“I’m so used to … being afraid of police. I just know how it is
being Black in America.” Writing for The Hechinger
Report, Rita Omokha speaks to teens and
staff at Normandy High School – the alma mater of Michael Brown,
who was killed by a white police officer eight years ago. She
details how Brown’s death shaped their lives and explains the
failures of segregated schools amid poverty in St. Louis.
Eight years after Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, we go inside his high school to learn how his legacy continues to shape the lives of students and teachers #tellewahttps://t.co/Sc91loW3lS
North Carolina is among several states that passed legislation
requiring elementary schools to teach the “science of reading,” a
less-frequently used approach in many schools. Training teachers
how to apply the new reading practice has been challenging,
costly and time-consuming in the state, Sarah
Schwartz reports for an Education Week
series.
This outstanding project from @educationweek's @s_e_schwartz goes deep into the pledges to revamp reading instruction based on scientific evidence of what works -- and why meaningful change will take more than good intentions. She's my pick for #tellEWA. https://t.co/H7ECHDi0Ap
“You should be a lot more famous than you are.” A University of
North Texas professor was part of a musical project that won the
Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition last April.
Lucinda Breeding-Gonzales profiles the longtime
music teacher for the Denton Record-Chronicle.
“I made myself a promise ages ago that when I get to a point
where I no longer can dream in the classroom … that I would step
away.” The Sahan Journal’s Becky Z.
Dernbach speaks with the first Somali American to win
Minnesota Teacher of the Year about why she is quitting teaching
after 10 years. The second-grade teacher won the award in 2020.
Latino families are leaving Denver, and neighborhoods they lived
in for generations, due to rapid increases in housing costs and
gentrification, which is also affecting student enrollment.
Education officials are finding that classrooms are growing
whiter as the percentage of Latino students declines in area
schools, reports Jessica Seaman for The
Denver Post.
“What are we going to do when there’s no more people of color living in Denver?” said Milo Marquez, chair of the Latino Education Coalition #tellEWAhttps://t.co/XhXLWDv9JJ
Nevada educators can’t find quality affordable housing at a time
when schools are struggling to recruit and retain teachers.
Housing costs have skyrocketed in the state, putting renting and
buying a home out of reach for many educators with insufficient
salaries and student loan debt, Rocío Hernández
reports for The Nevada Independent.
Teachers across Nevada are feeling the squeeze of a hot
housing market, rising inflation and largely stagnant wages.
Education leaders are worried about what the state of the economy
portends for educators who are struggling to afford housing at a
time when schools are struggling to recruit and retain them.
Angry lawmakers, parents and advocates rallied Wednesday in City
Hall Park, calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign a bill forcing
New York City to lower class sizes. Separately, Hochul had yet to
sign a bill extending mayoral control of New York City’s schools
the day before it expired — though that caused no outcry.
“I realized how much I’ve done this in my life, segmenting off
parts of myself.” Adolfo Guzman-Lopez details
growing up as an undocumented student in part six of the
Imperfect Paradise podcast from
LAist. Guzman-Lopez kept his status a secret
from friends: He believed he would get kicked out of school, but
he nearly spilled the beans during his last year of high school.
While the full podcast series (about mysterious death of activist Oscar Gomez) is superb, this episode is deeply personal for @aguzmanlopez: he shares heartbreaking recollections of straddling two worlds as undocumented student in San Diego. He's my pick for @EdWriters#tellEWA. https://t.co/vnWP0yyjP5
National conservative groups are training communities to “take on
school districts” over “so-called school indoctrination,” reports
ProPublica’s Nicole Carr, who
details how one such organized group in northern Georgia wrongly
targeted a newly hired Black administrator whose job
responsibilities focused on diversity, equity and inclusion
initiatives.
Meticulously reported, bone-chilling account of Black educator wrongly targeted by anti-“CRT”group with divide-and-conquer agenda. (Do NOT skip the kicker.) @propublica’s @NicoleFCarr is my pick for this week’s @EdWriters’ #tellEWA. https://t.co/FGXPr6Zhy7
The isolation and stress of the COVID-19 era is harming young
childrens’ brain development during a crucial development
period, experts say. USA Today’s Alia Wong digs
deep into the troubling trend for her EWA Reporting Fellowship
project.
"The infant-toddler brain is the best sponge you could ever buy. It sucks up everything really good and everything really bad." Urgent, research-grounded, and deeply troubling reporting from @EdWriters Reporting Fellow Alia Wong. She's my pick for this week's #tellEWA. https://t.co/8iQNayDu7y
Writing for City Limits in New York
City, Gail Robinson explores efforts
to restore arts education classes that had been devastated
by budget cuts, and expand programs for the Big
Apple’s high-need public school students.
