More than 40 school principals in the South Bay were told to
quarantine after being exposed to COVID-19 two weeks ago.
The exposure happened at an in-person meeting called by the Santa
Clara County Unified School District. An attendee who didn’t have
any symptoms at the meeting testing positive for the virus just
days later.
Michigan’s education leaders are asking for federal approval to
halt mandatory student exams for the 2020-21 school year.
“The long absence from in-person instruction will present
challenges for many students as they return to class,” Casandra
Ulbrich, president of the state school board, said in a statement
Wednesday. “The focus should be on tending to children’s
immediate needs: physical, socioemotional, and academic.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics has a reputation as
conservative and cautious, which is what you would expect from an
organization devoted to protecting children’s health. But this
week, the academy made a splash with advice about
reopening schools that appears to be somewhat at odds with what
administrators are hearing from some federal and state health
officials.
Stephanie Wang and Dylan Peers MccoyChalkbeat Indiana
Before the coronavirus crisis, schools in hilly, forested Brown
County, Indiana, didn’t expect students to work online at home.
Even with a growing fiber network in the area, too many families
couldn’t connect to the internet, and those who did often used
hot spots or unreliable connections. So schools used workarounds:
Students did their assignments offline at home and logged on once
they got to school to upload work, said Superintendent Laura
Hammack.
TALLAHASSEE — With a stroke of his veto pen, Gov. Ron DeSantis
wiped out the entire $29.4 million budget for a suite of online
education services that have become critical to students and
faculty during the Covid-19 outbreak.
For 40 years, Robin Stauffer has taught high school English in
seven different school districts in three different states. Most
recently, Advanced Placement English in Katy, where she says
working with kids has kept her young and lighthearted.
But since the pandemic hit, a question has nagged at her: Is it
time to retire?
Arriving on campus kick-starts a year of firsts for college
freshmen, and Abbey Shea was excited about all of them. Her first
introduction to new roommates who may become lifelong friends,
first semester away from home, first foray into independence.
And then her Port Orange, Florida, high school postponed its
graduation ceremony because of the coronavirus. Uncertainty set
in, and Shea braced herself for “a new normal,” she said — a
college experience far different from the social mecca she’d
imagined.
During most of the Trump administration’s tenure, the U.S.
Department of Education, led by Betsy DeVos, has worked to limit
student debt cancellation for borrowers who say they were scammed
by their schools.
The agency scored a win in that effort Friday, when Democrats
failed to muster enough votes to override President Trump’s veto
of a bill that would have overturned the Department’s approach to
student debt cancellation under what’s known as the “borrower
defense” rule.
When it comes to education, the new state budget goes
beyond providing $70.5 billion in funding for K-12 schools — it
sets fundamental accountability rules for a new era of distance
learning in California by requiring teachers to take online
attendance and document student learning.
For some parents, teaching their children at home after the
coronavirus pandemic shuttered schools this spring was
challenging, to say the least.
For others, it revealed another option.
With new cases of COVID-19 continuing and no vaccine, many
parents have questions about what a return to school might look
like.
Will young children be able to concentrate with face masks
required? Will schools close over and over again if outbreaks
occur, disrupting kids’ ability to learn? What if kids contract
the disease and spread it to vulnerable family members?
California needs at least 708,400 laptops and 322,100 Wi-Fi
hotspots to connect all students to the internet from home, a
significant jump from previous estimates, according to data from
the California Department of Education shared with EdSource on
June 17.
For the last several weeks, medical supply vendors have swamped
Martin Pollio with flyers, emails, and phone calls. He’s one of
their most sought-after customers.
Pollio, the superintendent of the 100,000-student Jefferson
County district in Louisville, Ky., has made tentative
plans to reopen school buildings this fall. To do so, he
estimates his district will need to spend close to $10 million on
face masks alone, in order to abide by recently issued state
health guidelines.
Audrey Williams June The Chronicle of Higher Education
The president of the University of South Carolina at Columbia, as
part of a commitment to a recently approved strategic plan,
pledged to increase the number of African American students
enrolled at the flagship institution.
What’s the goal? For the share of Black students at the
university to be “approaching” the share of Black residents in
the state — about 27 percent — by 2025, said Robert L. Caslen,
during a virtual town hall for students and families
early this week. Black students make up 9.5 percent of
undergraduate enrollment at South Carolina now.
