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.
Special education services slowed or stopped after the pandemic
began, “devastating” families who watched their children’s skills
backslide, reports Cory Turner and
Rebecca Klein for NPR.
"I just watched my child not learning and going backwards. I'm just sad for her." Superb teamwork by @NPRCoryTurner & @rklein90 on students missing vital special ed services amid pandemic. The dynamic duo are my pick for this week's @EdWriters#tellEWA. https://t.co/zJu3WlMtbo
After nearly 100 anti-maskers packed a school board meeting,
forcing the meeting to shut down, a Georgia school district is
bringing in more security, writes Alia Malik for
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
An anti-mask crowd shut down a Georgia school board meeting for 40 minutes last month, leading to an increase in security for tomorrow's meeting #tellEWAhttps://t.co/VEaS6dFwX1
Georgett Roberts and Selim AlgarJune 15, 2021 | 4:47pm | UpdatedNew York Post
A growing legion of black parents in Queens say the Department of
Education has failed their kids through mismanagement and neglect
— fueling an exodus out of the public school system.
Fed-up families in District 29 — a primarily black area
which includes Hollis, Rosedale, and Cambria Heights — said the
DOE has long tolerated abysmal math and English proficiency
rates, despite high per-student spending.
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.
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.
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.
Donna St. George and Valerie StraussThe Washington Post
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.
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.
After receiving her bachelor’s degree from Concord University in
Athens, W.Va., the 24-year-old English teacher did something rare
among her peers: She returned home to Welch to teach at Mount
View High School, from which she graduated in 2014. “People my
age and older usually don’t come back to the county,” Ms. Keys
told me. “A lot of our kids want to go away.”
BY MARY NIEDERBERGERPITTSBURGH INSTITUTE OF NONPROFIT JOURNALISM
Advocating for accommodations has been a constant, but largely
quiet, struggle for college students with disabilities since the
Americans with Disabilities Act became law in 1990. The law
requires colleges and universities to provide equal access to
students with disabilities by providing accommodations that
remove barriers to their participation.
The part of President Joe Biden’s proposed education budget with
the most potential to break new ground might be the pitch for new
“equity grants” to change how education funding works nationwide.
It’s an ambitious proposal that highlights longstanding concerns
that disadvantaged students often don’t get the resources they
need and deserve.
But a variety of challenges, from the political to the practical,
might mean it never gets off the ground.
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.
A plan to give California’s community college system $170 million
for faculty is dividing finance officials and professors,
explains Mikhail Zinshteyn for Cal
Matters.
Interesting and context-loaded explainer from @mzinshteyn on why proposed $170 million for new community college faculty isn't being cheered by all. (Also bonus points for using the verb "grouse.") He's my pick for this week's #tellEWA. https://t.co/RcB2AEuY00
Education leaders are scrambling to recruit teachers after North
Carolina lawmakers required districts to offer summer school,
reports Ann Doss Helms of WFAE.
#tellEWA North Carolina has lots of students who need extra help, lots of teachers who are exhausted from the past year, millions in federal COVID relief money and a mandate to do summer school. The result? Bidding wars for teachers.https://t.co/7kw7jamych
Human bodies react swiftly when they overheat. Blood rushes to
the skin, trying to find cool air. Sweat seeps out of the skin
and evaporates, dissipating body heat. But these processes have a
cost: they reduce blood circulation, which means our most
important organ, the brain, gets less blood.
“And with reduced brain blood flow, we have reduced brain
function,” said Tony Wolf, a researcher at Penn State University
who studies how the body reacts to heat. In short, heat can lower
our cognition.
But it doesn’t take a PhD to know this. Just ask middle school
students.
Alden Woods and Agnel PhilipThe Arizona Republic and ProPublica
For years, federal law has required all school systems to
publicly report how well they help children learn. But the
federal government’s own Bureau of Indian Education has failed to
do so, despite repeated warnings about the quality of education
Native American children receive in its schools.
The Justice Department in a court filing Tuesday said it can
“vigorously” defend a religious exemption from federal civil
rights law that allows federally funded religious schools to
discriminate against LGBTQ students, a move that surprised some
LGBTQ advocates who said the wording went further than just an
obligation to defend an existing law.
In the filing, the Biden administration said it “shares the same
ultimate objective” as the conservative Christian schools named
in the case.
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.
