A struggling elementary school in East Nashville, Tenn., is
incorporating mindfulness, but experts caution that mindfulness
is not a panacea and programs should follow scientific
guidelines.
The American Federation of Teachers is encouraging its affiliates
to support former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders
of Vermont, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts in the
Democratic presidential primary.
The AFT’s decision, announced by the union Thursday evening, was
the result of a vote by the teachers’ union’s board of directors.
Specifically, the union encouraged state and local affiliates
“to support, be actively involved with, or endorse” Biden,
Sanders, and Warren.
Two years ago, a group of students and their teachers sued the
state of California for doing a poor job teaching kids how to
read — 53% of California third-graders did not meet state test
standards that year, and scores have increased only incrementally
since. On Thursday they won $53 million so that the state’s
lowest-performing schools have the resources to do better.
Two pending rule changes meant to reduce what the Trump
administration calls abuse of federal benefit programs could also
mean hundreds of thousands of children lose access to free school
meals.
As schools apply more scrutiny to the methods and materials
they use to teach early reading, educators and parents in
some states have started to launch new advocacy efforts—trying to
pressure states and districts to adopt research-backed approaches
to teacher training and evaluating materials.
Melinda Allen could easily have fallen through the cracks at any
college or university. She took time off from school when her
parents died, exhausted all of her federal grant aid, owed unpaid
tuition and became a mother when she was two years shy of
graduation.
Another state is proposing to join a growing trend: taking a
stronger role to help teachers find high-quality curriculum
materials.
The latest news comes from Virginia, which is considering
creating an online platform that would serve as a hub for good
curriculum resources from all over the state, according to
the Richmond Times-Dispatch. It would include a range of
resources, from lessons created by museums to those written by
teachers.
Cruising to class in her driverless car, a student crams from
notes projected on the inside of the windshield while she
gestures with her hands to shape a 3-D holographic model of her
architecture project.
It looks like science fiction, an impression reinforced by the
fact that it is being demonstrated in virtual reality in an
ultramodern space with overstuffed pillows for seats. But this
scenario is based on technology already in development.
When Andom Ghebreghiorgis was a middle school teacher at the
Richard R. Green campus in the Bronx, his students sometimes
arrived to class late, reeling from being stopped by the police
on their way to school.
“They would enter the classroom very agitated, and not really in
a place to learn,” said Ghebreghiorgis, who taught there a decade
ago. “On the days in which my students were stopped and frisked,
their whole day was affected.”
Oregon is expanding its preschool services, but miscommunication between the state and local levels has made the process confusing for families, reports Jordyn Brown of The Register-Guard.
Oregon is about to extend preschool to 3,800+ kids from low-income families. While providers are excited, unclear communication from the state has muddied local understanding of the process, with less than 2 months left before deadline to apply. #tellewahttps://t.co/X01ntzzdlA
Citing concerns from parents about the impact the drills have on
their children’s well being, the report recommended schools stop
the use of the drills.
For many teachers, high-stakes testing is a major source of
frustration—but they’re not necessarily quitting over it.
A new study found that eliminating state testing did not have an
effect on overall teacher turnover and attrition. Early-career
teachers, however, are less likely to leave the profession when
there are fewer required tests.
For many teachers, high-stakes testing is a major source of
frustration—but they’re not necessarily quitting over it.
A new study found that eliminating state testing did not have an
effect on overall teacher turnover and attrition. Early-career
teachers, however, are less likely to leave the profession when
there are fewer required tests.
CONCORD, N.H. — A report that was issued after
more New Hampshire educators said they were injured by their
students showed that violence against teachers has gotten worse.
In the deluge of complaints about a
troubled program that pays off student loans for people who
work in public service, one stands out for its frequency:
Thousands of people say they were misled by loan servicers
working on the U.S. government’s behalf.
You’d be hard-pressed to find many single-issue voters whose
single issue was public education, but if you could find such
animals, what could they make of the current set of Democratic
contenders? Ignoring other issues, including what may be the
biggest question of them all (“How would you get Congress to
enact any of this?”), how do the candidates stack up in
education?
