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The U.S. Department of Education has announced Stronger Connections grants totaling nearly $1bn, to help schools provide all students with safe and supportive learning opportunities and environments that are critical for their success. State education agencies (SEAS) must award these funds competitively to high-need local educational agencies (LEAs), as determined by the state, to fund activities allowable under section 4108 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). As part of the announcement, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona sent chief state school officers a Dear Colleague Letter outlining three principles that SEAs are strongly encouraged to consider when designing a competitive grant competition and providing LEAs with direction for how they use these funds: to implement comprehensive, evidence-based strategies to to create positive, inclusive and supportive school environments; to engage with students, families, educators and staff on the deployment of these strategies; and to ensure that they are responsive to underserved students, protect student rights, and demonstrate respect for student dignity and potential.

 

US Department of Education

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!

 

Ileana Najarro explores how school districts across the United States have had to devise innovative programs and initiatives, as well as creative funding models to sustain such efforts, to better support immigrant students. Whether they’re refugees or migrants, or the children of newly-hired workers, innovative spending has been a necessity, she suggests, thanks to the uneven distribution of federal funds for these students. Districts that see a significant increase in their immigrant student population can be eligible for grants through a portion of Title III funding allotted to their state for supporting English learners, but many in the education community argue this isn’t enough to sustain the work required to support students beyond their linguistic and academic needs. While many struggle to do so, some districts have been able to piece together different funding sources and prioritize these students. At the Elk Grove Unified district in California for example, where students speak some 126 languages, mental health therapists specifically for newcomer and refugee families now provide support. “Quality of an education shouldn’t depend on your ZIP code,” asserts Patricia Dawson, director of English as a Second Language and bilingual programs at Coppell ISD in Texas, which has worked to build out an extensive array of wraparound services. “The services and academics and resources and advocacy shouldn’t be devalued, based on a perceived funding source, or distribution thereof.”

 

Education Week

The Prince George's County School System in Maryland is to change how it trains staff and administrators after settling a lawsuit with a transgender teacher who says she suffered abuse and harassment in the district. The settlement includes monetary compensation and requires policy and training changes that will protect transgender students and staff. The Board of Education says its policy changes include “mandatory training around LGBTQ+ inclusive learning environments for staff and administrators, a systemic policy and AP outlining Inclusive Environments for LGBTQIA+ individuals, support for student-led clubs and Gender and Sexuality Alliances and a strategic plan built around educational equity.”

 

CNN Edition

A report from Chiefs for Change, a membership organization of state and local education leaders, suggests that effective school procurement procedures can have significant positive effects on finances, staff workloads and student learning. The report details eight procurement goals to help district leaders determine what’s working and what needs improvement. Under those guidelines, procurement procedures should demonstrate a clear and measurable vision, follow all relevant laws and regulations, provide high-quality customer service for end users, operate in alignment with the district’s environmental, social and governance goals, match the district’s strategic goals, include enough staff and technology supports, and to strive to always provide value and savings for districts.

 

K12 Dive

School districts in Michigan have already spent $1.6bn of federal aid to help support students and crumbling school infrastructure, and laid plans to spend billions more, but prudent finance leaders still face a deep, complex task in spending the remainder of the money ahead of the federal deadline. By summer 2021, when the most recent audited school finance data was released, the combined reserves of Michigan school districts had grown by 37%, from $2.4bn pre-pandemic to $3.3bn, according to the Citizens Research Council of Michigan think tank. “Schools are as flush as they’ve ever been in history,” says Craig Thiel, research director for the CRC. Chad Aldeman however, a policy director of the Edunomics Lab, a nonpartisan think tank based at Georgetown University, cautions: “This year and probably the next school year look pretty healthy. But the medium term looks a lot scarier. How do we make investments that respond to the needs of today without putting districts in a hole in a few short years?” Others are warning that slow spending could feed a public perception that districts are sitting on federal dollars meant for students, which could haunt future funding tussles. “The school rescue funds were designed to help students now,” comments Thomas Morgan, a spokesman for the Michigan Education Association. “I know administrators will say they’re saving money for a rainy day, but it’s raining now."

