COMMUNICATIONS

ZOOM CALL WITH DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION COMMUNICATIONS STAFF

Zoom Call on 2/25/2021 With Communication Officials from the U.S. Department of Education Kelly Leon, Press Secretary, Office of Communications and Outreach Kelly Leon most recently served as communications officer at the Kresge Foundation where she supported the foundation's Education and American Cities grantmaking programs. She previously served as communications and advocacy officer at the Institute for Higher Education Policy. She also previously served as assistant press secretary in the Office of Communications and Outreach and as confidential assistant in the Office of Postsecondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education during the Obama-Biden administration. Prior to her work at the Department of Education, she served in strategic communications roles at the District of Columbia Public Schools system and George Washington University. Ben Halle, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications, Office of Communications and Outreach Ben Halle served as the Biden for President Communications Director in Michigan, where he led communications strategies and developed messaging for the President's winning campaign. Prior to that, Halle served in senior communications roles on campaigns and in the U.S. House of Representatives. Kelly- Wants to partner with all of the Council communication directors and learn how from a press point, and that is her role, she is the press secretary, how she can partner with each of you as soon as the Secretary of Education is confirmed and we go out and go to different cities, states and districts. I imagine there are many ways I can partner with each of you. Question- How we can help get your message out? Kelly- Following a release of a report from the Congressional Budget Office about CARES Act spending and how much has been allocated versus how much has been spent, we’ve been fielding questions from reporters about why is it on our website that we have this tracker where all of the monies that has been obligated to states, why has this not been spent down. We’ve been spending some time helping people notice that there is a bit of a sequence in how those monies are rewarded to states and how it is spent down and allocated by the state to the sub grantee, which is the district or the LEA.

Understanding more about how our districts are planning for use of those funds and finding ways to lift those plans up to broader audiences. To the degree that we can we’d love to help amplify what we are learning from you, your thinking around the plans for those funds, so it’s both the planning for those funds and it’s also what you are spending it on. Is it the HVAC, human capital, the nitty gritty facilities type things, having some concrete anecdotes about how individual districts are doing those things would be supremely helpful to us as we prepare for the Secretary’s arrival. Having those examples from districts would be incredibly helpful. Roseann Canfora, Cleveland Metropolitan School District- One challenge we have is while we’ve lost learning for an entire year while our kids have been remote and we have scrambled to get devices and hotspots, we have lost time and time costs money. We all know that when we do gets funds they are earmarked and you can only spend it for certain things and I think that this opportunity to speak directly to you, I’m really hoping the secretary is going to be as open to meeting with big-city superintendents because there are so many supports we need to have in place.

Will Jones, Denver Public Schools- One of the challenges we are having in Denver is getting wireless access to our families. The infrastructure is not in some of these low-income areas and wireless provider companies say it’s not profitable. Is that something you can put on your future boss’s radar? Infrastructure during this pandemic would be something that will not only help the community, but something that gives companies some positive publicity. Our families need this access, but we don’t have the infrastructure at this point. Kelly- Thank you for your candor. I do know that the next volume of our guidance to states and districts around reopening schools there will be some strategies articulated around addressing the digital divide. But you raise an excellent point and I do thank you for sharing this.

Jeff Simering, Council’s Director of Legislation- I hope you will not only work with the media but challenge the media on some of their misunderstandings. The CARES Act was appropriated at the end of a school year and we operate on state fiscal years, so most of us operate with the close of the fiscal year which is June 30th. So we were immediately straddling two fiscal years so for people that were expecting immediate expenditures that just was not going to be the case. And for those that are somehow claiming that year end $54 billion in K-12 funding, I don’t know of one of our school districts that has actually received or had that application for that money approved. We have yet to see a dime of it. And in some instances, we haven’t even seen the application packet. So hopefully you can help with their understanding cause they glob on to a CBO report and then run with it and then try to paint us with a brush that is quite inaccurate. Kelly- I hear you. I’m not afraid to partner but also challenge the media on how things are characterized. I’ve already talked to two reporters to deepen their understanding of these issues particularly around the sequence of how the spending occurs but also the additional layer of your state’s specific spending plans. We want to ensure there is accuracy and thoughtfulness. We can’t control everything, but we will do our darndest, I promise you that. I would like to look toward a time when we are clear of the pandemic and even before then, I imagine the secretary will want to be out and about in states and districts to see things firsthand. So I can see this network and Tonya as a liaison in helping us to find where those places are and where he might want to be and it could be, a way for us to partner in that regard. Because the coverage of national reporters often drives local reporting so I would like to be able to connect a reporter to one of you. To say I heard about this going on Cleveland and you may want to talk to Roseanne because she will be able to give you the context about what the ground is like in Ohio. Those are the sorts of things I want to be able to do because oftentimes national reporters are looking for ways to localize these stories, so if we are aligned on what we know we want to communicate I’d be happy to try and make those connections so there’s a seamless handoff so to speak when I could be help a reporter accurately approach some of these issues. Patti Moon, Aurora Public Schools- The issue of learning loss. A lot of reporters think just in terms of summer school that is covered. Our district is very mindful of that framework and how we talk about learning loss. This really isn’t going to be just summer school, we are going to have to deal with this over the next 3 to 5 years. So, we want to be holistic in how we approach that. Also, just being mindful that there are tools and skills that families have built during the pandemic that we need to recognize in a different way than just focusing on the loss. And on the national level I think the conversation around that is going to be important moving forward. I’m sure our districts will have lots of compelling stories to tell about that in the next few years. Kelly- I like this thoughtfulness about learning loss being a longitudinal endeavor, that’s it’s not something that will solved in the next months or even a year. It will take us several years and that our districts are planning for this over the course of several years. That does underscore our point about the funding and why it’s needed. This thoughtfulness about what it takes to address six, nine months of learning loss and what that means over the next few years is an important point. As you plan for that how does your community get visibility? Are you broadcasting that to your local community and to local press? Patti- I’ll be frank, I think we are really in the beginning of what the framework looks like and creating a timeline. But when we talk about the opportunities to accelerate learning and move forward, the technical skills students have built throughout this pandemic and their adeptness through Google classroom and all of that. How do we utilize that as a force moving forward. These are things we need to mindful of and thinking about. Kathy Koch, Broward County Public Schools- A big issue in Broward is the equity that has been brought to the forefront in the past year, not just through technology, but where people live. We spend a lot of money on mental health, not only for people to help people but also for people to find missing students. We will never go back in terms of technology to where we were before COVID-19. We had a webinar with 20,000 parents. At the end of this we will look back and see what part of technology will continue to use prudently as we move forward in a positive way. Kelly- The mental health supports. Can you share what that looks like in practice? Is it more personnel, having more conversation with students or a different kind of way that students connect with each other? How does that mental health part manifest itself in this environment? Kathy- Through technology we reached out to let our students know that help is still available. We have a mobile app, a hotline they can reach on the mobile app where they can get somebody to call them back immediately. We’ve met with over 7,000 students online over these past months. We are offering after school help through technology, not just homework help, but one on one conversation with a student and a teacher. Julie Schultz Brown, Minneapolis Public Schools- Encourage President Biden and staff to continue its work on race. Police officer Derek Chauvin’s trial is happening March 8th. There is a great deal of unrest and fear for a lot of people who were traumatized by it. It has great repercussions for our student and staff and I want to encourage President Biden to keep on and know how important it is to our kids. Kelly- You were definitely heard, thank you.

