Hello from Erica on Chalkbeat’s national desk. Our big story this week looks at what comes next for schools and students in the wake of the Supreme Court decision on transgender sports participation. 

Keep reading for new research on teacher merit pay, the marketing drive behind federal school choice, and a look at how the Detroit school district is using health hubs to boost attendance. 

Our spotlight looks at civics education in a polarized society as we prepare to mark our 250th anniversary. 

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The U.S. Supreme Court’s Tuesday decision on transgender sports participation in some ways simply upheld the status quo. But putting it that way doesn’t do justice to the pain, the hope, and the fears wrapped up in the cases. 

People who don’t believe transgender athletes have a place in women’s and girls’ sports cheered the ruling, even as they had hoped for a more sweeping decision. Advocates for LGBTQ youth called it devastating. Both sides are preparing for future fights at the state level and in the courts. 

That’s because the decision left a lot of big, unanswered questions. 

The Supreme Court decision does not require states with more-inclusive sports policies to abandon them. Nor did the Supreme Court endorse the Trump administration’s interpretation of Title IX, which it has used to go after states and school districts with those policies. 

The justices hinted at legally defining sex in a way that conservatives have hoped for, but that matter remains unsettled. 

Conservative attorneys said the decision provides building blocks for additional legal challenges, including around locker rooms and interstate competition. Some legal experts said the court’s reasoning could undermine gender protections more broadly.

Meanwhile, Soju Hokari, a transgender athlete who shared her story with the Supreme Court through an amicus brief, said she feels sad and worried for trans kids who just lost the ability to compete with their teammates. There’s a large and widening gap between trans youth and their peers when it comes to physical activity, and schools can play a role in improving that.

Everyone involved in sports, Hokari said, has “an obligation to make sure we’re making space for trans athletes to thrive.”

Read the full story.

Chronic absenteeism appears to be a chronic problem. New data from the American Enterprise Institute shows that attendance has barely improved in the last year. It’s hard to keep blaming this on pandemic disruptions, and it may speak to a larger cultural problem about how we view school. These four numbers shed light on the challenges.

Documents obtained by Chalkbeat shed light on the Office for Civil Rights’ ‘new way of doing business.’ Investigations into two Colorado school districts that once might have involved in-depth interviews consisted of email exchanges. Inconsistent follow-up left districts unsure what to expect after being found in violation. And the findings derived from untested interpretations of the law.

Teacher merit pay is controversial, but two new studies suggest the idea may have, well, merit. In South Carolina, students who attended middle schools with merit pay had higher test scores in 10th grade, and their chances of graduating high school went up. In Texas, schools districts that adopted merit pay saw student test scores rise. They also retained more of their effective teachers. 

The new federal school choice program may require a massive marketing budget. The federal tax-credit scholarship has the potential to generate billions of dollars that families could spend on private school tuition, tutoring, or other educational needs. But first, taxpayers need to give, and very few of them know about the tax credit. Ideas Editor Matt Barnum found that one school choice group expects to spend $300 or more on marketing for every $1,700 donation, which could add up to billions in its own right.

America’s great experiment with self-governance turns 250 this year. The Trump administration has tried to muster pomp and circumstance — including by sponsoring a national civics competition broadcast on Paramount+ — but many efforts feel mired in partisanship. That includes Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s “History Rocks!” school tour, which drew protests and cancellations for its affiliation with far-right conservative groups. 

When we spoke with a Chicago principal earlier this year about why he welcomed McMahon anyway, he said he hoped his school community could “host people from different political backgrounds, with different political interests, with different political agendas.”

Civics teachers have struggled this year especially with how to teach our history and how to incorporate current events.

“Civics teachers are not OK, and that stinks, no matter what year it is,” Emma Humphries, chief education officer of the nonprofit group iCivics, told The 74. “But it’s really awful when we should be in a more celebratory mood.”

What is the role of schools in helping build a better civic culture? 

Writing in Education Next, Rick Hess considers the way technology has fueled our divides and how schools can build the norms on which democracy depends. 

Hess is not a fan of action civics. “When students are sharing Instagram or TikTok footage of walkouts or rallies, that’s not evidence that they’re mastering reciprocity or deliberation,” he writes. “I fear, rather, that they’re learning to see civic engagement as performance art.” 

“This is a world where students need to cultivate judgment, learn to weigh evidence, and experience civil debate,” he continues.

Veteran journalist James Traub spent a year visiting civics classes across the country to see how teachers navigate these topics. The result is “The Cradle of Citizenship: How Schools Can Save Our Democracy.” Traub argues for a middle path, where students have a strong grounding in the facts of our history and how our government works, and also know how to apply that to our society’s problems.

It’s been sitting on my desk for a bit. I’m planning to pick it up this weekend. 

Happy Fourth of July.