MILWAUKEE — Sh’Tejah Ward needed to come up with $8,651 to pay
the rest of her fall semester bill for the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t be able to
return in the spring. Looking for answers, she stopped by the
school’s financial aid office one October afternoon and
succinctly summed up her situation to an adviser: “I’m lost.”
Ward barely spoke for the rest of the meeting. She nodded along
and grew increasingly overwhelmed as the adviser walked her
through her options.
Los Angeles is home to the most consequential school board
elections in the country. L.A. Unified is the largest school
district in the U.S. with an elected board.
On top of being important, L.A.’s school board elections have
become expensive. Very expensive. In fact, if the current rate of
spending continues, this March’s election will be the costliest
LAUSD primary in history.
The morning after the Feb. 14, 2018, school shooting in Parkland,
Fla., a middle school teacher in nearby Miami stood in front of
his speech and debate class and had no idea what to say.
“It’s a powerful thing when 13-year-olds and 14-year-olds are
looking up to you for an answer to something that you don’t have
an answer for,” said Kelsey Major, a teacher at Everglades K-8
Center, a public school about 50 miles south of Marjory Stoneman
Douglas High School, where 17 people had been killed in the
shooting.
“In speech and debate, I was speechless,” he said.
Seattle Times’ Neal Morton takes an in-depth look at Australia’s early intervention efforts to steer students away from homelessness and dropping out.
Yes, @seattletimes sent @nealtmorton to Australia for a terrific read on how schools are helping homeless students.
But is it sheer, outright envy driving my pick for this week's #tellEWA? No no of course not ha ha ha WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT NEALhttps://t.co/duw1PXH1e1
Steve Contorno and Emily L. MahoneyTampa Bay Times
As he seeks reelection, President Donald Trump is making a direct
appeal to black voters like Chikara Parks.
After her four kids experienced bullying and other problems at
their south St. Petersburg school, Parks moved each one into
private Christian academies.
Hannah Natanson, John Woodrow Cox and Perry SteinThe Washington Post
Two kindergartners in Utah told a Latino boy that
President Trump would send him back to Mexico, and teenagers in
Maine sneered ”Ban Muslims” at a classmate wearing a
hijab. In Tennessee, a group of middle-schoolers linked
arms, imitating the president’s proposed border wall as they
refused to let nonwhite students pass. In Ohio, another group of
middle-schoolers surrounded a mixed-race sixth-grader and, as
she confided to her mother, told the girl: “This is Trump
country.”
Late last summer, Luis decided to attend Wilbur Wright College,
one of the seven two-year community colleges that make up the
City Colleges of Chicago. He received financial aid to cover
tuition and books. We’re not using Luis’ last name at his
request to retain some privacy online.
Luis hopes to eventually get a bachelor’s degree in industrial
engineering and said he’s motivated by the idea of earning enough
that he doesn’t have to worry about money. His mom works 12-hour
days to support their large family.
Early estimates of just how much money two online schools stole
from the state of Indiana were wrong, according to a report filed
Wednesday by the Indiana State Board of Accounts.
A special investigation into malfeasance by Indiana Virtual
School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy found that the
schools inappropriately received more than $68.7
million collectively.
Many professors, especially those without the protections of
tenure, have come to recognize the danger of politically charged
situations. All it takes is one irritated or impatient moment —
perhaps secretly recorded on a student’s cellphone — to fuel the
outrage machine that exists in social-media circles and on
conservative outlets like Fox News. Each new controversy feeds
the public appetite for stories about misbehaving liberal
professors and the narrative, often misleading, that colleges are
increasingly unmoored from, and even hostile to, mainstream
culture.
Only one constitutional amendment is on the Alabama primary
ballot this year.
If passed, the most significant effect of the amendment would be
eliminating elections for members of a newly renamed Alabama
Commission on Elementary and Secondary Education. Appointed
commission members would be limited to a maximum of two
terms.
The appointed commission would also create new statewide
education standards over “common core.”
