UC San Diego’s own faculty report shows a thirtyfold jump since 2020 in freshmen arriving with math skills below the middle-school level, raising concerns about admissions practices and student readiness.

A new report from UC San Diego’s Academic Senate highlights something incredibly concerning about the state of higher education: the share of incoming freshmen who test below middle-school math standards has increased nearly thirtyfold in five years. The document (PDF File) describes an admissions system strained by policy shifts, pandemic education losses, grade inflation, and a widening gap between transcripts and actual skills. The findings are not coming from critics outside the institution. They are the university’s own.

And they point to a glaring problem at the heart of California’s public higher education system: more students are paying university-level tuition for instruction that veers closer to elementary school material. At the same time, academically stronger applicants (many of whom could have enrolled ready for college-level work) were likely turned away during a year of record demand.

Math 2, the university’s longstanding remedial course, was originally designed to address gaps from Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II - content California high schools must provide. But instructors during the 2023-24 academic year reported something new: many students could not perform skills typically taught in elementary and early middle school. In response, faculty redesigned Math 2 in 2024 to cover material aligned with grades 1 through 8 (yes, elementary and middle school level) and created an additional course, Math 3B, to catch-up missing high school topics.

A former assistant principal ignored warning signs that a 6-year-old Virginia boy brought a gun to school, an act of gross negligence that led to the avoidable shooting of the youngster's first-grade teacher, civil jurors found on Thursday.

The panel of three men and four women sided with former instructor Abigail Zwerner and awarded her $10 million in damages stemming from her wounding on Jan. 6, 2023, at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News.

Zwerner was shot in the hand and chest by the boy, who could've been stopped by assistant principal Ebony Parker, the teacher said in her lawsuit.

A Richneck teacher testified last week that she informed Parker about students telling her that the boy had a gun in his backpack.

An investigation by CBS News Chicago uncovered several times where police stopped legal gun owners for minor traffic violations and then charged them with felonies despite having valid FOID cards and concealed carry licenses.

A Shelby Middle School teacher was arrested after investigators said she used a Georgia woman’s identity to fraudulently get a job with Cleveland County Schools, officials said.

Janet Yevette Martin, 58, from Chesnee, South Carolina, was charged with multiple counts of identity theft and forgery, Shelby police said. Someone in Atlanta found out their Social Security was being used by someone else..

As a result of the investigation, warrants were issued for Martin on Sept. 22. She faced charges including two counts of identity theft, two counts of forgery of an instrument, two counts of uttering a forged instrument, and one count of obtaining property by false pretenses.

Martin was hired March 1, 2007, and is no longer an employee, the school district stated in a news release Thursday afternoon.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Members of the Des Moines School Board have faced flak in the wake of controversies stemming from former Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Ian Roberts.

On Oct. 1, the Associated Press reported that Roberts had not completed one of the doctoral degrees he provided on his initial resume to JG Consulting, which DMPS hired to search for superintendent candidates. JG Consulting flagged the error, and the resume was revised to note that Roberts completed all but his doctoral dissertation, which is required to earn such a degree.

DMPS said the board was aware that Roberts did not complete the doctorate from Morgan State when it hired him.

"The Des Moines School Board is also a victim of deception by Dr. Roberts, one on a growing list that includes our students and teachers, our parents and community, our elected officials and Iowa's Board of Educational Examiners, and others," board chair Jackie Norris said in a statement following news of Roberts' false doctoral claim.

NEW YORK — (AP) — An appeals court has thrown out the massive civil fraud penalty against President Donald Trump, ruling Thursday in New York state's lawsuit accusing him of exaggerating his wealth.

After finding that Trump engaged in fraud by flagrantly padding financial statements that went to lenders and insurers, Judge Arthur Engoron ordered him last year to pay $355 million in penalties. With interest, the sum has topped $515 million.

“While the injunctive relief ordered by the court is well crafted to curb defendants’ business culture, the court’s disgorgement order, which directs that defendants pay nearly half a billion dollars to the State of New York, is an excessive fine that violates the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution,” Judges Dianne T. Renwick and Peter H. Moulton wrote in one of several opinions shaping the appeals court’s ruling.

The court, which was split on the merits of the lawsuit and the lower court’s fraud finding, dismissed the penalty Engoron imposed in its entirety while also leaving a pathway for further appeals to the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals.

State Rep. Joe Tate, who was the first Black speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he is suspending his campaign to move “in a different direction of service.” He struggled to compete with the fundraising numbers put up by the three other Democratic candidates, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and public health official Abdul El-Sayed.

Tate was the fourth Democrat to jump into the race after Democratic U.S. Sen. Gary Peters announced his intention to retire at the end of his term. The other three candidates far outpaced Tate in fundraising, according to recent campaign finance reports.

Stevens reported a haul of $2.8 million, McMorrow brought it $2.1 million, and El-Sayed banked about $1.8 million. Stevens’ amount includes $1.5 million she transferred from her previous U.S. House campaign.

Meanwhile, Tate raised around $193,000 and reported having about $70,000 on hand as of June 30.

A 22-year-old woman has been charged after police say she carried out a bank robbery in Southfield, attacking an employee with a hatchet.

The suspect — Blake Herring, who police say presents as a female— entered the bank armed with a hatchet and a handgun. Investigators say she demanded money and then struck a bank employee in the head with the hatchet before fleeing with an undisclosed amount of money.

Surveillance video showed Herring buying the hatchet at a nearby Meijer store hours earlier and swinging it around in the parking lot. She was also seen sitting in her car outside the bank for roughly 30 minutes before eventually going inside.

Herring was arrested on July 2. During her arrest, police recovered approximately $2,500 in cash from her home and vehicle.