While there’s a national push to expand connectivity for the
nation’s colleges and universities, rural communities are still
far behind, reports Nick Fouriezos of
Open Campus.
At the University of Central Florida, officials are laying out a
new policy for who can get an honorary degree — and under what
circumstances it might be revoked. Gabrielle
Russon, writing for Florida Politics,
looks at the controversy that sparked the changes.
'What kind of institution are we? What are our values?'
Respect or reward? @UCF honorary doctorate sparks controversy, rule changes
“They knew this wasn’t a drill. We knew we had to be quiet or
else we were going to give ourselves away.” A teacher spoke to
NBC News’ Mike Hixenbaugh on
the condition she not be named, recounting the 35 minutes she and
her students cried and prayed in their classroom as they heard
continuous gunshots in Robb Elementary School. A gunman charged
into the Uvalde, Texas, school, killing 19 children and two
educators on May 24.
“What do you want me to say? That I can’t eat? That all I hear are their voices screaming? And I can’t help them?” Amid horrific tragedy, superb deadline work by @EdWriters journalists, esp. local ones. @Mike_Hixenbaugh's heartbreaker is my #tellEWA pick. https://t.co/lC4J7Mheum
EWA recognized the top education journalism in
the United States when it announced the finalists for the
2021 National Awards for Education Reporting on
May 18. More than six dozen judges named 51
finalists in 17 categories of competition. Judges also
selected
three finalists for the EGF Accelerator’s Eddie
Prize. Read the impactful work from these journalists.
Every journalist on this impressive #ewaAwards shortlist is already a winner in my book. Take some time to read, listen, and look. They’re my (collective) pick for this week’s @EdWriters#tellEWA. https://t.co/aBkOhiJWbO
Nicolette Solomon felt her mother’s words come through the phone
and settle, heavy, in her stomach.
It was January, and her mother was talking about a new bill, just
proposed in the Florida legislature, that would severely limit
how teachers could discuss gender identity and sexual orientation
with their students. Critics were already calling it the
“don’t say gay” bill. Her mother, a vocal supporter of LGBTQ
rights, sounded upset.
“When I got pregnant, I had to stop going to college.”
The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Nell
Gluckman explores the many potential repercussions of
overturning the Roe v. Wade protections of abortion rights: women
who get pregnant may have to stop attending college; medical
schools may no longer be able to teach safe abortion training;
and higher education institutions in states that outlaw abortion
may have difficulty attracting faculty.
E-reader apps that became a lifeline for students during the
pandemic are now in the crossfire of a culture war raging over
books in schools and public libraries.
In several states, apps and the companies that run them have been
targeted by conservative parents who have pushed schools and
public libraries to shut down their digital programs, which let
users download and read books on their smartphones, tablets or
laptops.
Some parents want the apps banned for their children, or even for
all students. And they’re getting results.
A Supreme Court case known as Plyler v. Doe that protects the
education of undocumented students marked its 40th anniversary
this year.
Now, with the high court seemingly poised to overturn Roe v.
Wade, another long-standing precedent, one
prominent politician hopes Plyler is next.
“I think we will resurrect that case and challenge this issue
again, because the expenses are extraordinary and the times are
different than when Plyler v. Doe was issued many decades ago,”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said recently.
“Books that highlight our differences and teach others to respect
diversity are crucial.” Concerned by book censorship, a growing
number of students began fighting for the right to read, such as
students who created a “Banned Book Club” and those who sued
their school districts. The Washington Post’s
Hannah Natanson details how challenges to books
– mostly on Black characters and LGBTQ topics – have affected
students.
"I didn’t want little kids growing up in the district to feel as if African Americans don’t matter because our books are not on the shelves." Student voices front and center in this smart take by @hannah_natanson, my pick for @EdWriters#tellEWA. https://t.co/4G16N5m69I
“We’re leaving because it’s not worth it anymore.” A record
number of Texas teachers left their jobs mid-year before their
contracts expired, even though that means the state can cancel or
suspend their teaching certificate. School districts reported the
teachers who left their jobs early to state officials, who
received 471 reports about abandoned contracts, Brian
Lopez and Jason Beeferman report for
The Texas Tribune.
“Old fears about gay people are being combined with newer
concerns—and newly developed political tools.” Education
Week’s Stephen Sawchuk investigated
what’s driving anti-LGBTQ legislation across the U.S., providing
six insights he gleaned from conversations with political
scientists, historians, LGBTQ advocates, legal scholars, and
lawmakers.