When it rains, the roof of the decades-old facility leaks. During
the worst downpours, hallways flood. Attempts to raise taxes to
build a state-of-the-art high school in this high-poverty
district have failed. Rand is new to teaching at Holmes Central,
but she spent three years here as a student. Since she graduated
in 2013, the name of the old high school had changed, but not
much else.
GEELONG, Australia — Over the next month, as schools here begin a
new year, the staff at seven campuses will interrupt homerooms,
ask students to put away assignments and hand each one of them a
nearly 100-question survey.
Teachers and translators will help explain the questions, some of
them deeply personal: How often do you go to bed hungry? When was
the last time you crashed on a friend’s couch? Do you feel safe
at home?
Ninety-five percent of American public schools conduct some form
of regular active shooter safety drill — sometimes called a
lockdown or active threat drill — according to the
National Center for Education Statistics. But concerns are
growing that these drills have not been proven effective in
preventing violence and that they may even traumatize some
students.
The Trump administration seeks to end the popular
Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which allows
government workers, Native American tribal employees and
nonprofit workers to earn forgiveness of their student debt.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s pending rules on sexual
misconduct at the nation’s schools and colleges will include
provisions to shore up protections for victims of stalking and
dating violence, a response to lethal attacks that have
underscored the weakness of current policies.
The rules will for the first time cement domestic violence,
dating violence and stalking as forms of gender discrimination
that schools must address under Title IX, the federal civil
rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in education
programs that receive government funding.
For both boys, the struggles at school started in the first
grade.
By the end of that seminal school year, both of their parents
knew that something was wrong. In second grade, each boy was
diagnosed with an unspecified learning disability and started
receiving special education services at their public schools.
“The teachers had no clue how to teach him,” said Debbie Meyer,
Isaac’s mother.
School board races are usually far from the highest-profile
political contests, but candidates for San Diego Unified’s board
of trustees say the stakes are high in the March primary.
While school boards of past decades focused largely on test
scores and budgets, candidates in 2020 are also concerned about
issues like school discipline, student health and building
relationships with students.
Low enrollment and financial troubles have caused a slew of
Vermont’s small, independent colleges to shut their doors. What’s
causing the problem — and is there a solution?
VPR’s Amy Noyes, who has been reporting on higher ed in
Vermont with a fellowship from the Education Writers
Association, has answers to these three questions:
“Why are student populations shrinking?” — Diana Clark,
South Burlington
Democrats don’t like U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.
There’s not much nuance you need to know about that. But a few
Democratic candidates for president, and one of the groups most
strongly opposed to DeVos, are putting an interesting twist on
their attacks on one of Trump’s longest-serving, most-divisive
cabinet members.
Three Republicans and two Democrats are running in primary
elections for the open District 5 seat on the State Board of
Education, a 15-member panel that makes crucial and often
controversial decisions on what gets taught at public schools.
Ken Mercer of San Antonio, a conservative Republican, is not
seeking reelection after holding the seat for 14 years.
Jennifer Levitz and Melissa KornThe Wall Street Journal
Douglas Hodge, the former chief executive of bond giant Pacific
Investment Management Co., was sentenced Friday to nine months in
prison, the longest sentence to date for any parent charged in
the sprawling college-admissions cheating case.
As many as one in five children need help with a mental health
condition such as anxiety or depression. These students often
have trouble processing information or focusing, which can
contribute to a cycle of increased anxiety, dropping grades and
missed school, say experts.
State coffers are, by and large, flush with cash
again this year. The country is more than a decade out of
the recession, and property, sales, and income tax revenues are
finally starting to rebound. This doesn’t mean, though, that
districts’ coffers will be flush with cash in the 2020-21 school
year. States still deliver to school districts billions of
dollars in aid in a byzantine and insufficient manner which has
allowed for some districts to thrive and many others to
struggle.
Higher education lobbyists are concerned that colleges and
universities could be disqualified from getting millions of
dollars in federal grants under a draft Trump
administration rule, which is aimed at increasing the legal
rights of campus religious groups to be able to exclude gay
students and others.
Colleges could face substantial penalties under the proposal,
said Terry Hartle, the American Council on Education’s senior
vice president for government and public affairs.
