Friday News Roundup

Here’s your Friday News Roundup.

Brazosport ISD Is Training Its Own Teachers. The Program Might Become a Model for Other Texas Schools (The Texas Tribune)

The Texas Tribune reported earlier this week that,

“The Brazosport Independent School District is always in need of more teacher – and for a long time, it wasn’t able to find enough.”

“That’s why the district created its own pipeline. Last August, it launched a unique ‘teacher apprenticeship’ program that allows aspiring teachers to earn a bachelor’s degree and teacher certification – at no cost. In return, the teachers have to work in the district for at least three years. The plan includes a paid residency program in which apprentices are paired with a teacher mentor and work with them in a classroom for a full school year.”

Teacher apprenticeships aren’t new, but they are effective. It’s too bad someone doesn’t have the vision to begin a “learning coach apprenticeship,” where adult learning leaders become experts at defining, planning, executing, and evaluating young learner’s pursuit of becoming smarter and stronger.

$190 Billion Later, Reason to Worry Relief Funds Won’t Curb COVID’s Academic Crisis (The 74)

It seems traditional school districts are not using federal money, intended to battle COVID’s academic crisis, in appropriate ways.

According to The 74 online, here are some of the ways traditional districts have used the federal COVID money:

“The Oakland Unified School District, for example, used relief funds to make a $1.6 million payment on a $100 million state loan it received in 2003, records show. Stockton Unified, also in California, spent over $2 million on high-level central office positions, like a facilities director and its head of curriculum and instruction.”

“The Detroit Public Schools Community District signed a $3 million tutoring contract with a vendor led by Superintendent Nikolai Vitti’s wife, Rachel Vitti. Leaders disclosed the relationship before bringing in the literacy nonprofit Beyond Basics in 2021 and said they chose the provider because of its strong track record. Still, amid pushback, Rachel Vitti resigned from her role directing the nonprofit last summer.”

“And in the Granite Public Schools in Utah, roughly $86,000 in relief funds covered accommodations at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas last summer for teams from 14 schools to attend an annual conference.”

How School Board Meeting Became Flashpoints for Anger and Chaos Across the Country (ProPublica)

ProPublica reported this week that,

“Time and again over the last two years, parents and protesters have derailed school board meetings across the country. Once considered tame, even boring, the meetings have become polarized battlegrounds over COVID-19 safety measures, LGBTQ+ student rights, ‘obscene’ library books and attempts to teach children about systemic racism in America.”

“ProPublica identified nearly 90 incidents in 30 states going back to the spring of 2021. Our examination – the first wide-ranging analysis of school board unrest – found that at least 59 people were arrested or charged over an 18-month period, from May 2021 to November 2022. Prosecutors dismissed the vast majority of the cases, most of them involving charges of trespassing, resisting an officer or disrupting a public meeting. Almost all of the incidents were in suburban districts, and nearly every participant was white.”

My good friend, Rod Paige, former U.S. Secretary of Education, believes that there is one institution that has been untouched by all of the school reform going on in this country over the past 50 years – and that is the American school board.

Based on what is currently happening during school board meetings, maybe its time to consider changing how those groups operate.

L.A. Was the Only Big District to Improve Student Scores This Year. Here’s How They Did It (Time – 10/28/22)

Last October, Time reported that,

“While new national test results painted a grim picture of student learning during the pandemic, scores in the nation’s second largest school district offered a glimmer of hope and signs of improvement.”

“In Los Angeles, the average scores for eighth-grade math and fourth-grade reading held steady between 2019 and 2022, while eighth-grade reading scores in the district saw a nine-point improvement – a ‘bright spot’ amid otherwise steep academic declines on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as ‘the Nation’s Report Card.’”

How NAEP Scores are Adding Urgency to Los Angeles’ Math, Reading Push (K-12Dive)

Last week, according to a K-12Dive interview, Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said this when asked about the country’s low NAEP reading and math scores,

“Today’s data is specific to 13-year-olds across the country, 7^th and 8^th graders. And when you look at the release, there’s a 4- to 7-point decrease in reading and mathematics, respectively, since the last administration. But this is the first time where back-to-back administrations reveal significant declines. When you compare today’s data to what the data was a decade ago, then the loss is even more concerning. We’re talking about 12%, 14% declines in reading and math respectively. The story get even worse when you disaggregate the data and you look at the losses sustained by students in the 25^th and 10^th percentiles.”

A year ago, L.A. Unified and their superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, were riding the crest of national notoriety for their 8^th grade NAEP scores, and now those latest scores are in the tank.

This speaks to the topsy-turvy nature of our urban school districts – up one year, down the next. Don’t our kids deserve better?

Have a great weekend. SVB