PRESIDENT-ELECT JOE Biden outlined a sweeping plan Thursday to
address the country’s child care crisis.
“We are facing an acute, immediate child care crisis in America,
which is exacerbating our economic crisis,” he said in a
statement. “If left unaddressed, many child care providers will
close – some permanently – and millions of children could go
without necessary care, and millions of parents could be left to
make devastating choices this winter between caring for their
children and working to put food on the table.”
President-elect Joe Biden is calling for $130 billion in
additional COVID-19 relief funding for schools, ramped up testing
efforts, and accelerated vaccine distribution strategies to help
reopen “the majority of K-8 schools” within the first 100 days of
his administration.
The proposals, which Biden announced in a speech Thursday night,
are part of a $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” that also
seeks $350 billion in aid to state, local, and territorial
governments.
Anya Kamenetz of NPR covers how parents, caregivers and teachers can help children make sense of the news and calm their anxieties.
The Capitol attack played out in real time when many students would have normally been in school -- and away from screens. @anya1anya has a thoughtful take on how adults can help young people make sense of the chaos. She's my pick for this week's @edwriters#tellEWA. https://t.co/q7EcCgLC2r
The Yakima Herald-Republic’s Janelle Retka gathers insights from teachers who paused or reworked their curriculum in the past week to address the Capitol riot.
“There are certain days in your life where you watch the news all day because something so extraordinary is happening that it’s almost irresponsible not to, and today is one of those days.”
Typically during a recession, community college enrollment goes
up as unemployed workers start looking for new skills. But that’s
not happening this time around, signaling trouble for the economy
and individual families going forward, particularly for
lower-income students and students of color. This is part of a
PBS NewsHour ongoing series, “Rethinking College.”
Typically during a recession, community college enrollment goes
up as unemployed workers start looking for new skills. But that’s
not happening this time around, signaling trouble for the economy
and individual families going forward, particularly for
lower-income students and students of color. This is part of a
PBS NewsHour ongoing series, “Rethinking College.”
When state leaders announced that they would be making widespread
pooled coronavirus testing available to public schools, many
child care providers and after school program directors were
frustrated that they were left out.
Many had been caring for children throughout the pandemic as
emergency child care providers reopened before most public
schools. After school programs had transformed their spaces into
remote learning centers to support students who needed
to log on to their virtual classrooms.
As an assistant teacher, Mwezi makes $14.77 an hour but she’s not
stopping there. After she comes home from work and checks in on
her eldest daughter and Martinode, now a healthy six-year-old,
Mwezi hits the books in the family’s Aurora apartment. She is
studying brain development, behavior management and cognitive
development in children.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, one of President Trump’s
longest-serving and most loyal Cabinet members and also one of
his most controversial, submitted her resignation Thursday,
citing the president’s role in the riot on Capitol Hill.
“There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the
situation, and it is the inflection point for me,” she wrote in a
letter to President Trump. The behavior of the “violent
protestors overrunning the U.S. Capitol” was “unconscionable,”
she wrote.
Colorado doesn’t have enough people to take care of children
while parents work. The number of children under age four in
Colorado is expected to increase 10 percent over the next two
years and 22 percent by 2026.
“It’s going to take a robust workforce to be able to staff all of
that,” said Heather Hanna, deputy director, of the Early
Childhood Council Leadership Alliance.
“If there had been a global pandemic back in the early nineties, when I was in 7th grade, I would have been secretly grateful to the virus that got me out of my scary place: the middle school cafeteria,” writes Alyson Klein of Education Week.
Beautiful and brave first-person piece from @AlysonRKlein, with vital reminder that for many students, the social side of school is a very tough road (virtual or not). She's my pick for this week's @EdWriters#tellEWA. https://t.co/QL8PQgqp1f
Beaumont Enterprises’ Isaac Windes covers how educators across Southeast Texas discussed the Capitol riot with their students in real time.
