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☆ Here’s What Is Happening on Some Other Campuses Across the Country
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( Sarah Mervosh | More About Sarah Mervosh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The fallout from last week’s heated Congressional hearing and subsequent arrests at Columbia University continued to reverberate at several colleges and universities on Monday, as students erected tents and staged their own rallies and sit-ins. The demonstrations appeared largely focused on a few campuses in the Northeast, although at least some protests had spread to other parts of the country. At least 47 people were arrested during pro-Palestinian protests at Yale University in Connecticut, and a large crowd of students was occupying an intersection near campus on Monday afternoon.

Organizations: Columbia University, Yale University Locations: Connecticut

Listen and follow The DailyApple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicLong after schools have fully reopened after the pandemic, one concerning metric suggests that children and their parents have changed the way they think about being in class. Sarah Mervosh, an education reporter for The Times, discusses the apparent shift to a culture in which school feels optional.

Persons: Sarah Mervosh Organizations: Spotify, The Times

☆ Why School Absences Have ‘Exploded’ Almost Everywhere
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-29 | by ( Sarah Mervosh | Francesca Paris | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +14 min

Increase in chronic absenteeism, 2019–23 By local child poverty rates By length of school closures By school district size By district racial makeup Source: Upshot analysis of data from Nat Malkus, American Enterprise Institute. Sara Miller, a counselor at South Anchorage High School for 20 years, now sees more absences from students across the socioeconomic spectrum. But after a visit from her school district, and starting therapy herself, she has settled into a new routine. Nationally, about 26 percent of students were considered chronically absent last school year, up from 15 percent before the pandemic. Kaylee Greenlee for The New York TimesThe Ypsilanti school district has tried a bit of everything, said the superintendent, Alena Zachery-Ross.

Persons: Nat Malkus, ”, Kaylee Greenlee, Katie Rosanbalm, —, can’t, Adam Clark, Sara Miller, Miller, Ash Adams, Tracey Carson, Ashley Cooper, she’s, ’ ”, Cooper, Rosanbalm, Duke, Quintin Shepherd, The New York Times Quintin Shepherd, Shepherd, Michael A, Gottfried, “, Nicholas Bloom, Lakisha Young, Charlene M, Russell, Tucker, Regina Murff, Sylvia Jarrus, Ann Arbor, Murff, Alena Zachery, Zachery Organizations: D.C, American Enterprise Institute, New York Times, The New York, Center of Child, Duke University, The New York Times, Missing, South Anchorage High School, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, Companies, Stanford University, Oakland Locations: Anchorage, Michigan, Washington, Victoria , Texas, Mt, Northern California, Hawaii, Mason , Ohio, Cincinnati, San Marcos , Texas, California, Connecticut, Ypsilanti, Mich, Ann, Ross

☆ A Crisis of School Absences
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-29 | by ( Sarah Mervosh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A few years ago, a troubling phenomenon began to spread in U.S. education: Students were not showing up to school. Schools had shut down in the spring of 2020, at the start of the pandemic, and some did not fully reopen until fall 2021. Before the pandemic, about 15 percent of U.S. students were chronically absent, which typically means missing 18 days of the school year, for any reason. By the 2021-22 school year, that number had skyrocketed to 28 percent of students. Last school year, the most recent for which national estimates are available, it held stubbornly at 26 percent.

Persons: Quarantines, Francesca Paris Organizations: Schools

Four years ago this month, schools nationwide began to shut down, igniting one of the most polarizing and partisan debates of the pandemic. Some schools, often in Republican-led states and rural areas, reopened by fall 2020. Others, typically in large cities and states led by Democrats, would not fully reopen for another year. A variety of data — about children’s academic outcomes and about the spread of Covid-19 — has accumulated in the time since. Today, there is broad acknowledgment among many public health and education experts that extended school closures did not significantly stop the spread of Covid, while the academic harms for children have been large and long-lasting.

