Friday News Roundup

It’s Friday! Time for the news roundup.

Poll: Support for Schools Shook by Pandemic (The 74)

Linda Jacobson from The 74 reported this week:

“The historically positive views toward public schools took a hit during the pandemic, according to pool results released Tuesday.”

“In 2019, 60% of Americans graded their schools an A or a B. But after more than two years of disruption, 52% give those marks in the latest Education Next survey, which has measured opinions on major education topics for 16 years.”

“As fall elections approach, the results provide a glimpse into how education issues could sway voters. With almost 1,800 responses, the data points to a widening ‘partisan gap’ between Democrats and Republicans on a lot more than just mandating masks and teaching about race. Over time, the parties have grown further apart on issues such as teachers unions, education spending and how they rate their local schools.”

Dissatisfaction leads to motivation, so the question becomes “What happens to our public school system if the percentage of Americans grading their schools an A or B continues to fall?” What happens to “the system” when a majority of Americans lose faith in it?

Kids Catch Up Best with Grade-Level Work – But Keep Getting Easier Assignments (The 74)

This week, The 74 reporter Beth Hawkins wrote:

“Mounting evidence supports an academic strategy known as acceleration, in which students who are behind are challenged with grade-level material while getting help with missing skills or knowledge. But new research finds its use in schools ‘is currently more talk than action.’”

“Analyzing data from 3 million students assigned lessons through a widely used literacy program, the nonprofits ReadWorks and TNTP found that during the 2020-21 school year – the first full year after the start of the pandemic – students were assigned work below their grade level a third of the time. Children in high poverty were given less challenging materials more often than their affluent peers – even when they had already mastered grade-level assignments.”

It doesn’t seem like the system knows what it is doing these days. Or, they do know and don’t seem to care that what they are doing is not working.

And who suffers because of it?

Most Americans Support Raising Teacher Pay. But There’s a Partisan Rift (EducationWeek)

EducationWeek reported this week that:

“Public support for increased teacher salaries has risen to the highest level in at least the past 15 years, although Republicans are less likely than Democrats to think that teachers should get a raise.”

“The average teacher salary for the 2021-22 school year was $66,397, according to an estimate by the National Education Association. But salaries differ dramatically by state: The average teacher salary in New York, for instance, is $92,222, while teachers in Mississippi are paid an average of $47,162.

If we really valued our current educational system, wouldn’t we pay its most valuable resource more money?

Keller School Officials Order 41 Books – Including the Bible and an Anne Frank Adaptation – Off of Library Shelves (The Texas Tribune)

This week The Texas Tribune reported:

“Ahead of the first day of school, the Keller Independent School District is removing all books that were challenged last year with the school district, including the Bible, ‘The Bluest Eye’ by Toni Morrison and a graphic novel adaptation of Anne Frank’s ‘The Diary of a Young Girl.’”

“The direction to remove all 41 books surprised some local residents because a school district committee made up of members of the public met last year and recommended that some of the books now being removed – including Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye’ and ‘Anne Frank’s Diary’ – remain in student libraries.”

“But since that committee met and recommended keeping some challenged books, three new conservative school board members, all recipients of a Christian political action committee’s donations, were elected to the district’s seven-member board of trustees. And according to the school district, all 41 challenged books are now to be reviewed again by campus staff and librarians to see if they meet a new board policy approved last week, according to Bryce Nieman, the Keller ISD spokesperson.”

And this is why the responsibility for learning should not be placed in the hands of elected officials. Due to the whims of a few thousand (or hundred?) voters, a school board’s composition changes and the new board decides to start playing the role of “censor police.”

And what we know about censorship is that no one can be sure when or how it ends.

Citing Safety and Challenges Serving Marginalized Students, Principals Eye the Exit Door (EducationWeek)

This week EducationWeek reported that:

“Stressful working conditions – including staff shortages and threats to students’ and educators’ safety and well-being – are prompting secondary school leaders to think about leaving the job.”

“Nearly 40 percent said in a survey released today by the National Association of Secondary School Principals that they planned to quit in the next three years, with 14 percent saying they intended to do so in the next year.”

A sign of a dysfunctional system is when its leadership quits and therefore divests in that system.

Public School Enrollment Continues to Stagnate (EducationWeek)

EducationWeek reporter Sarah D. Sparks wrote this week:

“More than two years into the pandemic, 1.3 million students are still missing from public school rolls, with financial implications looming for districts eyeing the end of extra federal and state pandemic aid.”

“The federal Education Department’s preliminary count finds 49.5 million students were enrolled in public schools last fall. That’s ticked up slightly from 49.4 million in 2020, when many schools were still closed to in-person instruction. But it’s still well below the 50.8 million students who were in public pre-K-12 before the pandemic began.”

A sign of a dysfunctional system is when it begins to lose its customer base.

Despite Urgency, New National Tutoring Effort Could Take 6 Months to Ramp Up (The 74)

The 74 reports today:

“With a third pandemic summer underway, the Biden administration’s new push to recruit 250,000 tutors and mentors is getting a late start in helping students recover from academic and social-emotional setbacks. Organizers and experts say it could be 2023 before families and schools see the impact.”

I’ve watched this story for awhile now. I think I said in an earlier column that we shouldn’t expect much from the feds when it comes to quickly mobilizing a national program designed to help struggling learners catch up in their reading, writing, and problem-solving skills.

The country who coordinated D-Day, the greatest military invasion in the history of the world, can’t mobilize 250,000 tutors before 2023.

I hate to be right, but it seems like we’ve lost a step.

Or two.

Have a great weekend. Monday. SVB