In order for schools to safely reopen in the fall, public health
experts say we’ll all need to do some homework over the summer.
As Massachusetts starts down the months-long road to reopening
public schools, scientists say success and safety require caution
both inside and outside the classroom — and preparation must
begin now.
The social justice movement sweeping the country is forcing the
K-12 education system to take a hard look at how it treats
students of color, why it has taken so long to recognize the need
for change, and what approaches would work best to build a better
system for all students.
King Davis was stunned when he saw how many parents wanted to
keep their children home from Sheldon ISD schools in the fall.
Across grade levels and campuses, more than 48 percent of the
2,324 parents who responded to a survey said they wouldn’t send
their kids back to in-person classes on campus.
Education Week’s Madeline Will breaks down a facilities checklist to determine the estimated total of new reopening-related expenses for an average school district.
Kalyn Belsha of Chalkbeat examines how Canada’s largest school district removed police from schools and looks at what has happened since the removal.
1/ As cities like Minneapolis, Denver & Milwaukee look to what happens after a vote to remove police from schools, they could learn a lot from Toronto, which ended its school police program in 2017 following intense community pressure & advocacy #tellEWAhttps://t.co/7Or8ZTyyGi
A South Bronx school still reeling from the loss of students’
parents to COVID-19 and the unexpected death of a beloved
principal is now losing five of its eight guidance counselors due
to city budget cuts.
Bronx Letters is one of dozens of middle and high schools in the
South Bronx and Brownsville, Brooklyn, losing more than 100
critically-needed guidance counselors and social workers after
city officials slashed the “Single Shepherd” initiative. Mayor de
Blasio once touted the program as central to his
education agenda.
When Cathy Belair was searching for child care a couple of years
ago for her two young granddaughters in Fletcher, N.C., the
middle school math teacher said she found only two “quality”
options that had space for the girls and also opened early enough
for her to drop them off before work.
Sisters Maria and Jennifer Salvador start their days before the
sun. The Southern California teenagers report to work at an
Oxnard strawberry farm with one goal: To harvest as many bright
red strawberries as they can.
Each 20-pound box of stemless strawberries they collect brings in
$3.
Educators who run U.S. schools aren’t a diverse group. Almost 80
percent of the nation’s 90,000 principals are white. Only 11
percent are Black and 9 percent are Latino, according
to federal data. That doesn’t come close to reflecting
the demographics of the nation’s 50 million public
schoolchildren who are 46 percent white, 15 percent Black,
28 percent Latino and 6 percent Asian.
Leah Hampton, an eighth-grader at Falling Creek Middle School in
Virginia, jokes that without her friends she’d sleep through
school. Seeing them was “the best part of the day,” she said.
“They woke me up before my classes.”
Her mother, Leomia Hampton, says after classes went online in
mid-March, that wasn’t far from the truth. “It’s very difficult
to keep her motivated, very difficult to even keep her awake,”
she said of working with her daughter at home.
Ahmad Mahmuod was headed home from the library late one night
during his freshman year at the University of California at
Berkeley when he sensed someone following him.
The person’s shadow came closer, and then a voice called out,
“Young man.”
State officials announced yesterday that students will return to
public schools come fall, but provided few details. Almost
three-fourths of parents surveyed in one district say they won’t
send their children back if it seems unsafe.
Geraldine Robinson stepped proudly onto the stage and stated her
name. What she said next was an understatement: “I am a fightin’
grandmother.”
Robinson, 65, is a devout and joyful Christian who’s now raising
three of her grandchildren. She’s been a relentless advocate for
two of them in particular. And, she told the audience, the stakes
are high: “I am fighting for their life.”
The U.S. Department of Education is making it harder for colleges
to reconsider — and potentially increase — financial aid for
students who have lost jobs or family income in the current
economic crisis.
Chicago Public Schools will lay off 286 teachers and 417 support
staff because of declining enrollment and programmatic changes,
the district said Thursday. But it is also ramping up hiring in
other areas, looking to fill 1,900 positions by fall.
All recruitment and hiring will take place virtually, the
district said, and laid-off employees will be invited to reapply.
Last year, Chicago Public Schools laid off 220 teachers and
nearly 500 support personnel. It rehired more than two-thirds of
those educators for open positions at other schools.
