resolved by the settlement at a later date, according to multiple lawyers. NCAA representatives are confident Fontenot will not interfere with the settlement agreed on this week.

“ Fontenot doesn’t have any relevance if our settlement is approved by the courts,” Kessler told The Washington Post on Thursday, adding that, because of the similarities between Carter and Fontenot , it was more important to consolidate Fontenot before Carter was lumped in with House and Hubbard . “Because our settlement will totally resolve all the claims in Fontenot.”

The House, Hubbard and Carter settlement also doesn’t address employment, meaning the NCAA will keep lobbying Congress to pass a bill that keeps athletes from becoming employees and receiving the rights that come with that status. To that end, the level of antitrust protection with this settlement — to shield the NCAA and its members from similar lawsuits in the future — remains murky.

Starting with this coming fall’s freshmen, athletes would have a choice to opt into the new revenue-sharing model. That system was devised by Berman and Kessler and was a critical part of the settlement agreement. Experts and conference officials originally thought there were two avenues to settling without the risk of the NCAA being immediately sued again on similar grounds: a collective bargaining agreement (which was always unrealistic because college athletes are not unionized) or a congressional bill that included some level of antitrust protection (which the NCAA has been lobbying for unsuccessfully for years). Then the opt-in system emerged as option three.

If an athlete objected to the terms, they would have a chance to argue their case in a hearing. The NCAA hopes that, for at least the next 10 years, settling House , Hubbard and Carter together — and having the opt-in system for revenue sharing — will lower the frequency and success rate for antitrust suits over athlete compensation, even with Fontenot lingering. A handful of antitrust experts and power conference officials are not as confident.

Beyond employment, the NCAA will keep pushing Congress for stronger antitrust protections and a preemption on state laws, making it so it can enforce rules without being sued by state attorneys general. The legal and political jockeying are far from over.

“The settlement, though undesirable in many respects and promising only temporary stability, is necessary to avoid what would be the bankruptcy of college athletics,” Notre Dame president John I. Jenkins said in a statement. “To save the great American institution of college sports, Congress must pass legislation that will preempt the current patchwork of state laws; establish that our athletes are not employees, but students seeking college degrees; and provide protection from further antitrust lawsuits that will allow colleges to make and enforce rules that will protect our student-athletes and help ensure competitive equity among our teams.”

And there are major questions about how revenue sharing will work. How will the money be distributed? How will Title IX apply, especially with the NCAA leaving that up to each school? Will a potential hard cap invite antitrust scrutiny? To handle the additional expenses, will schools turn to private equity, especially after two firms announced Wednesday that they’re open for business in college sports?

It won’t be a quiet summer. But in an era of nonstop change, that’s certainly nothing new.

Are school nurse jobs in jeopardy? As pandemic relief expires, some are worried

The american academy of pediatrics says every school should have a full-time nurse. districts still have a long way to go, and now crucial federal funding is expiring..

School nurses are increasingly anxious their workloads might expand – or their jobs may disappear entirely – when federal pandemic relief funds for U.S. schools expire by the end of the year.

School districts have until the end of September to allocate what remains of the billions of dollars in coronavirus relief Congress sent their way in separate tranches during the pandemic, the Education Department has said. 

That deadline has prompted warnings from education advocates about looming budget shortfalls nationwide. The imminent fiscal cliff could have “ severe implications ” for students, including teacher layoffs and school closures, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank in Washington, D.C.

Though U.S. schools have long faced a shortage of nurses, the disparity eased slightly when the federal government approved Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER, funding, which many districts used to hire nurses. With access to those federal coffers closing, some school leaders are scrambling to find the money elsewhere to retain nurses. Districts in Oregon and Oklahoma have reportedly considered layoffs. At a city budget hearing last week, New York City education department officials warned that roughly $65 million in federal funding for about 400 school nurses is set to expire.

“We’re grateful to the stimulus funding that has allowed us to ensure every school has a school nurse on site,” Jenna Lyle, a spokesperson for NYC public schools, said in a statement to USA TODAY. “And we will continue to advocate for and prioritize this need through the budget process.”

Kate King, a school nurse in Ohio and the president of the National Association of School Nurses, said that while it’s tough to pin down how many nurse salaries come from pandemic relief money, she has been hearing from nurses in districts across the country who are worried about what’s to come. 