Mark Sherwood, Detroit Public Schools Community District- Regarding mental health, we opened up help sites that provided wrap around services to families at a select number of schools. Technology for us was a bridge we had to cross. We went from a 90% disconnection, both if you combine access to internet and devices, to a 88% percent plus connection. We’ve seen a big flip in terms of connectivity. It’s also baked in the curriculum opportunities for students to connect on Fridays. A lot less instructional, more fun activities in a virtual setting. Dirk Tedmon, Minneapolis Public Schools- Request that you and the Department of Education think of the Council and us as school communicators as important stakeholders in the work that you do and involve us and share with us. The more you think of us as important partners in the work, one it helps us do our jobs better, but it also helps us make better advocates for the work of the Department of Education and the agenda that is happening through the Biden Administration. My question is what is it that you are looking rom us as Council member districts and how can we get that to you? What types of stories or videos or things that we are doing and how is the best way to share that? Is it through Tonya and the Council or through direct emails or other ways? We have so many powerful stories and amazing things happening and I think that we can really highlight on the ground the work you all are doing through the Department. Kelly- I am one part of a very large communications and outreach division and we do have a whole team of people who are focused on national as well as state and local outreach who try to be very thoughtful about engaging and informing our stakeholders. I will be sure our outreach team is made aware of that about notice and informing. There is a way of getting that information to you and no surprise because I know that ripple effect. And when something is announced, what that can mean on your end. I’ll make sure that team is aware of that. The second question about is how to get stories to us. I’ve only been here one week so I don’t have a full answer of how can we receive things. I have heard that a simple transfer from an outside entity to a federal agency is actually more complicated than it sounds, it’s not as simple as transferring a file. But we want to hear your stories, we want to receive the testimonials. In the short-term working through Tonya right now is probably the best most immediate step. In the longer term as our digital team comes together we can think about the creative ways we can receive those stories. For example, things created on social media platforms and how we can connect to each other and help to amplify solutions and great strategies. Those are the ways we probably want to draw from those stories. Use our platform to elevate those solutions in a way that makes sense to all of the students and educators involved but also the states and districts. We will figure out a way to make those technicalities come together such that we can do that. Ben Halle, Department of Education- Also, we can work with Tonya to create some kind of spreadsheet or form that we can all share so we are all putting it in the same place. That way we can all have visibility and we could have one place we are all adding to. Kelly and I can work on a template with a few questions that we think we would be helpful. Jeff- The department sends out frequent communication to the chief state school officers and it would be very helpful if you all consider simultaneously copying the Council and other local education groups so we can get that information down to the local level so it doesn’t have to trickle down over multiple days and people can be more responsive to changes, etc. If you would consider how to do that, how to better communicate those policy decisions down to the local level. It would be extremely appreciated. Ben- Thanks, that’s a really good point. We can work with our outreach team to make sure word is getting out so I pass this along and we can talk more with them about how to put this process in place.

STATEMENTS

Statement by Michael Casserly Executive Director Council of the Great City Schools On the Nomination of Cindy Marten as Deputy Secretary U.S. Department of Education

The Council of the Great City Schools, the nation’s primary coalition of large urban public- school systems, offers its enthusiastic support for the nomination of Cindy Marten as the new Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. Ms. Marten is currently superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District and an active member of the Council.

