Broward County’s PROMISE program, which diverts misbehaving students from the criminal-justice system, didn’t enable a former student to legally buy the guns he used to kill 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, concludes a commission. Anthony Borges, 15, was shot five times while barricading a classroom door, protecting 20 classmates. “The PROMISE program didn’t fail,” Pinellas County Sheriff and commission chair Bob Gualtieri said. “It’s completely irrelevant,

A high school teacher might see eight to 30 students a day with serious mental health issues such as bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety, writes Michael Goldstein on FutureEd. The teacher doesn’t necessarily know who’s headed for trouble and who’s just struggling with “normal adolescent angst.” A teacher might mentor one, two or three students in a given year, he writes, but eager rookies don’t know what to say and experienced teachers probably have been “burned or disap

Today, the anniversary of the Columbine massacre, students are being urged to walk out of school to protest school shootings, register voters and lobby for gun control. Diego Quesada, an 18-year-old senior at Ronald Reagan High School in San Antonio, Texas, said organizers will “host a week of kindness that will focus on mental health and school safety issues that more conservative voices tend to champion and use the walkout to push more explicitly for new gun laws,” reports

Teachers chart their relationships with students at a high-poverty North Carolina school, reports Lisa Philip on WUNC. Pattillo Middle School teachers post the names of school’s 265 students on index cards, then place dots by those with whom they have meaningful relationships. “Then we were able to step back and see which students didn’t have a dot, or didn’t have as many dots as other kids,” said Byron Bullock, an administrator at the Edgecombe County school, about 75 miles

Parkland, Florida students and teachers are returning to Stoneman Douglas High this week, though not to the freshman building where a former student killed most of his 17 victims. Classes resume Wednesday on a modified schedule. Could the school system have done more to protect students from a troubled classmate? Walter Olson on Overlawyered wonders. Starting in middle school, Nikolas Cruz repeatedly “kicked doors, cursed at teachers, fought with and threatened classmates,” r

A Manhattan charter schools that serves the neediest teens — many of them homeless — is likely to exceed the the city’s overall graduation rate this year, reports Hechinger’s Kyle Spencer on WNYC News. Broome Street Charter Academy is a “community school” that offers a range of supports, including a 5:30 pm dinner. Animata Diop, an immigrant from West Africa,  completes an assignment in anthropology class. She lives with an aunt. Photo: Jackie Mader/Hechinger Report Many of B

Parents need to know whether their middle schoolers are on track for college success, writes Fordham’s Mike Petrilli. If students might work harder and achieve more, if they knew their future depended on it. Ignorance isn’t bliss. “Only about one-third of American teenagers leave the K–12 system ready to succeed in postsecondary education,” Petrilli writes. “Another third go to college unprepared, where they hit the brick wall of remedial coursework, and many of them — includ

How do you find the right school for your son? Help your daughter raise her grades? Understand jargon-heavy mailings? Advocate for a child with special needs? In New Orleans, a nonprofit called EdNavigator is helping parents — many of them poorly educated single mothers — be engaged, effective parents. EdNavigator persuaded hotels that funding education counseling as a job benefit would cut turnover, raise productivity and save money, writes Mareesa Nicosia in The 74. “The ho