For Pittsburgh’s NPR news station, Sarah Schneider examines how teachers are covering the impeachment trial in their classrooms.
What's it like to teach in real-time during the impeachment trial? I spoke to some teachers about the challenge of remaining impartial and the questions their students have had. Here's the story ICYMI #tellEWAhttps://t.co/AjVAEST9Wm
Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer released an
education plan Thursday that calls for tripling federal funding
for high-poverty schools, providing universal preschool, and
using federal incentives to raise teacher pay.
The billionaire philanthropist also sets an ambitious goal of
cutting the dropout rate in half by the end of his first term by
establishing a federal task force and requiring states to adopt
dropout reduction plans. (Graduation rates are already part of
states’ accountability plans under the Every Student Succeeds
Act.)
Four presidential candidates at the University of New Hampshire
Thursday talked about college costs and the estimated $1.6
trillion in U.S. student loan debt.
Prior to speeches by the presidential candidates, there was a
panel discussion with James Kvaal, president of the Institute for
College Access & Success; Daniella Gibbs Leger, executive vice
president for the Center for American Progress Action Fund; and
Adam Harris, staff writer for “The Atlantic.”
State Superintendent Mark Johnson, who is campaigning to become
North Carolina’s lieutenant governor, announced Thursday that
he’s calling for a review of North Carolina’s Common Core math
and language arts standards and U.S. history requirements.
Johnson is in a crowded field of Republican candidates running
for lieutenant governor in the March primary. Conservatives have
been particularly critical of Common Core, viewing it as an
attempt to try to create a national curriculum.
Betsy DeVos may be one of the most hated members of Donald
Trump’s Cabinet, constantly mocked by Democrats on the campaign
trail.
But away from the multitudes of critics and protesters, DeVos is
being deployed like a rock star at Trump events as he makes a
concerted push on education issues. The campaign is using DeVos,
a devout Christian, to beef up ties with voters who see her as
the fiercest defender of conservative education policies like
vouchers and free speech on college campuses.
Betsy DeVos may be one of the most hated members of Donald
Trump’s Cabinet, constantly mocked by Democrats on the campaign
trail.
But away from the multitudes of critics and protesters, DeVos is
being deployed like a rock star at Trump events as he makes a
concerted push on education issues. The campaign is using DeVos,
a devout Christian, to beef up ties with voters who see her as
the fiercest defender of conservative education policies like
vouchers and free speech on college campuses.
Jim Shultz tried everything he could think of to stop facial
recognition technology from entering the public schools in
Lockport, a small city 20 miles east of Niagara Falls. He posted
about the issue in a Facebook group called Lockportians. He wrote
an Op-Ed in The New York Times. He filed a petition with the
superintendent of the district, where his daughter is in high
school.
Mindfulness Transforms Culture At High-Needs Elementary School
A struggling elementary school in East Nashville, Tenn., is incorporating mindfulness, but experts caution that mindfulness is not a panacea and programs should follow scientific guidelines.
Read the full story here.
AFT Encourages Members to Back Biden, Sanders, Warren in Primary
The American Federation of Teachers is encouraging its affiliates to support former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts in the Democratic presidential primary.
The AFT’s decision, announced by the union Thursday evening, was the result of a vote by the teachers’ union’s board of directors. Specifically, the union encouraged state and local affiliates “to support, be actively involved with, or endorse” Biden, Sanders, and Warren.
California Students Sued Because They Were Such Poor Readers. They Just Won $53 Million To Help Them
Two years ago, a group of students and their teachers sued the state of California for doing a poor job teaching kids how to read — 53% of California third-graders did not meet state test standards that year, and scores have increased only incrementally since. On Thursday they won $53 million so that the state’s lowest-performing schools have the resources to do better.
How Trump’s SNAP Proposal Could Affect School Lunch
Two pending rule changes meant to reduce what the Trump administration calls abuse of federal benefit programs could also mean hundreds of thousands of children lose access to free school meals.
Reading Instruction ‘Keeps Parents Up at Night’: Advocates in Wis., Calif. Push for Changes
As schools apply more scrutiny to the methods and materials they use to teach early reading, educators and parents in some states have started to launch new advocacy efforts—trying to pressure states and districts to adopt research-backed approaches to teacher training and evaluating materials.