 

Chalkbeat

Wendy Castillo, a lecturer at Princeton University and an expert in "QuantCrit," which is described as the intersection of data, education, social justice and critical race theory, asserts that schools need much-improved information on Latino students to inform specific policies and practices that might improve their education experiences, including those related to hiring and training staff, implementing culturally responsive education and implementing ethnic studies. She recommends collecting data on students' country of origin, as is being done for students in Washington State and Portland Public Schools, collecting data on Afro-Latino and indigenous tribal affiliations, asking students about formal schooling in their country of origin, language options, particularly Indigenous languages, that may be relevant to the population served, and also collecting data on recency of immigration.

 

The 74

While brick-and-mortar school districts across the country desperately work to fill vacant teaching positions, online schools say they are often attracting far more candidates than they can hire. An extreme example comes at Lowcountry Connections Academy, an online school in South Carolina. Before school started this fall, the cyber academy posted four new teacher openings and received roughly 1,050 applications for the roles. School leader GeRita Connor says: "This is year 20 for me in education, year 10 as a leader. That’s the most applications I’ve received in my life." Research from the U.S. Government Accountability Office using pre-pandemic data shows students at online schools score far worse on academic tests than their peers learning in-person however, even when factoring in race, poverty level and disability status. Heather Schwartz, a researcher at the Rand Corporation who has studied virtual schools during the pandemic, is among those worried about the continued trend toward more families and teachers engaging in online education. “Until we have proof the virtual schools can perform just as well — for at least some students — as traditional public schools, yeah, I’m concerned,” she says.

 

The 74 (Online)

A Denver-based nonprofit hopes to relieve some of Colorado schools' workforce pressures by expanding its alternative licensure program and contracting new teachers to stay in their districts for three years. The Public Education & Business Coalition’s plans are part of a new initiative that relies on “pay for success” financing, a funding mechanism in which outside investors cover up-front costs and get paid back later with public money if certain goals are met. The three-year project aims to reduce teacher turnover and cut the costs associated with recruiting, onboarding, and training new teachers. This year, 35 prospective teachers and seven districts, including Aurora, Adams 12, and Durango, are participating in the project. Over three years, coalition leaders seek to mint 335 new teachers, including a significant number of teachers of color.

 

Trainers Adda

A 14-year-old boy was killed and four other teens wounded in a shooting after a football scrimmage outside Roxborough High School in Philadelphia late Tuesday afternoon, marking the 23rd shooting death of a child this year. As the city continues to weather a surge in gun violence, Roxborough High junior varsity football players had left the field and were headed to their locker-room when four shooters who’d been waiting in a car parked outside the field, jumped out and shot a volley of bullets towards the group of boys, police said.

 

Fox News

Over 3m children in Pakistan may miss a semester of school due to extreme flooding damage to schools within the country. Although local authorities have set up temporary learning centers in areas affected by the flooding in an effort to continue the children's education, the Associated Press reports, officials say that given the scale of destruction, the centers may not be enough to keep children in school. About 24,000 schools around the country have been affected by floods, disrupting the education of close to 3.5m children, according to a World Bank report released Wednesday. The unprecedented flooding began in June, with the United Nations attributing the disaster to climate change. Prior to the floods, three in four Pakistani children were in “learning poverty,” meaning that they do not know how to read or understand simple text by the age of 10. With the widespread destruction of schools, the World Bank estimates "learning poverty" could go up 5%.

 

Washington Examiner

Chicago Public Schools has just 322,000 students this year, a decline of 8,000 students, pushing it down a notch to the fourth-largest U.S. school district. CPS trails Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida, which has seen its enrollment increase to 325,000. CPS officials said enrollment declined in elementary schools but held steady in high schools. Preschool enrollment is up by 6%. Enrollment in CPS is down 81,000 students over the last decade.

 

Chicago Sun Times