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USA
21st June 2021
 
THE HOT STORY
New book examines how school districts turned around their fortunes
The Washington Post takes a look at Districts That Succeed: Breaking the Correlation Between Race, Poverty, and Achievement, a new book from education writer Karin Chenoweth. The book uses six case studies to explain in detail how some educators have managed to defy low expectations, despite an undertow of routine in their schools. Ms Chenoweth offers five reasons for big jumps in achievement in unexpected places: Those districts had effective leaders, collaborative teachers, involved families, supportive environments and ambitious instruction. At Chicago Public Schools, she describes the investment of the Chicago Community Trust in credentialing teachers in math, science, reading and history, so middle schools could rise from mediocrity. The district agreed to expose itself to regular federal assessments of student progress. It trained and sent reading specialists to 114 struggling schools, and placed an emphasis on engaging ninth-graders.  In 2011, 48% of Chicago’s fourth-graders met basic standards for reading. In 2015, 67% of that same group met basic standards for eighth-graders. No other urban district measured by federal tests had shown that kind of increase in that period of time.
FINANCE
Texas districts call for virtual schools funding bill
Thirty school districts in Texas, including Houston, Aldine, Conroe, Goose Creek Consolidated, Klein, San Antonio and Spring ISDs, have signed a letter to urge Gov. Greg Abbott to add legislation funding virtual learning to any special session for other proposed laws. A bill that would have ensured districts receive funding for each student enrolled in online-only classes died after Democrats broke quorum to kill a controversial voting bill. There is no new statutory framework authorizing remote instruction without the legislation, according to the Texas Education Agency, which used disaster authority for the 2020-21 school year to OK funding for remote instruction. That authority cannot however be used for the new school year.
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. 
WORKFORCE
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.
Modesto City Schools to hire parent ambassadors
Modesto City Schools in California is preparing to launch a Parent Ambassadors program for the upcoming school year, as part of an initiative to better engage families with their children's educations. A total of $300,000 has been agreed to fund the program's first year, covering the cost of hiring 12 initial ambassadors — seven elementary, two junior high and four high school — and an ambassador coordinator. The ambassadors, who will be part-time employees, will spread their hours across schools to make sure all are covered. Responsibilities will include calling families to share information on after-school programs, greeting parents and handing out flyers at school, recruiting for the English-learner parent advisory committee, attending open houses and spreading the word on tutoring information.
Minnesota's 'grow your own' teaching programs boosting diversity
In the five years since Minnesota initiated "Grow Your Own" grant programs to recruit teachers, the state has successfully expanded educator preparation programs for paraprofessionals and high school students of color. Minnesota is one of nine states that has a statewide competitive grant for GYO program development and, since the 2016-17 school year, has allocated $1.5 million annually to fund the paraprofessional and high school pathways to boost the state’s supply of teachers. The teacher workforce is still not representative of the student population, as only 4.3% of licensed teachers in the state are educators of color compared to 33.5% of students of color, so Minnesota and other states have much to do if they are to follow recommendations from the U.S. Department of Education that schools facilitate programming that increases teacher diversity and qualifications as part of their pandemic recovery efforts.
GOVERNANCE
State to continue monitoring Chicago's special education provision
The Illinois State Board of Education has approved another year of state oversight of Chicago Public Schools’ special education program. A state monitor has overseen Chicago’s special education department since 2018, after a report found that the district systematically delayed and denied services to students with disabilities, in violation of federal and state laws. A bill to extend the deadline until fall 2022 for parents to file complaints for missed special education services passed both houses of the legislature and is heading to the governor’s office.
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.
LEGISLATION
More 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." 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.”
STUDENTS
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.
TEACHING
Idaho drops college entrance exam requirement
Higher education institutions in Idaho no longer have to require entrance exams for admissions. TJ Bliss, the Idaho State Board of Education's chief academic officer, comments: “There's a growing body of research suggesting that college entrance exam scores don't predict success and that (grade-point average) and other factors are more important, and our institutions have recognized that,” adding: “There's a national movement away from college entrance exams, so another compelling argument is competition.”
Guidance for N.C. social studies standards approved
The N.C. State Board of Education has voted 7-3 to approve guiding documents for new social studies standards which place greater emphasis on race and gender in teaching U.S. history. The vote means that the K-12 social studies glossary, strand map, crosswalk, and K-5 “unpacking documents” were approved. The decision comes as lawmakers in the General Assembly are weighing legislation to delay implementation of the standards, which are scheduled to go into effect this fall, by one year. Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt comments: “The most significant way that we ensure that various groups of people are not left out, is that we are leaving it in the hands of our teachers to determine what they’re going to do.” During the meeting last week, staff reported that 88% of comments from the public received so far have been urging the board to resist injecting critical race theory into public school classrooms.
TRANSPORTATION
Pittsburgh Schools tackling transportation challenges
Pittsburgh Public Schools is looking to fill a transportation gap that could leave thousands of students without a ride this fall, if significant changes are not made by the time classes resume. To help relieve the issue, the district proposed increasing walk zones around schools, moving additional students to Port Authority transportation, and implementing a multi-tiered bus schedule by adjusting start and end times at some schools. Expanding walk zones to 1½ miles around select district schools would eliminate the need for 22 buses and impact 760 students. At non-district schools, four buses could be eliminated with about 50 students being affected. With all students expected to return to classes in person in the fall, Michael McNamara, the district’s interim operations chief, explains that the school system is short 9,117 bus seats for children. There are 15,716 students eligible for school-provided transportation in the city, which includes students who attend district schools as well as charter and parochial schools.
Electric school bus coalition launched
The Copper Development Association (CDA), a market development, engineering, and information services arm of the copper industry, has announced the launch of a new coalition dedicated to promoting the expansion of electric school bus fleets across the U.S. The Electric School Bus Coalition, a group of school bus manufacturers, NGOs and material providers, aims to drive adoption of electric bus fleets and the infrastructure needed to support them through education and actionable, market-driven policy development. John Hipchen, director of energy and electrical systems at the CDA, comments: “We are calling for $25 billion in federal grant funding (enough to replace 20% of the current diesel school bus fleet) as part of current infrastructure package negotiations.”

 

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