HBCUs Are Trying To Spare Graduates From Crushing Student Loan Debt. It’s Not Easy.
Melinda Allen could easily have fallen through the cracks at any college or university. She took time off from school when her parents died, exhausted all of her federal grant aid, owed unpaid tuition and became a mother when she was two years shy of graduation.
Navigating the Curriculum Maze: States Stepping in to Help Teachers
Another state is proposing to join a growing trend: taking a stronger role to help teachers find high-quality curriculum materials.
The latest news comes from Virginia, which is considering creating an online platform that would serve as a hub for good curriculum resources from all over the state, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. It would include a range of resources, from lessons created by museums to those written by teachers.
How Technology Is Changing the Future of Higher Education
Cruising to class in her driverless car, a student crams from notes projected on the inside of the windshield while she gestures with her hands to shape a 3-D holographic model of her architecture project.
It looks like science fiction, an impression reinforced by the fact that it is being demonstrated in virtual reality in an ultramodern space with overstuffed pillows for seats. But this scenario is based on technology already in development.
Stop-and-Frisk Under Michael Bloomberg Led More Black Students To Drop Out, Study Shows
When Andom Ghebreghiorgis was a middle school teacher at the Richard R. Green campus in the Bronx, his students sometimes arrived to class late, reeling from being stopped by the police on their way to school.
“They would enter the classroom very agitated, and not really in a place to learn,” said Ghebreghiorgis, who taught there a decade ago. “On the days in which my students were stopped and frisked, their whole day was affected.”
He added, “It probably still affects them now.”
#tellEWA Member Stories (Feb. 14 – Feb. 20)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
Oregon is expanding its preschool services, but miscommunication between the state and local levels has made the process confusing for families, reports Jordyn Brown of The Register-Guard.
Claire Lowe of the Press of Atlantic City writes about how New Jersey high schools are trying to show teens that vaping is harmful.
This Is Not A Drill: Active Shooter Training At School
1A
On February 11, the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety and the two of the largest teachers unions — the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association — came out with a report calling for schools to reconsider their use of school shooter drills.
Citing concerns from parents about the impact the drills have on their children’s well being, the report recommended schools stop the use of the drills.
Do High-Stakes Tests Make Teachers More Likely to Quit? Study Says No
For many teachers, high-stakes testing is a major source of frustration—but they’re not necessarily quitting over it.
A new study found that eliminating state testing did not have an effect on overall teacher turnover and attrition. Early-career teachers, however, are less likely to leave the profession when there are fewer required tests.
Read the full story here.
Do High-Stakes Tests Make Teachers More Likely to Quit? Study Says No
For many teachers, high-stakes testing is a major source of frustration—but they’re not necessarily quitting over it.
A new study found that eliminating state testing did not have an effect on overall teacher turnover and attrition. Early-career teachers, however, are less likely to leave the profession when there are fewer required tests.
Read the full story here.
N. H. Educators Say Violence Against Teachers Getting Worse; Report Suggests Solutions
CONCORD, N.H. — A report that was issued after more New Hampshire educators said they were injured by their students showed that violence against teachers has gotten worse.
Read the full story here.
The Student Loan Appeal Process the Government Doesn’t Tell You About
In the deluge of complaints about a troubled program that pays off student loans for people who work in public service, one stands out for its frequency: Thousands of people say they were misled by loan servicers working on the U.S. government’s behalf.
Read the full story here.
How Do The Current Democratic Candidates Stack Up On Public Education?
You’d be hard-pressed to find many single-issue voters whose single issue was public education, but if you could find such animals, what could they make of the current set of Democratic contenders? Ignoring other issues, including what may be the biggest question of them all (“How would you get Congress to enact any of this?”), how do the candidates stack up in education?
Read the full story here.
Need-Based Financial Aid is Largely an Every-University-For-Itself Affair
MILWAUKEE — Sh’Tejah Ward needed to come up with $8,651 to pay the rest of her fall semester bill for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t be able to return in the spring. Looking for answers, she stopped by the school’s financial aid office one October afternoon and succinctly summed up her situation to an adviser: “I’m lost.”