“Cindy Marten will be the perfect complement to Secretary-designate Miguel Cardona. Both have been school-level leaders and thoroughly understand the complexities of public education at the state and local levels like few other leadership teams in the department’s history,” said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools.

Ms. Marten is widely known and respected by her colleagues across the country. She has been superintendent of the San Diego schools since 2013, making her one of the longest serving big- city school superintendents in the nation. Since being named as superintendent, Ms. Marten has spurred graduation rates in the district, developed a reputation for excellence, collaboration, and fairness among district stakeholder groups, and has led the school systems to be among the fastest improving urban school systems in the nation on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

Before being named superintendent of the San Diego schools, Ms. Marten served as principal of and teacher in Central Elementary School in the City Heights section of the city. There she improved student outcomes, championed social-emotional learning, boosted the arts, and advocated for greater equity.

“Ms. Marten will serve the new Biden Administration well, and she will keep the needs of students and schools front and center as our new leaders shape policy and advocate for stronger public education,” added Casserly. “She is an outstanding choice.”

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Statement on the Events of January 6, 2021: A New Day of Infamy

on

Behalf of the Nation’s Urban Public School Leaders

By the

Council of the Great City Schools

School leaders, teachers, and educators from the nation’s urban public schools condemn the actions of the violent rioters who stormed and desecrated the Capitol at the encouragement of our president and his enablers. Make no mistake—this was not only an attack on the Capitol building, but on democracy itself. Citizens of the world are watching this display of lawlessness with shock and horror as the world’s beacon of civility—the shining “city upon a hill”—is reduced to a crime scene. Public school educators everywhere teach our children to respect our leaders, our institutions, and the process by which we as a nation choose our representatives, and we weep now at the loss of innocence and trust these events have wrought. Defiling our capitol and disrupting the work of the people’s House and Senate in an effort to overturn a free and fair election is a betrayal of our founding principles. Unfortunately, we are in this position because our president has lied repeatedly to the American public about who won this election and has promoted the treasonous notion that people should take matters into their own hands in attempting what is nothing short of insurrection.

As we struggle to help our children understand how this happened and what it means, we should be clear about our collective outrage and our commitment to restoring peace and democracy in the months and years to come. Our students have lost so much over the past year, and now they must reconcile what they have been taught about the ideals of our democratic nation with the criminal attacks they are witnessing unfold in our capitol. The process of rebuilding and healing our country is now the great challenge of our lifetimes, and the nation’s public-school educators welcome our responsibility and charge to work toward a brighter future on behalf of our students and our country.

PRESS RELEASES

MEDIA ADVISORY CONTACT: Tonya Harris at: [email protected] October 8, 2020

Laura Bush, Julián Castro and Ibram X. Kendi To Address City Educators

Pulitzer-Prize Columnist Thomas Friedman to Join Panel Discussion

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 – Former first lady Laura Bush, former Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro and historian Ibram X. Kendi, author of the best-selling book How to Be an Antiracist, will address urban educators at the Council of the Great City Schools’ virtual 64th Annual Fall Conference, Oct. 13-17.

Also addressing the nation’s urban school leaders will be Pulitzer-Prize New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who will participate in a session on “The Future of Education,” alongside four big-city superintendents from Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland and Tulsa.

A national town hall meeting will be held on Oct. 16 featuring high school student leaders from Boston, Philadelphia, Fresno, Long Beach, Omaha, Charlotte, Palm Beach, Cincinnati, Jackson, Miss., and Portland, Ore., to discuss issues of race and equity. The 75- minute town hall will be moderated by Denver school board member and social justice activist Tay Anderson.

On Oct. 15. the “Urban Superintendent of the Year” will be announced in a live ceremony. Twenty superintendents are finalists for the Green-Garner Award, the nation’s top award in urban-education leadership.

Under the banner “Championing Urban Education,” the four-day virtual conference will feature some 100 presentations devoted to COVID-19-related schoolwork as well as issues of equity and race. Access https://tinyurl.com/y4ycobd7 for the agenda.

# # #

The Twitter hashtag for the conference is #CGCS20

MEDIA ADVISORY CONTACT: Tonya Harris at: [email protected] October 9, 2020

Students to Speak Out on Race and Equity at National Town Hall Meeting

WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 – Following the rise of protests that occurred in cities across the nation this summer after the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, a panel of urban students will discuss issues of race and equity at a national town hall meeting on Oct. 16.

The 75-minute forum will be held by the Council of the Great City Schools in conjunction with the urban-school coalition’s virtual 64th Annual Fall Conference, Oct. 13-17.

The town hall meeting will feature student leaders from 10 urban school districts and will be moderated by Denver school board member and social justice activist Tay Anderson.

WHO: Tay Anderson, school board member of Denver Public Schools, Moderator Alexa Butler of Fresno, a race and social justice advocate Jemma Currie of Palm Beach, Fla., an environmental protection advocate Keylisha Diaz of Philadelphia, a member of the city’s school board Khymani James of Boston, a member of the Boston Student Advisory Council Tyra Patterson of Jackson, Miss., member of the Mississippi Student Advisory Council Glenn Perez Rodriguez of Long Beach, youth leader with Californians for Justice Gabriel Schuhl of Charlotte, student advisor to the city’s school board Simone’ Denise Simmons of Cincinnati, student ambassador Carmella Thomas of Portland, Ore., a racial equity leader Paw Thlay Wah of Omaha, representative for the district’s student panel

WHAT: National Town Hall Meeting: Students Speak Out on Race and Equity at National Town Hall Meeting

WHEN: Friday, Oct. 16 (3 – 4:15 p.m., Eastern Time)

# # #

The Twitter hashtag for the town hall meeting is #StudentsSpeak2020

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE CONTACT: Tonya Harris October 15, 2020 (4:30 p.m., EST) or [email protected]

Dallas Superintendent Named Top Urban Educator

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 – Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa received recognition as the 2020 Urban Educator of the Year at the Council of the Great City Schools’ virtual 64th Annual Fall Conference.

