Friday News Roundup

It’s Friday! Here’s your News Roundup.

New Poll Finds Overwhelming Support for More Trade Classes in L.A. High Schools (The 74)

According to The 74 online this week,

“A new survey of Los Angeles County voters, parents and students finds strong support for the expansion of skilled trades education in Los Angeles public high schools. More than 80% of those surveyed believe trade classes can better prepare students for a career, and the majority think it can be valuable for both college- and non-college high schoolers.”

Here we go again – back and forth between whether high schools should prepare their students for college or a career. The truth of the matter is that they should be doing both, since today both involve the same types of skills – literacy, problem-solving, and networking.

Vermont’s Post-Pandemic Teacher Shortage Has Gotten Worse (Vermont Public)

Vermont Public online reported this week that the teacher shortage has become worse in Vermont.

“Vermont has 10% fewer educators than it did before the pandemic. That’s the worst mark in the country, save Alaska, according to a recent U.S. Department of Education report. The decline is prompting some Vermont principals to hire teachers with fewer qualifications – and is in some cases forcing schools to send kids home for the day.”

The lack of teachers is one of those indicators that our current K-12 system is broken. Whenever a sector has trouble attracting talent to that type of work, that’s a problem. And Vermont isn’t the only state suffering with the fact that their school districts can’t identify, hire, and retain the right talent to take care of their kids – academically, socially, and emotionally.

Survey: These High Schools Report Declining Confidence in Properly Preparing Teens for the Future (The 74)

The 74 online reported this week that,

“Public school educators in high poverty neighborhoods are less likely to rate themselves as doing a good job preparing high school students for college and the workforce compared to their colleagues in more affluent communities, a new study found.”

“In January, the National Center for Education Statistics surveyed more than 1,600 public K-12 schools from every state and the District of Columbia – where 53 percent in low poverty neighborhoods said they do a ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ job preparing students for college and 52 percent said the same for the workforce.”

“But public school educators in high poverty neighborhoods were lower at 33 and 43 percent respectively.”

Here’s the question I have: When have we started to feel good about just half of our low poverty neighborhoods think they do a “very good” or “excellent” job preparing students for either college or a career?

That doesn’t seem to be a statistic we should be bragging about.

Is It Time for a National Conversation About Eliminating Letter Grades? (EdSurge)

Yes it is. In fact, it’s past time.

The problem here is that we know “letter grading” is not good practice when it comes to assessing learning. So, why do we continue to do what we know is not best practice?

Oops! House GOP Seeks to Fix ‘Oversight’ in How Schools Can Spend Millions from AEA Law (The Des Moines Register)

Area Education Agencies (AEAs) are getting their budgets cut in Iowa. Historically, AEAs served local school districts in the area of special education, professional development, and general education and media services. Under a new law signed by the Iowa governor this week, the only money to stay with the AEAs is that which support special education services to individual schools. The rest of it, around $68 million, goes back to school districts.

It’s always – always – a good idea to have resource closest to the learner. I know there are a lot of education bureaucrats in the Hawkeye State crying over spilt milk right now, but money that doesn’t follow the individual learner is usually wasted money when it comes to traditional school districts.

Why This Educator Uses Aliens to Teach Media Literacy (EducationWeek)

EducationWeek online reported that,

“Last month, Meredith Linsey Kitchens took her students to MisInfo Day at the University of Washington. It’s an annual event designed to teach high school students about media literacy, and communication.”

“But for the rural English teacher/librarian from Sedro-Woolley High School in Sedro-Woolley, Washington, this lesson goes beyond a single day, and is instead integrated into her entire curriculum, and the curriculums of teachers she supports.”

“’I have to teach the students who are in front of me, the students with devices in their hands, the students who do everything in their world through social media.’”

We need more Meredith’s out there right now. Instead of spending time helping young learners understand the difference between information and misinformation, too many school districts today are trying to figure out ways to ban social media and devices from their campuses.

That’s a big, big mistake.

That’s the Friday News Roundup for this week. Have a great weekend. I’ll be off Monday doing solar eclipse activities, but I’ll be back Tuesday. Until then. SVB