Likely one reason why so much of the discourse over teaching about LGBTQ issues in schools has focused on a handful of local examples: Schools are all over the place in what they teach and what materials they choose, writes @Stephen_Sawchuk#tellEWA
It’s “impossible to tell whether high schools are complying with
the federal Title IX law unless someone complains,”
KQED’s Kara Newhouse found
during a months-long investigation for the Povich Center
for Sports Journalism and Howard Center for
Investigative Journalism. The U.S. Department of
Education often undercounts the sports opportunities for boys,
making it difficult for girls who believe they are being denied
equal opportunities.
More than one quarter of superintendents plan to leave their
posts “imminently” due to pandemic-era staffing challenges and
67-hour workweeks, a recent survey finds. Urban school districts,
serving predominantly students of color, will likely be impacted
the most, as superintendents leave these districts in higher
numbers than those at suburban or rural districts,
Marianna McMurdock reports for The
74.
Reporting on superintendent turnover? Bookmark this piece from @The74. Important new surveys, w/ good context (not overhype) on limitations of the data. These worrisome trends deserve close attention. @marimcmurdock is my pick for @EdWriters' #tellEWA. https://t.co/DeEs7oeTgi
“She was born this way, all of our trans kids were born this way,
and there is nothing wrong with them.” Oklahoma parents who have
embraced their transgender children’s journeys contemplate
leaving the state because of a wave of anti-transgender
bills, Ben Felder explains for The
Oklahoman.
""It is not easy living in a state that is actively using your child's identity as political fodder to score political points." @benfelder_okc looks at impact of Oklahoma legislation targeting transgender kids. He's my pick for @EdWriters#tellEWA. https://t.co/ouUVJH9v9z
A Fort Worth, Texas school district needs more dual-language
instructors to keep up with an increasingly diverse student
population. Bilingual teachers have larger workloads and teach
more students than English-language-only instructors. To address
these issues, the district is recruiting more Spanish-speaking
teachers and building a college student-to-educator pipeline,
Jacob Sanchez explains for the Fort
Worth Report.
Teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was a crime in
1920s Kentucky, and back then, 20 other states also considered
anti-evolution measures. The New Yorker’s
Jill Lepore makes the connection between this
centuries-old battle over public education with today’s efforts
to restrict the way race is taught in public schools – showing
how history repeats itself.
"There’s a rock, and a hard place, and then there’s a classroom." (Amen.) Spend some time with Jill Lepore's history lesson for the @NewYorker, connecting Scopes Trial and current war over teaching about racism. She's my pick for @edwriters#tellEWA. https://t.co/VnFWEygnwh
Five scholars who were denied tenure spoke to The
Chronicle of Higher Education’s reporters about the
aftermath, including their loss of identity and livelihood.
Switching to a non-tenure role isn’t always possible. Some higher
ed systems prevent professors from ever working at the university
in which they were denied tenure.
Denied tenure, can't afford to leave college town: “It’s sort of like getting divorced, and then living across the street from your ex-husband ... and everybody in the neighborhood loves him.” This @chronicle team effort is my pick for @edwriters#tellEWA. https://t.co/VX8uf4n1FZ
Oakland’s Mills College is among the fewer than 40 women’s
colleges left in the U.S. That number will shrink further this
June when the 170-year-old college merges with Northeastern
University in Boston, illustrating the financial challenges
private colleges face and the shift to co-ed campuses,
Juhi Doshi reports for
CalMatters.
A fascinating look at high stakes for campus community in merger of Northeastern U. and Mills College. And I ❤️ seeing top-notch outlet @calmatters supporting talented student journalists like @juhidoshi_. She's is my pick for this week's @edwriters' #tellEWA. https://t.co/jknuM9Lk1s
Vanderbilt University researchers followed two groups of
low-income students from pre-K to sixth grade, tracking their
school readiness and performance on standardized tests. The
students who started in a free public pre-K program did worse in
school than those rejected from the program, resulting in bad
news for the researchers and childhood advocates, reports
Anya Kamenetz for NPR.
"One of the biases that I hadn't examined in myself is the idea that poor children need a different sort of preparation from children of higher-income families." @anya1anya talks w/ researcher raising big Qs on preschool's impact. It's my #tellEWA pick. https://t.co/vDwFfxcAWM
Maryland’s largest school district named its next superintendent,
the first woman in the role. The Montgomery County Public Schools
board voted unanimously in favor of Monifa McKnight, who received
a “no confidence” vote from the teachers’ union due to her
pandemic response, Caitlynn Peetz details for
Bethesda Magazine.
Charlotte West and Monica BraineColorado Public Radio
After the pandemic sabotaged her senior year of high school
lacrosse, Nina Polk was determined not to miss another season.
Although her mom was hesitant to let her go away to college, the
family piled into their car in August 2020 to make the 20-plus
hour drive from their home in Shakopee, Minnesota, to Durango,
Colorado, where Polk had been recruited to play women’s lacrosse
at Fort Lewis College.