The School Committee is considering suing a local woman
who filed some 200 requests for public records
over how race and gender issues are integrated
in classroom curriculums. The committee’s
chairwoman said Wednesday the requests were part of a national
strategy of a “racist group.”
It’s a manufactured crisis, creating intense emotions and heated
debate entirely out of thin air. But the furor and fear of
teaching critical race theory to Utah school kids doesn’t show
any signs of dissipating. In fact, it’s likely headed to your
local school district.
On Thursday, the Utah School Board met yet again to debate
the latest rendition of its rule governing how schools teach
issues of race, equity and diversity, making various tweaks along
the way.
Teaching students about the Tulsa Race Massacre and other
unpleasant aspects of history could be derailed because of a new
Oklahoma law, reports Tawnell D. Hobbs of
The Wall Street Journal.
“It has been a dirty little secret.” For decades, Oklahoma students weren’t required to learn about the Tulsa Race Massacre in school, and now there’s fear a new law jeopardizes progress made to teach about it. #tulsa#greenwood#tellewahttps://t.co/fnPXsmMIk6
USA Today’s Lindsay Schnell
tells the story of a first-generation college student’s struggle
to stay in school throughout the pandemic.
She dropped out of college — then lied to her parents about it. Inside a first-generation student’s life during COVID. By @Lindsay_Schnell, with many thanks to #tellewahttps://t.co/OFfbJmOm78
One of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history
took place in his hometown, and State Sen. Kevin Matthews, who
now leads the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial
Commission, never heard a word of it in school.
“That’s a very common experience of a lot of Oklahomans,” said
Joy Hofmeister, Oklahoma’s state superintendent of public
schools.
It took Jasmine Lane five years to discover and fulfill her
passion for English literature and teaching — but a year and a
half to burn out.
“I have been navigating majority [or all] white spaces for a very
long time. … In a state with 96% of its teaching staff being
white, choosing teaching was to be no different,” the 27-year-old
high school teacher in Minneapolis wrote in her blog this
winter. But the abuse and isolation of this last year were too
much, she wrote.
Kate Taylor and Amelia NierenbergThe New York Times
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.
Nada Atieh and Kristan Obeng
spent four months tracking hundreds of students who dropped
contact with schools in three California counties for USA Today
Network-California.
Back when I still worked for USA Today Network-California, @nadatieh_RS and I spent four months tracking "lost kids" in Tulare, Shasta and Tehama counties. Proud to have worked with you, Nada! #tellEWAhttps://t.co/MYLdh6zrMQ
Chris Quintana of USA TODAY
chronicles a veteran’s experience with a for-profit college and
examines what critics call a breakdown in the rules intended to
protect students from predatory for-profit schools.
His family hadn't attended college, so the hard sell this vet received from Argosy University didn't strike him as weird. Then it closed, leaving him indebted & homeless. @CQuintanaDC on how for-profits target 1st gen students. With many thanks to #tellewahttps://t.co/kJ0AYI1Bdw
Kendrick Harrison served the country in the Army, and the
38-year-old had hoped the country would serve him in turn.
It seemed like a fair trade. Harrison had been given
opportunities to enroll in college straight out of high school.
But propelled by his family legacy and civic duty, he enlisted in
the military instead.
In a Missouri courtroom in 2008, Stanley Andrisse realized that
he wasn’t seen as human. The case being fought that day centered
around a drug trafficking charge—Andrisse’s third felony
conviction. Not long ago, he was a college student churning
through sweat-soaked undergraduate years funded by a football
scholarship at Lindenwood University. Now, he was facing a
bifurcated future, one path leading to a burgeoning career and
the other stopping at gray, cinder block walls.
The lesson today, class, is how to turn bipartisan legislation
encouraging teaching of civics into an ideological food fight.
The legislation in question seemed noncontroversial at
first, even boring. It would authorize $1 billion a year in
grants to pay for more civics education. The goal was to better
balance a test-driven K-12 education system that focuses heavily
on math and reading with a subject — civics — that has gotten
less attention and far less money in recent years.
Civics is critical, backers say, to maintaining a functioning
democracy.
During the 2018-2019 academic year, just 41% of community
colleges were affordable for the average Pell grant recipient,
according to an analysis released this month by the National
College Attainment Network. That’s down from 49% during the
2014-2015 academic year.
Early childhood advocates, lawmakers and the governor are pushing
to gradually expand transitional kindergarten (TK) to
all the state’s 4-year-olds. But the moves are raising issues,
such as the viability of the child care system and whether
expanded TK might be too academic for younger 4-year-olds.