SETX teachers frame riots in real-time: “I try and play a really even road with them, and just preach tolerance. But this seems like a whole other thing when you have people breaching the Capitol while they are trying to certify the election” https://t.co/n7Z7SnpktZ#TellEWApic.twitter.com/2tA0xYLa4D
YAKIMA — A statewide strike of small child care providers
proposed earlier this month remains on the table, and union
leaders say it could take place in mid-January.
In mid-December, 5,400 providers in Washington began to vote on
whether to take the first statewide strike in the sector, said
Mary Curry, president of the SEIU 925 union chapter that
represents these providers statewide.
“More than half have voted, and voted to strike,” Curry said
Tuesday.
Lauren FitzPatrick reports on a Chicago Sun-Times review that found at least 30 public schools are named for people who owned or traded enslaved Black or indigenous people.
"It’s dehumanizing, and it’s something that we have to work on and change." Thoughtful watchdog reporting (and impressive database) on controversial Chicago school names via @bylaurenfitz at @Suntimes. She's my pick for final @edwriters#tellEWA of 2020. https://t.co/sFKMFbouwv
After the defeat of California’s affirmative action ballot measure, EdSource’s Larry Gordon covers other ideas for increasing the number of students of color in higher education.
PHIL WILLON, TARYN LUNA, JOHN MYERS, HOWARD BLUMELos Angeles Times
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday announced a $2-billion package of
incentives to encourage a return to in-person classes for
California elementary school students as early as mid-February,
an effort that could require frequent coronavirus testing for
students, teachers and staff.
Rachel Foor’s grandparents are in their 70s, so when the pandemic
hit, its stresses gave her such stomach pains that she could not
eat or sleep. She worried she would infect them if she brought
the coronavirus home from Indiana University of Pennsylvania,
where she is a senior, or from Walmart, where she stocks milk and
eggs to help pay tuition.
Jimmy Galligan was in history class last school year when his
phone buzzed with a message. Once he clicked on it, he found a
three-second video of a white classmate looking into the camera
and uttering an anti-Black racial slur.
The slur, he said, was regularly hurled in classrooms and
hallways throughout his years in the Loudoun County school
district. He had brought the issue up to teachers and
administrators but, much to his anger and frustration, his
complaints had gone nowhere.
For The Texas Tribune, Melissa Taboada covers the pandemic’s impact on students’ mental health.
We were lucky enough to snag @melissataboada for a crucial story about the pandemic's toll on students' mental health. The demand for services has risen dramatically. Is Texas prepared to handle it?https://t.co/JrXsET01ZS#txlege#txed#tellewa
The coronavirus crisis has taken some of the “most painful
disparities” in America’s schools and “wrenched them open even
wider,” Connecticut Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona said as
President-elect Joe Biden introduced him as his choice for U.S.
secretary of education Wednesday.
Cardona laid out a two-fold vision of helping schools, educators,
and families rebound from the pandemic while also addressing
long-standing concerns about equity and opportunity.
AS CONGRESS TIES THE bow on a long-awaited and contentious
coronavirus relief package, superintendents, principals and
educators are disappointed – though not surprised – by how little
aid it includes for their efforts to reopen the country’s public
school system for millions of children who have been learning
remotely since the pandemic shuttered schools in March.
The fiscal 2021 spending deal unveiled by Congress Monday
includes relatively small increases for aid to disadvantaged
students, special education, career and technical education, and
the office for civil rights.
In addition, the bill funding the U.S. Department of Education
ends the longstanding prohibition on using federal aid on
transportation initiatives to desegregate schools.
Kalyn Belsha, Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee, Leah Willingham, and Larry Fenn Chalkbeat
An analysis of data from 33 states obtained by Chalkbeat and The
Associated Press shows that public K-12 enrollment this fall has
dropped across those states by more than 500,000 students, or 2%,
since the same time last year.
COLLIN BINKLEY, ALEXANDRA JAFFE and JONATHAN LEMIREAP
President-elect Joe Biden has chosen Miguel Cardona, the
education commissioner for Connecticut and a former public school
teacher, to serve as education secretary.