Harvey Ellington was 7 the first time someone told him the state
of Mississippi considered Holmes County Consolidated School
District a failing district. Holmes had earned a D or an F
almost every year since then, and Ellington felt hollowed out
with embarrassment every time someone rattled off the ranking.
Technically, the grade measured how well, or how poorly,
Ellington and his classmates performed on the state’s
standardized tests, but he knew it could have applied to any
number of assessments.
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.
Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, districts have
been bombarded with unexpected costs: iPads for remote learning,
jugs of bleach to disinfect classrooms, Plexiglas for safety
dividers, hazard pay for janitors, and PD for remote teaching.
But the public school system’s fiscal infrastructure is
infamously rigid, making it almost impossible for administrators
to pivot suddenly and spend large chunks of money on anything
other than big-ticket items such as teachers, administrators, and
curriculum.
“Every day is new, and every day is different,” the children
sing. But one thing that’s changed little for them this year -
their daily presence in a classroom. Germany’s quick response to
the pandemic in the spring allowed it to get some children back
in schools after just a few weeks. And schools have remained open
this fall, even as the country shut restaurants and gyms back
down.
With an in-depth portrait of one second grader, The Washington Post’s Perry Stein looks at the high toll the pandemic is taking on students’ basic literacy skills in D.C.
"She posts a handwritten sign on her apartment door reminding the teenagers whose voices echo in the hallways: 'SCHOOL IN PROGRESS HERE.'” Superb work by @PerryStein on high cost of remote learning for DC's vulnerable students. She's my pick for #tellEWA. https://t.co/DHJPDMpiCi
Writing for Chalkbeat, Jason Gonzales digs into whether the University of Colorado Boulder is meeting its mission to serve students from low-income families.
The story of our communities can in many ways be told through the
lens of the school districts that serve our children. More than
organizations that enable learning, school districts are
geographic boundaries that serve as magnifying lenses that allow
us to focus on issues of race and wealth. They are both a
statement of “what is” and “what could be” in our society.
On November 8, 2016, while the rest of the world anxiously
awaited the outcome of the U.S. presidential election, a subset
of voters with a keen interest in education had their eyes on
Massachusetts. This was the day Bay Staters would vote on Ballot
Question 2, a proposal to raise the state’s cap on public charter
schools by up to 12 new schools per year.
College students’ views on the First Amendment are important for
another reason as well: Students act as de facto arbiters of free
expression on campus. The Supreme Court justices are not standing
by at the entrances to public university lecture halls ready to
step in if First Amendment rights are curtailed. If a significant
percentage of students believe that views they find offensive
should be silenced, those views will in fact be silenced.
In early January, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York announced his
intention to make a public college education tuition-free for
most students in the state. The proposal has breathed life back
into the free college movement, which supporters feared would
lose momentum under the incoming presidential administration.
Instead, momentum has simply relocated (back) to the state level.
Tennessee and Oregon already have their own “free college”
initiatives, and just this week, Governor Gina Raimondo proposed
a version for Rhode Island.
Higher education issues took a more prominent role in the 2016
elections than any time in recent memory, college affordability
and student debt levels catapulted higher education to the top of
domestic policy concerns. Both major party nominees for
president, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton,
included higher education proposals in their policy agendas, with
Clinton offering the most expansive, ambitious higher education
plan than any other major party candidate in decades.
States are now deeply engaged in developing plans for their
federal education spending for the next several years. Decades of
experience and education research indicate that states must
strengthen and organize the educator workforce to implement
change successfully. Now is the time to rethink systems and
strategies and to focus funds and efforts on what matters most
for learning: great teachers and leaders for every student and
school.
Systemic challenges in the educator workforce require thoughtful
and bold actions, and ESSA presents a unique opportunity for
states to reaffirm, modify, or improve their vision of educator
effectiveness. This GTL Center discussion guide focuses on one
challenge that states face as part of this work: defining
ineffective teacher in the absence of highly qualified teacher
(HQT) requirements.
Numerous studies show large differences between economically
advantaged and disadvantaged parents in the quality and quantity
of their engagement in young children’s development. This
“parenting gap” may account for a substantial portion of the gap
in children’s early cognitive skills. However, researchers know
little about whether the socioeconomic gap in parenting has
increased over time. The present study investigates this
question, focusing on income- (and education) based gaps in
parents’ engagement in cognitively stimulating activities with
preschool-aged children.
Predictive analytics–using massive amounts of historical data to
predict future events–is a practice that’s making it easier and
faster for colleges to decide which students to enroll and how to
get them to graduation. But predictive analytics can aid in
discriminatory practices, make institutional practices less
transparent, and make vulnerable individuals’ data privacy and
security.
