The Education Policy Hotlist
Top News in U.S. Education Policy for the Week of November 22
My son’s annual IEP meeting was last week and it left me feeling grateful and reconnected.
Not only had my son made critical growth in literacy skills, getting closer to catching up to his grade-level peers (even amid a pandemic), but his teacher’s came to the meeting with care, compassion, and resilience.
You see, in a few settings I heard that the fourth grade classrooms were too full and facing challenges this year. So, I asked my his teacher how things were going and if there was any way I could help.
He explained that they were turning a corner this month. He described how the children had been holding really, really big feelings and ideas inside since spring 2020. And, with full, in-person school days this fall those feelings started to reveal themselves. You see, everyone really just needed the time and space to processes it all.
His response, intuitive and insightful, should be highlighted for those of us who try to understand schools via media and news headlines. Things are hard, but teachers and students are teaching and learning — and they are caring and re-building community, too. This story does not diminish the challenges of teaching during the pandemic, but instead highlights that we must center on the resiliency of our schools. This resiliency is where we can begin our rebuilding.
I am also thrilled to report that 5 of 6 Pitts’ household family members are now vaccinated. And, this little lady is a lot safer until she can get her own shot (honestly, in the drive through vaccine clinic she threw a total tantrum yelling, “I want a COVID shot!”).
FEDERAL EDUCATION POLICY
USED | Secretary Cardona comments on the passage of the Build Back Better Framework in the U.S. House of Representatives stating, “The impact of this proposal on educational equity, excellence and opportunity— from cradle to college and career — will be nothing short of transformative.”
USED | U.S. Department of Education (Department) announced the approval of Puerto Rico’s American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER) plan
USED | U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) today announced that it has submitted to the Federal Register for public comment a proposed Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) Information Collection Request package for the 2021–22 school year.
USED | The US Department of Education released updated guidance on how COVID relief funds can be used for transportation purposes.
USED | The US Department of Education approved 15 state plans that will appropriate $800 million from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) to support homeless children and youth.
STATE AND LOCAL EDUCATION POLICY
Politifact | In the U.S., there’s no federal requirement for informed consent relating to vaccination, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But all of the states and Washington, D.C., have rules for parental consent for kids to get vaccinated.
“A few states, such as Washington, adopted what is known as ‘the mature minor doctrine,’ which allows providers to waive parental consent for minors deemed sufficiently mature.” — Politifact
Axios | COVID alarm for the holidays.
ECS | Elections in 2022 will shape a really important era of education policy. The pandemic has created an enormous opportunity for elected officials to design our recovery. In this great visual, ECS provides a high level overview of where the ground is moving across the US.
NYTimes | The Daily covered the first in a series of pods on school board tensions. Many of you likely already know more than is presented in this podcast. But, I think having it laid out like this is helpful for folks who may not be aware of all of the facets of these complicated environments.
AASA | AASA and Education Counsel released a practitioner focused framework on how to design student-centered, equity-focused, and future-driven approaches to pandemic responses. Great tweet thread to summarize here (including why and how LEA ARP spending plans can be revised).
K12 Dive | the Government Accountability Office released an updated report about how the Education Department should address cyber security for schools and students.
The Hechinger Report | A new North Carolina law will ensure that all teachers are trained in their preparation programs to teach reading using the Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) program.
CAREER AND COLLEGE CONNECTEDNESS
K12Dive | A collaborative of districts in Texas invest in cost-sharing programs for career connected courses.
IES | The Oregon Promise initiative, that covered nearly all of students’ community college tuition, showed positive influence on first-year persistence and collect completion within four years of high school graduation. These findings can help state leaders understand which policy levers are most beneficial for college-going success.
EDUCATION RESEARCH AND SURVEYS
EdChoice | Special Education parent views reported in new poll.
PIE Network Survey | The PIE Network surveyed their members during Summer 2021 to understand the landscape of education reform, including their wins, challenges, and future direction.
IES | IES released a Program Evaluation toolkit that provides resources and tools for creating logic models, crafting research questions, identifying the appropriate data, and conducting basic analyses.
ASSESSMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY
EdWeek | A new survey of teachers say their schools’ or districts’ standardized assessment results from 2021 are lower than before school closures.
Kansas | Some schools in Kansas release summative test scores.
EDUCATOR WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
EdWeek | It is rarely covered, but Oregon leads the way in many teacher diversity efforts with a specific focus on cultivating, supporting, and affirming Native teachers. This article covers a very special program at the University of Oregon and the far reaching impacts on communities across the country.
“Schools have been sites that harm Native communities and that have sought to assimilate Native communities. But schools aren’t the same as education… So our program is really about reclaiming that idea of education, helping Indigenous students see themselves as teachers, and then helping those Indigenous teachers shape and impact the lives of Indigenous youth.” — Leilani Sabzalian, co-director of the Sapsik’ʷałá program at the University of Oregon
Edutopia | Two teacher educators from Oregon write about a new “3 R’s” for building teacher self-care into teacher preparation programs.
Axios | This article illustrates some of the ways that the teaching job has become bloated with a laundry list of duties, making it difficult for any educator to be skillful in one focus area. The symptom in schools may be a teacher churn happening at a time when our students need stability and consistency more than ever.
REMOTE AND VIRTUAL LEARNING
Atlanta | Atlanta Public Schools will offer spaces to 2,000 students for virtual programs who applied last month.
Michigan | There is agreement among school leaders that school closures are on the rise, in part due to staff shortages and some cities are closing schools due to shortages, including Detroit who is moving to 4 day weeks (note, they say it is due to increasing transmission rates).
Minnesota | South Washington County Schools is warning parents and students that rising COVID cases have led to the possibility of going remote for 10 calendar days.
STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS
Colorado | Another example of Colorado investing in student mental health.
EdWeek | In Connecticut, high school students will compete for winning proposals on how to spend $1.5 million of their state’s COVID-19 relief funds for schools.
UPCOMING EVENTS
December 5 - 7 (All Day) Learning Forward hosts their annual conference The Learning Conference on transformation.
December 8 (3-4PM EST) The Education Commission of the States is hosting a webinar titled “Advancing Credential Transparency for Economic Recovery”.
December 16 (3PM EST) The Institute for Educational Leadership presents Co-Creating Leadership Development Opportunities for Immigrant and Refugee Youth.
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.