Friday News Roundup

It’s Friday! Here’s your News Roundup.

Post-Pandemic Survey Shows Parents Want Greater Control of Kids’ Education (The 74)

According to a report last week by The 74,

“More than half of the 3,115 parents who participated in a spring survey said they prefer to direct and curate their child’s education rather than rely entirely on their local school system, results showed.”

“[The survey] comes after parents had courtside seats to various aspects of their children’s learning during the pandemic, prompting many – from myriad backgrounds and political affiliations – to push for change.”

“’What we’re hearing from parents loud and clear is they feel a greater sense of ownership over their child’s education,’ said Christian Lehr, a senior principal in [the firm conducting the survey]. ‘The last two years have been incredibly difficult. Now, parents are actively searching for new experiences that will deliver on academic promises, yes, but also bring joy and delight.’”

It’s going to be interesting to see where all of this ends up in terms of parent influence, dare I say control, of their children’s learning.

It’s clear it’s a new day for public schools, but it remains to be seen if neighborhood campuses will be willing to allow parents influence regarding what their children learn and how they learn it.

Why Aren’t Parents More Worried About Declines in Student Achievement? (EducationWeek)

According to an online EducationWeek article this week,

“Last month’s release data from the assessment known as ‘nation’s report card’ was striking. Students across the country, regardless of where they live or their background, suffered staggering blows to their learning during the pandemic, losing ground that experts fear will take years to recover.”

“Despite the widespread evidence that the majority of students are struggling, most parents – 92 percent according to one survey by Learning Heroes – believe their children are at grade level and doing just fine in the classroom. That disconnect could affect school districts’ ability to help students regain academic ground post-pandemic, even as they have millions of dollars to spend on learning recovery.”

At the same time when parents want more influence in the child’s education, it seems many parents just don’t have the right information when it comes to how good or, more importantly, how poor their neighborhood school is.

When I worked inside a large, urban public school district, I must admit that we weren’t the best at sharing data with our parents, especially data that might put the school district in a bad light.

Is that what’s happening today?

Can Districts Rise to the Challenge of New NAEP Results? Outlook’s Not So Good (The 74)

Robin Lake and Paul Hill, both part of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, write this week in The 74,

“The new National Assessment of Educational Progress results once again underscore the extraordinary impact of the pandemic on U.S. student performance. Average declines in math for fourth and eighth graders were the largest ever recorded, and reading scores regressed to their lowest levels in more than two decades. Since the beginning of the pandemic, achievement gaps between the lowest- and highest-scoring students have widened.”

“All this suggest schools should be using evidence-based strategies to help students regain ground. That means assessing and identifying students most in need of help, identifying realistic yet ambitious academic goals, publicly communicating how kids are faring and honestly identifying barriers that stand in the way.”

“But real-time feedback suggests daily instruction and even public attitudes have swung in a less urgent direction. Our studies of responses to learning loss show many large districts intend to put some federal relief money toward helping teachers accelerate learning- an approach requiring educators to simultaneously offer swift help for those with knowledge gaps. But these attempts have been undermined by staff shortages, student absences and community fights over curriculum, culture and politics.”

If Robin Lake and Paul Hill are questioning whether out current public school system is up to the challenge of taking on pandemic-induced learning loss, then that is a serious indictment against the exact system we now need to perform way, way beyond expectations.

Incrementalism won’t get us the results we need. We need a system that will offer our kids breakthrough learning, and that might not be our current public school system.

Virtual School Enrollment Kept Climbing Even As COVID Receded, New Data Reveal (The 74)

This week The 74 reported that,

“New data indicate that online schools have had a staying power beyond the pandemic that few observers suspected. While some virtual academies have operated for decades, they saw a well-documented enrollment explosion in 2020-21, the first full school year after COVID, as many virus-wary parents looked to protect their children from infections and anti-mask families sought a way out of face-covering requirements. But in the following year, even as brick-and-mortar schools fully reopened and mask mandates fell, remote schools mostly maintained their pandemic enrollment gains – and in many cases added new seats.”

“On average across 10 states, virtual school enrollment rose to 170% of its pre-pandemic level in 2020-21, then nudged up further to 176% in 2021-22, according to data obtained by The 74.”

One has to wonder if this is the beginning of a shift away from the thought all learning has to happen in places called school to a more flexible approach blending online and in-person learning?

‘Drinking From a Fire Hydrant’: New Orleans’ New Superintendent’s Singular To-Do List (The 74)

There’s a new superintendent in New Orleans. The 74 reported this week,

“On Halloween, Avis Williams showed up for work as the new superintendent of New Orleans Public Schools dressed as Wonder Woman, a gold cuff on her bicep and an Apple Watch on her wrist.”

“’She’s got a great personality,’ says Dana Peterson, CEO of the nonprofit policy incubator New Schools for New Orleans and one of the architects of the school system’s turnaround. ‘She’s very engaging.’”

I wish Avis Williams good luck. New Orleans Public Schools has been broken as long as I’ve been around public education – almost 40 years now.

But, here’s the deal. We have to get beyond thinking that a leader with “a great personality” is going to be able to fix a struggling district like NOPS. “Great personality’s” get tired and wear out. Or they find another job.

Enjoy the weekend. It’s cold here in Iowa. SVB