The moment they earn their bachelor’s degrees, black college
graduates owe $7,400 more on average than their white peers
($23,400 versus $16,000, including non-borrowers in the
averages). But over the next few years, the black-white debt gap
more than triples to a whopping $25,000. Differences in interest
accrual and graduate school borrowing lead to black graduates
holding nearly $53,000 in student loan debt four years after
graduation—almost twice as much as their white counterparts.
Cognitive skills—that is, math and reading skills that are
measured by standardized tests—are generally understood to be of
critical importance in the labor market. Most people find it
intuitive and indeed unsurprising that cognitive skills, as
measured by standardized tests, are important for students’
later-life outcomes. For example, earnings tend to be higher for
those with higher levels of cognitive skills. What is less well
understood—and is the focus of these economic facts—is that
noncognitive skills are also integral to educational performance
and labor-market outcomes.
#tellEWA Member Stories (July 29-August 4)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
“I’m so used to … being afraid of police. I just know how it is being Black in America.” Writing for The Hechinger Report, Rita Omokha speaks to teens and staff at Normandy High School – the alma mater of Michael Brown, who was killed by a white police officer eight years ago. She details how Brown’s death shaped their lives and explains the failures of segregated schools amid poverty in St. Louis.
#tellEWA Member Stories (July 22-28)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
North Carolina is among several states that passed legislation requiring elementary schools to teach the “science of reading,” a less-frequently used approach in many schools. Training teachers how to apply the new reading practice has been challenging, costly and time-consuming in the state, Sarah Schwartz reports for an Education Week series.
#tellEWA Member Stories (July 15-21)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
“You should be a lot more famous than you are.” A University of North Texas professor was part of a musical project that won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition last April. Lucinda Breeding-Gonzales profiles the longtime music teacher for the Denton Record-Chronicle.
#tellEWA Member Stories (July 8-14)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
“I made myself a promise ages ago that when I get to a point where I no longer can dream in the classroom … that I would step away.” The Sahan Journal’s Becky Z. Dernbach speaks with the first Somali American to win Minnesota Teacher of the Year about why she is quitting teaching after 10 years. The second-grade teacher won the award in 2020.
#tellEWA Member Stories (July 1-7)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
Latino families are leaving Denver, and neighborhoods they lived in for generations, due to rapid increases in housing costs and gentrification, which is also affecting student enrollment. Education officials are finding that classrooms are growing whiter as the percentage of Latino students declines in area schools, reports Jessica Seaman for The Denver Post.
#tellEWA Member Stories (June 24-30)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
Nevada educators can’t find quality affordable housing at a time when schools are struggling to recruit and retain teachers. Housing costs have skyrocketed in the state, putting renting and buying a home out of reach for many educators with insufficient salaries and student loan debt, Rocío Hernández reports for The Nevada Independent.
Nevada Teachers Feel Priced Out Of Homeownership, Living Alone
Teachers across Nevada are feeling the squeeze of a hot housing market, rising inflation and largely stagnant wages. Education leaders are worried about what the state of the economy portends for educators who are struggling to afford housing at a time when schools are struggling to recruit and retain them.
Hochul Stalls On Signing Mayoral Control, Small Class Size Bills
Angry lawmakers, parents and advocates rallied Wednesday in City Hall Park, calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign a bill forcing New York City to lower class sizes. Separately, Hochul had yet to sign a bill extending mayoral control of New York City’s schools the day before it expired — though that caused no outcry.
#tellEWA Member Stories (June 17-23)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
“I realized how much I’ve done this in my life, segmenting off parts of myself.” Adolfo Guzman-Lopez details growing up as an undocumented student in part six of the Imperfect Paradise podcast from LAist. Guzman-Lopez kept his status a secret from friends: He believed he would get kicked out of school, but he nearly spilled the beans during his last year of high school.
#tellEWA Member Stories (June 11-16)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
National conservative groups are training communities to “take on school districts” over “so-called school indoctrination,” reports ProPublica’s Nicole Carr, who details how one such organized group in northern Georgia wrongly targeted a newly hired Black administrator whose job responsibilities focused on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
#tellEWA Member Stories (June 3-June 10)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
The isolation and stress of the COVID-19 era is harming young childrens’ brain development during a crucial development period, experts say. USA Today’s Alia Wong digs deep into the troubling trend for her EWA Reporting Fellowship project.
Writing for City Limits in New York City, Gail Robinson explores efforts to restore arts education classes that had been devastated by budget cuts, and expand programs for the Big Apple’s high-need public school students.
