NATIONAL NEWS Ed Dept announces communities of practice to accelerate learning, support kindergartners The U.S. Department of Education has introduced a new community of practice that aims to assist states and school districts plan and pay for evidence-based programs to help accelerate learning for students, particularly those most impacted by the ongoing pandemic. A second community of practice will investigate strategies to specifically help kindergartners prepare for early school success and learning recovery. This effort will address social-emotional development, family engagement, access disparities to in-person learning and dips in school enrollments. The communities of practice aim to help school systems build capacity to implement interventions so the efforts best address students’ needs. "Students across the country have felt the impact of school building closures as a result of the pandemic," U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement. "While the good news is that nearly 100% of America’s schools have now returned to in-person instruction, we must provide the necessary supports to nurture all students’ social-emotional well-being, mental health, and positive academic outcomes by addressing the impact of lost instructional time."
K-12 Dive
Parents of Michigan school shooting suspect charged with involuntary manslaughter Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of the 15-year-old accused of murdering four students at a high school in Michigan, have been charged with four counts each of involuntary manslaughter; an exceptionally rare move the prosecutor said was warranted by laying out a timeline of "egregious" mistakes and missed opportunities to prevent the shooting. The parents of Ethan Crumbley purchased the handgun used in Tuesday's shooting at Oxford High School, apparently as a Christmas gift for their son on Black Friday, and stored it improperly, said Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald at a news conference midday Friday. Meanwhile, Oxford Community Schools Superintendent Tim Throne has announced that a third party will investigate events at the school prior to the shooting, which left four students dead and six others and a teacher wounded. “It’s critically important to the victims, our staff and our entire community that a full and transparent accounting be made,” he said. On Tuesday, a teacher found a note on Ethan’s desk and took a photo. It was a drawing of a gun pointing at the words, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me,” McDonald said. There also was a drawing of a bullet, she said, with words above it: “Blood everywhere.” Between the gun and the bullet was a person who appeared to have been shot twice and is bleeding, she said. “My life is useless” and “The world is dead” also were written. Ethan Crumbley and both his parents met with school officials at 10 a.m. Tuesday. His parents left, and Ethan went back to his classes with his backpack, where investigators believe he stashed the gun. Authorities were not notified, something that county Sheriff Michael Bouchard said he wishes would have been done.
The Hill
NPR
New York Times
Politico
STATE NEWS Why some California districts are changing how students earn grades Some of California’s largest school districts are trying an unconventional tactic to help students re-engage in school after distance learning and boost their chances of acceptance into the state’s public colleges: by dropping D and F grades. Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento City, San Diego and others are phasing out grades below a C for high school students. If a student fails a test or doesn’t complete their homework, they’ll be able to retake the test and get more time to turn in assignments. The idea is to encourage students to learn the course material and not be derailed by a low grade that could potentially disqualify them from admission to the University of California and California State University. Although education reform advocates have been pushing for this for years, the pandemic offered an opportunity for districts to put it into action. With so many students languishing academically after a year of distance learning, districts see dropping D’s and F’s as a way to help students who had been most impacted by the pandemic, especially Black, Latino and low-income students. But the move is also, potentially, a step toward competency learning. “We need a system that gets beyond the institutional model and provides more meaningful feedback for students,” said Devin Vodicka, former Vista USD superintendent and chief executive of the Learner-Centered Collaborative, a nonprofit that helps districts shift to competency-based learning. “The future is going to require less focus on time and more focus on what we can do and contribute, and the quality of our performance. We need to prepare our students for this.”
EdSource
DISTRICTS Federal appeals court lifts injunction on San Diego vaccine mandate The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted on Saturday to lift a temporary injunction that it had placed on San Diego USD’s student COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The decision, reached by a 2-1 vote, lifts the injunction the court had placed on the mandate about a week ago. Judges had said the injunction would continue as long as the district continued to allow vaccine deferrals for pregnant students. But now that the district has removed that condition, the block has been removed too. The decision is the latest development in a legal battle surrounding a mandate that would restrict in-person learning and on-campus activities among SDUSD students 16 and older to those who are fully vaccinated. The policy would take effect January 24th, and students and staff must be fully vaccinated by December 20th. The district insists it’s a necessary step to ensure students and staff are protected against the coronavirus, but critics say it’s an infringement on personal liberty. A 16-year-old junior at Scripps Ranch High School sued the district in October, alleging that the mandate violated her religious beliefs. Namely, she stated that, as a Christian, she is unwilling to take vaccines developed using aborted fetal cells. The district announced the next day that it had removed the pregnancy deferral. That leaves only a limited number of exemptions, such as doctor-certified medical conditions that would make vaccination unsafe. There’s still no exemption for personal beliefs, but the court ruled that there wasn’t clear evidence the mandate had been created to target anyone’s beliefs.
Los Angeles Times
Berkeley school district may face $6.6m in budget cuts Berkeley USD may face up to $6.6m in budget cuts next year due to declining enrollment, pending an anticipated increase in state funding. The district has seen a decrease of 600 out of 9,800 students over the course of the past two years, according to Superintendent Brent Stephens at the November 16th Superintendent’s Budget Advisory Committee meeting. Berkeley Federation of Teachers President Matt Meyer said annual funding for school districts is determined by a formula that factors in enrollment and attendance. He added that for the past two years, the state did not penalize districts with declining enrollment due to the pandemic in a “hold harmless” agreement. “That ‘hold harmless’ is off for next year, which means that the district has to account for basically an accumulation of three years of declining enrollment,” Meyer said. While Meyer said the increased availability of vaccines may allow some students to return to in-person schooling, he noted the district will not see 600 students return. In addition to declining enrollment, districts also face the loss of pandemic funding from both state and federal governments, according to Michelle Smith McDonald, a spokesperson for the Alameda County Office of Education. She said many districts used these one-time funds to start programs, add staff and respond to the pandemic.
The Daily Californian
OPERATIONS Study suggests low-income districts hit hardest by staff shortages Poorer districts are facing staffing shortages at two to three times the rate of their more affluent counterparts in Washington state, with a University of Washington working paper examining total job postings finding lower-income districts in particular were short on paraeducators, transportation workers, janitors, nurses, special educators and teachers for English language learners. Researchers found that districts are most in need of substitute and special education teachers, followed by elementary, ELL and STEM teachers, which come close to equaling the number of special education postings when added together. The research also shows the districts bearing the brunt of shortages tend to fall under "rural" or "town" classification, though urban districts are seeing the highest rates of STEM teacher vacancies.
K-12 Dive
TECHNOLOGY Tech fatigue beginning to set in among educators Recent survey data from the Clayton Christensen Institute about blended learning suggests that tech fatigue may be starting to set in among educators. Nearly half of the 1,074 educators surveyed by the nonprofit think tank in October said their schools offered blended learning in the past, and 29% said they offer it currently. However, just 9% say they plan to offer blended learning once the pandemic is over. One possible explanation, according to Thomas Arnett, a senior research fellow at the Christensen Institute, is that schools are stretched thin and not ready to dive into less-familiar forms of instruction, such as blended learning. “If a school is back [to full-time, in-person instruction], they’re struggling to get everything to work. Having to do blended learning on top of that is a real challenge,” he said. Additionally the legacy of the 2020-21 school year, in which many kids failed to make much progress learning virtually full-time or in hybrid programs, might have left many educators disappointed about the value of online learning. “Generally, there’s a sense that like, ‘Oh, we tried that online learning stuff, and it wasn’t great. We need to leave that behind,’” Mr. Arnett said.
Education Week
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