Chalkbeat Colorado’s Yesenia Robles reports on an advisory group of Latino parents who are hoping to keep their local school district on track in its equity work.
Jeff Young of EdSurge talks with students and professors about which campus reopening decision was the right one for them.
Which worked better for students and profs when it came to learning: keeping campus open or going fully online during the pandemic? Final episode of an 8-part podcast series following students and profs on 6 campuses this fall. #TellEWAhttps://t.co/nqhY80x0Ao
Laura Meckler and Valerie StraussThe Washington Post
Two lesser-known educators have emerged as top candidates for
education secretary — a former dean at Howard University and the
commissioner of schools in Connecticut, people familiar with the
process said.
The first is Leslie T. Fenwick, dean emeritus of the Howard
University School of Education and a professor of educational
policy and leadership. The second is Miguel Cardona, who last
year was named the top education official in Connecticut.
This is not the year for the college road trip. Instead, it’s
been all about clicking through virtual campus tours.
With both traditional high school and college experiences upended
by the pandemic, high school seniors are reconsidering where to
apply for college this fall. And those who are still charging
forward with ambitious college plans are doing so without the
resume they had hoped would win over admissions officers.
Testing dates for standardized tests — the ACT and SAT — were
repeatedly canceled in the spring and summer.
It has been almost 10 months since Covid-19 began battering
families in the United States, putting parents out of work,
shrouding their homes in grief and loss, and shutting children
out of the schools that taught and cared for them.
States and cities across the country are moving to put teachers
near the front of the line to receive a coronavirus vaccine, in
an effort to make it safer to return to classrooms and provide
relief to struggling students and weary parents.
When Pike Township opened a new child care center in 2019, it was
expected to grow each year. But instead of expanding this fall,
enrollment at the fledgling preschool fell by nearly 40% from
last year to 130 children.
At the same time, the number of kindergartners in the
Indianapolis district dipped by more than 20%.
As the pandemic wears on, concerns about the stability of the
child care system are rising as many Massachusetts child care
providers report losing money – with some closing
their doors entirely.
During the first quarter this fall, Contreras had many happy
surprises. Her attendance was strong. And even at a distance, she
saw the children get more comfortable, light up and learn. Just
as when they are in class with her, she finds joy in them.
But she also confronted the academic damage caused by the
pandemic. After the virus abruptly shut down in-person school in
March, followed by a chaotic spring, it had been five months
since these children had been in an organized class.
Across all types of colleges, enrollment for low-income high
school graduates declined by 29.2 percent, compared to a 16.9
percent drop for their counterparts from higher-income high
schools. At community colleges, the drop for low-income students
was even more dramatic — 37.1 percent. This is the first time the
Clearinghouse, the nation’s best source for tracking college
attainment data, has traced the impact of COVID-19.
The Capital-Journal’s Rafael Garcia and The Seaman Clipper’s Madeline Gearhart cover a school district faced with newly discovered information connecting their namesake to the KKK.
A fascinating slice of Kansas history, as a community wrestles with the Klan past of a beloved educator and district namesake. @byRafaelGarcia (who teamed up with student journalist Madeline Gearhart, EIC of the high school's newspaper) is my pick for this week's #tellEWA. https://t.co/UZM9SM2wj5
“Early post-election moves by President-elect Joe Biden suggest he is poised to offer the nation’s ailing community colleges a rare moment in the sun,” writes Greg Toppo for The 74.
“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.
For this story I talked to educators in six states, from
California to South Carolina. For the most part they say things
have improved since last spring. But they are close to burnout,
with only a patchwork of support. They said the heart of the job
right now is getting students connected with school and keeping
them that way — both technologically and even more importantly,
emotionally. Here are five lessons learned so far.
President-elect Joe Biden has repeatedly promised to appoint an
education secretary with public teaching experience, and it has
been widely believed he is referring to a former K-12 teacher
when he makes that pledge.
Cheryse Singleton-Nobles knows her 2-year-old son is regressing.
