Coronavirus and Education
Word on the Beat: Remote Learning
As communities nationwide grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, educators are struggling to provide young people with meaningful opportunities to continue learning even with most public schools now closed. In this installment of Word on the Beat, we look at how digital tools are being put into quick action for K-12 education — and how that’s creating both opportunities and challenges for teachers, students, and families.
Key Resources for Coronavirus Updates
Here are resources for facts, updates and tools on the COVID-19 crisis:
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
- U.S.
Five Tips for Education Reporters Covering the Coronavirus
Keep Calm and Report On
In any health crisis, the news media is a critical source of information for the public. Education reporters can, and should, play a key role in their newsroom coverage, given that schools are a significant factor in efforts to contain and limit the existing outbreak of the coronavirus.
Rethinking ‘Town & Gown’
How the pandemic is reshaping long-standing relationships among higher ed and local communities (EWA Radio Episode 273)
As both municipal and higher education leaders tried to fend of COVID-19, the two camps sometimes found themselves at cross-purposes when it came to fiscal and public health challenges, reports Sara Hebel, co-founder of Open Campus.
In Chicago’s Poorest High Schools, 20% Of Grades Were Fs
At the height of the pandemic, even when her school discouraged it, Chicago public high school teacher Anna Lane traveled to her students’ homes to stand on porches and listen to their struggles. Using money she helped raise through a mutual aid fund, she often brought groceries or cash assistance so their families could pay their bills.
Pandemic Saps College Enrollment, Counselors Fight Back
Thousands of California high school graduates didn’t go to college last year due to the pandemic. The drop, which mostly affected community colleges, might be temporary, but it showed the need to provide more support for students going from high school to college. A new counseling program in Riverside County aims to do just that.
Read the full story here.
Pandemic Saps College Enrollment, Counselors Fight Back
Thousands of California high school graduates didn’t go to college last year due to the pandemic. The drop, which mostly affected community colleges, might be temporary, but it showed the need to provide more support for students going from high school to college. A new counseling program in Riverside County aims to do just that.
Read the full story here.
Pandemic Saps College Enrollment, Counselors Fight Back
Thousands of California high school graduates didn’t go to college last year due to the pandemic. The drop, which mostly affected community colleges, might be temporary, but it showed the need to provide more support for students going from high school to college. A new counseling program in Riverside County aims to do just that.
Read the full story here.
Virtual Learning Ending For Some Schools Across The Us, Increasing For Others
Deanna Nye is not ready to send her children back into classrooms come fall, even though she knows the worst of the pandemic may be over. Her 8-year-old twins have medical conditions that put them at greater risk, she said, and her eldest son thrives in virtual learning.
But in New Jersey, learning remotely will no longer be an option. “All we want is the choice,” said Nye, a New Jersey mother of three who has joined with other parents to protest the state action.
Enrollment at Local Catholic Schools Has Surged
While many parents grappled over the past year with whether to send their children to public school online or in-person, others considered a pandemic-era education imbued with religion.
One example: Inquiries, applications and transfer requests at St. Augustine High School in North Park were at an all-time high this academic year, said the school’s director of admissions, Paul Sipper.
New RAND Survey Suggests Support for Continuing Remote Schooling This Fall is Limited — Among White Families
With just a few months to go until the start of the 2021-2022 school year, school districts nationwide are planning to offer families the option to keep their children learning remotely.
But new findings suggest that among many families, demand for remote or hybrid learning may not be so great.
Indiana Sees 11% Drop In Preschoolers With Disabilities During Pandemic
The number of Indiana students enrolled in programs for disabilities declined this school year — the first dip in at least four years and the latest sign of the disruption caused by the pandemic.
The drop was especially pronounced among preschool children with special needs. About 14,000 preschoolers had diagnosed disabilities, down more than 11% — or about 1,800 students — from last year, according to an annual count of students with disabilities approved Wednesday by the Indiana State Board of Education.
Will the Pandemic Propel ‘Competency-Based’ Education Into the Mainstream?
