Friday News Roundup

It’s Friday and here is your News Roundup.

The Number of Students in Special Education Has Doubled in the Past 45 Years (EducationWeek)

EducationWeek online published a story late last month that reported,

“The number of students in special education in the United States has doubled over the past four decades, creating a rising share of public school kids who need special education services.”

“The total number of students in special education went from 3.6 million in the 1976-77 school year, to almost 7.3 million in 2021-22. These students now make up 15 percent of the K-12 student population across the country, nearly double what it was in the late 1970’s.”

It’s probably true that the 3.6 million number from 1976-77 represents an extremely under-reported statistic. Let’s remember that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was passed in 1975, so statistics before that year are sketchy.

But, a doubling of that number from the mid-70’s to today could show us that our present public schools system is too anxious to “label” young learners disabled. Based upon my days in the Houston public schools, it was evident adults were quick to place a struggling learner into special education, without trying to intervene while the youngster was still in the traditional learning program.

When we ran our personalized learning lab school inside the Houston Museum District, 8 of our 50 young learners would have received a special education label if they had been in a traditional school. All 8 of those young learners received support from a learning coach while they worked on their own personalized learning plan (similar to an Individualized Education Plan most special education student receive.) 6 of the 8 showed 4 ½ years development in their reading, writing, and problem-solving abilities over a 3 year span, without being identified as a special education student.

Once a Big Player, Teach for America Tries to Regain Its Footing (EducationWeek)

Last week, EducationWeek online reported that,

“Teacher for America, once a powerful player in the teacher-preparation landscape, is hoping to regain its footing post-pandemic.”

“Last year, TFA placed its smallest number of first-year teachers in schools in at least 15 years – about half as many as in 2019 and about a quarter of the size of its nearly 6,000-member incoming class a decade ago. The nonprofit also had significant staffing reductions this year, and has stopped placing new teachers in about a dozen of the communities it serves.”

Teach for America was always more of a talent depository for charter schools than traditional public schools. Their entry into traditional district space was fraught with tension and anxiety, usually because the public schools saw TFA taking jobs away from traditionally certified teachers. Plus, Teach for America staff didn’t seem to have a long-term outlook regarding their classroom service. Most TFAers signed a two-year contract, and then they were free to stay in education or go. A fair share left, leaving us traditional educators to ask “Is TFA really helping us or hurting us?”

Shockwaves and Innovation: How Nations Worldwide Are Dealing with AI in Education (The 74)

Robin Lake, from the Center for Reinventing Public Education, wrote in The 74 online this week that,

“Rapid development in artificial intelligence, especially generative AI (which is trained to analyze large amounts of data and can produce original content) have taken U.S. schools by surprise. In part due to concerns over student cheating, many districts have passed restrictive policies limiting the use of AI in schools.”

“Other countries are quickly adopting artificial intelligence inside their schools. Countries like Singapore, South Korea, India, China, Finland, and Japan.”

You know what’s scary about this story? Every country listed by Lake as ahead of the U.S. when it comes to artificial intelligence is a global economic competitor, and most listed have surpassed the United States on comparative international testing – like the Programme for International Student Assessment or PISA.

St. Louis Schools Face One of the Steepest Post-Pandemic Climbs Anywhere (The 74)

St. Louis public schools are in trouble. They’ve been in trouble for awhile.

Just this week, The 74 online wrote,

“When she enrolled her fourth grader at a St. Louis public school last fall, Krystal Barnett knew she was doing something that has become increasingly rare.”

“Abandoned by thousands of families and dogged by a well-earned reputation for poor performance, the local school system shrank over the past few decades to a fraction of its former size. If they choose to stay in the area, a sizable number of parents now either opt for a charter alternative or shell out for private tuition.”

Here’s what needs to happen in St. Louis. All schools should be declared closed effective June, 1 2024. Depending on the present enrollment of the district, learning coaches should be identified, recruited, and trained to take on that enrollment as a 20 to 1 student to learning coach ratio. Those learning coaches should then recruit 20 young learners and their families so that they can create a learning plan that defines, plans, executes, and evaluates reading, writing, problem-solving, and character development activities for the next 12 to 15 months. Learning coach budgets should depend on the young learners in their cohorts and how much money was assigned to that learner within the traditional St. Louis district, before it closed. At the end of 12 months, an evaluation should be completed on every young learner in the new learning organization to determine if they out-performed their achievement while in the traditional St. Louis public system.

I’m putting my money on the new system of learning.

Report: In 24 States, Using False Address to Get Into a Better School is a Crime (The 74)

You know what should be a crime? Keeping low-performing schools open and forcing black, brown, and poor families to send their kids there – year after year.

That’s what should be the crime.

After Property-Tax Deal, Speaker Dade Phelan Weighs in on Leadership Relations, Next Special Session, and Reelection (The Texas Tribune)

As many of you know, my wife and I spent 35 years in Houston, Texas, working and raising a family. In my job as a region superintendent and then as a Houston-based education non-profit leader, who worked with multiple public school districts, I had the opportunity to engage with many elected officials, both at the state and local level.

I never worked with Dade Phelan, the current Texas House Speaker. But, I must say, his comment on the recent property tax deal between his House, the Texas Senate, and the Texas Governor, made my skin crawl.

According to The Texas Tribune,

“’We all worked together,’ Phelan said in an interview Thursday, reflecting on the deal on property taxes. ‘Everyone got a lot of what they wanted – not everything they wanted, but that’s the nature of negotiations between the two chambers and the governor. But I do think that everyone should be very happy.’”

Hey Dade! I’m sure you, Dan Patrick, and Greg Abbott are ecstatic, as well as your millionaire and billionaire Texas Republicans.

You know who isn’t happy?

The children of Texas.

You and your political buddies left $2.3 billion on the table that could have been spent to support early childhood centers across Texas – many of them committed to serving black, brown, and poor kids.

I shouldn’t say I’m disappointed. You, and others like you, are one of the reasons my wife and I left Texas in 2018.

You, Dan, and Greg just don’t care enough about the kids of Texas.

Have a great weekend. SVB