The national push away from mandatory assessments and the diminished role federal government in the classroom could signal a return to more local control of public schools.

Last Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in an important First Amendment case brought by Rebecca Friedrichs, a California school teacher challenging her state’s law that requires every teacher in most public schools to pay fees to the teachers’ union—or be fired.

The U.S. Department of Education has a new boss, albeit a temporary one. With the new year, John King, Jr. became Acting U.S. Secretary of Education, after the departure of Arne Duncan. King is a former education commissioner of New York State, and more recently Duncan’s second-in-command.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress tests students in fourth and eighth grades in both math and reading, and the most recent test showed that scores in Maryland fell, while D.C. emerged as one of the few bright spots nationwide.