Historically black colleges and universities have canceled four
football games that had been scheduled for the early part of the
fall season as a growing number of players have tested positive
for COVID-19 in university football programs around the country,
mostly among major conference institutions.
Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in an interview with
CNN sounded pessimistic about the odds of football
seasons occurring this fall.
The so-called ivory tower offers no guarantee of equal treatment, reports The Hechinger Report’s Delece Smith-Barrow in an article detailing stories of racism on college campuses.
A black professor had someone physically block her from getting her mail and threaten to call the police, even though she had her faculty I.D. with her. My story on #BlackIntheIvory#tellEWAhttps://t.co/2onou4tdwN
As school leaders are making decisions about reopening schools in the fall, Madeline Will of Education Week takes a detailed look at social distancing and safety protocols.
Here's what school buildings might look like when students eventually return for in-person instruction: https://t.co/4uP8DgQsMy#tellEWA
After years of seeing social media posts about police killings of black people, many San Diego students say they are fed up, reports Kristen Taketa of The San Diego Union-Tribune.
"I was tired of sitting on the sidelines. I felt like I had to be there." For this piece on local protests in San Diego, @Kristen_Taketa wisely focused on student voices. (I'd love to hear more of them.) She's my pick for this week's @EdWriters#tellEWA. https://t.co/ay1UXfXm9W
Chalkbeat’s Melanie Asmar and Caroline Bauman highlight 11 extraordinary new high school graduates from Colorado’s class of 2020.
The #Classof2020 is setting out into new lives without the usual rituals that make the passage easier. We asked educators to nominate seniors who stood out for their resilience, empathy, and academic attainment. The responses blew us away. #tellEWAhttps://t.co/EM5DrkhFBx
Kristen Graham of The Philadelphia Inquirer shares her experience of being detained by police for walking to her car past curfew despite having a press exemption.
There's been incredible work this week by @EdWriters journos covering protests. @newskag hits home with how vital it is to have a free press but also the privileges so many of us take for granted. She's my pick for #tellEWA. https://t.co/0dV3CAPRUM
The financial crisis wrought by COVID-19 has left schools with big budget cuts and spoiled dreams of expanded funding and teacher pay raises, reports Jeff Amy of The Associated Press.
Sarah Garland of The Hechinger Report shares her experience of assuming the role of her child’s teacher to highlight the many challenges that parents are facing during remote learning.
"What happens at home always mattered in kids’ outcomes. Now, it’s all that matters." I appreciate @hechingerreport's @s_garl's candor about huge challenge of trying to fill shoes of her child's teacher. She's my pick for this week's @EdWriters#tellEWA. https://t.co/jWcc9Ge3F7
For The Press of Atlantic City, Claire Lowe tells the story of four childhood friends who followed through on an eighth-grade pact to all get their college degrees in a four-year period.
Four friends from A.C. made a pact as kids to graduate college. This year, they achieved their goal. #tellEWAhttps://t.co/2PHO4XING0
Minnesota students show off the prom finery they would have worn in photos taken by Star Tribune’s Leila Navidi and share their stories with Rachel Hutton.
Mississippi Today’s Kelsey Davis Betz examines how the coronavirus pandemic has led to plummeting FAFSA completion rates in Mississippi.
I wish the news was better, but @kdavistwelve did a great job breaking down the data on the decline in #FAFSA completions in Mississippi, adding context, and explaining why this matters so much for students and their futures. https://t.co/uYuCewtvFw
Chalkbeat’s Lori Higgins takes a look at the disruptions that COVID-19 added to an already difficult first year of college for 3 students from Detroit.
Our Detroit bureau chief, @LoriAHiggins, has told the stories of these inspiring young people's journeys with empathy and care. This latest installment is no different. An ending to an @EdWriters fellowship-supported project none of us saw coming ... #tellEWA#edchathttps://t.co/Ozx2Cx37TD
The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the instability of relying on one counselor to meet the academic and mental health needs of hundreds of students, reports Neal Morton for The Hechinger Report.
School closures due to coronavirus have highlighted the instability of relying on one counselor, or just a few, to help hundreds of students. #tellEWAhttps://t.co/NnKL1KQveC via @nealtmorton
— The Hechinger Report (@hechingerreport) May 13, 2020
This multicultural admission coordinator focuses on embracing inclusivity by becoming a drag queen for a day, reports Eric Hoover of The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Is it early in the week for me to make my @edwriters' #tellEWA pick? (Yes.) Is this heartfelt and beautifully written profile by @erichoov going to be hard to beat? (Yes again.) https://t.co/Zx5kevo6EP
Graduate students from Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management will still get the experience of walking across the stage by using robots, reports Rocio Hernandez of KJZZ.
