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Teaching, Leading, and Social Justice
Trump, Congress, and education in 2018: Eight big questions
Alyson Klein, Education Week
There’s plenty of suspense heading into President Donald Trump’s second year in office when it comes to education, and some big issues on the horizon for the GOP-controlled Congress as well. What will be the fate of the U.S. Department of Education’s budget? Will U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos get to applaud any new school choice initiative? And will Congress prevent hundreds of thousands of “Dreamers” from being deported? Here’s a rundown of what to watch for in Washington over the next 12 months when it comes to K-12.
#MeTooK12: A new hashtag for students sexually assaulted or harassed in K-12 schools
Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post
#MeTooK12 is a new social media hashtag created by a national nonprofit organization, Stop Sexual Assault in Schools (SSAIS), to encourage young people who were sexually harassed or assaulted while attending K-12 schools to speak out. An extension of the #MeToo social media movement, the new hashtag is an effort to highlight sexual harassment and assault at K-12 schools, a problem that has received far less public attention than on college campuses and in the workplace. Accurate data on the extent of the problem is hard to find; a 2017 report by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), which works to advance equity for women and girls, said: AAUW and other organizations have long been skeptical of schools’ low reporting rates when it comes to sexual harassment and bullying. AAUW recently revisited the 2013-14 data from the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) to further examine differences in reported rates by state and differences in the rates at which girls and boys report sexual harassment. The analysis revealed that more than three-fourths (79 percent) of all public schools reported zero incidents of sexual harassment. If these numbers are accurate, 79 percent of schools have zero students coming forward to report cases of sexual harassment — despite many research reports providing evidence that this outcome is statistically impossible.
Inching toward relicensure, one ‘microcredential’ at a time
Stephen Sawchuk, Education Week
Tennessee is one of a handful of states experimenting with “microcredentials” within their continuing education systems. Teachers earn the badges by submitting evidence that they’ve mastered small components of instruction; their submissions are scored by outside reviewers. They can now earn up to five professional-development points for each approved microcredential they complete. (It takes 60 to renew a license.) About 60 teachers piloted the microcredentials last year, and close to 300 are participating this year.
Language, Culture, and Power
Anti-bias curriculum engages preschoolers in discussions
Making the Grade, Education Week
Some California preschools are getting children to participate in conversations about racial differences at an early age.
The intrusion of White families into bilingual schools
Conor Williams, The Atlantic
Stephanie Lugardo’s second-grade classroom at Academia Antonia Alonso in Wilmington, Delaware, is bubbling. Students chatter with one another as they work, smiling and joking and wiggling in and out of their chairs. Sure—it’s an elementary-school classroom. It’s expected to exude the earnest joy of children growing into themselves. But this one is different. Smiles break out on an array of faces, and the chatter spills out in English and Spanish. This is an incarnation of a new American pluralism, one of the latest iterations of Walt Whitman’s “teeming nation of nations” flowering in “their curiosity and welcome of novelty.” Downstairs, in a kindergarten class, an African American student exclaims to her friend, “I know how to say that in Spanish!”
New UC Irvine dean will be only woman of color to lead a top law school, university says
Priscella Vega, Los Angeles Times
UC Irvine has announced that L. Song Richardson will be the new dean of its 9-year-old law school, following the departure of founding dean Erwin Chemerinsky. Richardson will take the helm Monday as the only woman of color to lead one of U.S. News & World Report’s 30 top-rated law schools, according to the university. Richardson was named interim dean after Chemerinsky began his new position as dean of UC Berkeley’s law school in July. Richardson has been part of UC Irvine’s law school faculty since 2014 and was a senior associate dean for academic affairs from 2016 to 2017. She teaches and writes in criminal law, criminal procedure and law and social science. “It’s rare to find an elite law school with a world-class faculty that excels at both teaching and scholarship, a creative and multi-disciplinary approach to legal education and a commitment to creating and disseminating knowledge that improves lives and communities around the world,” Richardson said in a statement.
Whole Children and Strong Communities
How our nation’s schools could help students in an era of political incivility and bullying
Ron Avi Astor, Huffington Post
I don’t start fights, but if I get punched first, I will punch back harder to defend myself. If someone calls me names, I’ll verbally humiliate him in public. The whole world is against me. Everyone picks on me more than others—the world is not fair to me. No one will respect me if I don’t get them back. These statements that justify bullying should be from a bygone era, when norms about retaliation were different than today. Some of our current politicians were likely educated to think and behave this way. By contrast, few, if any, preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, secondary school teachers or administrators in the U.S. would now accept these types of justifications from a student for bullying. In fact, in today’s schools, students are actively taught communication skills, social emotional learning skills, and supportive bystander procedures so they can effectively and positively work through conflicts without retribution.
