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The Illinois General Assembly has passed legislation to require 30 minutes of recess for elementary school children during normal school days. If Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs the legislation, Senate Bill 654 will take effect in the fall. State Rep. Aaron Ortiz, D-Chicago, a former teacher, sponsored the measure in the House. “Time for recess and play has dropped drastically in the last 30 years – even though there are so many benefits for children,” Ortiz said. “I am honored to have been a part of getting this bill passed.” Because play at recess is unstructured, it gives children the opportunity to be creative and explore, Ortiz said. Children have a chance to develop social skills. “Physical activity has both mental and physical health benefits – even more so for children who are diagnosed with hyperactivity,” Ortiz said. “Play helps mitigate anxiety, depression and stress.”

 

The Center Square

Chicago Public Schools has unveiled Skyline, its new, centralized $135m curriculum. It covers various subjects, including English, math, Spanish, and French, and offers  comprehensive lessons that teachers can customize. Each unit includes options for English language learners, mini-lessons for enrichment, and materials teachers can use to assess learning. The district will make materials, all online, available via Google Docs that teachers can comment on, add suggestions for improvement, and adapt. That customization, a panel of experts organized by the district said Thursday, makes Skyline stand out among curriculum projects undertaken by large public school districts.

 

Chalkbeat

The District 233 school board approved a three-year contract with the Homewood-Flossmoor Education Organization representing more than 200 H-F High teachers and instructional assistants. The contract, which extends to August 2024, provides for an average raise of 3.02%. To remain competitive with surrounding high school districts, the contract calls for increasing the first step of the pay scale covering salaries for teachers with bachelor’s degrees and bachelor’s degree plus 15 additional college credit hours. Jodi Bryant, the district’s director of human resources and one of the members of the negotiating team, called the contract a “fiscally responsible, mutually beneficial collective bargaining agreement.”

 

Homewood-Flossmoor Chronicle

Elmhurst Community Unit School District 205 board members have been given updates on referendum-funded construction projects at three of the district’s elementary schools. The original planned projects planned for the $168.5m referendum proceeds are running over budget, with completed and in-process work expected to come in about $8.7m over budget, or about 5.2%. The district has about $38m in its reserves, more than enough to cover the overage, along with some additional work proposed 

 

Chicago Tribune

As questions over whether and how racism should be discussed in the classroom continue to dominate headlines across the country, a new national EdWeek Research Center survey found that about a third of K-12 educators support legislative efforts to restrict classroom discussions on the topic. The survey, completed last month, found that while 59% of participating teachers, principals, and district leaders believe systemic racism exists, 23% said they do not believe so. Educators interviewed by Education Week largely said the survey results matched their experiences in schools, many of which have historically excluded these conversations. Montana’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen, who identifies as a 4th generation Montanan and has spoken out against critical race theory in schools, said in a statement that she and parents across Montana were “concerned that certain exercises and lessons based on critical race theory and similar ideologically driven teaching have the potential to discriminate against Montana students’ civil rights.” Nevertheless, its unclear to what degree K-12 educators are explicitly teaching the concepts of critical race theory, which originated from a framework for legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s. “Those would have to be some pretty advanced kids to read through [Richard] Delgado or [Kimberlé] Crenshaw, or Derrick Bell’s work,”  said Janel George, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

 

Education Week

As states implement computer science standards, developing a computer science teacher pipeline is a must for districts seeking to take steps to accelerate the process. In some instances partner organizations, like CodeVa in Virginia, for example, can work with schools to develop the pipeline, by working it into other subject areas, merging data science and social studies to allow students to look at history through a data-driven lens. Additionally, Hour of Code activities allow students to learn about coding through short, interesting activities, such as creating animation to illustrate a story.

 

K-12 Dive

America’s public school system lost almost 1.3m students this year, according to an Education Week analysis of state data, a loss that was spread out across the nation, touching almost every demographic group and concentrated in lower grades. The near-3% dip in the 2020-21 school year was likely fueled by the pandemic and the unusual ways school districts delivered instruction this year, which involved frequent switching between in-person, hybrid, and glitchy remote learning. “When you already have pre-existing issues like poverty and the digital divide, and then you shut down the one place that is positioned to help close those gaps, you probably see that most districts have experienced an enrollment drop,” said Sharlonda Buckman, the assistant superintendent of Detroit Public Schools. “Most of our children work best in a school building with their teachers with all of the assets that position them to do well in their schoolwork.” Most of the nation’s enrollment drop took place in the early grades. At least four states lost more than a third of their pre-K students, the largest of which was Washington state, where pre-K enrollment dropped by 42% this year. Kindergarten enrollment also took a big hit, with almost 20 states losing 10% or more of their kindergartners during the pandemic, compared to the 2019-20 school year. In most states, parents are not required to send students to kindergarten, which contributed to the enrollment drop, said Erin Simon, the assistant superintendent of the Long Beach Unified School District. “We know that showing up to kindergarten is a key year for laying the foundation for future success,” said Hedy Chang, founder of Attendance Works, a national initiative that advocates for better public school attendance. “It’s where kids have a chance to not only gain their basic academic concepts, but also, socialization and social-emotional development.”

 

Education Week

The Copper Development Association, 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. “We’re honored and excited to support the transition to electric bus fleets, which will create jobs and infrastructure opportunities and highlight American manufacturing leadership,” said John Hipchen, director of energy and electrical systems at the Copper Development Association. “To reach these goals, we are calling for $25bn in federal grant funding (enough to replace 20% of the current diesel school bus fleet) as part of current infrastructure package negotiations.”

 

School Bus Fleet