It’s Friday. Time for the Roundup.
News usually slows between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but here are a few stories that caught my attention.
The 3 Teachers on the NAEP Panel Say It’s Time to Act on Drops in Scores (EducationWeek)
Three teachers currently sit on the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees and sets policy for NAEP. Those educators are Patrick Kelly, a 12th grade government teacher in Columbia, S.C.; Michael A. Pope, an 8th grade science teacher for a Department of Defense school in Japan; and Nardi Routten, a 4th grade teacher in New Bern, N.C. Recently, EducationWeek asked them a series of questions about the recent NAEP scores and what they think policymakers need to do to support teachers as they work to help students progress. Here’s a sampling of their responses:
“There was a lot of discussion and debate about the NAEP results. What do you make of them?
Kelly: I think with the results, they’re alarming – period. As an educator, there’s not a whole lot that can be taken away from historic declines that’s encouraging. But I think that it’s an important release because I hope it will shake us out of complacency in two areas when it comes to looking at student-achievement data in the United States. The first one is that everybody is in a rush to get back to normal after COVID. The reality is, normal wasn’t working for too many students before the pandemic hit. Yes, there was a record decline in 2022, but I wasn’t satisfied with where we were as an educational system in 2020. The second one is that we should always look at achievement data within context. We see a large portion of the students in our nation not performing above NAEP ‘basic’ or at the level that we want them to be at, NAEP ‘proficient,’ because of their context. If students don’t have equitable access to learning opportunities, to highly qualified teachers, to safe school environments, to technology, what do we expect?
The surveys of teachers found that most are not very confident they can help students recover academically. What do you make of that finding?
Routten: I see that at my school because we do have gaps. I teach 4th grade. It was prevalent how many 4th graders lacked just basic phonemic-awareness skills, [the ability to recognize and distinguish sounds in English]. And then when you think about it, during the COVID [shutdown] year, that was during their 2nd grade year. That’s huge when it comes to phonemic awareness.
And even with math, it’s like, OK, I have 4th graders who are like, ‘What’s 3 plus 2?’ How do I fix that?
We know from surveys that teachers are burned out and have been since the start of the pandemic. What can help turn that tide?
Pope: I remember being a younger teacher and I was told that the expectation of a teacher is three to five years. It’s like, why would I go into a profession when in three to five years, I’m expected to burn out and be gone?
I think it’s because of the demands. The burnout is not necessarily always because of the work, because of what you do in the classroom. It’s the demands that are put upon you because you care.
It’s not always the job, it’s the emotional collateral that you pay.
The latest NAEP release has gotten so much public attention. Do you think we’re turning a corner in terms of the public response in prioritizing these issues?
Kelly: It doesn’t feel that way yet. We have seen NAEP results get people’s attention and we’ve seen it cause a lot of discussion. But at the end of the day, words get reactions, actions get results. And we are in a reactionary phase where people are talking a lot. It’s time to do something about all that talking.”
“It’s time to do something about all that talking.”
It seems, these days, that’s the only thing the current public education system can do – talk.
Remote Learning Linked to Declines in Achievement, Enrollment (EducationWeek)
EducationWeek reported online earlier this week,
“A report published Monday from the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, found that districts that stuck with full-time remote learning for longer in the first year of the pandemic saw larger declines in enrollment in subsequent school years than districts that prioritized getting kids back in school.”
“The findings build on previously published research showing clear signs that remote learning was among the factors, along with poverty and racial disparities, that diminished academic achievement for millions of students in the last couple years.”
We’ve talk about this before, but it is important to say again. Shame on our current public school system for not being able to support kids in their learning, whether they were in schools or not. The system should have been better, and it wasn’t.
Flexibility is not something most traditional schools do well.
Exclusive: L.A. Schools Chief Alberto Carvalho – Our Kids Did Well on the Nation’s Report Card. Why Is That Hard to Believe? (EducationWeek)
L.A. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho wrote a guest opinion piece this week for EducationWeek. Here is some of what he had to say:
“The recent scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress are the latest indication of what we in the Los Angeles Unified School District already know – our students are demonstrating tremendous resiliency after the pandemic because of the incredible educators dedicating their time and energy to the families of Los Angeles.”
“The district has been intentional in implementing interventions to address the learning loss from the pandemic. We launched the All Families Connected initiative, which provided hotspots and high-speed internet access to family homes to reduce the digital divide and provide equitable access to connectivity.”
“More than 100,000 students participated in Los Angeles Unified’s high-quality summer school to make up ground lost during the pandemic. The district has been aggressive in offering tutoring to every student, either virtually through on-demand, 24/7 programs or at school through high-dosage options that provide individual, customizable instruction.”
Connectivity and one-to-one tutoring/coaching. Two innovations that most schools resisted during the past three years.
But here’s the deal. Connectivity gives young learners and their adult learning leaders the flexibility needed to define, plan, executive, and evaluate a personalized learning plan. And, one-to-one coaching offers the young learner the quality feedback that is so important to deep learning.
Unlike other school districts, L.A. Unified seems to understand what a 21st century approach to learning looks like.
Have a great weekend. SVB
A Better Path to Learning 
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