Twenty superintendents from big-city school districts competed for the nation’s highest honor in urban education leadership, recognizing in alternating years an outstanding superintendent and school board member from 76 of the largest urban public-school systems in the nation.

Hinojosa was announced the winner of the prestigious Green-Garner Award at the Council’s 31st Annual “Urban Educator of the Year” virtual award ceremony.

Sponsored by the Washington, D.C.- based Council, Cenergistic, Curriculum Associates, and K-12 Insight, the top prize is presented each year in memory of Richard R. Green, the first African American chancellor of the New York City school system, and businessman Edward Garner, who served on the Denver school board.

A graduate of Dallas ISD, Hinojosa served six years at the helm of the nation’s 14th largest school system before leaving in 2011. He returned for a second term as superintendent in 2015 and helped persuade voters to approve a $1.6 billion bond program, the district’s largest in history.

Under his leadership, the Dallas school system is making a steady rise in student achievement over the last three years. Hinojosa has also spearheaded an effort to increase internet access and connectivity, taking the lead in forming the “Operation Connectivity Task Force,” bringing together North Texas K-12 technology officers, the Texas Urban Council of big-city superintendents and the Council to permanently solve the issue of connectivity at the state and national levels. He has also worked to increase the number of people of color and women in the district’s leadership rank.

“Michael Hinojosa has been a true champion for urban education and his passion for equity and excellence has had a profound effect on how all of us advocate for our urban students,” says Council Executive Director Michael Casserly. “Over his 41-year career his dedication and humility has made a difference in the lives of the students he serves and there could be no one more deserving of this award.”

As the recipient of the 2020 Green-Garner Award, Hinojosa receives a $10,000 college scholarship to present to a student in the Dallas Independent School District.

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OP-EDS

Kansas City Star The progress is real: Kansas City Public Schools within reach of full accreditation

BY MICHAEL CASSERLY SPECIAL TO THE STAR FEBRUARY 05, 2021 05:00 AM

Kansas City's school district is making real, measurable academic achievements. FACEBOOK/KANSAS CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Success stories in urban education can be slow, arduous affairs. There are no silver bullets or easy victories. It takes years of hard work and consistent progress to change a big city school system, and to start seeing those changes reflected in student outcome data.

Just look at Kansas City Public Schools.

When officials at the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education recently asked the Council of the Great City Schools to share data on the performance and progress of Kansas City’s schools, we were eager to do so. The Council collects, analyzes and maintains a wealth of academic data on its members, and the purpose of asking for this analysis was to put Kansas City in a broader national context by comparing the school district not only to others in Missouri, but to urban school systems across the country with similar challenges and demographics.

In our examination of KCPS data and trends, as well as trend data for districts nationwide, we found that the district has not only raised academic achievement and improved student outcomes, but it has also demonstrated stability and leadership within the region and nation, strengthened its financial health and implemented a comprehensive districtwide improvement plan — all achievements worthy of a fully-accredited school district.

Again, these achievements did not happen overnight. Kansas City Public Schools has spent years elevating its expectations for student achievement, strengthening its curriculum and boosting its overall efficacy, quality and alignment with state standards. It improved instructional content and foundational skills in the early grades, increased the number of reading and math coaches, stepped up the quality of its professional development, adopted a way to identify needed interventions, created instructional walk-through and monitoring procedures, consolidated accountability documents to provide clearer expectations, enhanced academic department coordination, reoriented the work of principal supervisors around instruction and increased the numbers of Advanced Placement courses and certified teachers.

Outside of its instructional work, the district has partnered with the local business community, foundations and community organizations to rebuild trust and collaboration. In addition, the district has made important strides in strengthening its accountability structure. Superintendent Mark Bedell agreed at the outset of his tenure to be evaluated annually on a series of metrics that track district progress on the goals that it had set under the strategic plan. In a recent set of case studies the Council conducted on urban school districts that had made significant gains in student outcomes, the organization found that this seemingly simple step, and a school board’s willingness to monitor progress on those outcomes and support the work, were critical components in their improvement.

This work can now be seen in the performance of students. We examined several indicators of performance and experiences, and across the board, the data show that Kansas City has made substantial progress in both absolute and relative terms. From student pass rates, decreases in failure rates, assessment data, grade-level performance, Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate course participation, attendance and suspension rates, Algebra I completion rates in ninth grade and reducing the academic gap with other large city school systems, KCPS has made substantial progress and has only gained momentum over the past several years.

In fact, Kansas City Public Schools improved faster in both reading and math than the state and most other major city school systems.

This pattern of accelerating growth and narrowing achievement gaps with the state and the nation can be seen across all of the academic performance indicators the Council collects. Of course, KCPS still has considerable work to do to continue raising performance and address the diverse learning needs of its students. These are challenges Kansas City shares with school districts throughout the state and the country. But the district is making a measurable, positive impact on the lives of students, and is poised to continue this steady growth.