No more library fines for most young readers in L.A. County
Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times
Leilany Medina, 11, loves books so much that she’d like to become a librarian. But even she sometimes forgets to return books on time, especially if she hasn’t quite finished. And she’s racked up some late fines. But local libraries are providing a way out for such book lovers, and creating new lures for other children, who haven’t caught the reading bug, by doing away with late fees, automatically signing up students for library cards through their schools and allowing them to “read away” their fines and fees. The most recent move was a vote last week by Los Angeles County supervisors to end late fees for patrons under 21 at county-run libraries, effective immediately. That did not help Leilany because officials offered no amnesty for past fines. So on Thursday, Leilany went to the East Los Angeles Library, a county facility, to read off $4 in late fees. Students can eliminate debt at a rate of $5 an hour under a program that took effect in June.
Suicide prevention: Texting, calling and noticing warning signs
Donna St. George, The Washington Post
Sue Rosenstock, who lost a 16-year-old son to suicide and has become an ardent advocate for prevention, tells teenagers in Maryland and beyond that they can seek help by text message — through the number 741741. Rosenstock also talks a lot about warning signs of emotional suffering: personality change, agitation, withdrawal, lack of self-care and hopelessness. And she gives out the national suicide prevention number: 800-273-8255 (TALK). “We want to increase help-seeking behaviors,” said Rosenstock, who founded the nonprofit Umttr with her son’s friends after his 2013 death. One goal, she said, is to help teens “learn warning signs and look out for each other — not being junior psychologists but being friends.” Jill Harkavy-Friedman, vice president of research for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, said constructive discussion — about coping with loss, finding resources, supporting others, moving forward — is important. “One thing that’s important to know is you’re not going to make someone suicidal by talking about it,” she said, noting that some people mistakenly think conversation plants the idea.
Access, Assessment, and Advancement
Federal government finds flaws in California’s plan to improve lowest-performing schools
John Fensterwald, EdSource
The U.S. Department of Education has cited substantive flaws in California’s plan detailing how it will improve low-performing schools and use billions of dollars of federal education aid under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. The Dec. 21 letter to state education officials could initiate lengthy negotiations between federal and state officials over clarifications and technical changes to California’s 100-page funding application. Or it could be the first salvo in a fight over irreconcilable differences regarding California’s distinct, holistic approach to school improvement.
Sharp decline in high school graduation exams is testing the education system
Jay Matthews, The Washington Post
In this new year, we are experiencing a drastic change in the way U.S. students are assessed. A national movement led by educators, parents and legislators has greatly cut back high-stakes standardized testing in public schools. Five years ago, 25 states had standardized high school exit exams whose results affected graduation. Now, only 13 states are doing that. A report by the nonprofit FairTest: The National Center for Fair & Open Testing has revealed this shift and chronicled efforts to reduce many other kinds of testing. It’s a breathtaking turnabout, but without much celebrating. National dissatisfaction with our schools hasn’t changed much. It is at 52 percent, according to the Gallup Poll, about where it was in 2012 when 25 states had exit tests. That may have something to do with another development even more important to our schools’ futures. In December, the Collaborative for Student Success, in partnership with Bellwether Education Partners, reported on state efforts to install creative programs to boost achievement, as encouraged by the new federal Every Student Succeeds Act. Those efforts are failing miserably, according to 45 experts (including many teachers) who peered deeply into the state plans required by the new law. “States largely squandered the opportunity . . . to create stronger, more innovative education plans,” the report said. “Most states did not indicate specific steps to improve underperforming schools, nor did they describe concrete, rigorous interventions that underperforming schools should implement.”
The irony of specialized high schools
Tori Latham, The Atlantic
For all four years of high school I spent half of every day dancing. And not just casual, because-I-felt-like-it dancing (although that did happen every now and then), but full-out, pre-professional ballet and modern dancing. Pink or black tights, leotards, and ballet buns were a requirement, not a suggestion. So, it would make sense to assume that I’m writing this as a dancer. But alas, a dancer I am not. (Unless you include the times I catch myself in another bout of because-I-felt-like-it boogieing.) The truth is, it isn’t uncommon for kids who attend the type of intensive performing-arts high school I did to disavow the field after leaving. I can count on one hand the number of my fellow classmates who actually went to college to pursue a degree in the art form they studied or became a professional in the same field. And while college counselors at other U.S. performing-arts high schools told me that all but 10 percent to 15 percent of their students stay in the arts after graduating, national data indicate that people who attended such schools frequently end up distancing themselves from that focus in the long run. As much as the intensive practice of one’s art can encourage her to pursue it after graduation, it can also have the adverse effect of making her sick of something to which she dedicated so much of her time.
