Friday News Roundup

TGIF! Here’s your Friday News Roundup.

Black Parent Open to New Forms of Schooling, Polling Suggests (The 74)

One positive that came from the COVID pandemic seems to be empowering black parents of school-aged kids. According to a recent article in The 74 online,

“Black parents say they play a much more active role in their children’s education than they did before the pandemic, according to a new poll released this month. Large majorities look favorably on policies like private school vouchers and education savings accounts, and comparatively few want the K-12 experience to remain the same.”

“Overall, 57% of respondents said they supported education savings accounts – a financial vehicle that offers families money to spend on educational costs of their choosing – even without being provided a description of their function. Even higher proportions supported school vouchers (62%), open enrollment of public schools (66%), and charter schools (68%).

This is promising news, given our public school system’s struggles with black young learners. Now, the next step for these parents is to get out and vote for school board members and state legislature candidates who will take action to improve their children’s experience within the public school system, or leave the system and launch new learning organizations like learning pods or micro-schools.

“It’s Been Rocky”: Vermont Schools Struggle to Administer a New Standardized Test (Vermont Digger)

According to the Vermont Digger online,

“At Montpelier Roxbury Public Schools, standardized testing this month – never an enjoyable or soothing experience – was even worse than usual.”

“The test, a new system called Cognia, appeared rife with technical issues, and some classes struggled to sit for the test at all, according to Superintendent Libby Bonesteel. The district’s sixth-graders were simply unable to log in to the computer-based testing program last week, forcing administrators to find new testing dates. And multiple fifth-grade students were repeatedly and inexplicably ejected from the program, she said, to the point where some began to cry.”

There are easier, less stressful ways to assess whether a young learner has learned what they need to learn. This story is just another proof point that much of what happens inside traditional schools these days are concocted by adults who are stuck in a paradigm that just doesn’t work for today’s young learners.

What School Leaders Can Do to Ease Teacher Stress (EducationWeek)

According to EducationWeek online this week,

“Teacher stress and burnout continue to rise in many school districts, worsening teacher absenteeism and turnover and generating national attention. But emerging research suggest principals can do a lot to help teachers cope.”

“To reduce teachers’ stress, [researchers] found school leaders can:

Listen to teachers

Nurture a climate of self-care

Take a trauma-informed approach

Or, we can create a new system of learning whereby adult learning leaders are empowered, along with their cadre of young learners, to decide what will be learned, how it will be learned, and how it is known that it is learned.

What If We Measured Learning Through Skills Gained, Not Time Spent in the Classroom? (EdSurge)

According to EdSurge this week,

“For more than 100 years, high schools and colleges have relied on the same stalwart tool to measure teaching and learning: the clock. That’s because earning credit toward a diploma or degree typically requires students to spend a minimum number of hours receiving instruction in the classroom.”

“Now, the institution that developed the time-based standard more than a century ago that is used throughout education is calling for the creation of a different way to quantify academic progress. This week, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching – the folks who brought us the Carnegie Unit, the basic segment of time measurement in many degree programs, in 1906 – announced its intention to change that currency of learning from ‘seat time’ to ‘skills.’”

This is a welcomed change, but having the Carnegie Foundation change the standard does not mean school districts will figure out the process by which their business needs to change accordingly.

In Oklahoma, Squad of College Students Lead Math Recovery (The 74)

The 74 online reported this week,

“A new program in Oklahoma is tapping a diverse and unique group to offer high-dosage high school math tutoring – college students.”

“Currently being studied in a randomized trial at five high schools in and around Oklahoma City and bringing individualized help to 183 students since 2021, the Transformative Tutoring Initiative rolled out at a critical moment.”

“Researchers tout high dosage tutoring as a powerful intervention for struggling learners. Beyond academic growth, it has the potential to boost feelings of belonging. A double dose of Algebra in particular can help students graduate high school, persist through college and earn more later in life.”

“Yet many K-12 schools struggle to establish quality in-house tutoring, given the strain on finances and staff. High quality programs are costly between ongoing training, reasonable compensation and research.”

“Now in its second year, the program at the University of Oklahoma has honed in on a local solution, looking to expand partnerships between universities and their surrounding K-12 schools.”

This is a promising story coming out of Oklahoma, but it begs the question – Why don’t we do what we know works?”

Why Letting Students Co-Lead High School with Adults is Critical (The 74)

The 74 online reported this week,

“In February, 16-year-old junior Elijah Lopez got an unusual invitation from his Washington, D.C., high school, Washington Leadership Academy. Members of its executive leadership team were planning their spring retreat in March. They contacted Elijah about inviting students to participate for the first time.”

“’They wanted student perspective,’ he explained. ‘Ask questions of the students, get some feedback, and then make their decision based on our answers.’”

“The students made concrete suggestions. They persuaded WLA leadership to train more students in peer mediation and helped everyone agree that shutting the doors for entry after a certain hour to reduce tardiness would do more harm than good. They said attendance could improve 9after dropping during the pandemic) if more students feel a sense of belonging.”

See, this is the problem with traditional schools who think they are employing student voice. Instead of asking their young learners questions about what they want to learn, how they want to learn it, and how they will know if they did or didn’t learn it, they pitch “softball” questions about “softball” issues to them.

Disappointing.

I’ll be away until May 1^st. Enjoy the rest of April. SVB