In the experience of the Council of the Great City Schools, trends like these do not happen by accident. They are the result of deliberate, sustained action. The district’s long-term commitment and consistent improvement on behalf of students has earned the district the confidence of its community.

The Council has provided this data and context to the state. As KCPS continues its journey to regain their full accreditation status, the Council stands with the district in support of their success and continued work.

Michael Casserly is executive director of The Council of the Great City Schools. CGCS brings together 76 of nation’s largest urban public-school systems in a coalition dedicated to the improvement of education for children in the inner cities. The Council and its member school districts work to help our schoolchildren meet the highest standards and become successful and productive members of society.

ARTICLES

ARTICLES- CORONAVIRUS CHALLENGES AND RESPONSE

Austin American Statesman

Student enrollment in Austin area drops amid pandemic By Melissa B. Taboada

Posted Oct 16, 2020 at 3:37 PM

Thousands of Austin-area students have opted out of public school this year, particularly those in prekindergarten and kindergarten, as parents grapple with how to best educate their children while keeping them safe amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Austin school district has seen the biggest enrollment drop — 5,600 students, or 6.9% — since last school year, district data show. Neighboring fast-growth districts, Round Rock and Leander, have lost 2,660 and 1,105 respectively.

Austin-area districts aren’t alone: School systems across the state and country are counting fewer students. Families have turned to hiring tutors to teach a small pod of children, private school or home schooling, while others are simply forgoing a formal education for children who otherwise would go to pre-K or kindergarten. In Texas, children aren’t required to enroll in school until first grade.

The declines come at a cost to school districts, which already are facing greater coronavirus-related expenses, such as for personal protective equipment, student plexiglass barriers and more robust technology to support increased virtual learning. Every student who withdraws from public school in Texas costs school districts about $9,000 in education funding. The enrollment decline could equate to a loss of $50 million for the Austin district this school year.

In an attempt to reverse an already shrinking enrollment, Austin in recent years had expanded its prekindergarten program, offering classes to 3-year-olds and tuition-paid pre-K students. The Austin district is among the few that offer tuition-based pre-K for $4,656 a school year for children who don’t qualify for the state program, which provides early education to 3- and 4-year-olds who are in foster care, from low-income families, whose parents are in the military or whose primary language isn’t English.

But this year, many parents have opted to keep these young learners out of school, both virtually and in person. There are 2,676 fewer students in prekindergarten and kindergarten this year in the Austin district — nearly half of the district’s overall enrollment decline.

Megan Olshavsky’s son, Jonah, is among the would-be kindergarteners. Before the pandemic hit, Olshavsky planned to send her 5-year-old son to kindergarten in an Austin district school. But during the summer, when it was unclear whether campuses would reopen and whether Jonah would be able to interact with other children, Olshavsky decided to keep him at his private Montessori, which reopened in June.

She and her husband both work, and it would have been difficult to juggle virtual learning, the only option the Austin district offered during the initial weeks of the school year. Her son’s preschool environment also is less restrictive than what’s seen on Austin campuses — where children are required to wear masks and have plexiglass barriers at their desks. Even in the less restrictive environment, so far there have been no virus scares or outbreaks, she said. The children are kept in the same pod of eight or 10 and spend a lot of time outside where they have normal interactions, Olshavsky said.

“We feel good about the decision,” she said. “He’s in a place with teachers he knows, where he can interact with other kids and be where he feels comfortable.”

‘Excited to be back’ At Overton Elementary in East Austin, masks are worn by every staff member and student, including the prekindergarten 3-year-olds. Students spread out their arms like airplanes to ensure proper distance from one another. Teachers remind the students they can’t sit together and applaud them when they space out. Students frequently wash their hands, toys are disinfected, and touched books must go in a bin for three days before they are used again.

Prekindergarten teacher Amanda Bradley’s class for 4-year-olds is down by a handful of students. She is teaching 10 in person and three others who are learning virtually, carrying her laptop with her across the room as she goes over letter and word recognition. Other prekindergarten classes at the school, including the bilingual pre-K classes that typically enroll about 20 students each, have a fraction of the students they normally do. Six students are in the classroom next door; three are enrolled virtually. “I’m really excited to be back,” said Bradley, a 24-year teaching veteran. “Kids this age are so hands on. Pre-K is best in person for socialization and the hands-on learning. The socialization, being with their friends, is what is so important for pre-K4″ (pre-K for 4- year-olds).

Students in pre-K and kindergarten classes in the Austin district were among the first to return for in-person learning, beginning Oct. 5. By Nov. 2, any student who wishes to attend school in the classroom will be able to do so. But based on parent surveys, district officials expect fewer than half of students to return to classrooms this year.

Most area districts opened schoolhouse doors earlier than the Austin district.

Overton Principal Courtney Colvin says while the 448-student school has fewer students in the early grades, she anticipates more will return in January. Enrollment is down by 12%, or 62 children. “It’s understandable because they just want to keep them home,” Colvin said. “I think parents will feel more comfortable when they see the other children already coming to school. It’s a comfort level from a health perspective.”

Financial hit While enrollment is down about 3% to 5% in urban districts nationally, urban Texas districts have seen greater declines, with some districts dropping 7% to 9%, said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of 76 of the country’s largest school systems.