ASU's @Thunderbird college wanted to give their students as authentic and memorable graduation experience as possible during the COVID-19 pandemic. So it decided to roll out some robots: https://t.co/WfWx61xMAN#tellEWA
For The Grade, Linda Borg describes what it’s like for an education reporter to be told to stay home during a major news event.
Kudos to @lborgprojocom for her candor in sharing her "furlough diary." She's been a journalist for 36 years -- including 16 on the @edwriters beat -- and is facing a tough road with admirable strength. She's my pick for this week's #tellEWA. https://t.co/FP0JHknVu3
Madeline Will of Education Week covers how teachers with weak or unreliable internet access are making remote learning work.
It’s not just students without access to the internet, it’s also their teachers. Some teachers are working in parked cars, relatives' houses, and empty school buildings—making an already stressful job of teaching remotely even more difficult. https://t.co/UA75JYj27k#tellEWA
As some Idaho students shift to farm labor during the day, educators and farmworker advocates worry about the toll on students’ education and health, reports Sami Edge and Nicole Foy for Idaho Education News.
From “No (expletive) way” to buying Kaytee Clean & Cozy Extreme Odor Control bedding, Eric Gorski of Chalkbeat shares his experience of adopting his son’s classroom pets during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Is @egorski's first-person piece about taking in his son's classroom rats charming enough for a murophobic to read the whole thing why yes, yes it is and I might even make it my pick for @EdWriters' #tellEWA before I TOTALLY FREAK OUT https://t.co/xoBs6MFVjX
For Knoxville News Sentinel, Monica Kast covers how the coronavirus pandemic has changed the way medical schools are teaching and what medical students are doing to help.
ICYMI: Earlier this week, I wrote about how students in med school are getting creative to connect with patients and help doctors now that they can't work in hospitals. #tellEWAhttps://t.co/3WuEi6ATJZ
Bianca Vázquez Toness of The Boston Globe details a day in the life of a Boston sixth-grader for a new series that looks at how school closures are affecting individual students.
With schools closed and cities on lockdown, how can @EdWriters journos find student voices to tell us how remote learning is really working? @BostonGlobe's @biancavtoness leads the way with this poignant portrait. She's my pick for this week's #tellEWA. https://t.co/VxG1dMqOjf
High school seniors are concerned about grades, financial aid, and college deadlines after the coronavirus forces schools and universities to close, reports Larry Gordon for EdSource.
A group of recently arrived immigrant students and their teachers say they were forgotten when their district rolled out online teaching, reports Colleen Wright for the Miami Herald.
A Tennessee school district seeks to help local medical professionals by printing personal protective equipment, reports Meghan Mangrum of Chattanooga Times Free Press.
How one Tennessee school district is using 3-D printers to meet the demand for personal protective equipment for local medical professionals fighting COVID-19. #tellEWA
The Hechinger Report examines how the impacts of college closures are being felt beyond the traditional classroom.
The closing of colleges and universities has disrupted the educations of millions of students. But it’s affecting the lives of many in ways that are not yet widely understood. #tellEWAhttps://t.co/xNlPjJT2tF
— The Hechinger Report (@hechingerreport) March 25, 2020
For The Wall Street Journal, Douglas Belkin and Melissa Korn cover the impact COVID-19 will have on college fall admissions.
For The Seattle Times, Anne Hillman provides updated information on resources for families who rely on schools for more than just education.
With nuanced coverage and plentiful online resources, the @seattletimes' education team demonstrates the vital role local news plays in a crisis like the coronavirus pandemic. These @EdWriters superstars are my pick for this week's #tellEWA. https://t.co/Le8v7w2IhZ
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.
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
The solar-powered air purification tower rises 200 feet out of a
cluster of high-rises in China — a soaring symbol of new
possibilities for its inventor, University of Minnesota
engineering professor David Pui.
Collaboration with China has long been a linchpin of U research,
and lately that work has accelerated. In the past five years,
university faculty have published more than 4,300 scientific
papers jointly with colleagues in China — more than any other
country.