Ward barely spoke for the rest of the meeting. She nodded along and grew increasingly overwhelmed as the adviser walked her through her options.
This Might End Up Being The Most Expensive LAUSD School Board Primary Ever
Los Angeles is home to the most consequential school board elections in the country. L.A. Unified is the largest school district in the U.S. with an elected board.
On top of being important, L.A.’s school board elections have become expensive. Very expensive. In fact, if the current rate of spending continues, this March’s election will be the costliest LAUSD primary in history.
Read the full story here.
Miami Middle School Students Hope Their Magazine Will Help End Gun Violence
The morning after the Feb. 14, 2018, school shooting in Parkland, Fla., a middle school teacher in nearby Miami stood in front of his speech and debate class and had no idea what to say.
“It’s a powerful thing when 13-year-olds and 14-year-olds are looking up to you for an answer to something that you don’t have an answer for,” said Kelsey Major, a teacher at Everglades K-8 Center, a public school about 50 miles south of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 people had been killed in the shooting.
“In speech and debate, I was speechless,” he said.
CA Presidential Primary: Education Plans of 2020 Candidates
With California’s March 3, 2020 primary approaching, college affordability is topic voters are asking the candidates to address.
Here’s how the top candidates on the Democratic ballot would try to improve the country’s higher education system:
Read the full story here.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Feb. 7 – Feb. 13)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
In a two-part series, The Hechinger Report’s Bracey Harris covers Mississippi’s desegregation successes and failures.
Seattle Times’ Neal Morton takes an in-depth look at Australia’s early intervention efforts to steer students away from homelessness and dropping out.
School Choice Is Dividing Florida Democrats Along Racial Lines.
As he seeks reelection, President Donald Trump is making a direct appeal to black voters like Chikara Parks.
After her four kids experienced bullying and other problems at their south St. Petersburg school, Parks moved each one into private Christian academies.
Trump’s Words Used By Kids To Bully Classmates At School
Two kindergartners in Utah told a Latino boy that President Trump would send him back to Mexico, and teenagers in Maine sneered ”Ban Muslims” at a classmate wearing a hijab. In Tennessee, a group of middle-schoolers linked arms, imitating the president’s proposed border wall as they refused to let nonwhite students pass. In Ohio, another group of middle-schoolers surrounded a mixed-race sixth-grader and, as she confided to her mother, told the girl: “This is Trump country.”
States Want To End Developmental Education. Why Chicago Professors Are Fighting Back.
Late last summer, Luis decided to attend Wilbur Wright College, one of the seven two-year community colleges that make up the City Colleges of Chicago. He received financial aid to cover tuition and books. We’re not using Luis’ last name at his request to retain some privacy online.
Luis hopes to eventually get a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and said he’s motivated by the idea of earning enough that he doesn’t have to worry about money. His mom works 12-hour days to support their large family.
Indiana Trying To Get Back Millions From Shuttered Virtual Schools
Early estimates of just how much money two online schools stole from the state of Indiana were wrong, according to a report filed Wednesday by the Indiana State Board of Accounts.
A special investigation into malfeasance by Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy found that the schools inappropriately received more than $68.7 million collectively.
When the Culture War Comes to Class
Many professors, especially those without the protections of tenure, have come to recognize the danger of politically charged situations. All it takes is one irritated or impatient moment — perhaps secretly recorded on a student’s cellphone — to fuel the outrage machine that exists in social-media circles and on conservative outlets like Fox News. Each new controversy feeds the public appetite for stories about misbehaving liberal professors and the narrative, often misleading, that colleges are increasingly unmoored from, and even hostile to, mainstream culture.
Alabama Constitutional Amendment 1: Here’s What you Need to Know
Only one constitutional amendment is on the Alabama primary ballot this year.
If passed, the most significant effect of the amendment would be eliminating elections for members of a newly renamed Alabama Commission on Elementary and Secondary Education. Appointed commission members would be limited to a maximum of two terms.