Organizations: Republican, Democrats Locations: Covid

☆ California Aims $2 Billion to Help Students Catch Up From the Pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Sarah Mervosh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

In the fall of 2020, around the height of the debate over pandemic school closures, a lawsuit in California made a serious claim: The state had failed its constitutional obligation to provide an equal education to lower-income, Black and Hispanic students, who had less access to online learning. Now, in a settlement announced on Thursday, the state has agreed to use at least $2 billion meant for pandemic recovery to help those students who are still trying to catch up. And it includes guardrails for how the money can be used. Mark Rosenbaum, a lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, described it as a “historic settlement” that ensures that the money will go to students who are “most in need.”“Kids weren’t getting anything close to the education that was deserved, and that was baked into a system of inequities to begin with,” he said.

Persons: Mark Rosenbaum, ” Locations: California

Pandemic school closures upended U.S. education. Many students lost significant ground, and the federal government invested billions to help them recover. Students Are Making a ‘Surprising’ Rebound From Pandemic Closures. The students most at risk are those in poor districts, whose test scores fell further during the pandemic. The analysis did not include Asian students, who represent 5 percent of public school students.

Persons: —, ”, Sean F, Reardon, Thomas J, Kane, Erin Fahle, Douglas O, “, Karyn Lewis, Ann Owens, Charlene Williams, Raymond Hart, Mark Sullivan, Bob Miller, Alberto M, Carvalho, ’ ”, Betsi Foster, Sullivan, Pascal Mubenga, Maria Ceja, Maria Ceja’s, Rosalina Rivera, Adam Perez, Margaret, George W, Bush, “ We’re, Eric Hanushek, Marguerite Roza Organizations: Stanford, Harvard, Educational, Dartmouth, “, Opportunity, Stanford University, Center for Education Policy Research, Harvard University, University of Southern, Schools, Oregon Department of Education, N.J ., N.J . Utah Pa, Ill, U.S, of, Great City Schools, The New York Times, Birmingham, Delano Union, Hoover Institution, Georgetown University — Locations: United States, Durham, N.C, Birmingham, Ala, Delano, Calif, University of Southern California, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Tennessee, Oregon, Wis, N.J, N.J . Utah, S.D . Ind . Ohio Va . Conn, Mississippi, Tenn, Miss, Kan, R.I . Ky, Mich, . Ark . Oregon, ., Forsyth, Atlanta, Rochester, Detroit, Lake Oswego, Ore, Portland, Chicago, Nashville, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, California, Weakley County, Nevada

☆ Opinion | Don’t Ditch Standardized Tests. Fix Them.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-17 | by ( Jessica Grose | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

According to The New York Post’s analysis of New York State Education Department data, “Nearly 200,000 students — or one out of five — refused to sit for the state’s standardized reading and math exams for grades 3-8 administered in the spring” of 2023. That number surprised me. There’s certainly some precedent for it, but I thought that the educational havoc wreaked by the Covid pandemic might have dampened the popularity of the opt-out movement — the tide of parents who’ve chosen to exempt their kids from state standardized testing. Apparently not. I also thought that damning revelations in recent years about “balanced literacy” — a method focused on “developing a love of books and ensuring students understand the meaning of stories,” as the Times education reporter Sarah Mervosh described it — which was shown to be less effective than phonics (“systematic, sound-it-out instruction”), would make parents realize that standardized testing is an important part of developing the best curriculum possible.

Persons: There’s, who’ve, Sarah Mervosh Organizations: The, New York State Education Department Locations: The New York

☆ Portland Teachers’ Strike Ends After More Than Three Weeks
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-26 | by ( Sarah Mervosh | More About Sarah Mervosh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

The NewsThe union representing teachers, counselors and other school employees in Portland, Ore., reached a tentative deal with the city's public school district on Sunday, ending a strike that has kept nearly 45,000 students out of classes for more than three weeks in Oregon’s largest district. That is about in the middle of what the district had offered and what the union had asked for at the start of the strike. The strike has drawn attention to public school funding in Oregon. (Minneapolis students missed 14 school days during a strike last year.) The strike, which kept students out of school for nearly the entire month of November, could risk amplifying that message in Portland.