While the toddler is getting the hang of colors, numbers and
shapes, she says, “he’s back to the stage of ‘me, me, me.’” He
doesn’t want to share anymore. He struggles to follow a routine
and gets distracted by all his toys.
Singleton-Nobles, 47, attributes this backtracking to the
COVID-19 pandemic, which recently forced her son’s free Chicago
preschool to close its campus.
The former president of the nation’s largest teachers union is
working to lock up support from Republican senators and Hispanic
leaders in her bid to be picked as Education secretary, according
to officials familiar with the talks.
Lily Eskelsen García is expected to score the backing of more
than 40 Hispanic groups finalizing a letter endorsing her for the
position this week. She has also strategized in recent weeks with
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the retiring chair of the Senate
committee that oversees education and himself a former Education
secretary.
The state of California has failed during the COVID-19 pandemic
to provide a free and equal education to all students, violating
the state Constitution and discriminating against Black, Latino
and low-income families, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.
These children have been left behind during months of distance
learning, lacking access to digital tools as well as badly needed
academic and social-emotional supports, according to the lawsuit
filed by the Public Counsel on behalf of California students,
parents and several community organizations.
In 13 years of playing flute, Gabriella Alvarez never imagined
playing with a clear plastic trash bag around her instrument.
Kevin Vigil never foresaw his fellow tuba players wrapping
pantyhose around their instrument bells.
And neither expected to watch their marching band at New Mexico
State University play through cloth face masks, separated by
six-foot loops of water pipe, with bags filled with hand
sanitizer and disinfectant strapped around their waists.
At Noble Charter Network, the school year usually starts with a
pep rally. This year, students tuned in to a video — preceded by
a trigger warning — showing a series of news stories about the
police killings, protests, and pandemic that have made 2020 a
year like no other.
Afterward, in a virtual town hall, Noble’s leaders apologized for
past actions they said hurt Black students, from punitive
discipline policies to steering students away from historically
Black colleges and universities.
Zalaunshae leaned close to the laptop camera, her oversize pink
bows filling the computer screen. The teacher asked students to
name characters in “The Enormous Turnip.” Zalaunshae raised her
hand first.
When European schools reopened their classrooms in the spring,
after the first wave of the coronavirus had crested, some parents
expressed concern their children were being used as “guinea pigs”
in a dangerous experiment. But to the extent that European
schools have acted as laboratories for the world, the findings
eight months later are largely positive.
Parents of K-12 students participating in hybrid learning models
have a more pessimistic outlook on the impacts of this
pandemic-disrupted school year than those whose kids are
receiving entirely remote or fully in-person education, a new
poll shows.
The survey, conducted by the MassINC Polling Group and sponsored
by The Barr Foundation, found that around half or more of parents
anticipate the current school year will have negative effects on
their children’s academic learning, mental or emotional health,
opportunities for friendships, and social or behavioral skills.
Almost midway through the school year, it has become increasingly
clear that virtual learning is failing a sizable number of Texas
public school students whose parents decided to keep them home as
COVID-19 grips the state.
The disturbing number of students posting failing
grades while trying to learn in front of computer screens
has also brought into sharper focus the failure of state
education and political leaders to prepare for an academic
year they knew would be like no other.
Four-year-olds attending the city-funded pre-K program at Kuei
Luck Early Childhood Center still went to school on Thursday.
Four-year-olds enrolled at the pre-K program in the public school
at P.S. 175, just a few blocks away in Rego Park, Queens, had to
stay home.
Biden Outlines Plan to Solve Child Care Crisis
PRESIDENT-ELECT JOE Biden outlined a sweeping plan Thursday to address the country’s child care crisis.
“We are facing an acute, immediate child care crisis in America, which is exacerbating our economic crisis,” he said in a statement. “If left unaddressed, many child care providers will close – some permanently – and millions of children could go without necessary care, and millions of parents could be left to make devastating choices this winter between caring for their children and working to put food on the table.”