Jieie Chen and Dong Xuan felt a strong connection to the
University of Minnesota long before they arrived from China with
their son, Ken, an incoming freshman.
They had spent hours online researching the university. They had
heard the director of the U’s Beijing office make a case for
joining the “Gophers family” at a meeting with admitted students
in Shanghai last spring. They had later taken in testimonials
from U students and alumni at one of the orientations the
university hosts in China each summer.
In the 2017-18 school year, a handful of students (mostly from
wealthy suburban Chicago districts) were sent to Discovery
Academy or one of its associated facilities in Utah, and at least
70 more to other Utah boarding schools. That’s according to
documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, from
the Illinois State Board of Education.
More Than 40 School Principals Quarantined After COVID-19 Exposure
More than 40 school principals in the South Bay were told to quarantine after being exposed to COVID-19 two weeks ago.
The exposure happened at an in-person meeting called by the Santa Clara County Unified School District. An attendee who didn’t have any symptoms at the meeting testing positive for the virus just days later.
Read the full story here.
State education leaders to DeVos: Cancel testing requirements for 2020-21
Michigan’s education leaders are asking for federal approval to halt mandatory student exams for the 2020-21 school year.
“The long absence from in-person instruction will present challenges for many students as they return to class,” Casandra Ulbrich, president of the state school board, said in a statement Wednesday. “The focus should be on tending to children’s immediate needs: physical, socioemotional, and academic.”
Why a Pediatric Group Is Pushing to Reopen Schools This Fall
The American Academy of Pediatrics has a reputation as conservative and cautious, which is what you would expect from an organization devoted to protecting children’s health. But this week, the academy made a splash with advice about reopening schools that appears to be somewhat at odds with what administrators are hearing from some federal and state health officials.
How the Politics Behind Rural Internet Access Leave Parts of Indiana ‘In The Dark Ages’
Before the coronavirus crisis, schools in hilly, forested Brown County, Indiana, didn’t expect students to work online at home.
Even with a growing fiber network in the area, too many families couldn’t connect to the internet, and those who did often used hot spots or unreliable connections. So schools used workarounds: Students did their assignments offline at home and logged on once they got to school to upload work, said Superintendent Laura Hammack.
DeSantis Kills Online Learning Program Amid Virus Resurgence
TALLAHASSEE — With a stroke of his veto pen, Gov. Ron DeSantis wiped out the entire $29.4 million budget for a suite of online education services that have become critical to students and faculty during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Texas Teachers Consider Leaving The Classroom Over COVID-19 Fears
For 40 years, Robin Stauffer has taught high school English in seven different school districts in three different states. Most recently, Advanced Placement English in Katy, where she says working with kids has kept her young and lighthearted.
But since the pandemic hit, a question has nagged at her: Is it time to retire?
Read the full story here.
Students React to Colleges’ Reopening Plans With Mix of Optimism, Fear
Arriving on campus kick-starts a year of firsts for college freshmen, and Abbey Shea was excited about all of them. Her first introduction to new roommates who may become lifelong friends, first semester away from home, first foray into independence.
And then her Port Orange, Florida, high school postponed its graduation ceremony because of the coronavirus. Uncertainty set in, and Shea braced herself for “a new normal,” she said — a college experience far different from the social mecca she’d imagined.
Judge Orders Betsy DeVos to Cancel 7,200 Scammed Borrowers’ Student Loans
During most of the Trump administration’s tenure, the U.S. Department of Education, led by Betsy DeVos, has worked to limit student debt cancellation for borrowers who say they were scammed by their schools.
The agency scored a win in that effort Friday, when Democrats failed to muster enough votes to override President Trump’s veto of a bill that would have overturned the Department’s approach to student debt cancellation under what’s known as the “borrower defense” rule.
What Are the California School Rules for Online Learning?
When it comes to education, the new state budget goes beyond providing $70.5 billion in funding for K-12 schools — it sets fundamental accountability rules for a new era of distance learning in California by requiring teachers to take online attendance and document student learning.
Some Illinois Parents Opt to Home-School Amid Coronavirus
For some parents, teaching their children at home after the coronavirus pandemic shuttered schools this spring was challenging, to say the least.
For others, it revealed another option.
With new cases of COVID-19 continuing and no vaccine, many parents have questions about what a return to school might look like.
