NATIONAL NEWS Interior Secretary to address legacy of indigenous boarding schools U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and other federal officials are expected to announce steps that the federal government plans to take to reconcile the legacy of boarding school policies on Indigenous families and communities. Starting with the Indian Civilization Act of 1819, the U.S. enacted laws and policies to establish and support Indian boarding schools across the nation. For over 150 years, hundreds of thousands of Indigenous children were taken from their communities and forced into boarding schools that focused on assimilation. Ms Haaland cited statistics from the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, which reported that by 1926, more than 80% of Indigenous school-age children were attending boarding schools that were run either by the federal government or religious organizations. Besides providing resources and raising awareness, the coalition has been working to compile additional research on U.S. boarding schools and deaths that many say is sorely lacking. Ms Haaland has suggested that investments planned by the Biden administration and efforts to strengthen tribal sovereignty can help to heal the wrongs.
US News and World Report
DISTRICTS Round Rock trustees repeat vote to hire Azaiez as superintendent For the second time, Round Rock ISD school district trustees have hired Hafedh Azaiez as the new superintendent. The trustees voted on Azaiez's hiring a second time on Saturday because of a procedural error during their 5-2 vote to approve him on June 14. The district failed to post a paper copy of the June 14th agenda outside the district's office until the day of the meeting, according to a district spokeswoman. She said it was not a violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act but that the district would vote again "to ensure consistency of practice and as a matter of procedure."
Austin American-Statesman
Fort Worth receives federal grant to teach students how to stay safe from human trafficking Fort Worth ISD is one of eight school districts nationwide chosen for a federal grant to help combat human trafficking. The three-year program will provide up to $600,000 annually for the district to increase teachers’ understanding of the complexities of human trafficking, increasing students’ understanding of protective factors, and train qualified student support services staff to implement and replicate the project activities district-wide. The school district will partner with the anti-human trafficking nonprofit organizations Unbound North Texas and 3Strands Global Foundation. In 2019, about 24% of human trafficking cases in Texas involved minors, according to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Plano ISD names new head of security Plano ISD has named Bart Rosebure as the district's new executive director of safety and security, succeeding Joseph Parks, who retired this month. A former police officer who began his career as a teacher and coach, his most recent position was director of technical security at Baylor University where he was responsible for evaluating campus safety and security using security technology to minimize safety risks.
Dallas Morning News
ELEMENTARY Huntsville appoints new principal for Stewart Elementary Shannon Williams has been named by Huntsville ISD as the next principal of Stewart Elementary School. Currently principal at Scott Johnson Elementary, she replaces Kimberly Fox, who recently resigned from the post.
Huntsville Item
EMPLOYMENT More school superintendents opting to step down More and more school superintendents are leaving their posts, far more than in a typical year, a result of the extraordinary challenges of keeping kids learning after schools closed in spring 2020 and serving as crisis managers for months on end while dealing with pandemic pressures on their own families. The departures are from the top spots in large cities, including the largest three, New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago, but also in many midsize and smaller districts in suburban and rural areas, according to AASA, the School Superintendents Association. The turnover this year has been unprecedented, superintendents say, with the usual job responsibilities and tensions exacerbated by crisis management and debates with communities and school boards over when and how to reopen schools during the pandemic. Conflicts over equity and education that addressed racial issues also boiled over, with superintendents often feeling the brunt of the disputes. Daniel Domenech, AASA’s executive director, who served as superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools from 1998 to 2004, said he can’t remember a time that was more fraught for those in the top leadership role in school districts. “In this environment, there’s no joy. It’s all like boom, boom, boom, constantly being hammered over one issue or another,” he said.
Washington Post
LEGAL SCOTUS backs college athletes in NCAA compensation fight The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rule on Monday that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) may not bar payments to student-athletes. The decision, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, clears the way for colleges to provide more school-related perks to students like computers, musical instruments and internships; it did not directly touch on the issue of whether athletes may earn money for the use of their names, images and likenesses, but some legal experts say the case could be a prelude to challenges aimed more broadly at compensation restrictions on college athletes.