The appointed commission would also create new statewide education standards over “common core.”
The Broken Promise of Alexander V. Holmes County Board of Education
When it rains, the roof of the decades-old facility leaks. During the worst downpours, hallways flood. Attempts to raise taxes to build a state-of-the-art high school in this high-poverty district have failed. Rand is new to teaching at Holmes Central, but she spent three years here as a student. Since she graduated in 2013, the name of the old high school had changed, but not much else.
King County Takes Cues From Australian Strategy For Preventing Student Homelessness and Dropping Out
GEELONG, Australia — Over the next month, as schools here begin a new year, the staff at seven campuses will interrupt homerooms, ask students to put away assignments and hand each one of them a nearly 100-question survey.
Teachers and translators will help explain the questions, some of them deeply personal: How often do you go to bed hungry? When was the last time you crashed on a friend’s couch? Do you feel safe at home?
Teachers Unions AFT And NEA Raise Alarm Over Lockdown Drills
Ninety-five percent of American public schools conduct some form of regular active shooter safety drill — sometimes called a lockdown or active threat drill — according to the National Center for Education Statistics. But concerns are growing that these drills have not been proven effective in preventing violence and that they may even traumatize some students.
Read the full story here.
Trump Budget Proposes Ending Public Service Student Loan Forgiveness Program
The Trump administration seeks to end the popular Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which allows government workers, Native American tribal employees and nonprofit workers to earn forgiveness of their student debt.
Read the full story here.
New Campus Sexual Misconduct Rules Will Tackle Dating Violence
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s pending rules on sexual misconduct at the nation’s schools and colleges will include provisions to shore up protections for victims of stalking and dating violence, a response to lethal attacks that have underscored the weakness of current policies.
The rules will for the first time cement domestic violence, dating violence and stalking as forms of gender discrimination that schools must address under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in education programs that receive government funding.
Special Education: Students With Dyslexia Disability Battle NYC Dept. of Ed
For both boys, the struggles at school started in the first grade.
By the end of that seminal school year, both of their parents knew that something was wrong. In second grade, each boy was diagnosed with an unspecified learning disability and started receiving special education services at their public schools. “The teachers had no clue how to teach him,” said Debbie Meyer, Isaac’s mother.
Five Candidates Vying For Two Seats On The San Diego Unified Board
School board races are usually far from the highest-profile political contests, but candidates for San Diego Unified’s board of trustees say the stakes are high in the March primary.
While school boards of past decades focused largely on test scores and budgets, candidates in 2020 are also concerned about issues like school discipline, student health and building relationships with students.
Read the full story here.
As Colleges Close, How Will Vermont Schools Survive?
Low enrollment and financial troubles have caused a slew of Vermont’s small, independent colleges to shut their doors. What’s causing the problem — and is there a solution?
VPR’s Amy Noyes, who has been reporting on higher ed in Vermont with a fellowship from the Education Writers Association, has answers to these three questions:
“Why are student populations shrinking?” — Diana Clark, South Burlington
‘Fire’ Betsy DeVos? Democrats Turn Cabinet Turnover Into Campaign Attack
Democrats don’t like U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. There’s not much nuance you need to know about that. But a few Democratic candidates for president, and one of the groups most strongly opposed to DeVos, are putting an interesting twist on their attacks on one of Trump’s longest-serving, most-divisive cabinet members.
Read the full story here.
Multiple Candidates Vying in State Board of Education District Representing San Antonio
Three Republicans and two Democrats are running in primary elections for the open District 5 seat on the State Board of Education, a 15-member panel that makes crucial and often controversial decisions on what gets taught at public schools.
Ken Mercer of San Antonio, a conservative Republican, is not seeking reelection after holding the seat for 14 years.
Read the full story here.
Former Pimco CEO Sentenced to Nine Months in Prison in College Admissions Case
Douglas Hodge, the former chief executive of bond giant Pacific Investment Management Co., was sentenced Friday to nine months in prison, the longest sentence to date for any parent charged in the sprawling college-admissions cheating case.