#tellEWA Member Stories (May 27-June 2)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
While there’s a national push to expand connectivity for the nation’s colleges and universities, rural communities are still far behind, reports Nick Fouriezos of Open Campus.
At the University of Central Florida, officials are laying out a new policy for who can get an honorary degree — and under what circumstances it might be revoked. Gabrielle Russon, writing for Florida Politics, looks at the controversy that sparked the changes.
#tellEWA Member Stories (May 20-26)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
“They knew this wasn’t a drill. We knew we had to be quiet or else we were going to give ourselves away.” A teacher spoke to NBC News’ Mike Hixenbaugh on the condition she not be named, recounting the 35 minutes she and her students cried and prayed in their classroom as they heard continuous gunshots in Robb Elementary School. A gunman charged into the Uvalde, Texas, school, killing 19 children and two educators on May 24.
#tellEWA Member Stories (May 13-19)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
EWA recognized the top education journalism in the United States when it announced the finalists for the 2021 National Awards for Education Reporting on May 18. More than six dozen judges named 51 finalists in 17 categories of competition. Judges also selected three finalists for the EGF Accelerator’s Eddie Prize. Read the impactful work from these journalists.
A Florida Teacher Felt She Had To Quit Amid “Don’t Say Gay” Rhetoric
Nicolette Solomon felt her mother’s words come through the phone and settle, heavy, in her stomach.
It was January, and her mother was talking about a new bill, just proposed in the Florida legislature, that would severely limit how teachers could discuss gender identity and sexual orientation with their students. Critics were already calling it the “don’t say gay” bill. Her mother, a vocal supporter of LGBTQ rights, sounded upset.
#tellEWA Member Stories (May 6-12)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
“When I got pregnant, I had to stop going to college.” The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Nell Gluckman explores the many potential repercussions of overturning the Roe v. Wade protections of abortion rights: women who get pregnant may have to stop attending college; medical schools may no longer be able to teach safe abortion training; and higher education institutions in states that outlaw abortion may have difficulty attracting faculty.
Book Ban Efforts By Conservative Parents Take Aim At Library Apps
E-reader apps that became a lifeline for students during the pandemic are now in the crossfire of a culture war raging over books in schools and public libraries.
In several states, apps and the companies that run them have been targeted by conservative parents who have pushed schools and public libraries to shut down their digital programs, which let users download and read books on their smartphones, tablets or laptops.
Some parents want the apps banned for their children, or even for all students. And they’re getting results.
What You Should Know About The Plyler Case
A Supreme Court case known as Plyler v. Doe that protects the education of undocumented students marked its 40th anniversary this year.
Now, with the high court seemingly poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, another long-standing precedent, one prominent politician hopes Plyler is next.
“I think we will resurrect that case and challenge this issue again, because the expenses are extraordinary and the times are different than when Plyler v. Doe was issued many decades ago,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said recently.
#tellEWA Member Stories (April 29-May 5)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
“Books that highlight our differences and teach others to respect diversity are crucial.” Concerned by book censorship, a growing number of students began fighting for the right to read, such as students who created a “Banned Book Club” and those who sued their school districts. The Washington Post’s Hannah Natanson details how challenges to books – mostly on Black characters and LGBTQ topics – have affected students.
#tellEWA Member Stories (April 22-28)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
“We’re leaving because it’s not worth it anymore.” A record number of Texas teachers left their jobs mid-year before their contracts expired, even though that means the state can cancel or suspend their teaching certificate. School districts reported the teachers who left their jobs early to state officials, who received 471 reports about abandoned contracts, Brian Lopez and Jason Beeferman report for The Texas Tribune.
#tellEWA Member Stories (April 15-21)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
“Old fears about gay people are being combined with newer concerns—and newly developed political tools.” Education Week’s Stephen Sawchuk investigated what’s driving anti-LGBTQ legislation across the U.S., providing six insights he gleaned from conversations with political scientists, historians, LGBTQ advocates, legal scholars, and lawmakers.
#tellEWA Member Stories (April 8-14)
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It’s “impossible to tell whether high schools are complying with the federal Title IX law unless someone complains,” KQED’s Kara Newhouse found during a months-long investigation for the Povich Center for Sports Journalism and Howard Center for Investigative Journalism. The U.S. Department of Education often undercounts the sports opportunities for boys, making it difficult for girls who believe they are being denied equal opportunities.
#tellEWA Member Stories (April 1-7)
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More than one quarter of superintendents plan to leave their posts “imminently” due to pandemic-era staffing challenges and 67-hour workweeks, a recent survey finds. Urban school districts, serving predominantly students of color, will likely be impacted the most, as superintendents leave these districts in higher numbers than those at suburban or rural districts, Marianna McMurdock reports for The 74.