Any enrollment decline could take a financial toll on school systems, and if numbers don’t rebound, school boards and administrators in Texas could be forced to cut staff positions or programs. About 85% of districts’ budgets go to personnel.

“Until there is a solution, people are going to hit a wall pretty soon,” said Michael Hinojosa, Dallas district superintendent and Texas Urban Council of Superintendents co- legislative chairman. “Districts that don’t have a lot of reserves will be in a lot of trouble financially.”

For this school year, some states have decided not to penalize school districts for enrollment drops, placing a “hold harmless” provision to fully fund the districts based on pre-coronavirus enrollment projections. The Texas Education Agency is waiting 12 weeks after a district’s first day of school before calculating funding based on attendance. That could provide some school districts full funding through much of the first semester. In the meantime, the state is funding the districts based on projected enrollments, which often anticipated growth.

“Given the uncertain nature of this public health crisis, we are giving as much support and flexibility as possible to school districts,” Texas’ Education Commissioner Mike Morath said.

But Hinojosa said it might not be enough and he hopes the state will continue the hold harmless provision, despite the lower enrollments.

“We’re trying to provide as much quality instruction as we can, and it’s already tough on teachers. They have to balance online and in person, then they’re worried about their jobs. That’s not going to be good for achievement long term,” he said. “We’re going to need additional resources, not less. “The worry we have, especially for urban areas, is how significant this loss is going to be. It’s going to be tough,” he said.

Round Rock Superintendent Steve Flores said many parents who are opting for home schooling or choosing other options for their children who otherwise would attend pre- K and kindergarten have told him they still consider themselves part of the district. He said he’s confident the children will enroll later.

“This is certainly a new phenomenon for a district like Round Rock, which has been growing at a rapid pace for so many years,” Flores said. “No one could’ve predicted this scenario, and it certainly will have budget implications for our district and districts around the state and nation dealing with the same issue.”

Flores said the extension of the hold harmless provision by the education agency is needed because the district needs to keep all its teachers now for online and on-campus instruction and for when students return.

“A disruption in staffing, only to hire back when students return, is not good for anyone,” he said. “We’ll be aggressive to earn our students back.”

Long-term effects

The loss of students in the early grades also could have long-term academic consequences. Prekindergarten and kindergarten are crucial periods for learning not only letters, shapes and numbers, but language and vocabulary development, social learning, emotional self-regulation and how to get along with others. Early education experts warn that students who are not receiving quality instruction likely will struggle for years to come.

“The number of kids who can benefit from preschool has gone up, and the number who are benefiting has gone down. It’s a huge lost opportunity,” said Steven Barnett, the senior co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research.

While virtual learning helps, “parents have been not been able to fill in the gap,” Barnett said. In addition to job losses and parents trying to work from home while instructing their little ones, many homes have fewer resources, such as a rich library of books, technology and other learning tools, like Legos, he said.

“We will have a cohort of kids, and depending on how long this goes on, maybe more than one, who are less successful because we have not provided them with the foundation they otherwise would have had for success,” he said.

NPR—WBEZ (Chicago)

Chicago Public Schools Enrollment Plummets

Like many school districts around the country, CPS sees a huge dropoff, losing nearly 15,000 students in a year defined by the pandemic.

By Sarah Karp Oct. 16, 7:12 a.m. CT

Amid a pandemic and all remote learning, Chicago Public Schools saw its biggest decline in student enrollment in two decades.

Enrollment is down by about 4% or about 14,500 fewer students this year compared to last year, according to school district figures released Friday.

This accelerates a downward trend over the last nine years. Just a decade ago, the school system had nearly 403,000 students. This year, the official enrollment count is at 340,658.

But Chicago’s enrollment loss is not unique. This year, most big city school districts have seen enrollment drops of between 3% and 5%, said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools.

In Chicago and many other school districts across the nation, much of the drop is due to preschoolers and kindergarteners deciding not to enroll. Fifty-seven percent of the drop in enrollment compared to last year is among these young students, according to CPS. Forty-one percent of the enrollment drop is in pre-K alone.

The enrollment announcement comes as the news surfaces that the school district plans to resume in-person learning in November for preschool students and some students with disabilities. A final decision will be made closer to Nov. 9, the start of the second quarter, CPS said. The plan is for all other students to continue remote learning, with the possibility of additional grades resuming in- person learning as early as January.

Chief Education Officer LaTanya McDade said she is deeply concerned about thousands of four- and five-year-old children sitting out of school for months.

“We need our pre-K and kindergarten students in school and learning and preparing,” McDade said. “These are the foundational years.” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said earlier this week that among the factors she was considering when looking at reopening school for in-person learning is that many young children and students with disabilities are not showing up for school at all.

“We have got to make decisions that maximize the opportunities for everyone, but particularly those students who I think are most vulnerable and are having the most challenges in a remote learning environment,” Lightfoot said.

But officials said they are not worried about the drop in enrollment hurting the school district financially. Some federal funding is tied to the number of low- income students, but it represents only about 10% of the district’s overall budget.

State money isn’t expected to decline because only increases in state funding are tied to enrollment and attendance and there is no jump in state funding this year. “All hands on deck” strategy

In a change from past years, high school enrollment is relatively stable, with some neighborhood high schools that have been spiraling downward seeing small upticks.