Persons: —, Thomas Dee, “, Dr, Dee Organizations: Hollywood, Portland Public Schools, Oregonian, Veterans, Minneapolis, Public Schools, Stanford University, Students Locations: Portland ,, Oregon’s, Oregon, Portland

☆ Students Are Missing School at an Alarming Rate
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Sarah Mervosh | More About Sarah Mervosh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

In the most affluent schools, widespread chronic absenteeism also increased: to 14 percent of schools, up from 3 percent before the pandemic. For example, in Ohio, chronic absenteeism spiked to 30 percent in the 2021-22 school year, from nearly 17 percent of students in 2018-19. In some states, like California and New Mexico, the rate of chronic absenteeism was still double what it was before the pandemic. Widespread absenteeism also affects school culture, hurting even the students with strong attendance. It has disrupted students’ relationships — with other students at school, and with teachers, who often are burned out and leaving their jobs at higher rates.

Persons: “, Hedy Chang, Ms, Chang, ” Organizations: Johns Hopkins University Locations: Ohio, California, New Mexico

☆ Ohio Lawsuit Punches Back in Battle Over How to Teach Reading
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Sarah Mervosh | More About Sarah Mervosh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mike DeWine of Ohio set out to overhaul reading instruction in his state this year, it seemed like another sign that the decades-long debate over how to teach reading had come to a tipping point. Ohio joined the growing list of states that require schools to follow the “science of reading” — an approach that emphasizes systematic, sound-it-out instruction, known as phonics, and the direct teaching of other skills, like vocabulary. The movement, fueled by longstanding research, has sought to oust “balanced literacy,” which is meant to give teachers flexibility to meet students’ needs while promoting a love of reading. It may include some phonics, but also other strategies, like prompting students to use context clues — like pictures — to discern words. “The weight of the evidence is clear,” Mr. DeWine said in an interview this week.

Persons: Mike DeWine, ”, “, Mr, DeWine Organizations: Ohio Locations: Ohio

The average salary for a Portland teacher is $87,000, according to Portland Public Schools, slightly above the area median income for a single person and below the median for a family of four. Portland Public Schools has offered raises of 4.5 percent for the first year, and 3 percent in subsequent years of the contract. The strike in Portland may set the tone for other districts in Oregon that are also struggling to finalize new labor agreements. The union has encouraged parents to make plans for child care while 81 schools in the district are closed. Portland Public Schools is making meals available for pick up at certain schools.

Persons: ”, Angela Bonilla, Tina Kotek, “, Long Organizations: Portland Association of Teachers, Portland Public Schools, Gov, Democrat Locations: Portland, Oregon, Salem

☆ Tulsa Superintendent to Step Down, in a Showdown With State Officials
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Sarah Mervosh | More About Sarah Mervosh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The superintendent of Tulsa, Okla., announced on Tuesday that she planned to step down, in an 11th-hour attempt to stop the state from taking over the largest school district in Oklahoma. The superintendent, Deborah A. Gist, and the school system in Tulsa, one of Oklahoma’s rare Democratic footholds, had become targets of Ryan Walters, the state’s divisive schools chief who is known for his conservative politics and provocative statements. Mr. Walters, a Republican who took office in January, has raised a litany of complaints against the Tulsa schools, including low test scores and financial mismanagement, and has battled over cultural and religious issues. Questioning Dr. Gist’s leadership, he threatened to take over the school district, which could include appointing a new superintendent, and even said that he had not ruled out revoking accreditation entirely — which would force schools to close. Tulsa public schools serve nearly 34,000 students, with a student population that is 80 percent economically disadvantaged and majority Hispanic and Black.

Persons: Deborah A, Gist, Ryan Walters, . Walters, Gist’s Organizations: Democratic, Republican, Tulsa Locations: Tulsa, Okla, Oklahoma

☆ In a Reversal, A.P. Psychology May Be Allowed in Florida Schools After All
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Sarah Mervosh | More About Sarah Mervosh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

More than 28,000 students in Florida took A.P. But under a new Florida rule, instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation is now restricted through 12th grade, putting the A.P. Psychology course in the spotlight. Florida officials had recently asked the College Board to offer assurances that material in its A.P. The College Board declined, saying it would not “censor” college-level standards.

Persons: American Psychological Association Organizations: College Board, The, Board, American Psychological Association, The College Board Locations: Florida

☆ The College Board Says A.P. Psychology Is ‘Effectively Banned’ in Florida
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Sarah Mervosh | More About Sarah Mervosh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The College Board announced on Thursday that Florida school districts should no longer offer Advanced Placement Psychology, one of the most popular A.P. The College Board, the nonprofit that oversees advanced placement courses and the SAT, revoked its support for A.P. “The Florida Department of Education has effectively banned A.P. Psychology in the state,” the College Board said in a statement. The Department of Education fired back, accusing the College Board of “playing games with Florida students” one week before school starts.

