The Education Policy Hotlist
Top News in U.S. Education Policy for the Week of July 19 - 23
Families with the means are taking vacations to mountains, oceans, and far off places this month. They are likely letting their minds wander from the chaos and stress that occurred over the last eighteen months of simultaneous COVID schooling and working. I know that all I wanted to do in June was be with my children away from our home. Meanwhile, the Delta variant has caused an enormous spike in COVID-19 infections across the US. But, we are hearing very little from state and local education agencies about what to expect for our children and students in fall.
There are some critical guidelines coming out of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about reopening schools and the American Academy of Pediatrics on requiring masks, yet the implications for community-based infection rates, economies, and social supports relies on how local leaders and policymakers interpret these guidelines. Furthermore, if local interpretations fail to center our Black, Indigenous, Latino, multilingual, and other diverse families, who have disproportionately carried the impact and weight of this pandemic, then we might as well throw away our goals for innovation, equity, and racial justice.
You see, while education with a lowercase ‘e’ may be the great equalizer in some cases, like when we are learning in community, trust, and safety, the Education institution with a capital ‘E’ is just the opposite. That is especially true during times of crisis and uncertainty. The big ‘E’ Education is a longstanding mechanism for oppression and harm working towards vague terms like opportunity that typically mask serious untruths.
There are real-time examples of this rigidity across the US today. In May, 40 Texas education leaders wrote the legislature asking for financial support to fund virtual learning options next year that would foster learning in community for many students who were thriving in remote learning and those who may need to return to remote learning due to rising COVID cases. This was a reasonable ask given some students and families will continue to search for virtual options in the future and districts are left designing those options and footing the bill. However, House Bill 1468 died and now schools and districts across Texas are further restricted by their resources, planning, and capacity.
For state and local chiefs grappling with how to proceed over the next month before schools reopen, I have to put my mom and neighbor hat on — we need districts to communicate early and often (and, by early, I mean yesterday). In the beginning of July I had a feeling that things were much too quiet in my corner of the world. Over dinner one night I told my husband that it was time for districts to campaign about where we are headed and what to expect, even if it was simple and limited information. You know, the type of forward and honest messaging about what we know and don’t know moving into next year.
The reality is that parents often rely on districts - we rely on you. Families want you to engage in education with a lowercase ‘e’ by learning together in community — meaning authentic, relational trust that grounds the decisions you will make for our children and futures. We know there will be stumbling blocks, hurdles, and opportunities for us all to do the deep learning this year. But, we must do this together.
FEDERAL EDUCATION POLICY
Similar to last fall, we are going to see a handful of helpful national trackers about state decisions to return to full in-person learning and what their policy decisions are regarding factors like masking. However, there is an added layer of inquiry this fall about how local education agencies are using COVID relief funds, especially those from ESSER III coming out of the American Rescue Plan. Each week, the US Department of Education is approving more state plans and, subsequently, the evaluation of the uses and impacts of those funds will be pushed down to school districts. Decisions for planning will be made with a very short runway into next year. During this process there are a few critical things to watch out for. First, governors are out of the picture with ESSER III, so plans will be more refined and less broad. Second, ESSER III are federal funds, but they are regulated differently than other federal buckets (i.e., IDEA and ESSA). Districts can be more expansive in their uses (and they should). Finally, while there is quite a bit of time for folks to obligate the funds, there is a more narrow window for states to decide whether and how to spend the funds on on external contracts.
USED Posts State ARP Plans | USED
School Mask Policy Tracker | Burbio
How Are States Spending Their COVID Education Relief Funds? | Future Ed and The74
Remote Learning and School Reopenings: What Worked and What Didn’t | CAP
STATE AND LOCAL POLICY
States and districts who are planning early and communicating often seem to be ahead of the curve by establishing relational scaffolding as we build new infrastructure for policies and practices next year. This is the time for systems to hone in on community-driven values and goals. Last year, we were still in emergency planning, but we cannot function at that pace this year. It is time for us to settle into new cycles of thinking, planning, and improvement, as well as helping one another along in the process.
North Carolina district recruits tutors from local colleges to address learning loss | K12 DIVE
Kansas targets early literacy with $15M in pandemic funds | AP
Education Stories From the Field | CC Network
TEACHING AND LEARNING
There is resounding agreement from many thought leaders, advocates, and community members to make things drastically different for next year, whether it is in-person instruction or remote. And, we’ve learned a lot about better assessment, improving teaching and engagement, and how to center communities and families. However, there is a short runway to prepare for more robust changes in fall and we are already seeing few districts planning for virtual options (or at least not sharing their plans widely). We are in this together and it has to feel that way for families.
The virus isn’t done with schools | Fordham Institute
Statewide Virtual Options | EduWonk
How to Improve Teaching After the Pandemic | Education Next
The Quest to Remake the American High School: A Conversation with Jal Mehta | NCEE
UPCOMING EVENTS
Thursday, July 22, 2021 (11:00 AM EST) Regan Institute presents their virtual RISE event.
Thursday, July 22, 2021 (1:00 PM EST) Ed Trust presents a webinar Now What? Using Federal Aid for An Equitable Education Comeback.
Thursday, July 22, 2021 (2:00 PM EST) CAP presents a webinar Student Voice in Federal Policymaking.
Tuesday, July 27, 2021 (2:00 PM EST) New America presents a webinar on Transforming Teacher Preparation to Best Serve Students.
Wednesday, July 28, 2021 (5:00 PM EST) IES is presenting a webinar titled Creating Balanced Systems of Assessment to Support Equitable Opportunities to Learn and Child Well-being.
Wednesday, July 28, 2021 (12:00 PM EST) All4ED, NWEA, Unidos, and National Urban League present Transforming education through COVID-19 recovery and learning acceleration: Research findings, policy recommendations and lessons from the ground.
Wednesday, July 28, 2021 (1:00 PM EST) Johns Hopkins School of Education presents Social Studies Knowledge Map Release and Civic Formation in American Schools.
Thursday, July 29, 2021 (11:30 EST) Panorama is hosting A Resilient Reopening.
Thursday, July 29, 2021 (8:00 PM EST) US Department of Education is hosting a Parent Town Hall.
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 at all levels of governance. 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.