#tellEWA Member Stories (March 25-31)
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“She was born this way, all of our trans kids were born this way, and there is nothing wrong with them.” Oklahoma parents who have embraced their transgender children’s journeys contemplate leaving the state because of a wave of anti-transgender bills, Ben Felder explains for The Oklahoman.
#tellEWA Member Stories (March 18-24)
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A Fort Worth, Texas school district needs more dual-language instructors to keep up with an increasingly diverse student population. Bilingual teachers have larger workloads and teach more students than English-language-only instructors. To address these issues, the district is recruiting more Spanish-speaking teachers and building a college student-to-educator pipeline, Jacob Sanchez explains for the Fort Worth Report.
#tellEWA Member Stories (March 11-17)
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Teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was a crime in 1920s Kentucky, and back then, 20 other states also considered anti-evolution measures. The New Yorker’s Jill Lepore makes the connection between this centuries-old battle over public education with today’s efforts to restrict the way race is taught in public schools – showing how history repeats itself.
#tellEWA Member Stories (February 25-March 3)
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Five scholars who were denied tenure spoke to The Chronicle of Higher Education’s reporters about the aftermath, including their loss of identity and livelihood. Switching to a non-tenure role isn’t always possible. Some higher ed systems prevent professors from ever working at the university in which they were denied tenure.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Feb. 18-24)
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Oakland’s Mills College is among the fewer than 40 women’s colleges left in the U.S. That number will shrink further this June when the 170-year-old college merges with Northeastern University in Boston, illustrating the financial challenges private colleges face and the shift to co-ed campuses, Juhi Doshi reports for CalMatters.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Feb. 11-17)
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Vanderbilt University researchers followed two groups of low-income students from pre-K to sixth grade, tracking their school readiness and performance on standardized tests. The students who started in a free public pre-K program did worse in school than those rejected from the program, resulting in bad news for the researchers and childhood advocates, reports Anya Kamenetz for NPR.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Feb. 4-10)
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Maryland’s largest school district named its next superintendent, the first woman in the role. The Montgomery County Public Schools board voted unanimously in favor of Monifa McKnight, who received a “no confidence” vote from the teachers’ union due to her pandemic response, Caitlynn Peetz details for Bethesda Magazine.
For One Native Student At Fort Lewis College, Lacrosse And Family Were A Lifeline As The Pandemic Disrupted Classes
After the pandemic sabotaged her senior year of high school lacrosse, Nina Polk was determined not to miss another season.
Although her mom was hesitant to let her go away to college, the family piled into their car in August 2020 to make the 20-plus hour drive from their home in Shakopee, Minnesota, to Durango, Colorado, where Polk had been recruited to play women’s lacrosse at Fort Lewis College.
The Tragedy of America’s Rural Schools
Harvey Ellington was 7 the first time someone told him the state of Mississippi considered Holmes County Consolidated School District a failing district. Holmes had earned a D or an F almost every year since then, and Ellington felt hollowed out with embarrassment every time someone rattled off the ranking. Technically, the grade measured how well, or how poorly, Ellington and his classmates performed on the state’s standardized tests, but he knew it could have applied to any number of assessments.
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.
District Savings Are Running Dry Amid COVID-19, Putting Some Schools in Dire Straits
Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, districts have been bombarded with unexpected costs: iPads for remote learning, jugs of bleach to disinfect classrooms, Plexiglas for safety dividers, hazard pay for janitors, and PD for remote teaching.
But the public school system’s fiscal infrastructure is infamously rigid, making it almost impossible for administrators to pivot suddenly and spend large chunks of money on anything other than big-ticket items such as teachers, administrators, and curriculum.
How Germany Avoided A ‘Lost’ School Year
“Every day is new, and every day is different,” the children sing. But one thing that’s changed little for them this year - their daily presence in a classroom. Germany’s quick response to the pandemic in the spring allowed it to get some children back in schools after just a few weeks. And schools have remained open this fall, even as the country shut restaurants and gyms back down.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Nov. 27-Dec. 3)
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With an in-depth portrait of one second grader, The Washington Post’s Perry Stein looks at the high toll the pandemic is taking on students’ basic literacy skills in D.C.
Writing for Chalkbeat, Jason Gonzales digs into whether the University of Colorado Boulder is meeting its mission to serve students from low-income families.
May 31 – June 6
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Despite privacy concerns, America’s schools are increasingly monitoring students’ online lives, reports Education Week’s Benjamin Herold.
WAMU’s Jenny Abamu continues exploring schools’ use of restraint and seclusion, and why it often goes unreported.
For USA Today, Erin Richards and Matt Wynn examine how teachers’ salaries stack up to the cost of living in cities across the country.
