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The U.S. Department of Education has asked state education agencies to prioritize schools that are inclusive, equitable, and meet students’ social and emotional needs, when it comes to distributing the $1bn they are receiving to improve school safety. The money is allocated through Title IV-A of the Every Student Succeeds Act. The department has titled the new grant funding the “Stronger Communities” grant program. The program provides the grants to state education agencies, which administer the funds to local districts. In a "Dear Colleague" letter dated September 15th, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona encouraged state agencies to give the money to schools with high rates of poverty and one of the following characteristics: a high student-to-mental health professional ratio; high rates of chronic absenteeism, exclusionary discipline, referrals to the juvenile justice system, bullying, harassment, community and school violence, or substance abuse; or schools that recently experienced a natural disaster or traumatic event. Examples of such initiatives include  Vermont’s PATH Forward program to provide targeted wellness supports for educators and Iowa’s partnership with a university for professional development opportunities

 

Education Week

K12 Dive

Accelerate Language, Accelerate Literacy

Bilingualism is an advantage and something our students should be proud of—they speak hundreds of different languages with different syntax, grammar, and vocabulary, and this diversity means they each have unique needs when it comes to literacy.

Join us for the third annual Emergent Bilingual Week, October 17-21, 2022! Lexia Learning presents a series of expert-led webinar sessions that explore important aspects of supporting multilingual students, including the acceleration of English language learning, the role of oral language in literacy instruction, language learning efficacy and research, how educators can leverage artificial intelligence, and much more!

The webinars are free. Attendees will earn CE certificates for PD hours and teacher license renewal.

Register today!

 

San Antonio police searched Jefferson High School Tuesday afternoon, after false reports of a shooting sent the school into a lockdown. Officers said they found no evidence to suggest there was an active threat or that a shooting may have occurred at the location, according to a San Antonio Police Department statement. San Antonio ISD also confirmed there was no evidence that a shooting occurred. Nevertheless, concerned parents rushing to the school on hearing of the lockdown clashed with police as they reportedly tried to get inside to retrieve their children. At the root of Tuesday's conflict were fears stemming from the Robb Elementary shooting in May. Videos taken outside the school showed parents pleading with local officers to let them into the school to rescue their children during a standoff that lasted more than an hour.

 

KSAT	My San Antonio

Angélica Ramsey officially started in the role of Fort Worth ISD superintendent on Tuesday night after signing a contract that runs through to August 31st 2025. The new leader will make a base salary of $335,000 with opportunities to make an additional $25,000 per year for meeting goals set by the board. Ms. Ramsey, who joins from Midland ISD and replaces Kent Scribner, said she would be visiting schools on her first day on the job today. “That's what I said I was gonna do, that's how I lead and that's how we're starting to hear from our teachers to talk to our students to start having those conversations in an informal setting so that we can build trust so that we can have the ability to have those deeper conversations about what our community thinks we do really well and where our community thinks that we need to improve,” she said. “There's always room for improvement, and we're on our way to being an A district.” At Midland, she is being replaced on an interim basis by chief operating officer Kellie Spencer. 

 

Dallas Morning News

Midland Reporter-Telegram

Star-Telegram

John E. Chapman III has been picked by the Comal ISD board as the lone finalist for superintendent. Currently superintendent at Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, he takes the helm from Mandy Epley, who has served as interim leader since Andrew Kim submitted his resignation earlier this year. “We didn’t make a decision for tomorrow, we made a decision for this generation and future generations,” Comal ISD Board President Jason York said. “The announcement of our new superintendent is just going to continue to move the needle and raise the bar for all Comal students.”

 

Herald Zeitung

San Antonio Express-News

The Office of Head Start (OHS), the federal program within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that provides preschool and childcare services to low-income families, will soon be dropping its universal masking rule for its grant recipients. A specific date was not provided, but the finalized rule is expected to be issued sometime in the coming weeks. This move comes about a month after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued more lenient COVID-19 guidance regarding several mitigation methods, including masking and quarantining.

 

The Hill

Michael Tubb, Longview ISD's board president, said Tuesday that a $2.5m settlement with the families of special needs students at the root of a child abuse investigation at J.L. Everhart Elementary School was "necessary for all students and their families to heal and proceed forward." J.L. Everhart is one of six campuses overseen by East Texas Advanced Academies (ETAA), a charter school that operates within Longview ISD. The investigation came to light after the resignation earlier this year of Dr. Cynthia Wise, who previously led ETAA. She received a $350,000 payment when she resigned. This summer six former educators were arrested on various charges related to the investigation, including injuring a child and unlawful restraint: former J.L. Everhart teacher’s aide Paula Hawkins Dixon, 59; former special education teacher Cecilia Gregg, 57; former Principal Cassandra Renee James, 48; former International Baccalaureate teacher Priscilla Rosa Johnson, 56; former Curriculum Coordinator/Assistant Principal Linda Kay Browne Lister, 61; and former teacher’s aide Cynthia Denise Talley, 55. The $2.5m settlement will be split among the 10 students, with each receiving $250,000. 

 

Longview News-Journal

In one of the most sweeping examples of the increasing politicization of school board races across the United States, New York-based 1776 Project PAC endorsed more than 100 school board candidates this year in states including Florida, Texas, Virginia and Pennsylvania. With financial backing from a group with ties to billionaire Richard Uihlein, the group also invested heavily into helping candidates get elected. In Florida for example, 1776 PAC endorsed 49 candidates throughout 21 counties and spent approximately $400,000 combined in mailings, text messages and other election messaging throughout the state. “I was trying to target Republicans that would normally vote in the midterm, but not necessarily in primary, and encourage them to vote for conservative school board members,” said 1776 Project PAC founder Ryan Girdusky in an interview about the group's efforts in the state.

 

Politico

A fresh report by the Advocacy Institute nonprofit cautions state special education offices to avoid setting low expectations for students with disabilities in the wake of disrupted learning and services during the pandemic. The nonprofit organization examined State Performance Plans’ Indicator 3B, which measures proficiency levels for children with individualized education programs on state assessments in reading and math for grades 4, 8, and high school. Some state plans only show targets with minimal improvements, while others have more ambitious goals. In Kansas, for instance, the baseline 4th grade math proficiency from the 2020-21 school year is 13.16%, while the target proficiency rate for the 2025-26 school year is 13.76%. Idaho’s 2018-19 baseline 4th grade math proficiency level is 16.13% and sets a target proficiency rate for the 2025-26 school year of 16.89%. Meanwhile, Texas has a baseline 4th grade math proficiency performance from the 2020-21 school year of 13.25% and a target proficiency rate for the 2025-26 school year of 40%.

 

K12 Dive

Education Cannot Wait, the United Nations' global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, is calling on world leaders to provide $1.5bn in urgent funding to help it reach 20m crisis-impacted children in the next four years. Its new Case for Investment and 2023-2026 Strategic Plan outlines a value-proposition "to create a world where all children and adolescents affected by crises can learn free of cost, in safety and without fear," including important details on the Fund's efforts to address the climate crisis, engage the private sector, ensure gender equality, catalyze political support, and enhance flexible and high-impact interventions to reach those left furthest behind. "Our case for investment is our case for humanity. It is our collective plea to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and universal human rights," said ECW Director Yasmine Sherif.

 

PR Newswire