Will young children be able to concentrate with face masks required? Will schools close over and over again if outbreaks occur, disrupting kids’ ability to learn? What if kids contract the disease and spread it to vulnerable family members?
Long Road Ahead to Close California’s Digital Divide in Education Before New School Year Begins
California needs at least 708,400 laptops and 322,100 Wi-Fi hotspots to connect all students to the internet from home, a significant jump from previous estimates, according to data from the California Department of Education shared with EdSource on June 17.
Districts’ Back-to-School Shopping List: Masks, Gloves, Sanitizers and $25 Billion to Pay for It
For the last several weeks, medical supply vendors have swamped Martin Pollio with flyers, emails, and phone calls. He’s one of their most sought-after customers.
Pollio, the superintendent of the 100,000-student Jefferson County district in Louisville, Ky., has made tentative plans to reopen school buildings this fall. To do so, he estimates his district will need to spend close to $10 million on face masks alone, in order to abide by recently issued state health guidelines.
The U. of South Carolina Wants Its Share of Black Students to Mirror the Black Population in the State. There’s a Long Way to Go.
The president of the University of South Carolina at Columbia, as part of a commitment to a recently approved strategic plan, pledged to increase the number of African American students enrolled at the flagship institution.
What’s the goal? For the share of Black students at the university to be “approaching” the share of Black residents in the state — about 27 percent — by 2025, said Robert L. Caslen, during a virtual town hall for students and families early this week. Black students make up 9.5 percent of undergraduate enrollment at South Carolina now.
On Reopening Schools, Scientists Say Proceed With Caution
In order for schools to safely reopen in the fall, public health experts say we’ll all need to do some homework over the summer.
As Massachusetts starts down the months-long road to reopening public schools, scientists say success and safety require caution both inside and outside the classroom — and preparation must begin now.
Educators Support Black Lives Matter, But Still Want Police in Schools, Survey Shows
The social justice movement sweeping the country is forcing the K-12 education system to take a hard look at how it treats students of color, why it has taken so long to recognize the need for change, and what approaches would work best to build a better system for all students.
In Some Houston School Districts, Half of Parents Say They Won’t Send Their Kids Back to School
King Davis was stunned when he saw how many parents wanted to keep their children home from Sheldon ISD schools in the fall. Across grade levels and campuses, more than 48 percent of the 2,324 parents who responded to a survey said they wouldn’t send their kids back to in-person classes on campus.
#tellEWA Member Stories (June 19-25)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
Education Week’s Madeline Will breaks down a facilities checklist to determine the estimated total of new reopening-related expenses for an average school district.
Kalyn Belsha of Chalkbeat examines how Canada’s largest school district removed police from schools and looks at what has happened since the removal.
NYC Ed Dismantles Guidance Counselor Program
A South Bronx school still reeling from the loss of students’ parents to COVID-19 and the unexpected death of a beloved principal is now losing five of its eight guidance counselors due to city budget cuts.
Bronx Letters is one of dozens of middle and high schools in the South Bronx and Brownsville, Brooklyn, losing more than 100 critically-needed guidance counselors and social workers after city officials slashed the “Single Shepherd” initiative. Mayor de Blasio once touted the program as central to his education agenda.
Child-Care Deserts: New Research Shows Middle-Income and Rural Families Disproportionately Affected
When Cathy Belair was searching for child care a couple of years ago for her two young granddaughters in Fletcher, N.C., the middle school math teacher said she found only two “quality” options that had space for the girls and also opened early enough for her to drop them off before work.
Migrant Students Work in Fields During COVID School Closures
Sisters Maria and Jennifer Salvador start their days before the sun. The Southern California teenagers report to work at an Oxnard strawberry farm with one goal: To harvest as many bright red strawberries as they can.
Each 20-pound box of stemless strawberries they collect brings in $3.
Texas Study Finds Black Principal Candidates Are Less Likely to Be Tapped
Educators who run U.S. schools aren’t a diverse group. Almost 80 percent of the nation’s 90,000 principals are white. Only 11 percent are Black and 9 percent are Latino, according to federal data. That doesn’t come close to reflecting the demographics of the nation’s 50 million public schoolchildren who are 46 percent white, 15 percent Black, 28 percent Latino and 6 percent Asian.
Read the full story here.
Middle School Is Often Difficult. Try Experiencing it Under Quarantine.