Biden Calls for $130 Billion in New K-12 Relief, Scaled Up Testing, Vaccination Efforts
President-elect Joe Biden is calling for $130 billion in additional COVID-19 relief funding for schools, ramped up testing efforts, and accelerated vaccine distribution strategies to help reopen “the majority of K-8 schools” within the first 100 days of his administration.
The proposals, which Biden announced in a speech Thursday night, are part of a $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” that also seeks $350 billion in aid to state, local, and territorial governments.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Jan. 8-14)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
Anya Kamenetz of NPR covers how parents, caregivers and teachers can help children make sense of the news and calm their anxieties.
The Yakima Herald-Republic’s Janelle Retka gathers insights from teachers who paused or reworked their curriculum in the past week to address the Capitol riot.
How The Pandemic Highlights Racial Disparities In Higher Education
Typically during a recession, community college enrollment goes up as unemployed workers start looking for new skills. But that’s not happening this time around, signaling trouble for the economy and individual families going forward, particularly for lower-income students and students of color. This is part of a PBS NewsHour ongoing series, “Rethinking College.”
How The Pandemic Highlights Racial Disparities In Higher Education
Typically during a recession, community college enrollment goes up as unemployed workers start looking for new skills. But that’s not happening this time around, signaling trouble for the economy and individual families going forward, particularly for lower-income students and students of color. This is part of a PBS NewsHour ongoing series, “Rethinking College.”
State Planning COVID Testing Pilot for Child Care Staff, After Continued Pleas by Providers
When state leaders announced that they would be making widespread pooled coronavirus testing available to public schools, many child care providers and after school program directors were frustrated that they were left out.
Many had been caring for children throughout the pandemic as emergency child care providers reopened before most public schools. After school programs had transformed their spaces into remote learning centers to support students who needed to log on to their virtual classrooms.
Refugee and Immigrant Women Show Promise as a Pipeline for New Colorado Early Childhood Educators
As an assistant teacher, Mwezi makes $14.77 an hour but she’s not stopping there. After she comes home from work and checks in on her eldest daughter and Martinode, now a healthy six-year-old, Mwezi hits the books in the family’s Aurora apartment. She is studying brain development, behavior management and cognitive development in children.
Betsy DeVos Resigns as Education Secretary, Citing Trump’s Role in Riot
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, one of President Trump’s longest-serving and most loyal Cabinet members and also one of his most controversial, submitted her resignation Thursday, citing the president’s role in the riot on Capitol Hill.
“There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the inflection point for me,” she wrote in a letter to President Trump. The behavior of the “violent protestors overrunning the U.S. Capitol” was “unconscionable,” she wrote.
‘The Workforce Behind The Workforce’: Confronting Colorado’s Critical Child Care Staffing Shortage
Colorado doesn’t have enough people to take care of children while parents work. The number of children under age four in Colorado is expected to increase 10 percent over the next two years and 22 percent by 2026.
“It’s going to take a robust workforce to be able to staff all of that,” said Heather Hanna, deputy director, of the Early Childhood Council Leadership Alliance.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Jan. 1-7)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
“If there had been a global pandemic back in the early nineties, when I was in 7th grade, I would have been secretly grateful to the virus that got me out of my scary place: the middle school cafeteria,” writes Alyson Klein of Education Week.
Beaumont Enterprises’ Isaac Windes covers how educators across Southeast Texas discussed the Capitol riot with their students in real time.
Statewide Child Care Strike Remains on the Table as Grants Go Out to Providers
YAKIMA — A statewide strike of small child care providers proposed earlier this month remains on the table, and union leaders say it could take place in mid-January.
In mid-December, 5,400 providers in Washington began to vote on whether to take the first statewide strike in the sector, said Mary Curry, president of the SEIU 925 union chapter that represents these providers statewide.
“More than half have voted, and voted to strike,” Curry said Tuesday.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Dec. 24-31)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
Lauren FitzPatrick reports on a Chicago Sun-Times review that found at least 30 public schools are named for people who owned or traded enslaved Black or indigenous people.
After the defeat of California’s affirmative action ballot measure, EdSource’s Larry Gordon covers other ideas for increasing the number of students of color in higher education.
