MCGRAW HILL NEWS Important Questions to Ask about Education Research
There's a great deal of information - from peer-reviewed research papers to news articles to shared posts on social media sites - about teaching and learning available to educators. While every teacher wants to provide their students with the very best instruction, the sheer amount of information (and the reality that the information is sometimes conflicting) can make it overwhelming to make decisions about classroom strategies. Dr. Timothy Shanahan, Dr. Jan Hasbrouck, and Dr. Doug Fisher created this guide to help educators navigate the complex task of bridging research and practice.
Read More NATIONAL NEWS Education Secretary backs mandatory school COVID vaccines Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Thursday he supports mandatory coronavirus vaccinations for older teenagers, saying vaccines are critical to keeping students in school and that governors, not school superintendents, should implement such mandates. “I wholeheartedly support it,” he said. “It’s the best tool that we have to safely reopen schools and keep them open. We don’t want to have the yo-yo effect that many districts had last year, and we can prevent that by getting vaccinated.” Mr. Cardona pointed to the effectiveness of the measles vaccine, which is required for children in childcare or public schools in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., in protecting against infections as reason why the coronavirus vaccine should be mandatory for schoolchildren. “There’s a reason why we’re not talking about measles today,” he noted. “It was a required vaccination, and we put it behind us. So I do believe at this point we need to be moving forward.” Meanwhile, a federal vaccine advisory committee has voted against recommending a booster shot for essential workers, including K-12 school staff. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advisory committee on immunization practices voted yesterday to recommend a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for people ages 65 and older and those ages 50 and older with underlying medical conditions; however, it declined to recommend that adults younger than 65 who live or work in settings where the burden of COVID-19 infection and risk of transmission are high, including schools, receive a booster dose based on an assessment of their individual benefit and risk, which typically means a conversation with their doctor. Committee members were concerned that there were no clear data yet showing that healthy adults needed a booster shot, regardless of their occupation. Opening the door to allowing millions of essential workers to get a booster shot would be complicated, they said, and it wouldn’t make a significant dent in curbing the pandemic.
The Hill
Education Week
Politico
Washington Post
DISTRICTS Galveston to review response to bomb threat A bomb threat at Weis Middle School in Galveston ISD on Thursday is to be investigated by the district. A man called the school and the district’s police department at about 11:30 a.m and said there were several explosives placed on school grounds, police said. The man said he would detonate the explosives, police said. The campus was declared clear around at about 2:45 p.m. Police said negotiators made contact with the man during the incident but that he had not been identified or located as of Thursday afternoon. District Superintendent Jerry Gibson, who was in Dallas attending a conference during the incident, acknowledged complaints from parents regarding communication, and said the district would review its response in coming days
Galveston County Daily News
Abilene ISD offers $1,000 stipend to employees who get jabbed Abilene ISD employees who have received the COVID-19 vaccination will be eligible for a $1,000 stipend later this school year, as part of an effort to vaccinate as many employees as possible through a new volunteer vaccination program. It will be paid for through the district's Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds collected earlier this year through the American Rescue Plan passed by Congress in March. It's the second such stipend the district has approved to go to teachers this year. During the summer, it OK'd a retention payment in two parts hoping to encourage employees to stay.
ABC 13
Abilene Reporter-News
FINANCE Federal spending package could have major impact on student poverty counts The Build back Better Act, a legislative package in Congress, could, if enacted, have major repercussions for how educators, policymakers, and others measure and respond to student poverty. One of its aims is to make it easier for more students to get free, federally supported school meals; if the changes become law, they would almost certainly lead to fewer schools collecting data from families about which students are eligible for meal subsidies, a metric that’s commonly used to analyze and discuss poverty in schools. Under current law, a school or clusters of schools can provide free breakfasts and lunches to all students if 40 percent of them are in families that already participate in other means-tested programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (commonly known as SNAP). This provision, known as community eligibility, means districts don’t have to collect data from individual families when determining which students qualify for meal subsidies, a process that’s raised concerns about people being stigmatized. In 2019, 52% of U.S. students were eligible for free and reduced-price school meals, recent federal data show. The section of the Build Back Better Act approved by the House education committee in early September would lower that threshold for community eligibility to 25%. It would also give states the option of authorizing free breakfasts and lunches for all their students through community eligibility. Both provisions would last through June 2030. These and other changes affecting child nutrition in the bill account for $35bn in the legislation.
Education Week
CHARTER Charter schools see highest enrollment growth since 2015 Charter schools experienced more growth in 2020-21, the first full year of the pandemic, than they’ve seen in the past six years, according to preliminary data released Wednesday from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. At a time when traditional public schools saw a 1.4m drop in student enrollment, charters in 39 states saw an influx of 240,000 new students, a 7% year-on-year increase. Of the 42 states covered in the report, only Illinois, Iowa and Wyoming saw declines in the charter school population. While ​​Tennessee, Kansas, Puerto Rico and Guam also have charters, data was unavailable for those states and territories. Growth in the charter sector ranged from less than 1% in Washington, D.C. and Louisiana, to a 78% jump in Oklahoma. Alabama saw a 65% jump in enrollment.
The 74
OPERATIONS Districts share insights on administering vaccines to students Following Pfizer's announcement this week that its COVID-19 vaccine, at a lower dosage, is safe and effective for children ages five and up, Education Week speaks to several school districts that have already had success hosting vaccination clinics about what they’ve learned in the process, and their insights about extending the service to younger children.
Education Week
HIGHER EDUCATION Kilgore College continuing education students eligible for aid Kilgore College continuing education students can now apply for financial aid to cover the costs of classes in certain CE programs thanks to a Texas Public Educational Grant (TPEG) the college received. The grant awarded to KC allows application for funds for students who are enrolled in the following programs: pharmacy technology, phlebotomy, lineman program, commercial driving license (CDL), human resource specialist, industrial/residential electrical technology, patient care technology and nurse aide. The grant is based solely on student need for eligibility and is only available to students enrolled in the programs listed above.
Kilgore News-Herald
INTERNATIONAL Providing a welcoming classroom for students from Afghanistan Assisting in international evacuations is beyond the usual scope of school district employees’ work. As education officials across the nation prepare for new arrivals from Afghanistan - with funding requested to resettle 65,000 people from the nation by the end of September - experts say having systems in place to welcome refugee students and continuously support them will be key. While newly arrived families are often first helped by resettlement agencies, schools then quickly pick up the work of helping families adjust to their new homes and feel supported going forward, said Cristina Burkhart, an English-learner program specialist at San Juan USD in California. That means tending to students’ academic needs, but also doing things like providing donated food, clothing, and wheelchairs for students. The work also extends to helping parents gain agency, including teaching them things like how to schedule doctors’ appointments and how the school grading system works. Fostering a welcoming environment for refugee students is something teachers can do in the classroom as well. At Travis Heights elementary school in Austin, Texas, Shayna Bright, a 2nd grade English-as-a-second-language teacher, keeps a journal where she jots down Pashto and Dari words her Afghan students teach her. So while they learn English, she learns more of their home languages. “That buy-in with the children has really made a big impact,” Bright said. “They see that I care not just about their education, but about them and their culture.”
Education Week
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