U.S. News & World Report’s Lauren
Camera covers the uptick in wealthy parents pulling
their kids from public schools, which is further exacerbating the
inequities plaguing urban public school systems.
"... when public goods are scarce, the privileged are almost always able to use their money or social capital to get the best version of what is available." Must-read via @laurenonthehill, my pick for @edwriters' #tellEWA. https://t.co/ag2RNBGApA
Temporarily suspending the admissions exam at some Boston schools
increased the diversity of accepted applicants, new data shows,
reports James Vaznis of The Boston
Globe.
Marta W. Aldrich of Chalkbeat
Tennessee covers a legislative measure that would ban
classroom discussions about systemic racism.
Great context by @marta_w_aldrich "The legislature approved Tennessee’s academic standards, which include topics such as slavery and civil rights. Those standards also ask students to “critically examine” sources, not simply memorize facts." #tellEWAhttps://t.co/Iwt5Lw99xM
Texas college officials are cautiously planning a return to
normal campus life this fall, reports Brayden
Garcia and Valeria Olivares for
The Dallas Morning News.
Hi #EWA21! I wanted to share a story I worked on w @bjgarcia27 recently.
We included how universities want campuses to look like they did before the pandemic, but also how some students aren't sure what to expect after being online for so long. #tellEWAhttps://t.co/tWvbqaQOkd
According to U.S. Census data, just 17% of Hispanics in the San
Antonio Metropolitan Area have a bachelor’s degree, well under
half the rate of degree attainment for San Antonio’s white and
Asian population. San Antonio’s Black population falls in
between, but is also less likely to have a college degree.
A USA TODAY NETWORK reporting team in Wisconsin
covers all the ways high schools are adapting their plans for
pandemic-era proms.
At one WI prom this year, students, dressed in gowns and suits, will gather for dinner and entertainment — but no dancing. In another, dancing will be permitted, but the DJ has been instructed to only play social distancing-friendly songs. #tellEWAhttps://t.co/lZzDZ7MG05
Trisha Powell Crain of AL.com
reports on a summer learning program that is focused on the
individual needs of English learners.
Hey there, @EdWriters. Happy to share this story of how a north Alabama school district has focused summer learning efforts to improve educational outcomes for English learners. #tellEWAhttps://t.co/KFSypNMQo2
The Christian Science Monitor’s Chelsea
Sheasley gathers perspectives on the shift from school
resource officers to safety specialists in Minneapolis Public
Schools.
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.
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.)
Authorities restraining children using techniques like those
used against George Floyd is commonplace in Minnesota schools,
the 74’s Mark Keierleber
reports.
The murder of George Floyd has put national attention on police use of force. But thousands of Minnesota youth are subjected to similar physical restraints at school each year @The74#TellEWAhttps://t.co/yloMW3w9q3
Faculty members at a private Oregon university call for the
university president and board chair to resign after the latter
two allegedly made anti-Semitic comments, reports Meerah
Powell of OPB.
Lauren Lumpkin, Meredith Kolodner and Nick AndersonThe Washington Post
Alarms sounded at the University of Maryland when the Class of
2022 arrived at College Park. Seven percent of freshmen in fall
2018 were Black, down from 10 percent the year before and 13
percent in 2014.
It marked a nadir for a metric crucial to the flagship
university’s commitment to diversity in a state where about a
third of public high school graduates each year are Black.
The 74’s Asher Lehrer-Small dives deep into a fellowship that helps Rhode Island paraprofessionals transform their experiences into teaching certifications and diversifies the teacher workforce.
.@The74's @small_asher might be an @edwriters New to the Beat rookie, but he knows how to craft a snappy read. Great use of descriptive details, voices, data on efforts to diversify Rhode Island's teacher workforce. He's my pick for #tellEWA. https://t.co/28bxXdNtY7
In a weeklong Idaho Education News series, Sami Edge explores youth access to mental health services in Idaho schools and the challenges that COVID-19 poses for school-based mental health efforts.
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.
The tech industry is filled with the same type of people who
often have the same type of education and advantages. As the
sector expands, economists say this trend is reinforcing
inequality. So, Ovia Health and other companies outside of the
field are identifying entry-level jobs like the one Knowles got
and dropping the degree requirement to diversify their staffs and
to gain a market advantage.