Organizations: College Board, state’s Department of Education, Florida Department of Education, of Education, Florida Locations: Florida

☆ Florida’s New Black History Standards Have Drawn Backlash. Who Wrote Them?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( Sarah Mervosh | More About Sarah Mervosh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Dr. Wright and six other members who were serving this spring while the standards were being written said they had not been consulted. Few details have been publicly released about how the standards, which lay out concepts that students are expected to learn, were created. Even Mr. DeSantis, who has often embraced his role as a warrior against “woke” ideology in schools, sought to distance himself amid a faltering 2024 presidential campaign. “I wasn’t involved in it,” he told reporters last week. To craft the 216-page document, his Department of Education created a 13-member work group, which drafted the standards from February to May.

Persons: Wright, ” “, ”, Brenda Walker, DeSantis, “, Frances Presley Rice, William Allen, Ronald Reagan Organizations: University of South, of Education, National Black Republican Association, Michigan State, United States Commission, Civil Locations: University of South Florida

☆ $7,200 for Every Student: Arizona’s Ultimate Experiment in School Choice
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( Sarah Mervosh | More About Sarah Mervosh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Cecilia Maes, the superintendent of Alhambra Elementary School District, near Great Hearts Christos’s Phoenix location, has no shortage of ideas of what she could do with more money: Give raises to teachers. “In public schools, we are committed to every child who walks through our doors, regardless of the challenges,” Dr. Maes said, echoing critics who say that children with the fewest resources and highest needs tend to be left out of the school choice frenzy. Patrick Wolf, a University of Arkansas professor who studies school choice and has supported vouchers, said that expanding eligibility “pulls in a broader customer base,” which builds political support. Steve Perez, a 38-year-old mortgage loan officer who says he is politically independent, will use vouchers to send four children to Great Hearts Christos. “What parent wouldn’t,” he asked, “given this opportunity, choose what they believe to be a superior education if they can?”

Persons: Cecilia Maes, ” Dr, Maes, Katie Hobbs, Patrick Wolf, Steve Perez, ” Organizations: Elementary School District, Hire, Democrat, Republican Legislature, University of Arkansas Locations: Hearts

☆ DeSantis Faces Swell of Criticism Over Florida’s New Standards for Black History
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Sarah Mervosh | More About Sarah Mervosh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After an overhaul to Florida’s African American history standards, Gov. Ron DeSantis, the state’s firebrand governor campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination, is facing a barrage of criticism this week from politicians, educators and historians, who called the state’s guidelines a sanitized version of history. For instance, the standards say that middle schoolers should be instructed that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit” — a portrayal that drew wide rebuke. In a sign of the divisive battle around education that could infect the 2024 presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris directed her staffers to immediately plan a trip to Florida to respond, according to one White House official. “How is it that anyone could suggest that in the midst of these atrocities that there was any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization?” Ms. Harris, the first African American and first Asian American to serve as vice president, said in a speech in Jacksonville on Friday afternoon.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, Kamala Harris, Ms, Harris Organizations: firebrand, Republican, White, American Locations: Florida, American, Jacksonville

☆ U.S. Students’ Progress Stagnated Last School Year, Study Finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Sarah Mervosh | More About Sarah Mervosh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Despite billions of federal dollars spent to help make up for pandemic-related learning loss, progress in reading and math stalled over the past school year for elementary and middle-school students, according to a new national study released on Tuesday. In fact, students in most grades showed slower than average growth in math and reading, when compared with students before the pandemic. That means learning gaps created during the pandemic are not closing — if anything, the gaps may be widening. “We are actually seeing evidence of backsliding,” said Karyn Lewis, a lead researcher on the study. Older students, who generally learn at a slower rate and face more challenging material, are the furthest behind.

