All4Ed Flash: News Roundup

Hello, this is Enrique Chaurand and welcome to the All4Ed Flash, where we are cutting through the noise to bring you the latest in education policy news. Let’s dive in!

Public school teachers, parents, and clergy have filed a lawsuit in the Oklahoma State Supreme Court challenging a state mandate requiring schools to teach the Bible and have a copy in every classroom.

The lawsuit claims that the $3 million the Oklahoma State Board of Education plans to spend on Bibles violates the state constitution’s separation of church and state.

Petitioners, represented by leading civil liberties groups, are asking the court to overturn the mandate and prohibit the state from purchasing Bibles.

This case follows a recent decision where the Oklahoma state Supreme Court blocked funding for what would have been the nation’s first religious public charter school. Attorneys for the school have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters issued the Bible directive just days after the state Supreme Court’s ruling against the charter school. The directive also requires schools to incorporate the Ten Commandments as instructional support in the curriculum for grades 5-12 starting this school year. This has sparked significant debate about the role of religion in public education and the use of state funds for religious materials.

In other news, the class of 2024’s average ACT composite score was 19.4, slightly lower than the previous year’s 19.5. However, participation in school day testing was stronger.

According to results released by ACT Education Corp., 57% of high school graduates in 2024 met one or more of ACT’s College Readiness Benchmarks in English, math, reading, and science.

These benchmarks indicate a student’s likelihood of success in first-year college courses, with those meeting the benchmarks having about a 50% chance of earning a B or better and a 75% chance of scoring a C or better.

Many colleges and universities shifted their admissions policies to be test-optional or test-free during the pandemic. While many are continuing these policies, others are reinstating the requirement, causing high school seniors to be more strategic when it comes to applying to colleges.

Overall, about 1.4 million students in the class of 2024 took ACT exams at least once in 10th-12th grade, which was comparable to the class of 2023.

Lastly, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released the latest round of findings on school staffing from the School Pulse Panel. The key findings include:

• On average, public schools reported having six teaching vacancies and filling 79% of those vacancies with fully certified teachers before the start of the 2024-25 school year.
• 74% of public schools reported that they had difficulty filling one or more vacant positions with a fully certified teacher before the start of the school year, a decrease from 79% that reported having difficulty at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year.
• The top two challenges public schools reported experiencing in trying to fill vacancies with a fully certified teacher entering the 2024-25 school year were an overall lack of qualified candidates (64%) and too few candidates applying (62%), a decrease from 70% in 2023-24.
• 48% of public schools reported using a community school or wraparound services model in which a school partners with other government agencies and/or local nonprofits to support and engage with the local community, a decrease from the 60 percent that used one of these models during the 2023–24 school year.
• 61% of public schools reported that mental health care services are available to the community through their school’s existing partnerships, a decrease from the 2023–24 school year (66%).
• 46% of public schools reported that nutrition and food assistance services are available to the community through their school’s existing partnerships, a decrease from the 2023–24 school year (55%).

These findings highlight ongoing challenges in staffing and the provision of essential services in public schools.

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