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Analysis: California Teachers Union expects to lose 4,000 members, gain $2.3M
It has been the best of times and the worst of times for the California Teachers Association. When the COVID crisis hit, the union received a bunch of protections from the governor and the legislature, including a layoff ban and funding based on pre-COVID enrollment levels. Most districts kept schools closed until fall 2021, in...
By Mike Antonucci | June 28, 2022
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Fuller: L.A. offers lessons for helping kids recover from COVID learning loss
Teachers and principals across the nation are breathing a bit easier as a second grueling year winds down. Yet, the carefree summer days on the horizon may simply postpone the reckoning that educators will face next fall: How to ensure COVID-era students bounce back next year, recovering lost learning and narrowing gaping disparities in achievement....
By Bruce Fuller | June 23, 2022
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Commentary: Now is the moment for a new children’s rights movement
In the last three weeks, the United States has witnessed babies starving because of a nationwide shortage of infant formula and young students murdered in their elementary school. If you believe these atrocities will spark a comprehensive moral or policy response from our elected federal leaders, you are mistaken. Even if Congress acts, a neutered...
By Andrew Buher | June 13, 2022
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Educator’s view: Hungry kids can’t learn. Congress must extend pandemic waivers so schools can keep giving students the nutritious food they need
When I was a school superintendent in New York City, I would often run into my students outside of class. One particular eighth grader had a daily ritual of buying food from the local corner store following a long day of lessons and after-school sports. Looking at his crumbled bag of hot-flavored chips, fruit snacks...
By Robert S. Harvey | May 25, 2022
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Analysis: New politics-of-education poll shows Americans think schools are important & need to be fixed. That, not culture wars, must inform the next election
Today’s political debate about the fundamental value of public education is unlike anything our country has seen. Across party lines, schools and school boards have become political front-page news. The culture wars have infiltrated America’s classrooms. There is no doubt that the politics being forced into our public education system will be front and center...
By Emma Bloomberg | May 9, 2022
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Analysis: About 1 in 3 child care workers are going hungry
Of the nearly 1 million child care workers in the United States, in a recent white paper, my colleagues and I found that 31.2% – basically 1 out of every 3 – experienced food insecurity in 2020, the latest year for which we analyzed data. Food insecurity means there is a lack of consistent access...
By Colin Page McGinnis, The Ohio State University | May 4, 2022
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Commentary: Addressing the student mental health crisis starts with social-emotional learning — in school and at home. Congress can help
Sign up here for LA School Report’s newsletter Across the country, communities are sounding the alarm: When it comes to mental wellness, the kids are not okay. A declaration of emergency for children’s mental health came from the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Children’s Hospital Association. The U.S....
By Jordan Posamentier | April 27, 2022
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Reville & Canada: The time has come for truly personalized learning — with a navigator to make sure each child succeeds
Sign up here for LA School Report’s newsletter For the past two years, schools, families and students have grappled with a COVID-induced crisis. Not just of health, but of continuous disruptions, school closures, remote schooling and extraordinary stresses, interruptions and obstacles to children’s education and well-being. Relationships fractured as students were torn from the normalcy...
By Paul Reville and Geoffrey Canada | April 20, 2022
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Commentary: Why should a college education start at age 18, and only after HS? Time to change the ‘when’ & ‘who’ of college
Sign up here for LA School Report’s newsletter. It’s no secret that college enrollment in the U.S. has dropped, and these declines aren’t slowing down: This fall, college enrollment nationally decreased by nearly another half-million students. These drops are unevenly distributed across race, socioeconomic class and even gender, with recent reports showing that young men are...
By Dumaine Williams and Stephen Tremaine | April 6, 2022
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Smith-Griffin: Chronic absenteeism has skyrocketed during the pandemic. But just rewarding students for showing up at school won’t fix it
Sign up here for LA School Report’s newsletter. For years, schools have drilled into parents that attendance is an important factor in student achievement. But amid the 2021-22 school year’s rocky trajectory, marked by staff shortages, quarantines, and political battles over health measures, the focus on rewarding attendance has resulted in confused, exasperated families. Chronic...
By Joanna Smith-Griffin | March 30, 2022