Friday News Roundup

It’s Friday! Time for the News Roundup.

Can the Prospect of 3^rd Grade Retention Improve Early Literacy? Yes, Study Says (EducationWeek)

To hold kids back or not continues to be a debate in our K-12 school system.

Most recently, findings from a study conducted by researchers at American University and Syracuse University suggest that just the threat of retention causes students to improve their reading performance, whether they are retained or not.

Let’s get this straight. Retention – even the threat of it – has no place in 21^st century pedagogy. We need to stop thinking about learning happening over 9-month blocks of time – reading or otherwise.

We now have the ability to support learning anytime and anywhere. We shouldn’t care about when a young learner learns to read, only when it happens and what type of support is needed to insure their success.

Hundreds of Texas School Districts Don’t Know How Many Students They’re About to Lose to Vouchers (Houston Chronicle)

According to the Houston Chronicle,

“Tens of thousands of children are about to head to private schools as part of the first batch of recipients under Texas’ $1 billion voucher program.”

The problem for public schools in the Lone Star state is that none of them know exactly what school is losing enrollment and what school isn’t. And that makes it hard to plan for teacher hiring and budgeting other resources for the 2026-27 school year.

“Administrators at more than half of the state’s school districts still don’t know how many of their enrolled students, if any, have been awarded a voucher and plan to leave their classrooms. That’s because the state comptroller office, which runs the program, is withholding data to districts where fewer than 30 students got a voucher, citing a need to keep families’ data confidential.”

It’s fixin to get messy in Texas schools.

Can Democrats Win Vermont’s Governorship? New Poll Finds Phil Scott Approval Low (Burlington Free Press)

Long-time Republican governor Phil Scott might be in trouble as he seeks another term. The Burlington Free Press reported this week that, in part, Scott is in trouble because of his plan to decrease the number of school districts in the state so that more Vermonters can avoid debt while paying for the schools they want and need.

For most of this century, smart Vermonters have realized that they were “out over their skis” when it came to supporting a teaching and learning system that depended on every community having their own small school. Phil Scott just decided to make what most of Vermont was thinking an election issue. He might lose, but you have to respect his courage.

Chronic Absenteeism Is Linked to Slower Academic Recovery in Math, Reading (EducationWeek)

No need to share the contents of this article, since that’s not the reason it’s included in the News Roundup.

Here’s the deal –

Do we really need another study that tells us that kids need to have more “on task” time to become better readers and problem-solvers – whether that happens in traditional school or not?

Instead of spending time and money on another academic study, why don’t we do something about engaging young learners better to become smarter and stronger?

University of Houston May Cut 40% of Core Requirement Classes in Response to GOP Law. See the List (Houston Chronicle)

The Houston Chronicle reported this week that,

“The University of Houston administrators could slash almost 40% of the courses offered in the school’s core curriculum to comply with a new state law – including ‘Intro to Global Climate Change,’ ‘Black Liberation Theology,’ ‘Introduction to Women’s Studies’ and ‘Introduction to LGBT Studies,’ according to a list obtained by the Houston Chronicle.”

“If implemented, the changes would drastically reduce the general education options that undergraduates choose from as they work toward their degrees. The cuts would affect liberal arts departments the most, including professors who teach topics that high-ranking conservative lawmakers view as biased or ‘woke.’”

When I was an undergraduate at the University of Iowa, I took a course titled “Women of the Republic.” It was taught by Linda Kerber and it was based on an award-winning book Kerber wrote with the same title.

If Kerber decided to teach as a visiting professor at today’s University of Houston, or any other public Texas higher education institution, I wonder if she would be allowed to teach her course on women during the time of the American Revolution?

One of the purposes of a university is to expand the thinking of those who attend its classes.

It seems Texas has forgotten that.

Part 2 of “What If It’s Not the Phones?” Monday. Til then. Have a great weekend. SVB