Instructional model replaces 'seat-time' requirements with focus on mastery of content, skills
The pandemic forced schools to switch from in-person to remote learning nearly overnight, raising questions about the relevance of “seat time” as a standard measure for earning course credit. Now, as schools move into education recovery mode, an alternative model known as competency-based learning is getting a fresh look and is expected to see more widespread adoption.
Should Every Student Move Up to the Next Grade?
Many students have fallen behind this year because of remote learning and other pandemic-related disruptions, leaving districts to wrestle with the question of whether struggling students should automatically move up, or if it would be better for some of them to repeat a grade.
How Schools (and Reporters) Can Better Connect With Parents
'Talk to us,' parent organizers urge
The grand experiment with remote instruction in the pandemic hasn’t just impacted teachers and students. It has also changed the relationship of parents to their children’s learning, and provided a firsthand look at the virtual classroom experience.
During a May 4 session at the Education Writers Association’s 2021 National Seminar, parent advocates and researchers explored how the role of families in education may shift, and ways schools and others can support the change.
Click here to download the transcript of the 2021 family engagement session
The participants were:
Are ‘Merit’-based Education Admissions Practices Racist?
Experts outline problems with - and efforts to improve - use of SAT scores, affirmative action, school lotteries.
It is one of the thorniest topics in education: What criteria should be used to fairly determine which students are admitted to America’s “elite” public schools, colleges and universities?
Many top schools have faced criticism in recent decades for not reflecting the nation’s racial and socioeconomic diversity.
Schools Look to ‘Acceleration’ to Fill Pandemic Learning Gaps
Summer school is getting an overhaul in Washington, D.C. this year.
Schools are designing programs to help students learn key concepts they missed during the pandemic, while also getting them ready for what’s coming next school year. Fourth and fifth graders may design roller coasters, while second and third graders could dive into the debate over who deserves a public monument.
‘Learning Loss, in General, Is a Misnomer’: Study Shows Kids Made Progress During COVID-19
Even though the pandemic has interrupted learning, students are still making progress in reading and math this year, according to a new analysis from the assessment provider Renaissance.
The company looked at a large sample of students—about 3.8 million in grades 1-8—who had taken Star Assessments, which are interim tests, in either math or reading during the winter of the 2020-21 school year. (Because they were comparing these scores to fall 2019 and fall 2020, only students who had taken Star tests in each of those three periods were included in the analysis.)
More ‘Monster Walks,’ Fewer Water Fountains: How Two Cleveland Schools Stayed Open Through the Pandemic With Few COVID Cases and More Learning Opportunities
Staff at St. Stanislaus elementary school in Cleveland have spent the school year constantly reminding students to keep masks up over noses, to keep safe distance, and sanitizing everything, including the Easter eggs given to the youngest students.
They even had students do the “monster walk” – walking between rooms with arms stretched out in front of them to create social distance, and placed jugs of water in classrooms instead of water fountains.
COVID-19 Pandemic’s Effects on Pennsylvania’s Education System Have Yet to be Measured
More than a year into the pandemic, how students are faring, and how much they’re learning, has drawn intense attention. Billions in federal aid are coming to schools to address “learning loss” — an academic concept that has seeped into the national consciousness as educators, families, and students measure the impact of the unprecedented disruption.
Read the full story here.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Apr. 2-8)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
More school districts are turning to digital surveillance to keep tabs on students during remote learning. That has some families, educators, and privacy experts concerned, reports Education Week’s Stephen Sawchuk.
Emily Tate of EdSurge explains why some guidance counselors are taking steps to address their implicit biases, and how that could improve services for students going forward.
COVID Lowers Number of High School Students Taking College Courses
Like many students taking college courses during the coronavirus pandemic, Alexis Lopez struggled with a poor Wi-Fi connection and professors who didn’t offer much support.
“They couldn’t really help us. They didn’t really know what to do for us,” said Lopez, who remembers becoming so frustrated in front of her computer that she burst out crying. “We had to do everything by ourselves.”
Out of School, Out of Work
In 2017, as many as 4.5 million young people—or 11.5 percent of young adults ages 16 to 24—were neither in school nor working, according to the nonprofit Measure of America. By the summer of 2020, the organization estimated, the ranks of these “disconnected” young adults had swelled to 6 million.
Read the full story here.