The Hill
New York Times
Reuters
Lawmakers seek to ban teaching of critical race theory In the wake of a proposed rule from the U.S. Department of Education prioritizing racial, cultural and ethnic diversity in history and civics curriculum nationwide, state legislators are moving to ban the teaching critical race theory (CRT) in schools. The latest proposal came in Washington, D.C., where Rep. Glenn Grothman, a Republican lawmaker from Wisconsin, has introduced legislation to require that no employee of D.C. public and charter schools "shall compel a teacher or student to adopt, affirm, adhere to, or profess ideas that promote race or sex stereotyping or scapegoating." The bill is thought unlikely to pass; the nation's capital is under the authority of Congress, with both chambers in Democratic control. In Montana, meanwhile, Attorney General Austin Knudsen has issued a 25-page legal opinion characterizing critical CRT and antiracism. not as academic ideas but as potentially discriminatory ideologies propped up by universities, corporations, government agencies “and even late-night television.” “The CRT and ‘antiracism’ movements demonstrate that although ‘racism’ is widely understood and accepted as an epithet, it encompasses vastly different meanings for different people,” Knudsen wrote. “The gravamen of CRT and antiracism’s theories, however, rely on the popular shibboleths of ‘systemic,’ ‘institutional,’ or ‘structural’ racism. A minimal investigation into these claims exposes them as hollow rhetorical devices devoid of any legally sufficient rationale for purposes of civil rights law, as well as a threat to the stability of our institutions.”
Montana Free Press
Washington Examiner
OPERATIONS Ways that librarians can support teachers and students amid reopenings As schools return to full-time, in-person learning, school librarians are in a unique position to lead efforts to incorporate social-emotional learning into back-to-school plans and help students reacclimate. “Some of the key facets of social-emotional learning — communication and social skills, inclusivity and community, growth mindset and problem-solving, character and kindness, and reflection — are all areas in which librarians can offer support schoolwide,” argues Liz Bowie, marketing content manager for library supplier Demco. To further support the development of SEL skills, school librarians can create displays of books and reading lists that highlight a wide range of perspectives, sharing literature that communicates the experiences of diverse populations, Ms. Bowie said. Librarians can also help teachers address social-emotional learning topics with the stories they select and read aloud to classes. These selections can help students cope with issues confronting them and their families, provide academic enrichment, inspire students to read on their own, and make children laugh to help them relax.
K-12 Dive
TECHNOLOGY Utilizing technology to assess student progress In a piece for Education Week Seth Feldman, superintendent of the Bay Area Technology School in Oakland, California discusses how his school supported its students through the pandemic by gathering and acting on "forward-looking data." The district uses two tools, Lexplore and i-Ready, to gather data three times a year. i-Ready is an adaptive assessment that takes 30-90 minutes each for math and reading to administer. Lexplore uses eye-tracking and artificial intelligence to assess reading skills in less than five minutes. It also provides information that a more traditional assessment simply can’t, such as fluency during silent reading and audio and video recordings of eye-tracking sessions. The tools create a data set to help understand where a student is, what they might be struggling with, and how they can be supported moving forward.
Education Week
OTHER How Betsy DeVos' legacy is manifest in schools Five months after former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos left office, an array of conservative politicians and advocacy groups is working to preserve her policy agenda. Her advocacy of charter schools, her efforts to change how accusations of sexual misconduct are treated, and her directives to promote a rosier view of American history and “patriotic” education, have been taken up by figures such as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). Mr. Paxton is defending DeVos’ Title IX rule from a barrage of lawsuits, while Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has signed a law creating the “1836 Project,” a reference to the year Texas declared independence from Mexico. Mr. Scott, a staunch supporter of school choice, made a strong case for the DeVos-era policy agenda item in his rebuttal to Biden’s first address to Congress in April. “I’m saddened that millions of kids have lost a year of learning when they could not afford to lose a single day,” he said. “Our public schools should have reopened months ago. Other countries’ did. Private and religious schools did.” A survey released by the American Federation for Children, which DeVos led before joining the Trump administration, in January found that 72% of K-12 parents who work full-time support school choice, and 79% support Education Freedom Scholarship legislation. The freedom scholarship measure, a favorite of DeVos, aimed to provide federal tax credits for donations to scholarship-granting organizations to pay for students to attend private schools or expand their public education options.
Politico
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