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Senate Democrats are making a push to give undocumented immigrants the opportunity to vote in school board elections. The proposal could require the State Board of Education to create an affidavit helping non-citizens register for school board elections. Current bill language requires potential voters to verify they are a parent, legal guardian or caregiver of a student. They must also live within the boundaries of a school district and intent to stay there until the next school board election. Celina Villaneuva (D-Chicago), sponsor of the bill, said families should have the opportunity to play a bigger role in shaping their child’s future. “For too long, these families have been systematically excluded from participating in our democracy even at the most basic level,” she said. The Senate Human Services Committee expects to host several hearings on the proposal before a vote.

 

The Center Square

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

Chicago Public Schools is launching a new virtual academy this fall for students with certain underlying medical conditions, with a late July deadline to enroll. According to school board documents, “It is the intent of the board to have remote learning be an essential part of how we educate students in future school years.” The proposed policy says the district will work on guidelines outlining which students are “best suited to enroll” in remote learning based not just on their health, but also on living situations and academic or disciplinary records. Those guidelines will be updated each year. To be eligible for next fall’s Virtual Academy, students will have to show they have one of a list of medical conditions, divided into two groups. The first category — which includes illnesses such as certain cancers, spina bifida, lupus, and cystic fibrosis — guarantees admission into the academy. The second group — with conditions such as asthma, Down syndrome, diabetes, and cerebral palsy — makes students eligible only if they can also show their attendance is below 75%. Families have until July 22nd to enroll.

 

Chalkbeat

Representatives of High School District 218 plan to meet with Robbins elected officials and residents after that village’s mayor recently expressed misgivings about equity and diversity in district hiring practices. Robbins Mayor Darren Bryant said that Superintendent Ty Harting contacted him following a June 3 column in the Daily Southtown in which columnist Ted Slowik outlined Bryant’s concerns about diversity of hiring in the district. As the district looked to fill the position of head boys basketball coach at Richards High School in Oak Lawn, Bryant was critical of the district passing up a Black candidate who serves as an assistant coach of the varsity team. Specifics of when and where the meeting will take place are still be discussed

 

Chicago Tribune

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

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

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

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.

 

Washington Post

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

Students at the University of Illinois' three campuses will be required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine upon returning in-person for the fall semester, the university's president announced in a systemwide email Monday. The campuses in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield will each institute safety measures and separately unveil vaccination guidance later this summer, in line with recommendations by the American College Health Association. Individuals who plan to work or study remotely will be exempt from the mandate.

 

NBC Chicago

New Canaan Advertiser

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