Friday News Roundup

Here’s your Friday News Roundup.

Alaska Natives Are Claiming Their Seat at the Table (The 74)

“Three decades ago, Herb Schroeder was working as a professor and engineer for the University of Alaska, researching rural sanitation. But in that work, he never met a native Alaskan engineer.”

“So in 1995, he decided to change that, by founding the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program within the University of Alaska-Anchorage to support Alaskan natives from kindergarten through doctorate in the STEM fields.”

“’He realized, if there were more Alaska native engineers working, there wouldn’t be people from outside making big decisions,’ said Michele Yatchmeneff, an ANSEP alumnus and UAA’s executive director of Alaska education and outreach. ‘It would actually be our Alaska native students making those decisions for their communities.’”

What would the learning world look like if we had more Herb’s connecting learning with real world experiences?

Iowa School are Seeking Parent Permission to Use Nicknames – Regardless of Gender Identity (The Des Moines Register)

“Mike instead of Michael. Sam instead of Samantha.”

“But only if their parents give permission first.”

This is the stuff Iowa thinks matters when it comes to making sure young learners know how to read, write, and problem-solve at high levels.

Wow.

Many American Parents Have No Idea How Their Kids Are Doing in School (Time)

According to Time,

“Many American parents would be shocked to know where their kids were actually achieving. Nationally, 90% of parents think their children are reading and doing math at or above grade level. In fact, 26% of eighth graders are proficient or above in math and 31% are proficient or above in English…”

“What’s worse, 80% of parents say they are confident they understand how their child is achieving academically, and more than three-quarters say they feel their kids are prepared to enter and succeed at college and in the workplace. They don’t seem to know there’s a problem.”

Hey parents! There’s a problem.

Houston’s Sweeping School Changes: Will They Be a Case Study – Or Cautionary Tale? (EducationWeek)

“As Houston students and educators start their first school year following a state takeover of the district, some wonder if the dramatic changes appointed Superintendent Mike Miles is making will inspire similar transformations elsewhere.”

“Miles’ plan for the Houston school district – focused on a targeted group of ‘New Education System’ schools – read like a playlist of often-debated education reform ideas, many tried incrementally over the past decade, but rarely in concert or all at once.”

“Requiring teachers and principals to reapply for their jobs. Teacher merit pay. Rigorous evaluations. Higher pay for core subject teachers. Uniform, district-supplied lesson plans. Converting school libraries to ‘team centers’ for disruptive students.”

Let’s be clear about something. These ideas aren’t new. They’ve been tried before, with some districts trying all of them in concert. And over the long term, no district can point to enduring reading, writing, and problem-solving improvements because of these changes.

Those are the facts.

Educators Feel Growing Pressure for Students to Perform Well on Standardized Tests (EducationWeek)

“A majority of educators find that state-mandated standardized tests aren’t useful in the classroom despite feeling a large amount of pressure to have their students perform well on those exams, according to new data from the EdWeek Research Center.”

“Just 25 percent of educators said state-mandated tests provide useful information for the teachers in their school in an online survey of 870 teachers, principals, and district leaders administered from July 26 through August 20.”

“But nearly half of educators, 49 percent, said they feel more pressure now than before the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure students perform well on state tests. Forty-two percent of educators said the amount of pressure has remained the same since 2019, while 9 percent said it has decreased.”

Are we reaching a time when state-mandated standardized tests will be a thing of the past?

It seems state legislators are more interested in nicknames in school than knowing whether kids can read, write, and problem-solve.

Mindful Breathing Is Coming to New York City Classrooms This Fall (Reasons to be Cheerful)

“At the start of this school year, all public schools in New York – from pre-kindergarten through grade 12 – are required to offer two to five minutes of mindful breathing every day to improve mental health. As part of this initiative, the city has rolled out a citywide professional development program for educators to make sure at least one staff member in each school is trained in mindful breathing practices. Mindful breathing in this context is taught as a secular practice that students of any religious tradition can adopt as a powerful tool to cope with anxiety and stress.”

Good news for the New York kids.

Utah and Washington Among 21 States Revamping Math to Better Fit Students’ Goals (The 74)

“Twenty-one states across the country – Utah, Washington, and Georgia among them – are part of a special initiative led by the Charles A. Dana Center in Austin to revamp their mathematics curriculum at the high school level to better reflect students’ interests.”

Finally, an example of state-sponsored curriculum attempting to fit into an individual learner’s interest – and in math nonetheless.

Getting Smart Launches a Learning Innovation Fund (Getting Smart)

“The Learning Innovation Fund is the grantmaking arm of Getting Smart Collective that makes innovation investments to ensure equity and access for every learner.”

“The Fund’s first grant program, A Big Push for Small Schools, is a multi-year initiative aimed at catalyzing innovation and growth in microschool models. These small schools, rooted in a historical tradition of cooperative and small-scale learning, are envisioned to become diverse, sustainable, and impactful alternatives within the educational landscape.”

“The program investments will feature up to 20 grants ranging from $75,000 to $250,000 with the aim to accelerate the impact and scalability of select microschool models.”

This is promising, but the Walton Family Foundation, this program’s sole funder, needs to throw in more dollars to make it even more promising.

That’s it for this week’s Roundup. Have a great weekend. SVB