How to Help Students Cope With Mental Health in Schools
As many as one in five children need help with a mental health condition such as anxiety or depression. These students often have trouble processing information or focusing, which can contribute to a cycle of increased anxiety, dropping grades and missed school, say experts.
School Finance: Five Things to Watch for in This Year’s State Legislative Sessions
State coffers are, by and large, flush with cash again this year. The country is more than a decade out of the recession, and property, sales, and income tax revenues are finally starting to rebound. This doesn’t mean, though, that districts’ coffers will be flush with cash in the 2020-21 school year. States still deliver to school districts billions of dollars in aid in a byzantine and insufficient manner which has allowed for some districts to thrive and many others to struggle.
Colleges Worry About Implications of Religious Freedom Rule
Higher education lobbyists are concerned that colleges and universities could be disqualified from getting millions of dollars in federal grants under a draft Trump administration rule, which is aimed at increasing the legal rights of campus religious groups to be able to exclude gay students and others.
Colleges could face substantial penalties under the proposal, said Terry Hartle, the American Council on Education’s senior vice president for government and public affairs.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Jan. 31 – Feb. 6)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
For Pittsburgh’s NPR news station, Sarah Schneider examines how teachers are covering the impeachment trial in their classrooms.
For The 74, Mikhail Zinshteyn reports on the economic benefits that could arise if the government invested in single mothers’ educational success.
Presidential Candidate Tom Steyer’s Education Plan: Triple Title I, Tackle Dropout Rate
Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer released an education plan Thursday that calls for tripling federal funding for high-poverty schools, providing universal preschool, and using federal incentives to raise teacher pay.
The billionaire philanthropist also sets an ambitious goal of cutting the dropout rate in half by the end of his first term by establishing a federal task force and requiring states to adopt dropout reduction plans. (Graduation rates are already part of states’ accountability plans under the Every Student Succeeds Act.)
At the University of New Hampshire, the Topic is College Costs, Student Debt
Four presidential candidates at the University of New Hampshire Thursday talked about college costs and the estimated $1.6 trillion in U.S. student loan debt.
Prior to speeches by the presidential candidates, there was a panel discussion with James Kvaal, president of the Institute for College Access & Success; Daniella Gibbs Leger, executive vice president for the Center for American Progress Action Fund; and Adam Harris, staff writer for “The Atlantic.”
N.C. Schools Chief, Amid Crowded GOP Race for Lieutenant Governor, Calls to End Common Core
State Superintendent Mark Johnson, who is campaigning to become North Carolina’s lieutenant governor, announced Thursday that he’s calling for a review of North Carolina’s Common Core math and language arts standards and U.S. history requirements.
Johnson is in a crowded field of Republican candidates running for lieutenant governor in the March primary. Conservatives have been particularly critical of Common Core, viewing it as an attempt to try to create a national curriculum.
‘Preach it, sister!’ Why the Trump Base Loves Betsy DeVos
Betsy DeVos may be one of the most hated members of Donald Trump’s Cabinet, constantly mocked by Democrats on the campaign trail.
But away from the multitudes of critics and protesters, DeVos is being deployed like a rock star at Trump events as he makes a concerted push on education issues. The campaign is using DeVos, a devout Christian, to beef up ties with voters who see her as the fiercest defender of conservative education policies like vouchers and free speech on college campuses.
‘Preach it, sister!’ Why the Trump Base Loves Betsy DeVos
Betsy DeVos may be one of the most hated members of Donald Trump’s Cabinet, constantly mocked by Democrats on the campaign trail.
But away from the multitudes of critics and protesters, DeVos is being deployed like a rock star at Trump events as he makes a concerted push on education issues. The campaign is using DeVos, a devout Christian, to beef up ties with voters who see her as the fiercest defender of conservative education policies like vouchers and free speech on college campuses.
Facial Recognition Moves Into a New Front: Schools
Jim Shultz tried everything he could think of to stop facial recognition technology from entering the public schools in Lockport, a small city 20 miles east of Niagara Falls. He posted about the issue in a Facebook group called Lockportians. He wrote an Op-Ed in The New York Times. He filed a petition with the superintendent of the district, where his daughter is in high school.