Leah Hampton, an eighth-grader at Falling Creek Middle School in Virginia, jokes that without her friends she’d sleep through school. Seeing them was “the best part of the day,” she said. “They woke me up before my classes.”
Her mother, Leomia Hampton, says after classes went online in mid-March, that wasn’t far from the truth. “It’s very difficult to keep her motivated, very difficult to even keep her awake,” she said of working with her daughter at home.
Students Push UC to Abolish Police Departments
Ahmad Mahmuod was headed home from the library late one night during his freshman year at the University of California at Berkeley when he sensed someone following him.
The person’s shadow came closer, and then a voice called out, “Young man.”
Texas Schools Will Reopen in the Fall, But No One Knows Exactly How That Will Work
State officials announced yesterday that students will return to public schools come fall, but provided few details. Almost three-fourths of parents surveyed in one district say they won’t send their children back if it seems unsafe.
Read the full story here.
Public Schools Are Failing Black Students With Dyslexia: One Grandmother’s Story
Geraldine Robinson stepped proudly onto the stage and stated her name. What she said next was an understatement: “I am a fightin’ grandmother.”
Robinson, 65, is a devout and joyful Christian who’s now raising three of her grandchildren. She’s been a relentless advocate for two of them in particular. And, she told the audience, the stakes are high: “I am fighting for their life.”
Education Department Changes College Financial Aid Crisis Guidance
The U.S. Department of Education is making it harder for colleges to reconsider — and potentially increase — financial aid for students who have lost jobs or family income in the current economic crisis.
Chicago to Lay Off 700 Teachers And Support Staff as District Sets Out to Fill 1,900 New Positions
Chicago Public Schools will lay off 286 teachers and 417 support staff because of declining enrollment and programmatic changes, the district said Thursday. But it is also ramping up hiring in other areas, looking to fill 1,900 positions by fall.
All recruitment and hiring will take place virtually, the district said, and laid-off employees will be invited to reapply.
Last year, Chicago Public Schools laid off 220 teachers and nearly 500 support personnel. It rehired more than two-thirds of those educators for open positions at other schools.
College Football Feels Growing Impact of COVID-19
Historically black colleges and universities have canceled four football games that had been scheduled for the early part of the fall season as a growing number of players have tested positive for COVID-19 in university football programs around the country, mostly among major conference institutions.
Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in an interview with CNN sounded pessimistic about the odds of football seasons occurring this fall.
Baltimore Students Protest For Anti-racist Curriculum: ‘We Don’t Know The Truth’
A’niya Taylor, a 16-year-old student at Baltimore City College, smoothed her green hair and held onto a microphone.
“This is not a moment, but a movement!” she shouted.
#tellEWA Member Stories (June 12-18)
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The so-called ivory tower offers no guarantee of equal treatment, reports The Hechinger Report’s Delece Smith-Barrow in an article detailing stories of racism on college campuses.
As school leaders are making decisions about reopening schools in the fall, Madeline Will of Education Week takes a detailed look at social distancing and safety protocols.
#tellEWA Member Stories (June 5-11)
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After years of seeing social media posts about police killings of black people, many San Diego students say they are fed up, reports Kristen Taketa of The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Chalkbeat’s Melanie Asmar and Caroline Bauman highlight 11 extraordinary new high school graduates from Colorado’s class of 2020.
#tellEWA Member Stories (May 29-June 4)
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Kristen Graham of The Philadelphia Inquirer shares her experience of being detained by police for walking to her car past curfew despite having a press exemption.
The financial crisis wrought by COVID-19 has left schools with big budget cuts and spoiled dreams of expanded funding and teacher pay raises, reports Jeff Amy of The Associated Press.
#tellEWA Member Stories (May 22-28)
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Sarah Garland of The Hechinger Report shares her experience of assuming the role of her child’s teacher to highlight the many challenges that parents are facing during remote learning.
For The Press of Atlantic City, Claire Lowe tells the story of four childhood friends who followed through on an eighth-grade pact to all get their college degrees in a four-year period.
#tellEWA Member Stories (May 15-21)
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Minnesota students show off the prom finery they would have worn in photos taken by Star Tribune’s Leila Navidi and share their stories with Rachel Hutton.
Mississippi Today’s Kelsey Davis Betz examines how the coronavirus pandemic has led to plummeting FAFSA completion rates in Mississippi.
