Chalkbeat

• Should you red-shirt your kindergartner? A new analysis suggests it doesn’t help most students. March 24, 2026
  Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.The practice of red-shirting — having students start kindergarten a year late — appears to have returned to historically normal levels after a post-pandemic bump.And the students who started kindergarten late in the aftermath of COVID now perform […]
  Erica Meltzer
• Will NYC school budgets take a hit next year? Education Department officials are mum. March 23, 2026
  Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.During a City Council hearing about Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s proposed budget for New York City’s public schools, one question came up again and again: Will school budgets take a hit next year?It’s a question Education […]
  Alex Zimmerman
• NYC’s Education Dept. is releasing a long-awaited AI policy. Some schools already have their own. March 23, 2026
  Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox.By last spring, it had become clear to Manhattan Assistant Principal Joe Vincente that his school had an artificial intelligence problem.Staffers at East Side Community School were holding multiple meetings a week with students suspected […]
  Michael Elsen-Rooney
• Philadelphia mayor increases her proposed rideshare tax to help patch school district’s budget March 23, 2026
  Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system.Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker wants to increase her previously proposed rideshare tax to stave off the school district’s plan to cut hundreds of staff positions.Eliminating all those positions “is not acceptable to me,” Parker said at a press conference at […]
  Rebecca Redelmeier, Carly Sitrin
• Meisha Ross Porter, former NYC schools chief, drops out of the running for Chicago Public Schools CEO March 21, 2026
  Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.Meisha Ross Porter, the former New York City schools chancellor, has dropped out of the running to become Chicago Public Schools’ next CEO, according to two school board members. That leaves two finalists: interim CEO Macquline King and Sito Narcisse, […]
  Reema Amin