Persons: ”, Karyn Lewis, That’s

☆ With a Creative Edit, the Wisconsin Governor Raises School Funding. For 400 Years.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Sarah Mervosh | More About Sarah Mervosh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

It took only a few snips of creative editing for Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin to push through a long-term boost to public education funding. And by long term, we mean long term. Governor Evers raised the amount that school districts could generate through property taxes by an additional $325 per student each year. In the original budget, the increase was allowed through the 2024-25 school year.

Persons: Tony Evers, Evers Organizations: Gov, Democratic Locations: Wisconsin

☆ The ‘Unseen’ Students in the Affirmative Action Debate
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-01 | by ( Sarah Mervosh | Troy Closson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At Memorial Pathway Academy, a high school for at-risk students and new immigrants in Garland, Texas, more than 80 percent of students get a job after graduation. Nationally, nearly 40 percent of high school graduates do not immediately enroll in college. That represents about 2 percent of all Black, Hispanic or Native American students in four-year colleges. The affirmative action decision could still have broader ripple effects. Some experts worry it will send a message to Black and Hispanic students that they are not wanted on college campuses, or push them to more troubled schools, like for-profit institutions.

Persons: ’ ”, Ramos, ”, Josh Tovar, doesn’t, —, Grandma, Sean Reardon Organizations: ‘, New York State, Pathway Academy, ”, Stanford University Locations: ’, New York, Garland , Texas

☆ A Religious Charter School Faces Pushback From the Charter School Movement Itself
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Sarah Mervosh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Ember Reichgott Junge, a Democratic state senator from Minnesota, sponsored the country’s first charter school law in 1991, she envisioned a new kind of public school. Republicans tended to be for school vouchers, which help families pay for private school, including religious education. Fellow Democrats often wanted more funding for traditional public schools. “It was always public — always,” Ms. Reichgott Junge, now 69, said in an interview. Now, three decades later, the very idea that charters are public schools is being challenged in Oklahoma, which just approved the first religious charter school in the nation.

Persons: Ember Reichgott Junge, Ms, Reichgott Junge Organizations: Democratic Locations: Minnesota, Oklahoma

☆ Oklahoma Approves First Religious Charter School in the U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Sarah Mervosh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Oklahoma approved what would be the nation’s first religious charter school on Monday, handing a victory to Christian conservatives but opening the door to a constitutional battle over whether taxpayer dollars can directly fund religious schools. The online school, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, is to be run by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa, with religious teachings embedded in the curriculum. But as a charter school — a type of public school that is independently managed — it would be funded by taxpayer dollars. After a nearly three-hour meeting, and despite concerns raised by its legal counsel, the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board approved the school in a 3-to-2 vote, including a yes vote from a member who was appointed on Friday. Kevin Stitt, a Republican who supports religious charter schools, and leaders of the Republican-controlled State Legislature.

Persons: Isidore of, Kevin Stitt Organizations: Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Statewide, Charter School Board, Gov, Republican, Legislature Locations: Isidore of Seville, Tulsa

☆ Florida Rejects Dozens of Social Studies Textbooks, and Forces Changes in Others
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Sarah Mervosh | Dana Goldstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Florida has rejected dozens of social studies textbooks and worked with publishers to edit dozens more, the state’s education department announced on Tuesday, in the latest effort under Gov. Ron DeSantis to scrub textbooks of contested topics, especially surrounding contemporary issues of race and social justice. But as part of an extensive effort to revise the materials, Florida worked with publishers to make changes, ultimately approving 66 of the 101 textbooks. Mr. DeSantis, a Republican, has campaigned against what he has described as “woke indoctrination” and a leftist agenda in the classroom. Last year, the state rejected dozens of math textbooks, saying that the books touched on prohibited topics, including critical race theory and social emotional learning, which have become targets of the right.

☆ U.S. History Scores Are Falling, but It’s Not Just Because of the Pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Sarah Mervosh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Questions ranged from the simple — knowing that factory conditions in the 1800s were dangerous, with long days and low pay — to the complex. For example, only 6 percent of students could explain in their own words how two ideas from the Constitution were reflected in the Rev. The dip in civics performance was smaller but notable: It was the first decline since the test began being administered in the late 1990s. About 22 percent of students were proficient, down from 24 percent in 2018. Across subjects, declines were often driven by the lowest-performing students, a trend that has federal officials so concerned that they are now considering rewriting test questions to zero in on what these students are missing.

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