“When districts started hiring during the pandemic, what they realized is how valuable school nurses are in a school building,” she said. “Unfortunately, when they hired nurses with ESSER funds, there was no thought of sustainability in those positions.” 

Nursing shortage, explained: The school nurse is often still out as kids' health problems like suicide, allergies soar

Pandemic eased the school nurse shortage 

About two-thirds of public schools have a full-time nurse, according to the latest survey data from the school nurses’ association. While that number is higher than some estimates of pre-pandemic staffing, it’s still below national standards. In 2016, the American Academy of Pediatrics officially recommended schools have at least one full-time nurse.

“Every school should have a full-time nurse,” said Sarah Part, a senior policy analyst with the nonprofit group Advocates for Children of New York. “That was true before the pandemic. It’s still true.” Part's group has urged New York City Mayor Eric Adams to find money elsewhere in the budget to keep the nurses being paid with federal dollars.

The fact that federal funding is running out doesn't mean students' health needs have lessened. If anything, they have expanded in recent years, said Robin Cogan, who has worked as a New Jersey school nurse for more than two decades .

"It is very disheartening for school nurses who have spent years and years devoted to school health to be losing their jobs in this way," Cogan said. "It is so preventable.”

In rural areas, public school districts are disproportionately underresourced – only about 56% employ full-time nurses, compared to approximately 70% of urban schools, the school nurses' association says. Roughly 6% of schools nationwide don’t have any nurses on campus.

Read more: School districts address nurse shortage in creative ways

Chronic absenteeism and school nurses

The threat to school nursing jobs comes as chronic absenteeism – a problem nurses may be uniquely positioned to address – continues to grip American schools.

Research shows the number of students who miss at least 10% of the school year jumped by about 6.5 million between the 2018-19 and 2021-22 school years. Last week, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona acknowledged the problem and said the Biden administration is working on new resources to reduce absences. 

Chronic absenteeism has run rampant. Here's what the Biden administration is doing about it.

A study published last year in The Journal of School Nursing suggests school nurses often play a crucial role in keeping students at school. According to the study, students who routinely miss part of the school day often interact regularly with their nurse. Those close relationships give nurses the opportunity to intervene and curb absenteeism before it becomes chronic.

Leaders in districts like New York City should keep those findings in mind when they consider budget cuts, said Knoo Lee, an assistant professor at the University of Missouri’s nursing school and one of the authors of the research. 

“School nurses can really help out,” he said. “A lot of schools are just missing that.” 

Zachary Schermele covers education and breaking news for   USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele .

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Uvalde school shooting victims' families announce $2 million settlement with Texas city and new lawsuits

By Alex Sundby

Updated on: May 23, 2024 / 2:43 AM EDT / CBS News

Family members of Uvalde school shooting victims  reached a $2 million settlement with the Texas city over the deadly 2022 rampage, officials announced Wednesday. The group also said they're filing lawsuits against dozens of Texas Department of Public Safety officers and Uvalde's school district. Among them — a $500 million federal suit against nearly 100 state police officers who took part in the botched law enforcement response

The announcement comes nearly two years after a teenage gunman  killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School. Law enforcement officers killed the gunman in a classroom after waiting more than an hour to confront him, which was heavily criticized in the wake of the shooting.

In the settlement announced Wednesday, the city of Uvalde will pay a total of $2 million to the families of 17 children killed in the shooting and two children who survived, according to a statement from the families' attorneys.

"Pursuing further legal action against the City could have plunged Uvalde into bankruptcy, something that none of the families were interested in as they look for the community to heal," the statement said.

The money will come from the city's insurance coverage, attorney Josh Koskoff told reporters at a news conference.

"These families could have pursued a lawsuit against the city, and there's certainly grounds for a lawsuit," Koskoff said. "Let's face it, sadly, we all saw what we saw … but instead of suing the city and jeopardizing the finances of anybody, the families have accepted simply the insurance."

The city said the settlement will allow people to remember the shooting while "moving forward together as a community to bring healing and restoration to all those affected."

"We will forever be grateful to the victims' families for working with us over the past year to cultivate an environment of community-wide healing that honors the lives and memories of those we tragically lost," the city said in a statement. "May 24th is our community's greatest tragedy."

The families were also working on a separate settlement with Uvalde County, Koskoff said.

Javier Cazares, whose 9-year-old daughter Jackie Cazares was killed in the shooting, said the last two years have been unbearable.

