Friday News Roundup

It’s Friday. Time for the Roundup.

Richmond Pilot Program Asks: What Happens If a School Year Is 200 Days, Not 180? (The 74)

I’ll spare you this article’s details. What happens if a school year is 200 days, not 180? Research tells us that most kids will learn more over 200 days compared to 180.

But that’s not what is important here. This incessant concern by the traditional educational system to emphasize learning spans like days, and semesters, and school years, and classroom periods is so 20^th century. We now have the ability to enable young learners to practice their learning anytime and anywhere.

The problem is that our traditional system can’t reward something like anytime, anywhere learning. So, our young learners are trapped within a system that still values “seat time” or “school time.”

At Moms for Liberty National Summit, Trump Hardly Mentions Education (EducationWeek)

Again, I’ll spare you the details of this article.

It seems like the educational media is surprised Donald Trump, or Kamala Harris for that matter, isn’t talking about public education on the national stage.

There should be no surprise. We haven’t discussed how kids get stronger with their reading, writing, and problem-solving abilities at the national level for some time now. Most of the national initiatives to improve public education have drifted to the state and local level.

If a presidential candidate is going to pick up the public education discussion, it will be Kamala Harris.

Donald Trump has no interest in improving learning for our young learners. Zero interest.

Donald Trump’s Incredible ‘Transgender Thing’ (The Atlantic)

At the same Moms for Liberty national summit referenced above, The Atlantic’s Elaine Godfrey reported that,

“…Donald Trump said something that made even me – a seasoned visitor to Trump’s theme park of hyperbole – look around in confusion at the people near me in the audience.”

“’The transgender thing is incredible,’ he told the Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice. ‘Thing of it; your kid goes to school, and he comes home a few days later with an operation. The school decides what’s going to happen with your child.’

And this is coming from a person that not only is running for our highest office in the land, but has already served four years as our President of the United States.

Scary.

Texas Schools Are Hiring More Teachers Without Traditional Training. They Hope the State Will Pay to Prepare Them (The Texas Tribune)

Earlier this month The Texas Tribune reported,

“When Texas lawmakers passed legislation in 2015 that created a pathway for public schools to hire more teachers without formal classroom training, one goal was to make the profession more attractive to individuals from different paths who could offer hands-on learning to students.”

“Some school administrators made it clear they intended to place these so-called uncertified teachers in positions where they could leverage their fields of expertise and keep them away from core areas like math, reading and special education, which would remain under the care of their most seasoned educators.”

“That was before COVID-19 pandemic, which left many longtime educators worried about their health and feeling underappreciated, underresourced and burnt out. They walked out of the classroom in droves, accelerating teacher shortages at a time when students were returning to in-person learning and schools needed them the most.”

“Now some school districts are hiring uncertified teachers – some to provide instruction in core subjects – at an extraordinary pace.”

I had hiring responsibilities for 20 years or so when I worked in the traditional K-12 system. Whether a teacher was certified or not made little difference to me. What mattered was whether the adult learning leader showed me the right amount of talent necessary to get kids smarter and stronger.

The traditional system pays too much attention to “certified or not.”

In Most Microschools, Accountability Is to Parent – Not the Public (The 74)

Instead of focusing on public schools, where state legislatures and boards of education and local school boards feel it is there responsibility to supervise the teaching and learning process, we should adopt a public schooling model in this country, where parents are the final decision-makers when it comes to whether a learning organization is meeting the needs of their child or not.

Why It’s So Hard to Kill the Education Department – and Why Some Keep Trying (EducationWeek)

Whether the U.S. Department of Education exists or not makes little difference to whether kids become smarter and stronger in their learning. Whether we like it or not, we live in a time period when states and local school boards make most of the decisions when it comes to public education.

The feds mainly help out with a bit of funding, special program monitoring, and legal protection.

Study: State Report Cards Need Big Improvement in Tracking COVID Learning Loss (The 74)

Is this a surprise to anyone?

States are notoriously bad at tracking student data, especially student data that doesn’t shine a bright light on the state and their local school districts. So the news that states aren’t doing a good job tracking COVID learning loss should be expected.

School Shootings This Year: How Many and Where (EducationWeek)

There have been 24 school shootings so far in 2024. The last one happened in Omaha, Nebraska last week on September 10^th.

But does anyone really care about these numbers any longer, unless you happen to be the families and communities that inherit the pain and sadness that goes along with being a part of one of these embarrassing disasters?

Probably not.

The Georgia School Shooting May Accelerate the Backlash to Cellphone Bans (EducationWeek)

Ok, I said earlier this week that you wouldn’t read anything more about cellphones until at least 2025.

I lied.

It seems like the recent school shooting in Georgia has made school districts across the country rethink their positions on banning cellphones.

And the cellphone debate continues.

JD Vance Calls Reality of School Shootings a Bleak ‘Fact of Life’ (Washington Post)

Last article for the week, and it comes from Republican Vice-President JD Vance.

According to the Washington Post last week, Vance

“…called school shootings a ‘fact of life’ that he dislikes, saying in the wake of the Apalachee High School killings in Georgia that stricter gun laws are not the answer and that schools must beef up security.”

It’s evident Senator Vance hasn’t met with families who have fallen victim to school shootings. Well I have, and realizing that their world has just changed forever doesn’t really mesh with it’s a “fact of life.”

Have a great weekend. Til Monday. SVB