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National Education Association (NEA) President Becky Pringle speaks to NPR about school staffing issues, and the burnout that has more teachers thinking about leaving their jobs. The NEA recently surveyed its members, and found that more than half are planning to leave their jobs, due to additional workloads, responsibilities, and parental expectations. "You know, all of us are exhausted. Our parents are exhausted. Our kids are not just exhausted. They're fearful about their future," Ms. Pringle said. "But what's different here is we are actually being blamed and attacked, physically attacked, let alone verbally attacked, our families threatened. What - in what other space is that happening? So in addition to the stress, there is fear and this - that weight of the divisiveness within your community that is making it even harder to continue to educate our students."

 

NPR

Dual language assessment for students

Long-standing inequities in educational opportunities for Spanish-speaking students reveal a critical need for assessment in both English and Spanish in early literacy.

Amplify has developed an infographic that highlights the setbacks Spanish-speaking students suffer when assessed only in English and not in their native language, a limitation that holds students back from their true potential as readers.

Dual language assessment offers a chance for educators with significant Spanish-speaking student populations to level the playing field, an initiative more important than ever with students back in classrooms.

Download now

 

Stafford MSD is to hire an outside law firm to investigate Superintendent Robert Bostic’s contract as well as a Level 3 grievance filed by the district’s chief financial officer. The reasons for the moves have not been disclosed. Discussion on the action items took place behind closed doors before trustees emerged and voted 5-1 to hire Austin-based firm Sara Leon & Associates, PLLC to investigate the superintendent’s contract and a Level 3 grievance filed by the CFO. The board voted to table a third agenda item, calling for consideration and possible action on reorganizing the board’s officers, citing the absence of President Christopher Caldwell.

 

Fort Bend Star

Laredo ISD announced Tuesday that its schools will continue with virtual classes in selected campuses due to the ongoing water repairs throughout the city. A boil water notice spanning the majority of the city is impacting the Laredo area for the third time in two and a half years. Fourteen campuses will switch to remote instruction today, as will a number of United ISD campuses.

 

Laredo Morning Times

Proposed changes to Austin ISD elementary school schedules are causing concern for some art, music, and physical education teachers. The district says changes are necessary to give grade-level teachers more planning time in an effort to improve student success in core subjects such as math, reading, and science. As a result, the plan could have students logging fewer minutes learning fine arts while spending more time in physical education class. However, some physical educators worry larger class sizes could mean lower quality P.E. and a higher risk for injury. Currently, AISD elementary students visit art, music and P.E. classes for 45 minutes every three days. Under the proposed plan students would have art, and music once a week for 60 minutes and P.E. daily. The proposal would also double elementary P.E. sizes to the state maximum of one instructor for every 45 students. "As we consider equity and as we consider whole-child learning, taking away from the arts and putting a lot more bodies into a gym is not what's best for kids," said Blazier Elementary School music teacher Loren Tarnow.

 

CBS Austin

IDEA Public Schools has confirmed the death of acting superintendent and interim CEO Al Lopez. He was the second person to take the reins at IDEA since the district replaced founder and CEO Tom Torkelson in April 2020 after criticism of the spending decisions at the system arose. Mr. Torkelson was replaced by Superintendent JoAnn Gama, a co-founder of IDEA, who was herself was replaced by Mr. Lopez a little over a year later on the heels of a forensic review of financial activities of senior IDEA executives. “His impressive career and unwavering service to IDEA and his community attest to the transformational power of education,” a statement from the school system said. “We extend our heartfelt sympathy to Al’s family, friends, and the many others who knew and admired him. It is important that we give the Lopez family time to process their loss. We will provide an official announcement in the coming days.”

 

The Monitor

Nationally representative data from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) suggest that public schools were at a disadvantage in many areas when compared to private schools during the first phase of coronavirus shutdowns. While 58% of private school principals said their students could get internet service in spring 2020, only 4% of public school principals reported the same. Private school teachers were almost twice as likely (61% versus 32%) as public school teachers to say they had real-time interactions with a majority of their students. Sixty-three percent of private school teachers reported real-time instruction that allowed students to ask questions through a video or audio call, compared to 47% of public school teachers. A slightly higher percentage of private schools used paper materials during distance learning than public schools (48% versus 41%). “Principals around the country took extraordinary measures to get their students online during the pandemic,” NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr said, calling the pandemic an “unprecedented time.” Yet despite the work principals put in to get students connected, there were also disparities between the employee experiences of public and private school teachers: Private school teachers were more than twice as likely as those in public schools to strongly agree they had the support and resources they needed to be effective, at 37% and 17%, respectively.

 

K-12 Dive

Texas A&M University’s Faculty Senate has stressed the importance of academic freedom, in response to Lt. Gov Dan Patrick's recent attacks on the tenure process and critical race theory. The organization, representing faculty at the state’s largest university, is the latest to affirm professors’ ability to decide what they teach. University of Texas at Austin’s Faculty Council last Monday issued its own nonbinding resolution upholding their freedom to teach about race and gender theory, causing Patrick to announce his intent to ban tenure for all new hires at public universities. The Republican leader also said he hopes to introduce legislation designating the teaching of critical race theory as “good cause” for tenure revocation. The A&M Faculty Senate statement on Monday openly criticized state officials but did not name Patrick. “Whereas the recent rhetoric of Texas state officials opposed to tenure and teaching about issues of race in the classroom is damaging the reputation and future of public higher education in Texas,” the statement begins. Patrick’s announcement Friday worried many scholars, who cited academic freedom’s bearing on tenure and faculty recruitment. The A&M Faculty Senate noted the same in its statement, adding that academic freedom is the foundation of universities and is affirmed in the 1940 statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, from the American Association of University Professors.

 

Houston Chronicle

Dallas ISD is trying to better position itself to retain coaches and attract new coaches by giving head football coaches in the district a pay raise. From the next school year, the district is providing a one-time salary adjustment of $15,000 to current head football coaches and will adjust the pay range for that position. Future candidates will be hired based on the revised pay range. “We are just looking at the salaries within the market. We did a market adjustment,” Dallas ISD executive director of athletics Silvia Salinas said. “We just thought it was something our coaches deserved. We were in the middle of the market, maybe toward the low end, but we weren’t even competitive with some of the other surrounding districts.” Dallas ISD said the adjustment will place the district’s head football coaches among the highest paid coaches within North Texas, increasing the average salary to more than $122,000. The pay range will now start at $95,000, up from $84,000.

 

Dallas Morning News

Copperas Cove High School Lady Dawg volleyball coach, Cari Lowery, has been promoted to Copperas Cove ISD Athletic Director, and is one of only 30 female athletic directors in Texas’ 1,032 school districts. Under her leadership, Copperas Cove High School volleyball has appeared in the state playoffs 27 times in Lowery’s 29 years at CCISD. Additionally, Copperas Cove High School’s new head football coach is Tony Johnson who most recently served as a high school athletic director in Dallas ISD. Johnson took his team to a winning season for the first time in 20 years and was chosen coach of the week in Texas by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football. Johnson has 28 years as an experienced athletic executive in education and coaching, creating culture in education-based athletics.

 

KWTX

Laredo ISD has established its first ever mariachi group at Farias Elementary School. Mariachi Los Halcónes del Oeste is composed of 23 fourth and fifth graders; the music selected for the students to practice is practical for their ability and introduces them to some of the traditional mariachi styles. The goal of the mariachi program is to give students the opportunity to learn an instrument before entering middle school. Furthermore, it provides the students the chance to play a musical style that connects to the heritage of their community.

 

Laredo Morning Times