But still there are 19 high schools that have less than 250 students, including four with fewer than 100 students. These are not only expensive to maintain, but they also struggle to offer robust programming for students.

McDade said the school district is providing extra support to these schools.

She also said the school district is working with elementary schools that saw especially big drops in students. A quarter of the school district’s 477 elementary schools had enrollment declines of 10% of more.

There are five community areas experiencing a more than 10% drop in elementary school students. They include West Garfield Park on the West Side and McKinley Park on the Southwest Side.

To help these schools try to shore up enrollment and attendance, Chicago Public Schools adopted a strategy that they call “all hands on deck” in which Safe Passage workers are making calls and security guards are doing home visits to try to get students enrolled.

Casserly said he is seeing similar efforts across the country.

“We’re trying to figure out exactly what the situation is, and what it is we can do about it,” he said. “A number of big city school districts have put in place outreach strategies to try to figure out where the kids are, and to bring them back if they aren’t otherwise enrolled.”

Casserly said the biggest concern is that missing students will experience learning loss.

But others say the bigger issue is the pandemic itself.

“The pandemic is causing all kinds of ripple effects on everything, schooling being one of them,” said Amanda Moreno, an associate professor at Erikson Institute, an early childhood, a graduate school in childhood development.

She said schools need to realize that even those in remote learning will need extra support when they return to in-person school.

Sarah Karp covers education for WBEZ. Follow her on Twitter @WBEZeducation and @sskedreporter.

Washington Post Back to school: Many large districts are opening doors again

By Laura Meckler and Valerie Strauss

Oct. 19, 2020 at 1:05 p.m. EDT

Large school districts across the country are reopening campuses to students, a slow- moving reversal driven by fear that students are falling behind and early evidence that schools have not become the coronavirus superspreaders as feared.

It’s a major shift from the start of the year when almost every big system began fully online.

Trepidation about the pandemic persists. In many cities, coronavirus infection rates are rising, which could prompt school leaders to reverse plans. Some classrooms and even entire schools have opened and had to close again in response to outbreaks. In some cities, opposition from teachers unions has slowed efforts to open buildings.

But overall, the trend is now toward more in-person school.

Of the 50 largest school districts, 24 have resumed in-person classes for large groups of students, and 11 others plan to in the coming weeks, according to a Washington Post survey. An additional four have opened, or plan to open, for small groups of students who need extra attention.

Many are in Florida and Texas, where Republican governors are requiring in-person classes, but schools are also open in New York City, Greenville, S.C., and Alpine, Utah, the state’s largest district. Returns are planned in Charlotte, Baltimore and Denver.

Just 11 of the largest 50 school districts are still fully remote, with no immediate plans to change that.

“I think everybody’s quite worried about what the price is that we’ve paid for having the buildings closed,” said Michael Casserly, executive director of Great City Schools, a lobbying group for urban districts. He said the biggest drivers are concern over substantial “learning loss” and a sense that even though remote education is better than it was in the spring, it still is not working well enough.

Officials also worry because some students are simply not showing up to remote classes, with attendance figures down in many places. Casserly said many educators worry that “we are going to dig ourselves a hole that is so deep that it takes us years and years to get out of.”

The trend is evident, too, in tracking by the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington at Bothell. In the beginning of September, 24 of 106 mostly urban districts were open for at least some in-person school. By the end of October, that will rise to 69 out of 106, assuming districts stick with their announced plans.

“Parents are very, very eager to get their kids back to school. Students are very eager to get back to school,” said Robin Lake, the center’s director.

Assessing infection rates

In many districts, including in suburban Washington and the District of Columbia, students are being phased back into school, often starting with the youngest because online learning is so difficult for them. That’s also the approach in Charlotte- Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina, which is using a hybrid system in which students are on campus on certain days and online on others.

Superintendent Earnest Winston said it’s the right move because children learn best in person, but he worries as he sees infection rates rising. For the first time since late July, the tally of newly reported coronavirus cases in the United States surpassed 64,000 last week. In 44 states and the District of Columbia, caseloads were higher than they were one month ago.

“This virus is still so new, things are changing rapidly, and so one thing that keeps me up at night is seeing this resurgence across the country,” he said. “I’m concerned we could move backward before we continue to move forward.”

But he is comforted that so far there is little evidence of significant transmission in school buildings.

A tracking project run out of Brown University, which includes data through late September from more than 1,200 schools, finds fewer than 1 percent of students and staff have confirmed coronavirus infections.

In Texas, which ordered schools to open, the state Health Department reported last week nearly 2,000 students with confirmed cases. That was a tiny fraction — well under 1 percent — of the 2.1 million students attending school in person. Among school staff, too, just a fraction of a percent reported infections.

And in New York City, the school system reported conducting more than 16,000 tests last week, with 28 people testing position for the coronavirus — 20 staff members and eight students. That’s just 0.17 percent of the total. Data in other states are less clear because districts are not required to report cases. But overall, experts say, infection rates are lower than what is being seen in the larger community.

It’s not entirely clear why, but experts say factors include mitigation strategies used by many schools, such as required masks and social distancing in the buildings, as well as children’s lower infection rates overall.

‘We are losing them’

The learning losses during remote school have yet to be tallied, but they are believed to be significant for children in low-income families, who were already, as a group, academically behind. Data from an online math program called Zearn show students in high-income Zip codes have made more progress than is typical since January, meaning they used the program more than they would have, while those in low-income areas decreased their use, according to an analysis by Opportunity Insights, a research and policy institute based at Harvard University. Before the pandemic, high- and low- income students progressed through the program at similar rates.