Newsom Pledges Aid For California Schools’ Reopening Plans
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday announced a $2-billion package of incentives to encourage a return to in-person classes for California elementary school students as early as mid-February, an effort that could require frequent coronavirus testing for students, teachers and staff.
How the Pandemic Is Imperiling a Working-Class College
Rachel Foor’s grandparents are in their 70s, so when the pandemic hit, its stresses gave her such stomach pains that she could not eat or sleep. She worried she would infect them if she brought the coronavirus home from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where she is a senior, or from Walmart, where she stocks milk and eggs to help pay tuition.
A Racial Slur, a Viral Video, and a Reckoning
Jimmy Galligan was in history class last school year when his phone buzzed with a message. Once he clicked on it, he found a three-second video of a white classmate looking into the camera and uttering an anti-Black racial slur.
The slur, he said, was regularly hurled in classrooms and hallways throughout his years in the Loudoun County school district. He had brought the issue up to teachers and administrators but, much to his anger and frustration, his complaints had gone nowhere.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Dec. 18-23)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
The Indy Star’s Arika Herron covers a superintendent’s important snow day assignment for students.
Jacqueline Rabe Thomas of The CT Mirror reports on the nomination of Miguel Cardona for U.S. Secretary of Education.
For The Texas Tribune, Melissa Taboada covers the pandemic’s impact on students’ mental health.
Biden’s Pick for Ed. Secretary: U.S. Must Help Schools ‘Forge Opportunity Out of Crisis’
The coronavirus crisis has taken some of the “most painful disparities” in America’s schools and “wrenched them open even wider,” Connecticut Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona said as President-elect Joe Biden introduced him as his choice for U.S. secretary of education Wednesday.
Cardona laid out a two-fold vision of helping schools, educators, and families rebound from the pandemic while also addressing long-standing concerns about equity and opportunity.
Educators, Students and Schools Come Up Short in Coronavirus Relief Package
AS CONGRESS TIES THE bow on a long-awaited and contentious coronavirus relief package, superintendents, principals and educators are disappointed – though not surprised – by how little aid it includes for their efforts to reopen the country’s public school system for millions of children who have been learning remotely since the pandemic shuttered schools in March.
Education Dept. Gets $73.5 Billion in Funding Deal That Ends Ban on Federal Aid for Busing
The fiscal 2021 spending deal unveiled by Congress Monday includes relatively small increases for aid to disadvantaged students, special education, career and technical education, and the office for civil rights.
In addition, the bill funding the U.S. Department of Education ends the longstanding prohibition on using federal aid on transportation initiatives to desegregate schools.
Across U.S., States See Public School Enrollment Dip as Virus Disrupts Education
An analysis of data from 33 states obtained by Chalkbeat and The Associated Press shows that public K-12 enrollment this fall has dropped across those states by more than 500,000 students, or 2%, since the same time last year.
Kansas City Teachers Could Help Convince Skeptical Families To Get COVID-19 Vaccines
Educators will have a role to play in convincing families to get COVID-19 vaccines once they are widely available.
Read the full story here.
Biden Picks Connecticut Schools Chief As Education Secretary
President-elect Joe Biden has chosen Miguel Cardona, the education commissioner for Connecticut and a former public school teacher, to serve as education secretary.
Read the full story here.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Dec. 11-17)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
Chalkbeat Colorado’s Yesenia Robles reports on an advisory group of Latino parents who are hoping to keep their local school district on track in its equity work.
Jeff Young of EdSurge talks with students and professors about which campus reopening decision was the right one for them.
Leslie Fenwick, Miguel Cardona Seen As Contenders For Education Secretary
Two lesser-known educators have emerged as top candidates for education secretary — a former dean at Howard University and the commissioner of schools in Connecticut, people familiar with the process said.
The first is Leslie T. Fenwick, dean emeritus of the Howard University School of Education and a professor of educational policy and leadership. The second is Miguel Cardona, who last year was named the top education official in Connecticut.