"We all know who took our children's lives, but there was an obvious systemic failure out there on May 24," Cazares said. "The whole world saw that. No amount of money is worth the lives of our children. Justice and accountability has always been my main concern. We've been let down so many times. The time has come to do the right thing."

The settlement also includes the Uvalde Police Department committing to provide enhanced training for police officers and implement a new standard for officers to be developed in coordination with the U.S. Justice Department, according to the families' attorneys. The city also committed to supporting mental health services for the families, survivors and community members, creating a committee to coordinate with the families on a permanent memorial and establishing May 24 as an annual day of remembrance, in addition to taking other measures.

The families are also taking new legal action against 92 state Department of Public Safety officers and the school district, including former Robb Elementary School principal Mandy Gutierrez and Pete Arredondo , the school district's police chief who was fired months after the shooting.

"Law enforcement did not treat the incident as an active shooter situation, despite clear knowledge that there was an active shooter inside," Wednesday's statement said. "... The shooter was able to continue the killing spree for over an hour while helpless families waited anxiously outside the school."

Koskoff said the state's officers on the scene could have done more to respond to the shooting. They acted "as if they had nothing to do, as if they didn't know how to shoot somebody, as if they weren't heavily armed and the most well-trained," Koskoff said.

A Justice Department report released in January called the police response a failure .

"Had the law enforcement agencies followed generally accepted practices ... lives would have been saved and people would have survived," Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters at the time.

At Wednesday's news conference, Koskoff said the families would "down the line" be suing the federal government, noting that many federal law enforcement officers also responded to the shooting.

"You had over 150 some-odd federal officers there who also were there and stood around until one or more breached the room at 77 minutes," Koskoff said. "Sure, that was a heroic act, it was a heroic act 77 minutes late."

• Uvalde Shooting

Alex Sundby is a senior editor at CBSNews.com. In addition to editing content, Alex also covers breaking news, writing about crime and severe weather as well as everything from multistate lottery jackpots to the July Fourth hot dog eating contest.

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The Algebra Problem: How Middle School Math Became a National Flashpoint

Top students can benefit greatly by being offered the subject early. But many districts offer few Black and Latino eighth graders a chance to study it.

By Troy Closson

From suburbs in the Northeast to major cities on the West Coast, a surprising subject is prompting ballot measures, lawsuits and bitter fights among parents: algebra.

Students have been required for decades to learn to solve for the variable x, and to find the slope of a line. Most complete the course in their first year of high school. But top-achievers are sometimes allowed to enroll earlier, typically in eighth grade.

The dual pathways inspire some of the most fiery debates over equity and academic opportunity in American education.

Do bias and inequality keep Black and Latino children off the fast track? Should middle schools eliminate algebra to level the playing field? What if standout pupils lose the chance to challenge themselves?

The questions are so fraught because algebra functions as a crucial crossroads in the education system. Students who fail it are far less likely to graduate. Those who take it early can take calculus by 12th grade, giving them a potential edge when applying to elite universities and lifting them toward society’s most high-status and lucrative professions.

But racial and economic gaps in math achievement are wide in the United States, and grew wider during the pandemic. In some states, nearly four in five poor children do not meet math standards.

To close those gaps, New York City’s previous mayor, Bill de Blasio, adopted a goal embraced by many districts elsewhere. Every middle school would offer algebra, and principals could opt to enroll all of their eighth graders in the class. San Francisco took an opposite approach: If some children could not reach algebra by middle school, no one would be allowed to take it.

The central mission in both cities was to help disadvantaged students. But solving the algebra dilemma can be more complex than solving the quadratic formula.

New York’s dream of “algebra for all” was never fully realized, and Mayor Eric Adams’s administration changed the goal to improving outcomes for ninth graders taking algebra. In San Francisco, dismantling middle-school algebra did little to end racial inequities among students in advanced math classes. After a huge public outcry, the district decided to reverse course.

“You wouldn’t think that there could be a more boring topic in the world,” said Thurston Domina, a professor at the University of North Carolina. “And yet, it’s this place of incredibly high passions.”

“Things run hot,” he said.

In some cities, disputes over algebra have been so intense that parents have sued school districts, protested outside mayors’ offices and campaigned for the ouster of school board members.

