Friday News Roundup

It’s Friday! Your News Roundup awaits.

Report: Nearly 500 Schools Underenrolled and Chronically Underperforming (The 74)

The 74 announced late last month that,

“Low performing schools are twice as likely to have lost substantial numbers of students – with nearly 500 losing 20% or more since the pandemic, marking them potential candidates for closures, a new national report has revealed.”

“Analysis released…by the Fordham Institute put forth a list of close to 500 strained schools as a ‘wake up call’ for districts to plan interventions such as family engagement, high dosage tutoring and address specific community concerns before they ‘find themselves pushed against a wall’ and forced to close schools, said author Sofoklis Goulas, a fellow with the Brookings Institution who built on his prior enrollment research in this latest study with Fordham.”

The kids still in these 500 schools would be perfect participants for some type of personalized learning laboratory, where the young learners define, plan, execute, and evaluate skills like reading, writing, problem-solving, and character development. Let’s see if a different learning system could work better for these kids.

ESSER Post-Mortem: How Did Districts Spend $190B in Federal Funds? Did It Work? (The 74)

The 74 wrote recently:

“Say your boss gives you an unexpected bonus at work. Would you save the money, make those home upgrades you’ve been putting off or splurge on a nice vacation?”

“School districts had to make similar calculations with the financial windfalls they received in the wake of COVID-19. Known officially as the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds – ESSER – $190 billion was disbursed by Congress to schools and districts in three installments from March 2020 to March 2021.”

“It was the largest one-time infusion of federal funds every, and the money officially expires at the end of September. So what have researchers learned about ESSER, and what should it mean for future federal investments?”

“Any evaluation of the ESSER funding has to start by defining its purpose. Was it intended as a financial lifeline for a large and important public-service sector in the midst of a turbulent economic climate? Was it supposed to nudge schools to reopen their doors for in-person instruction? Or was it meant to help re-engage students and help them address learning loss?”

“Congress essentially took an ‘all of the above’ approach. It did specify that 20% of the last round of ESSER funding be directed toward addressing learning loss, but the allowable activities were extremely broad and inclusive. Without a clear purpose or goal, districts could – and did – spend their money in wildly different ways.”

“The result is that no one really knows how districts spent their ESSER money. Marguerite Roza and the team at Edunomics Lab did yeoman’s work of collecting what spending data they culd find from state reports, but it’s far from a comprehensive story.”

$190 billion and no one knows its impact? And we wonder why some of us are calling for a different system of learning.

Proposal to Close 2 Elementary Schools in Central Vermont Falls Apart (Vermont Public)

Vermont Public reported recently that,

“After a year of deliberations, a closely-watched effort to close two elementary schools in central Vermont ran aground this week after the local school board voted against putting the measure on the November ballot.”

“By a vote of 8-5, members of the Washington Central Unified school board voted…against endorsing a plan that would have shuttered two of its five elementary schools…”

“The decision came at the conclusion of an emotional four-hour meeting, in which even some proponents of consolidation had failed to make a convincing case for closure….”

The two schools, Calais Elementary and Dody Elementary, enroll less than 100 students each grades K thru 6.

I wrote recently about Windham Elementary, another under-enrolled Vermont elementary, closing its doors. For Windham, I offered an option whereby kids could stay with their learning peers,, while working with two learning coaches – one versed in literacy, the other in problem-solving.

Calais and Dody could do the same.

Overwhelmed ESA Systems in West Virginia, Arkansas Leave Thousands of Homeschoolers Hanging (The 74)

The 74 reported recently that,

“Two years ago, Katie Switzer advocated for a new school choice program that grants homeschooling families in West Viriginia up to $4,900 annually to educate their children.”

“She was on the winning side when opponents sued to stop the program. But now, she says, the story of the Hope Scholarship has entered a frustrating new chapter.”

“Glitches in a new online purchasing system mean she can’t spend funds to order headsets for her three children in online classes. Her kindergartner received the wrong laptop and she spent week trying to get a refund. Her kids are among thousands whose learning has been disrupted this school year because orders for curriculum and supplies are backed up. Families have been forced to wait or spend their own money and ask the state for reimbursement.”

Similar problems exist in Arkansas.

One lesson I learned while working in a large urban school district in Texas was this:

When adults screw up, children suffer.

Let’s hope the adults get things figures out.

Have a great weekend. Til Monday. SVB