The Dilemma For High School Seniors: Navigating College Admissions In A Pandemic
This is not the year for the college road trip. Instead, it’s been all about clicking through virtual campus tours.
With both traditional high school and college experiences upended by the pandemic, high school seniors are reconsidering where to apply for college this fall. And those who are still charging forward with ambitious college plans are doing so without the resume they had hoped would win over admissions officers.
Testing dates for standardized tests — the ACT and SAT — were repeatedly canceled in the spring and summer.
Denver Reading Curriculum Benchmark Under Scrutiny
Two-thirds of Denver schools use at least one reading curriculum in kindergarten through third grade that doesn’t meet new state requirements.
Read the full story here.
Covid Is Having a Devastating Impact on Children — And the Vaccine Won’t Fix Everything
It has been almost 10 months since Covid-19 began battering families in the United States, putting parents out of work, shrouding their homes in grief and loss, and shutting children out of the schools that taught and cared for them.
Read the full story here.
If Teachers Get the Vaccine Quickly, Can Students Get Back to School?
States and cities across the country are moving to put teachers near the front of the line to receive a coronavirus vaccine, in an effort to make it safer to return to classrooms and provide relief to struggling students and weary parents.
Read the full story here.
Indiana’s COVID Enrollment Dip Driven By 10,000 Fewer Preschoolers, Kindergartners
When Pike Township opened a new child care center in 2019, it was expected to grow each year. But instead of expanding this fall, enrollment at the fledgling preschool fell by nearly 40% from last year to 130 children.
At the same time, the number of kindergartners in the Indianapolis district dipped by more than 20%.
Child Care Is Back, But Many Providers are Struggling Financially
As the pandemic wears on, concerns about the stability of the child care system are rising as many Massachusetts child care providers report losing money – with some closing their doors entirely.
Five Years On, ESSA’s Hallmark Flexibility May Be Undermining Equity, Report Finds
Five years ago, states took back control over public schools.
A Teacher at Saucedo Elementary in Little Village Takes on Pandemic Learning Loss
During the first quarter this fall, Contreras had many happy surprises. Her attendance was strong. And even at a distance, she saw the children get more comfortable, light up and learn. Just as when they are in class with her, she finds joy in them.
But she also confronted the academic damage caused by the pandemic. After the virus abruptly shut down in-person school in March, followed by a chaotic spring, it had been five months since these children had been in an organized class.
New Data: College Enrollment for Low-Income High School Grads Plunged by 29% During the Pandemic
Across all types of colleges, enrollment for low-income high school graduates declined by 29.2 percent, compared to a 16.9 percent drop for their counterparts from higher-income high schools. At community colleges, the drop for low-income students was even more dramatic — 37.1 percent. This is the first time the Clearinghouse, the nation’s best source for tracking college attainment data, has traced the impact of COVID-19.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Dec. 4-10)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
The Capital-Journal’s Rafael Garcia and The Seaman Clipper’s Madeline Gearhart cover a school district faced with newly discovered information connecting their namesake to the KKK.
“Early post-election moves by President-elect Joe Biden suggest he is poised to offer the nation’s ailing community colleges a rare moment in the sun,” writes Greg Toppo for The 74.
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)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
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.
What Teachers Have Learned About Online Classes During COVID
For this story I talked to educators in six states, from California to South Carolina. For the most part they say things have improved since last spring. But they are close to burnout, with only a patchwork of support. They said the heart of the job right now is getting students connected with school and keeping them that way — both technologically and even more importantly, emotionally. Here are five lessons learned so far.
Read the full story here.
Biden Might Please the K-12 World by Picking an Education Secretary From Outside It
President-elect Joe Biden has repeatedly promised to appoint an education secretary with public teaching experience, and it has been widely believed he is referring to a former K-12 teacher when he makes that pledge.
COVID At Daycare: Online Preschool Means Fewer Ready For Kindergarten
Cheryse Singleton-Nobles knows her 2-year-old son is regressing.
