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A state plan that could triple the number of federally mandated tests Illinois students must take in the coming years has been criticized by some educators and parents who say after the recent loss of classroom learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the last thing kids need is more testing. While the Illinois State Board of Education last week delayed their vote on the proposal, officials have not shelved what some say is an estimated $200m plan that would replace the annual Illinois Assessment of Readiness for students in grades 3 through 8 during the next 10 years with three, interim assessments delivered in the fall, winter and spring of each school year. “Interim testing for students in third through eighth grade is not what Illinois families are asking for,” said Naoma Nagahawatte, advocacy director of Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education, a nonprofit parent group. “Our children are more than test scores, and we can do better,” Nagahawatte said. Katie Osgood, a Chicago Public Schools special education teacher, urged the state board to consider the “racist, devastating impact high-stakes student testing has on our most vulnerable students, and why we must keep testing at the absolute minimum.”

 

Chicago Tribune

The Biden administration is set to issue regulations governing two programs in the American Rescue Plan, as well as the federal law governing the privacy of student records and a pilot for new student assessments, among other priorities. The list of upcoming rules also includes those that would affect magnet schools, charter school facilities, and preschool special education grants. One involves the American Rescue Plan’s $800m earmarked to support homeless students, a group that’s been hit particularly hard by the pandemic. The Education Department says its rules for the program will apply to three-quarters of the funding and will focus on the formula that state education agencies use to provide subgrants to local school districts. The other concerns the relief package’s $2.75bn in relief for private schools; the department says this must go to private schools enrolling “a significant percentage of low-income students” and to “schools most impacted by COVID-19.” The government also plans to issue rules for the testing pilot authorized by the Every Student Succeeds Act, the federal Charter Schools Program that’s designed to help states establish or enhance per-pupil funding for charter school facilities, and the federal Magnet Schools Program that will help “magnet schools that incorporate evidence-based designs and strategies that have been shown to both increase diversity and improve outcomes for students.”

 

Education Week

A bipartisan bill has been reintroduced in the U.S. House, proposing funding to study the impact of active shooter drills on students. Reps. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO), Stephanie Murphy (D-FL) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) are backing the School Safety Drill Research Act, which would give the National Academy of Sciences $1m to research how to prepare for active shooters in ways that are effective and do not cause undue anxiety. “For a practice that is so widespread, we really should not be operating in the dark,” said Rob Wilcox, federal legal director for Everytown for Gun Safety. The group has tried to look at the impact of these experiences on kids. Some are announced ahead of time, so kids know it is coming and are prepared. Others, they get no warning at all. And some go even further, Mr. Wilcox said: "(some schools will do) an unannounced drill where students are caught off guard, (where) an individual is dressed and acting like an intruder and is trying to storm classrooms," carrying and shooting a fake gun. Rep. Perlmutter is optimistic that there’s enough bipartisan support to get the idea to the president’s desk, even though funding for the research was derailed last year at the 11th hour.

 

Education Week

Elmwood Park School District 401 officials are considering a plan to use $4.75m in federal funds to help mitigate costs related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Superintendent Leah Gauthier told School Board members at its June meeting the aim is to restore a regular school schedule in the fall. “We took a look at what are the things that we think are going to be our roadblocks when we go back to our regular five-day-a-week school year,” Gauthier said. “What are our goals? We have three years to spend this money.” The plan Gauthier presented includes the addition of two academic interventionists being added at John Mills and Elmwood Elementary schools and at Elm Middle School. Four interventionists would be added at the high school. The positions would be specifically focused on learning gaps caused by the pandemic. The plan also includes social and emotional support for students, including a community liaison staff member at each school.

 

Chicago Tribune

Decatur Public Schools will offer an extended day program beginning in the fall, to help bridge the child-care gap and offer academic enrichment to students. Ashley Grayned, executive director of innovative programs and strategic planning, said the aim is to have 50 students at each of the 13 sites. The program, available 6 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, is designed to be a safe environment for students before and after school, offering homework support aligned with state learning standards, and enrichment programs that include art, music, physical fitness, recreation, character education and service learning as well as academic activities.

 

The Herald & Review

While most principals have spent time as teachers at some point, there is value in remaining closely connected to the classroom. At the Weilenmann School of Discovery, a charter school outside of Salt Lake City, administrators continue to spend time teaching students, which lets them “walk the walk.” Utilizing this approach can help administrators build credibility and leadership; the school community also benefits when teachers can see the vulnerability in their leaders, who in turn are maintaining firsthand experience of how their decisions impact the classroom. In recent years, principals' roles have also increasingly shifted to that of being an instructional leader. This has included revising principal standards and evaluations, creating additional administrative positions to oversee non-instructional duties, and strengthening the roles of principal supervisors.

 

K-12 Dive

Judith Browne Dianis, executive director of the civil rights organization Advancement Project National Office, looks at how the conversation on the role of police in schools has changed in the 13 months since the murder of George Floyd. The decades-long argument for police-free schools, of which Ms Browne Dianis is an advocate for, has seen numerous districts across the nation, including in Minneapolis, Denver, Seattle, Phoenix, and Portland, severe ties with local police. She goes on to note that "the pendulum seems to be shifting back to business as usual," with federal funding allowing schools to monitor students through anonymous reporting systems, social-media surveillance, and threat-assessment teams that coordinate with law enforcement. Not long after cutting ties with the Minneapolis police department, the city’s school board employed tools to digitally surveil their students, and has hired “school safety specialists” to provide security as a “bridge” between in-school interventions and law enforcement. Ms Browne Dianis describes these as "dangerous and unproven practices" that disproportionately criminalize Black and brown students.

 

Education Week

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

Paul Frazier, a veteran educator and administrator, will serve as Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s vice chancellor for diversity, equity and inclusion, effective July 1st. He joins from the University of South Alabama, where he has served as chief diversity and inclusion officer since 2018. Before that, he was associate vice president for institutional diversity, equity and community engagement at Texas Tech University for five years. 

 

The Southern Illinoisan