The Education Policy Hotlist
Top News in U.S. Education Policy for the Week of December 13
Happy Monday morning and holiday season!
On the education policy front, more details are emerging about state and local plans for spending education-specific pandemic relief dollars. Meanwhile, communities are campaigning for more vaccines and trying to skirt worries about the new Omicron variant.
This is a special season in most years, but 2021 feels uniquely full. On one hand, many of us are full of new worries compared to 2020 and new types of financial concerns for our communities and our nation. On the other hand, we are celebrating more in-person with one another and the brighter spirits palpable in the air.
Coming together in-person makes a difference. This fall, I’ve witnessed individuals coming from two viewpoints find common ground because they were spending time physically together. We grow closer together when we share stories and laughs over a meal or a walk down the hallway together. This week, I am feeling grateful for those experiences and I hope we can all make them happen more often in 2022.
This weekend my family and I spent a very rare weekend day together and it was fantastic. We had a big family breakfast out and spent the day playing games at OMSI and the local arcade. It has been so long since we took our youngest out in public that I totally forgot how insane it is to manage a two-year old in public settings.
PANDEMIC RELIEF SPENDING
NC | NC state legislature approved $37.5 million from American Rescue Plan funds for the science of reading training. Here is the bill text.
NV | Nevada is using pandemic relief funds to help future teachers prepare for Praxis examinations and stipends for those taking teacher preparation courses.
Burbio | Out of school time programs are cited as the number one budget item among a sample of school district American Rescue Plan spending plans.
CNBC | According to a new analysis most relief funds have been spent, except for in a few categories, including education.
"More money is available for education than any other category. Agencies obligated some $263 billion for elementary, secondary and vocational education, and nearly $60 billion has been spent to date, the data show."
Annenberg | A new working paper reviews lessons learned from Great Recession investments in schools.
NATIONAL POLICY LANDSCAPE
DQC | An overview of 2021 education data legislation.
ExcelinEd | I was sad that I did not make it to the ExcelinEd conference this year, but super excited that some of their sessions are available now on YouTube.
ECS | A new 2021 overview of nearly 10,000 legislative actions. If you are an education policy wonk, this is like chocolate cake for your brains. For example, did you know that New Jersey legislators passed a bill that established a task force for pandemic recovery.
FEDERAL EDUCATION POLICY
USED | The US Department of Education released a notice in the federal register discussing details about six new discretionary grant priorities.
USED | The US Department of Education approved Wisconsin’s American Rescue Plan proposal.
STATE AND LOCAL EDUCATION POLICY
MO | Missouri State Board of Education releases legislative priorities, including a study of student enrollment across the state and investments in increasing teacher pay.
GA | The Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts released a new report on the impact of COVID-19 on K-12 education. Georgia students are months behind; but, noted in the brief, the state has an important infusion of federal funds. This is a critical lever for addressing this outcomes.
OH | A Republican lawmaker proposed new legislation that would exempt Ohio graduates from state income tax for up to three years.
Brookings | This pieces covers the role of hyper-local organizing in reifying segregation and houselessness among urban communities.
“Neighborhoods and places are increasingly governed by structures like private homeowners associations, quasi-private business improvement districts (BIDs), or even technically public suburban micro-municipalities created through defensive incorporation”
COVID-19 POLICY
K12Dive | School districts are increasingly implementing test-to-stay programs and they are working with little-to-know state and federal guidance.
The74 | More parents are asking districts to share information about district spending.
The Hill | The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday authorized booster shots of Pfizer and BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine for 16 and 17 year olds, an important move to further protect Americans form the Omicron variant.
Bloomberg | Just about 60% of Americans are fully vaccinated.
The Hill | Rochelle Walensky is discussing an Omicron-specific vaccine with the FDA.
ASSESSMENT & ACCOUNTABILITY
IL | Illinois releases school district level assessment data from spring 2021. Uniquely, some districts conducted assessments in spring and others this fall.
ECS | An update to the ECS assessment and accountability 50-state review, including state-by-state profiles and comparisons on a variety of indicators.
The74 | Parents are not as likely to want to cancel standardized testing.
Annenberg | A new randomized study explores the use-case for including machine scoring with hand scoring of students’ writing.
GOVERNANCE
ECS | Early childhood education governance has been fragmented for a long time and this piece introduces how an early childhood district would help centralize resources and provide cohesion.
Politifact | The GOP is using the wrong talking points for the child care investments in the Build Back Better legislation.
“During a marathon floor speech against the bill on Nov. 18, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said the legislation, known as the Build Back Better Act, would represent a "government takeover of child care."
This insinuates the federal government would nationalize day care facilities, owning and directly running the industry. But that’s not what the bill calls for.”
TEACHER & LEADER WORKFORCE
SREB | An update to the Teacher Compensation Dashboard indicates that raises may not be enough to mitigate teacher shortages in Southern states.
Wallace | A new guide for spending federal relief dollars to strengthen principal pipelines.
K12 Dive | Public trust in teachers declines, especially for Republicans.
IES | A new study reveals findings about principal staffing challenges.
Brookings | Teacher preparation classes that include simulations provide data for researchers and supervisors assessing the development of teaching skills.
STUDENT WELL-BEING AND ACHIEVEMENT
NASBE | The state board association released a short list of questions to ask about student mental health.
LA Times | An advisory from the Surgeon General warns that youth mental health concerns are on the rise.
NCEE | Amanda Ripley focuses on the value of rigor and the resiliency of students in her latest interview.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Tuesday, December 14, 2021 (11:30AM PST) A REL Webinar will cover A Framework for Working Respectfully with Indigenous Communities Around Data and Evidence.
Tuesday, December 14, 2021 (1PM EST) Edunomics is hosting Will we ever know how ESSER is being spent?
December 14 (1PM EST) R4A is hosting a webinar on Data Driven Recovery: How States Are Using Evidence to Deliver Better Results.
Dr. Christine M. T. Pitts serves as Resident Policy Fellow at the Center on Reinventing Public Education. As an Oregonian, raised by a multicultural family of educators, she brings over a decade of strategic leadership experience advancing a transformative vision for US education systems and bringing analytic skill to evidence-based policy agendas. Prior to joining CRPE, Christine led research and evaluation for Portland Public Schools in Oregon and served as Policy Advisor at NWEA. Her academic research, focusing on accountability, governance, and social networks, can be found in Educational Researcher and Teachers College Record. As a lifelong educator, Christine has served in schools across the country as a 3rd grade teacher, reading specialist, and school and district administrator. Christine earned her BS and MAEd at East Carolina University, as well as her PhD at the University of Oregon. Christine lives with her husband and four children in Portland, Oregon. Follow her on Twitter @cmtpitts.