While the toddler is getting the hang of colors, numbers and shapes, she says, “he’s back to the stage of ‘me, me, me.’” He doesn’t want to share anymore. He struggles to follow a routine and gets distracted by all his toys.
Singleton-Nobles, 47, attributes this backtracking to the COVID-19 pandemic, which recently forced her son’s free Chicago preschool to close its campus.
Ex-Teacher’s Union Boss Makes Play to be Biden’s Education Chief
The former president of the nation’s largest teachers union is working to lock up support from Republican senators and Hispanic leaders in her bid to be picked as Education secretary, according to officials familiar with the talks.
Lily Eskelsen García is expected to score the backing of more than 40 Hispanic groups finalizing a letter endorsing her for the position this week. She has also strategized in recent weeks with Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the retiring chair of the Senate committee that oversees education and himself a former Education secretary.
California Fails Equal Education Amid COVID-19, Lawsuit Says
The state of California has failed during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide a free and equal education to all students, violating the state Constitution and discriminating against Black, Latino and low-income families, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.
These children have been left behind during months of distance learning, lacking access to digital tools as well as badly needed academic and social-emotional supports, according to the lawsuit filed by the Public Counsel on behalf of California students, parents and several community organizations.
Pantyhose and Trash Bags: How Music Programs Are Surviving in the Pandemic
In 13 years of playing flute, Gabriella Alvarez never imagined playing with a clear plastic trash bag around her instrument. Kevin Vigil never foresaw his fellow tuba players wrapping pantyhose around their instrument bells.
And neither expected to watch their marching band at New Mexico State University play through cloth face masks, separated by six-foot loops of water pipe, with bags filled with hand sanitizer and disinfectant strapped around their waists.
But this is band practice in a pandemic.
Amid A Pandemic, A Reckoning For A Chicago Charter Turning Away From ‘No Excuses’
At Noble Charter Network, the school year usually starts with a pep rally. This year, students tuned in to a video — preceded by a trigger warning — showing a series of news stories about the police killings, protests, and pandemic that have made 2020 a year like no other.
Afterward, in a virtual town hall, Noble’s leaders apologized for past actions they said hurt Black students, from punitive discipline policies to steering students away from historically Black colleges and universities.
How A Child Learns To Read During Virtual School
Zalaunshae leaned close to the laptop camera, her oversize pink bows filling the computer screen. The teacher asked students to name characters in “The Enormous Turnip.” Zalaunshae raised her hand first.
Europe’s Schools Stay Open In COVID Second Wave, While U.s. Schools Close
When European schools reopened their classrooms in the spring, after the first wave of the coronavirus had crested, some parents expressed concern their children were being used as “guinea pigs” in a dangerous experiment. But to the extent that European schools have acted as laboratories for the world, the findings eight months later are largely positive.
Many Parents Concerned Students Are Falling Behind, According To Poll On Pandemic Education Models
Parents of K-12 students participating in hybrid learning models have a more pessimistic outlook on the impacts of this pandemic-disrupted school year than those whose kids are receiving entirely remote or fully in-person education, a new poll shows.
The survey, conducted by the MassINC Polling Group and sponsored by The Barr Foundation, found that around half or more of parents anticipate the current school year will have negative effects on their children’s academic learning, mental or emotional health, opportunities for friendships, and social or behavioral skills.
Texas Families Say Remote Learning Isn’t Working And They Want It Fixed
Almost midway through the school year, it has become increasingly clear that virtual learning is failing a sizable number of Texas public school students whose parents decided to keep them home as COVID-19 grips the state.
The disturbing number of students posting failing grades while trying to learn in front of computer screens has also brought into sharper focus the failure of state education and political leaders to prepare for an academic year they knew would be like no other.
NYC Preschools Remain Open, Raising Questions About Safety And Equity Among Staff
Four-year-olds attending the city-funded pre-K program at Kuei Luck Early Childhood Center still went to school on Thursday. Four-year-olds enrolled at the pre-K program in the public school at P.S. 175, just a few blocks away in Rego Park, Queens, had to stay home.