This school year, the number of infractions reported within Duval
County Public Schools has decreased by more than half compared to
the same time last year, new data shows. But even during a
pandemic, Black boys are disciplined more often than any
other group of students within the school district.
Maddie Hanna, Kristen A. Graham and Melanie BurneyThe Philadelphia Inquirer
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.
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.
Amid rise in remote learning, schools are ramping up digital surveillance tools for teachers -- but at what cost to student privacy and trust? Characteristically fine work here by @educationweek's @Stephen_Sawchuk. He's my pick for this week's #tellEWA. https://t.co/kuXp7jXXkI
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.
“We all make mistakes, and we’ll make more mistakes. But if we are dutiful,” one school counselor says, “we will be better going forward.” #TellEWAhttps://t.co/ZcqhooWeI6
It’s well established that growing up in poverty correlates with
disparities in educational achievement, health and employment.
But an emerging branch of neuroscience asks how poverty affects
the developing brain.
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.”
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.
Ann Doss Helms of WFAE public radio in Charlottecovers an analysis of how funds generated from the North Carolina Education Lottery are actually spent.
#tellEWA These profs (two are former K-12 supes) dug into a decade's worth of NC lottery data to analyze why the billions spent on tickets don't meet ed needs the way people expect.https://t.co/jGX7oyqzZT
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.
#tellEWA Member Stories (June 11-17)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
Special education services slowed or stopped after the pandemic began, “devastating” families who watched their children’s skills backslide, reports Cory Turner and Rebecca Klein for NPR.
After nearly 100 anti-maskers packed a school board meeting, forcing the meeting to shut down, a Georgia school district is bringing in more security, writes Alia Malik for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
How NYC Has Failed Black Public School Students In Queens
A growing legion of black parents in Queens say the Department of Education has failed their kids through mismanagement and neglect — fueling an exodus out of the public school system.
Fed-up families in District 29 — a primarily black area which includes Hollis, Rosedale, and Cambria Heights — said the DOE has long tolerated abysmal math and English proficiency rates, despite high per-student spending.
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.
A Fading Coal County Bets on Schools, but There’s One Big Hitch
Hard hit by the decline of mining, a rural area in West Virginia is trying to attract teachers in a comeback effort. What’s lacking are jobs for the graduates.
After receiving her bachelor’s degree from Concord University in Athens, W.Va., the 24-year-old English teacher did something rare among her peers: She returned home to Welch to teach at Mount View High School, from which she graduated in 2014. “People my age and older usually don’t come back to the county,” Ms. Keys told me. “A lot of our kids want to go away.”
Leveling the Playing Field
College students with disabilities face journeys of self-advocacy
Advocating for accommodations has been a constant, but largely quiet, struggle for college students with disabilities since the Americans with Disabilities Act became law in 1990. The law requires colleges and universities to provide equal access to students with disabilities by providing accommodations that remove barriers to their participation.
There Are Big Funding Gaps Affecting High-Poverty Schools. Can Biden Close Them?
The part of President Joe Biden’s proposed education budget with the most potential to break new ground might be the pitch for new “equity grants” to change how education funding works nationwide. It’s an ambitious proposal that highlights longstanding concerns that disadvantaged students often don’t get the resources they need and deserve.
But a variety of challenges, from the political to the practical, might mean it never gets off the ground.
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.
#tellEWA Member Stories (June 4-10)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
A plan to give California’s community college system $170 million for faculty is dividing finance officials and professors, explains Mikhail Zinshteyn for Cal Matters.
Education leaders are scrambling to recruit teachers after North Carolina lawmakers required districts to offer summer school, reports Ann Doss Helms of WFAE.
How the U.S. Lets Hot School Days Sabotage Learning
Human bodies react swiftly when they overheat. Blood rushes to the skin, trying to find cool air. Sweat seeps out of the skin and evaporates, dissipating body heat. But these processes have a cost: they reduce blood circulation, which means our most important organ, the brain, gets less blood.
“And with reduced brain blood flow, we have reduced brain function,” said Tony Wolf, a researcher at Penn State University who studies how the body reacts to heat. In short, heat can lower our cognition.
But it doesn’t take a PhD to know this. Just ask middle school students.
The Bureau of Indian Education Hasn’t Told the Public How Its Schools Are Performing. So We Did It Instead.
For years, federal law has required all school systems to publicly report how well they help children learn. But the federal government’s own Bureau of Indian Education has failed to do so, despite repeated warnings about the quality of education Native American children receive in its schools.