Kaylee Tornay of the Mail Tribune gathers the highs and lows of distance learning for five Oregon teachers.
#tellEWA Member Stories (May 8-14)
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Chalkbeat’s Lori Higgins takes a look at the disruptions that COVID-19 added to an already difficult first year of college for 3 students from Detroit.
The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the instability of relying on one counselor to meet the academic and mental health needs of hundreds of students, reports Neal Morton for The Hechinger Report.
#tellEWA Member Stories (May 1-7)
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This multicultural admission coordinator focuses on embracing inclusivity by becoming a drag queen for a day, reports Eric Hoover of The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Graduate students from Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management will still get the experience of walking across the stage by using robots, reports Rocio Hernandez of KJZZ.
#tellEWA Member Stories (April 24-30)
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For The Grade, Linda Borg describes what it’s like for an education reporter to be told to stay home during a major news event.
Madeline Will of Education Week covers how teachers with weak or unreliable internet access are making remote learning work.
U.S. News’ Josh Moody reached out to education experts to understand short- and long-term approaches to teaching at home.
#tellEWA Member Stories (April 17-23)
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Catherine Gewertz of Education Week covers how the many challenges of distance learning has left teachers exhausted.
As some Idaho students shift to farm labor during the day, educators and farmworker advocates worry about the toll on students’ education and health, reports Sami Edge and Nicole Foy for Idaho Education News.
#tellEWA Member Stories (April 10-16)
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From “No (expletive) way” to buying Kaytee Clean & Cozy Extreme Odor Control bedding, Eric Gorski of Chalkbeat shares his experience of adopting his son’s classroom pets during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For Knoxville News Sentinel, Monica Kast covers how the coronavirus pandemic has changed the way medical schools are teaching and what medical students are doing to help.
#tellEWA Member Stories (April 3-9)
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Bianca Vázquez Toness of The Boston Globe details a day in the life of a Boston sixth-grader for a new series that looks at how school closures are affecting individual students.
Even $13.5 billion in coronavirus relief aid might not prevent cuts to state-level school funding, reports Andrew Ujifusa for Education Week.
#tellEWA Member Stories (March 27- April 2)
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High school seniors are concerned about grades, financial aid, and college deadlines after the coronavirus forces schools and universities to close, reports Larry Gordon for EdSource.
A group of recently arrived immigrant students and their teachers say they were forgotten when their district rolled out online teaching, reports Colleen Wright for the Miami Herald.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Mar. 20-26)
Here's what we're reading by EWA members this week:
A Tennessee school district seeks to help local medical professionals by printing personal protective equipment, reports Meghan Mangrum of Chattanooga Times Free Press.
The Hechinger Report examines how the impacts of college closures are being felt beyond the traditional classroom.
For The Wall Street Journal, Douglas Belkin and Melissa Korn cover the impact COVID-19 will have on college fall admissions.
#tellEWA Member Stories (Mar. 13-19)
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Claire McInerny of KUT asks kids about avoiding COVID-19 and entertaining themselves.
For The Seattle Times, Anne Hillman provides updated information on resources for families who rely on schools for more than just education.
Chalkbeat reporters cover what life looks like for educators, students and parents as schools across the country close.
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.
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
University of Minnesota’s Academic Work With China Chilled by Federal Concerns
The solar-powered air purification tower rises 200 feet out of a cluster of high-rises in China — a soaring symbol of new possibilities for its inventor, University of Minnesota engineering professor David Pui.
Collaboration with China has long been a linchpin of U research, and lately that work has accelerated. In the past five years, university faculty have published more than 4,300 scientific papers jointly with colleagues in China — more than any other country.
University of Minnesota Mines China Connection But Worries About Future
Jieie Chen and Dong Xuan felt a strong connection to the University of Minnesota long before they arrived from China with their son, Ken, an incoming freshman.
They had spent hours online researching the university. They had heard the director of the U’s Beijing office make a case for joining the “Gophers family” at a meeting with admitted students in Shanghai last spring. They had later taken in testimonials from U students and alumni at one of the orientations the university hosts in China each summer.
Far From Home
In the 2017-18 school year, a handful of students (mostly from wealthy suburban Chicago districts) were sent to Discovery Academy or one of its associated facilities in Utah, and at least 70 more to other Utah boarding schools. That’s according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, from the Illinois State Board of Education.