(Report) Nonwhite School Districts Get $23 Billion Less Than White Districts Despite Serving the Same Number of Students
The story of our communities can in many ways be told through the lens of the school districts that serve our children. More than organizations that enable learning, school districts are geographic boundaries that serve as magnifying lenses that allow us to focus on issues of race and wealth. They are both a statement of “what is” and “what could be” in our society.
Why Suburban Districts Need Public Charter Schools Too – Progressive Policy Institute
On November 8, 2016, while the rest of the world anxiously awaited the outcome of the U.S. presidential election, a subset of voters with a keen interest in education had their eyes on Massachusetts. This was the day Bay Staters would vote on Ballot Question 2, a proposal to raise the state’s cap on public charter schools by up to 12 new schools per year.
Views Among College Students Regarding the First Amendment: Results From a New Survey
College students’ views on the First Amendment are important for another reason as well: Students act as de facto arbiters of free expression on campus. The Supreme Court justices are not standing by at the entrances to public university lecture halls ready to step in if First Amendment rights are curtailed. If a significant percentage of students believe that views they find offensive should be silenced, those views will in fact be silenced.
As Cuomo Proposal Rekindles Free College Movement, New Research Provides Ammunition for Skeptics
Brookings Institution
In early January, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York announced his intention to make a public college education tuition-free for most students in the state. The proposal has breathed life back into the free college movement, which supporters feared would lose momentum under the incoming presidential administration. Instead, momentum has simply relocated (back) to the state level. Tennessee and Oregon already have their own “free college” initiatives, and just this week, Governor Gina Raimondo proposed a version for Rhode Island.
Higher Education: 2016 Elections Wrap-Up and 2017 Federal Policy Preview
American Association of State Colleges and Universities
Higher education issues took a more prominent role in the 2016 elections than any time in recent memory, college affordability and student debt levels catapulted higher education to the top of domestic policy concerns. Both major party nominees for president, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, included higher education proposals in their policy agendas, with Clinton offering the most expansive, ambitious higher education plan than any other major party candidate in decades.
Time for Action Building the Educator Workforce Our Children Need Now
Center on Great Teachers and Leaders
States are now deeply engaged in developing plans for their federal education spending for the next several years. Decades of experience and education research indicate that states must strengthen and organize the educator workforce to implement change successfully. Now is the time to rethink systems and strategies and to focus funds and efforts on what matters most for learning: great teachers and leaders for every student and school.
Teacher Effectiveness in the Every Student Succeeds Act: A Discussion Guide
Center on Great Teachers and Leaders
Systemic challenges in the educator workforce require thoughtful and bold actions, and ESSA presents a unique opportunity for states to reaffirm, modify, or improve their vision of educator effectiveness. This GTL Center discussion guide focuses on one challenge that states face as part of this work: defining ineffective teacher in the absence of highly qualified teacher (HQT) requirements.
Changes in Income-Based Gaps in Parent Activities with Young Children from 1988-2012
American Educational Research Association
Numerous studies show large differences between economically advantaged and disadvantaged parents in the quality and quantity of their engagement in young children’s development. This “parenting gap” may account for a substantial portion of the gap in children’s early cognitive skills. However, researchers know little about whether the socioeconomic gap in parenting has increased over time. The present study investigates this question, focusing on income- (and education) based gaps in parents’ engagement in cognitively stimulating activities with preschool-aged children.
The Promise and Peril of Predictive Analytics in Higher Education
New America
Predictive analytics–using massive amounts of historical data to predict future events–is a practice that’s making it easier and faster for colleges to decide which students to enroll and how to get them to graduation. But predictive analytics can aid in discriminatory practices, make institutional practices less transparent, and make vulnerable individuals’ data privacy and security.
Black-White Disparity in Student Loan Debt More Than Triples After Graduation
Brookings Institution
The moment they earn their bachelor’s degrees, black college graduates owe $7,400 more on average than their white peers ($23,400 versus $16,000, including non-borrowers in the averages). But over the next few years, the black-white debt gap more than triples to a whopping $25,000. Differences in interest accrual and graduate school borrowing lead to black graduates holding nearly $53,000 in student loan debt four years after graduation—almost twice as much as their white counterparts.
Seven Facts On Noncognitive Skills From Education To The Labor Market
The Hamilton Project
Cognitive skills—that is, math and reading skills that are measured by standardized tests—are generally understood to be of critical importance in the labor market. Most people find it intuitive and indeed unsurprising that cognitive skills, as measured by standardized tests, are important for students’ later-life outcomes. For example, earnings tend to be higher for those with higher levels of cognitive skills. What is less well understood—and is the focus of these economic facts—is that noncognitive skills are also integral to educational performance and labor-market outcomes.