Biden Justice Department Says Its Interests Align With Conservative Christian Schools Concerned About Religious Liberty
The Justice Department in a court filing Tuesday said it can “vigorously” defend a religious exemption from federal civil rights law that allows federally funded religious schools to discriminate against LGBTQ students, a move that surprised some LGBTQ advocates who said the wording went further than just an obligation to defend an existing law.
In the filing, the Biden administration said it “shares the same ultimate objective” as the conservative Christian schools named in the case.
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.
Rhode Island School Board May Sue Woman Over Race Theory Public Record Requests
The School Committee is considering suing a local woman who filed some 200 requests for public records over how race and gender issues are integrated in classroom curriculums. The committee’s chairwoman said Wednesday the requests were part of a national strategy of a “racist group.”
Utah Board of Education’s Rule Pushes the Critical Race Theory Debate to Local School Districts
It’s a manufactured crisis, creating intense emotions and heated debate entirely out of thin air. But the furor and fear of teaching critical race theory to Utah school kids doesn’t show any signs of dissipating. In fact, it’s likely headed to your local school district.
On Thursday, the Utah School Board met yet again to debate the latest rendition of its rule governing how schools teach issues of race, equity and diversity, making various tweaks along the way.
#tellEWA Member Stories (May 28-June 3)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
The New York Times’ Eliza Shapiro tells the stories of essential school staffers who worked in NYC school buildings throughout the pandemic.
Teaching students about the Tulsa Race Massacre and other unpleasant aspects of history could be derailed because of a new Oklahoma law, reports Tawnell D. Hobbs of The Wall Street Journal.
#tellEWA Member Stories (May 21-27)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
Meghan Mangrum of The Tennessean covers a historic $1 billion “continuity of operations” budget request from Metro Nashville Public Schools.
USA Today’s Lindsay Schnell tells the story of a first-generation college student’s struggle to stay in school throughout the pandemic.
Why Weren’t Black Wall Street, Tulsa Race Massacre Taught In Schools?
One of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history took place in his hometown, and State Sen. Kevin Matthews, who now leads the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission, never heard a word of it in school.
“That’s a very common experience of a lot of Oklahomans,” said Joy Hofmeister, Oklahoma’s state superintendent of public schools.
Teachers Suffer From ‘Racial Battle Fatigue’ After A Year Of Pandemic And Police Killings
It took Jasmine Lane five years to discover and fulfill her passion for English literature and teaching — but a year and a half to burn out.
“I have been navigating majority [or all] white spaces for a very long time. … In a state with 96% of its teaching staff being white, choosing teaching was to be no different,” the 27-year-old high school teacher in Minneapolis wrote in her blog this winter. But the abuse and isolation of this last year were too much, she wrote.
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.
#tellEWA Member Stories (May 14-20)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
Nada Atieh and Kristan Obeng spent four months tracking hundreds of students who dropped contact with schools in three California counties for USA Today Network-California.
Chris Quintana of USA TODAY chronicles a veteran’s experience with a for-profit college and examines what critics call a breakdown in the rules intended to protect students from predatory for-profit schools.
Online College Promised Army Veteran A Future But Left Him Homeless
Kendrick Harrison served the country in the Army, and the 38-year-old had hoped the country would serve him in turn. It seemed like a fair trade. Harrison had been given opportunities to enroll in college straight out of high school. But propelled by his family legacy and civic duty, he enlisted in the military instead.
Meet The Scientists Building A Prison-to-STEM Pipeline
In a Missouri courtroom in 2008, Stanley Andrisse realized that he wasn’t seen as human. The case being fought that day centered around a drug trafficking charge—Andrisse’s third felony conviction. Not long ago, he was a college student churning through sweat-soaked undergraduate years funded by a football scholarship at Lindenwood University. Now, he was facing a bifurcated future, one path leading to a burgeoning career and the other stopping at gray, cinder block walls.
Civics Legislation Caught in Debate Over Race in Education
The lesson today, class, is how to turn bipartisan legislation encouraging teaching of civics into an ideological food fight.
The legislation in question seemed noncontroversial at first, even boring. It would authorize $1 billion a year in grants to pay for more civics education. The goal was to better balance a test-driven K-12 education system that focuses heavily on math and reading with a subject — civics — that has gotten less attention and far less money in recent years.