Teaching math in middle school is a challenge for educators in part because that is when the material becomes more complex, with students moving from multiplication tables to equations and abstract concepts. Students who have not mastered the basic skills can quickly become lost, and it can be difficult for them to catch up.

Many school districts have traditionally responded to divergent achievement levels by simply separating children into distinct pathways, placing some in general math classes while offering others algebra as an accelerated option. Such sorting, known as tracking, appeals to parents who want their children to reach advanced math as quickly as possible.

But tracking has cast an uncomfortable spotlight on inequality. Around a quarter of all students in the United States take algebra in middle school. But only about 12 percent of Black and Latino eighth graders do, compared with roughly 24 percent of white pupils, a federal report found .

“That’s why middle school math is this flashpoint,” said Joshua Goodman, an associate professor of education and economics at Boston University. “It’s the first moment where you potentially make it very obvious and explicit that there are knowledge gaps opening up.”

In the decades-long war over math, San Francisco has emerged as a prominent battleground.

California once required that all eighth graders take algebra. But lower-performing middle school students often struggle when forced to enroll in the class, research shows. San Francisco later stopped offering the class in eighth grade. But the ban did little to close achievement gaps in more advanced math classes, recent research has found.

As the pendulum swung, the only constant was anger. Leading Bay Area academics disparaged one another’s research . A group of parents even sued the district last spring. “Denying students the opportunity to skip ahead in math when their intellectual ability clearly allows for it greatly harms their potential for future achievement,” their lawsuit said.

The city is now back to where it began: Middle school algebra — for some, not necessarily for all — will return in August. The experience underscored how every approach carries risks.

“Schools really don’t know what to do,” said Jon R. Star, an educational psychologist at Harvard who has studied algebra education. “And it’s just leading to a lot of tension.”

In Cambridge, Mass., the school district phased out middle school algebra before the pandemic. But some argued that the move had backfired: Families who could afford to simply paid for their children to take accelerated math outside of school.

“It’s the worst of all possible worlds for equity,” Jacob Barandes, a Cambridge parent, said at a school board meeting.

Elsewhere, many students lack options to take the class early: One of Philadelphia’s most prestigious high schools requires students to pass algebra before enrolling, preventing many low-income children from applying because they attend middle schools that do not offer the class.

In New York, Mr. de Blasio sought to tackle the disparities when he announced a plan in 2015 to offer algebra — but not require it — in all of the city’s middle schools. More than 15,000 eighth graders did not have the class at their schools at the time.

Since then, the number of middle schools that offer algebra has risen to about 80 percent from 60 percent. But white and Asian American students still pass state algebra tests at higher rates than their peers.

The city’s current schools chancellor, David Banks, also shifted the system’s algebra focus to high schools, requiring the same ninth-grade curriculum at many schools in a move that has won both support and backlash from educators.

And some New York City families are still worried about middle school. A group of parent leaders in Manhattan recently asked the district to create more accelerated math options before high school, saying that many young students must seek out higher-level instruction outside the public school system.

In a vast district like New York — where some schools are filled with children from well-off families and others mainly educate homeless children — the challenge in math education can be that “incredible diversity,” said Pedro A. Noguera, the dean of the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education.

“You have some kids who are ready for algebra in fourth grade, and they should not be denied it,” Mr. Noguera said. “Others are still struggling with arithmetic in high school, and they need support.”

Many schools are unequipped to teach children with disparate math skills in a single classroom. Some educators lack the training they need to help students who have fallen behind, while also challenging those working at grade level or beyond.

Some schools have tried to find ways to tackle the issue on their own. KIPP charter schools in New York have added an additional half-hour of math time to many students’ schedules, to give children more time for practice and support so they can be ready for algebra by eighth grade.

At Middle School 50 in Brooklyn, where all eighth graders take algebra, teachers rewrote lesson plans for sixth- and seventh-grade students to lay the groundwork for the class.

The school’s principal, Ben Honoroff, said he expected that some students would have to retake the class in high school. But after starting a small algebra pilot program a few years ago, he came to believe that exposing children early could benefit everyone — as long as students came into it well prepared.

Looking around at the students who were not enrolling in the class, Mr. Honoroff said, “we asked, ‘Are there other kids that would excel in this?’”

“The answer was 100 percent, yes,” he added. “That was not something that I could live with.”

Troy Closson reports on K-12 schools in New York City for The Times. More about Troy Closson