Unknown number of students missing following attack by armed groups on school in Borno, Nigerian police say.
A teenage Buddhist lama recently blessed thousands of people at a monastery in the Himalayan foothills. Just six months earlier and half a world away, he was pulling all-nighters to play Madden NFL on his Xbox at his home in a Minneapolis suburb. Both are home to Jalue Dorje. He grew up a typical American teen, loving rap music, video games and football. But he’s also an aspiring spiritual leader — recognized from an early age by the Dalai Lama as a reincarnated lama. He graduated from high school last year and is now studying at monasteries in India and Nepal. His goal is to become “a leader of peace,” like Nelson Mandela, Gandhi and the Dalai Lama.
A bungled message from a South Texas housing authority prompted mass flight. The situation in Port Isabel offers a glimpse of what could happen nationwide if a Trump administration proposal takes effect to end housing assistance to families in which at least one member is in the country illegally. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development wants to reverse a policy in effect for decades that allows families with at least one person with legal status to occupy a home as long as those here illegally pay a full, unsubsidized share of rent. Advocates estimate up to 80,000 people may lose their homes.
Parents across the country who are worried about excessive screen time in schools are lobbying educators to go back to pencils and paper. In places like Pennsylvania's Lower Merion School District, some families are taking it even further. Over 600 people have signed a petition asking to preserve parents' ability to opt their children out of digital devices, setting off a clash with the school district. At a meeting Monday night, school board members said it’s not feasible to let hundreds of students opt out of technology that is essential to the curriculum.
Researchers are warning that the U.S. is experiencing a reading recession, a slide that predates the COVID-19 pandemic. A new analysis of state test scores from third to eighth grade for over 5,000 school districts in 38 states found that only five states, plus the District of Columbia, had meaningful growth in reading test scores from 2022 to 2025. The analysis by scholars at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth also found students remain nearly half a grade level behind pre-pandemic levels in reading and only slightly better in math. Still, some states and school districts are making progress — largely by shifting toward phonics-based instruction and providing extra support for struggling readers.
Indianapolis Colts general manager Chris Ballard and two-time NBA All-Star Michael Finley are part of the nine-person search committee to help select Wisconsin’s next athletic director. Incoming Interim Chancellor Eric Wilcots is leading the search process. Marcus Sedberry is serving as Wisconsin’s interim athletic director while the school seeks to find a permanent successor to Chris McIntosh. McIntosh stepped down last month to accept a newly created position as the Big Ten’s deputy commissioner for strategy. Lauren Bishop is chairing the search committee.
For the first time in more than a decade, a leading pediatricians group has put out new guidance about recess, saying it’s crucial for good health and good grades and should be part of the school day for students of all ages. The updated policy statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics comes after years of shrinking breaks between lessons and worsening children’s health. The group cites the latest research on why these breaks are essential for kids’ academic success and mental, physical, social and emotional growth. The guidance was published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
President Donald Trump's Religious Liberty Commission is preparing to make recommendations after more than a year of hearings. Commissioners have spoken about their wish lists for what they want to see in the report. They reflect the perspectives of the commission's largely conservative evangelical and Catholic membership. One idea is to increase avenues for religious expression in public schools and other public settings. Another is making public money more available to religious organizations. And there's a push for allowing for religious-based exemptions from regulations and classroom lessons. The commission's chair has repeatedly said "there is no separation of church and state.”
A key online learning system used by thousands of schools and universities is back after a cyberattack knocked it offline, creating chaos as students tried to study for finals. A cybersecurity threat analyst says a hacking group called ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for breaching Canvas. Instructure, the company behind Canvas, said late Thursday that the system was available for most users. An expert says the hackers posted online that nearly 9,000 schools worldwide were affected, with billions of private messages and other records accessed. Teachers had to find workarounds to help students study for exams and submit final assignments, and some schools pushed back finals.
Schools and universities across the country are recovering from an outage tied to a cyberattack that knocked down Canvas. The online platform manages exams, course notes, lecture videos and grades. The disruption hit in the middle of finals period for many colleges, a high-stress time when students and instructors rely heavily on the platform. Instructure is the parent company of Canvas and says the platform is available again to most users as of late Thursday. A threat analyst at the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft says the hacking group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the breach.