Civics is critical, backers say, to maintaining a functioning democracy.
More Than Half of Community Colleges Are Not Affordable For Low-income Students
During the 2018-2019 academic year, just 41% of community colleges were affordable for the average Pell grant recipient, according to an analysis released this month by the National College Attainment Network. That’s down from 49% during the 2014-2015 academic year.
Read the full story here.
Should California Offer Transitional Kindergarten to All 4-year-olds?
Early childhood advocates, lawmakers and the governor are pushing to gradually expand transitional kindergarten (TK) to all the state’s 4-year-olds. But the moves are raising issues, such as the viability of the child care system and whether expanded TK might be too academic for younger 4-year-olds.
Read the full story here.
#tellEWA Member Stories (May 7-13)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
U.S. News & World Report’s Lauren Camera covers the uptick in wealthy parents pulling their kids from public schools, which is further exacerbating the inequities plaguing urban public school systems.
Temporarily suspending the admissions exam at some Boston schools increased the diversity of accepted applicants, new data shows, reports James Vaznis of The Boston Globe.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Apr. 30 – May 6)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
Marta W. Aldrich of Chalkbeat Tennessee covers a legislative measure that would ban classroom discussions about systemic racism.
Texas college officials are cautiously planning a return to normal campus life this fall, reports Brayden Garcia and Valeria Olivares for The Dallas Morning News.
Why Hasn’t San Antonio Closed its Latino College Gap?
According to U.S. Census data, just 17% of Hispanics in the San Antonio Metropolitan Area have a bachelor’s degree, well under half the rate of degree attainment for San Antonio’s white and Asian population. San Antonio’s Black population falls in between, but is also less likely to have a college degree.
Read the full story here.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Apr. 23-29)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
A USA TODAY NETWORK reporting team in Wisconsin covers all the ways high schools are adapting their plans for pandemic-era proms.
Trisha Powell Crain of AL.com reports on a summer learning program that is focused on the individual needs of English learners.
The Christian Science Monitor’s Chelsea Sheasley gathers perspectives on the shift from school resource officers to safety specialists in Minneapolis Public Schools.
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.)
#tellEWA Member Stories (Apr. 16-22)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
Authorities restraining children using techniques like those used against George Floyd is commonplace in Minnesota schools, the 74’s Mark Keierleber reports.
Faculty members at a private Oregon university call for the university president and board chair to resign after the latter two allegedly made anti-Semitic comments, reports Meerah Powell of OPB.
Black Student Enrollment Lags at Many Flagship Universities
Alarms sounded at the University of Maryland when the Class of 2022 arrived at College Park. Seven percent of freshmen in fall 2018 were Black, down from 10 percent the year before and 13 percent in 2014.
It marked a nadir for a metric crucial to the flagship university’s commitment to diversity in a state where about a third of public high school graduates each year are Black.
Read the full story here.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Apr. 9-15)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
The 74’s Asher Lehrer-Small dives deep into a fellowship that helps Rhode Island paraprofessionals transform their experiences into teaching certifications and diversifies the teacher workforce.
In a weeklong Idaho Education News series, Sami Edge explores youth access to mental health services in Idaho schools and the challenges that COVID-19 poses for school-based mental health efforts.
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.
College Degree Not Required For This Job: Some Employers Drop Bachelor’s Degree Requirement To Diversify Staff
The tech industry is filled with the same type of people who often have the same type of education and advantages. As the sector expands, economists say this trend is reinforcing inequality. So, Ovia Health and other companies outside of the field are identifying entry-level jobs like the one Knowles got and dropping the degree requirement to diversify their staffs and to gain a market advantage.
Read the full story here.
Duval Schools: Black Boys More Likely to be Disciplined Than Peers
This school year, the number of infractions reported within Duval County Public Schools has decreased by more than half compared to the same time last year, new data shows. But even during a pandemic, Black boys are disciplined more often than any other group of students within the school district.
Read the full story here.
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.
A Novel Effort to See How Poverty Affects Young Brains
It’s well established that growing up in poverty correlates with disparities in educational achievement, health and employment. But an emerging branch of neuroscience asks how poverty affects the developing brain.
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.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Mar. 26 – Apr. 1)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
Education NC’s Liz Bell shares the struggles of the child care industry that have been brought to light amid the pandemic.
Ann Doss Helms of WFAE public radio in Charlotte covers an analysis of how funds generated from the North Carolina Education Lottery are actually spent.