Inequality, Poverty, Segregation
Young, gay and living on the street: LGBT youth face increased odds of homelessness
Carolyn Jones, EdSource
Throughout high school and college, Alicia slept in cars, tents, friends’ couches, benches, on the bus, on the train and in group homes. Almost anywhere but a shelter. “My experience with shelters is that you’d go when it was raining. You’d go to San Francisco, wait in line and sleep on the floor, if you slept at all,” the serious, soft-spoken Oakland woman, who’s now 22, said last week. “It’s scary enough to be a young person there. But if you’re queer you just feel a lot more vulnerable. You definitely avoid them.” Alicia is still homeless but lives at a youth shelter in Oakland. She asked that her real name not be used to protect her identity. As the cost of housing continues to soar in California and elsewhere, an increasing number of young people have become homeless, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts. Among those homeless, one group has it especially tough: Young people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
Inside the fight over how to address San Francisco’s ‘state of emergency’ for black student achievement
Joy Resmovits, Los Angeles Times
Black students in San Francisco would be better off almost anywhere else in California. Many attend segregated schools and the majority of black, Latino and Pacific Islander students did not reach grade-level standards on the state’s recent tests in math or English tests. A local NAACP leader called for declaring a “state of emergency” for black student achievement, a problem the city’s school board acknowledged. “The problem cannot be reduced to one sickness or one cure,” said Rev. Amos C. Brown, San Francisco’s NAACP branch president. “Black students have been underachievers. They’re living in toxic situations. It’s amazing they’ve done as well as they have done, but it’s criminal that sophisticated children in progressive San Francisco are performing at these levels.” But is the solution to fix what’s broken, or to start schools anew? Answering that question has unveiled a heated political debate in Northern California.
Why foster care students in Seattle are beating the odds
Anya Kamenetz, NPR
Thirty-six percent. That was the high school graduation rate for youth in foster care in Seattle and King County, Washington, in 2010. “We were shocked. I mean, tears flowed,” says Janis Avery. For more than two decades, she has led a nonprofit called Treehouse, dedicated to improving the lives of foster youth. In fact, Treehouse had been pushing for the state to break out educational data about kids in foster care. And the data, when it came for the first time, was a wake-up call. “We thought we were doing a good job,” Avery recalls. “We realized it wasn’t making a difference at a population level.” Foster youth struggle in school for many reasons. Being removed from your family is a trauma in itself, no matter why. Most children in foster care have mental health needs; many struggle with addiction and brushes with the law. And then there are the systemic problems. In Seattle’s King County, 1,500 foster kids are scattered among many different schools. The average youth shifts placements three times, sometimes moving out of the school district.
Public Schools and Private $
The significance of Betsy DeVos’s speech in Baltimore
Jaisal Noor, The Atlantic
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was ushered off stage at the University of Baltimore’s fall commencement Monday after dozens of students, faculty, and parents staged a protest against her keynote address. With their backs turned as DeVos spoke, some raised their fists in opposition and held signs reading “#Not My Commencement Speaker.” DeVos’s visit comes amid growing concern over the future of Baltimore City Schools. Declining enrollment has created a $130 million budget deficit, prompting school officials to propose cutting 1,000 jobs. A last-minute deal for extra state funding largely averted the crisis. But DeVos protesters, such as the professor and public-school parent Steven Leyva, say the education secretary’s support for school-choice models such as vouchers and charter schools would only make a tenuous situation worse. Charter schools are privately run but publicly funded, typically with little or no government oversight. Critics argue that charters and vouchers—which let families use government money to pay for private schools—detract money and social capital from public education, and in some cases are an assault on the separation between church and state given that the schools are often religiously affiliated. “It troubles me she’s explicitly trying to undermine our public-school system,” Leyva said.
A lousy school choice
Andrew J. Rotherham, U.S. News & World Report
Education was mostly a sideshow in the massive tax overhaul Congress passed just before Christmas. But one marginal issue passed in the dead of night may end up playing a big role in the school choice debate going forward. Under the new law, money from 529 college savings accounts can now be used for private elementary and secondary education expenses. 529s are savings accounts where you can put after-tax dollars earmarked for college expenses (and now elementary and secondary expenses) into an account where that money grows tax free. That change was the result of a late-night amendment by Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz that only passed with Vice President Pence casting a tie breaking vote. The provision is lousy public policy and even many choice advocates opposed it, but it’s a big political win for proponents of education tax credits and using the tax code rather than direct spending to advance school choice.
Why charter schools get to cheat
EJ Montini, AZCentral
I asked around and was told that students enrolled in Arizona’s many charter schools are severely punished if they are caught cheating. Weird. Because for the people who own and operate charter schools, it’s just the opposite. Not long ago the ACLU of Arizona issued a report describing how a large number of Arizona charter schools pretty much ignore state law when it comes to excluding students they don’t want.
Other News of Note
U.S. education in 2017 in 10 charts
Education Week
Numbers can sometimes explain an issue better even than words. The charts, graphs, maps, and visualizations below all feature data that were released this year and convey some big takeaways about U.S. schools, students, and teachers in 2017.