“We are losing them,” said Atlanta Schools Superintendent Lisa Herring. “We have a responsibility to start to do as much as we can, as safely as possible to not completely lose them before the close of this semester.”

Still, rising case counts persuaded the district to postpone the restart from later this month to January.

In Broward County, Fla., the schools have offered one of the most successful online education programs in the country, with years-long investment in online learning. But Superintendent Robert Runcie said in-person classes remain the gold standard. As in other districts in Florida, campuses in Broward are now open.

“There’s nothing good about being in the situation where we couldn’t open our schools,” he said.

Some districts are starting small, with just a handful of students with special needs. In San Diego, elementary school teachers identified children struggling the most with online learning and invited them back into classrooms for lessons and special services, said Superintendent Cindy Marten. In-person classes for these students began last week.

“We like to say in our district, ‘If you can’t reach ’em, you can’t teach ’em,’ so let’s bring them in,” she said.

Marten said the district has taken precautions advised by a team at the University of California at San Diego, including keeping students six feet apart from each other, checking symptoms, erecting dividers in classrooms and setting up sanitation and hand- washing stations. In some schools, too, she said, classrooms have been set up outside. “It is San Diego, after all,” she said.

There are no set dates for other students to return to school, she said, and there won’t be until the district sees how the limited program now underway goes. “It’s like we are crossing a fast-moving river and stepping on the first stone,” she said.

Open, then closed

In many parts of the country, schools have opened and then closed after coronavirus exposures.

New York City, the largest school district in the country, became the first big-city system to reopen, with most of the 1.1 million students choosing to attend in person. Then some schools were forced shut after cases spiked in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, where residents had ignored social distancing and other health protocols.

In Jefferson County, Ky., the school district has been planning to begin reopening this week, but coronavirus cases are rising in the community, so that date probably will be pushed back, a spokesman said. Boston has opened classrooms for high-need students but delayed a phased reopening for others after virus rates rose in the city.

Other large districts have no plans to reopen. That includes the country’s second largest, Los Angeles Unified School District, which is offering in-person tutoring for some students but not regular school, and the third largest, Chicago Public Schools, where there is no in-person learning.

In Chicago, efforts to open buildings have run into opposition from the Chicago Teachers Union, which argues it would not be safe. The union’s complaint went to a formal arbitration, which the union won. The district is appealing. Meantime, the union is suggesting it could strike if teachers are ordered back into classrooms.

In the District of Columbia, union pressures are also at work. The public schools plan to allow small groups of elementary school students back into classrooms next month, a total of about 7,000 students who are homeless, learning English as a second language, or have special education needs. Buildings also will be open to other students who will participate in remote school while being supervised by nonteaching staff.

The Washington Teachers Union had laid out a set of sweeping demands to return to in- person teaching, including hazard pay and an end to teacher evaluations. The teachers later dropped many of those demands, but they are insisting on some authority to help determine whether buildings have met a set of negotiated safety standards.

And in Baltimore County, Md., the school district plans to bring back students with physical and developmental special needs to four schools next month, but pressure from teachers may change that, said spokesman Brandon Oland. “The teachers at those schools have been expressing their concerns, so I’m not sure what that’s going to mean for the plan,” he said. “What I’ve learned is the plan can change.”

New York Times Parents Are Worried About Schools. Are the Candidates?

The pandemic has made education a top issue for many voters. But you wouldn’t know that from the candidates’ stump speeches.

By Abby Goodnough Oct. 22, 2020, 3:02 a.m. ET

Communities large and small are battling over whether and how to reopen schools closed since March. Superintendents are warning of drastic budget cuts on the horizon, teachers’ unions are calling for standardized tests to be canceled for a second straight year and millions of children are learning remotely, with little evaluation of the impact on their academic growth.

Yet for months now, the extraordinary challenges of schooling during the coronavirus pandemic have not been a dominant campaign theme for either President Trump or his opponent, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

That is partly because states and local districts have a larger role than the federal government in funding and running schools. But with so many families deeply affected by the pandemic’s upending of school routines and potentially lasting impact on childhood learning, the lack of thoughtful focus on the issue has frustrated parents and educators alike.

“It should really be a pivotal topic,” said Kisha Hale, principal of the upper grades at Eagle Academy Public Charter School in Washington, which has been providing virtual instruction to its largely low-income students since March. “With Covid-19, there are so many other things taking the focus away from education. But if our future doctors, teachers and lawyers can’t be properly prepared during this time and we’re not talking about it, what is it that we are saying really matters?”

Several recent polls have suggested the issue is a leading concern for many voters. A Politico and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health survey released last month found that schools and education was the second most important issue for likely voters, after the economy and jobs. And a poll conducted this month in Michigan for The Detroit Free Press found that reopening schools and the economy was the top issue concerning voters, followed by the public health crisis posed by the coronavirus.

In his rallies, Mr. Trump reliably mentions that he will fight for school choice and protect charter schools, which is both a pitch to urban Black and Hispanic voters, many of whom split with the Democratic Party on those issues, and a rallying cry for conservatives. And he has consistently called for schools to reopen, threatening at one point to withhold federal funds from those that resisted.

But Mr. Trump has said little to nothing about the role of federal funding in helping districts reopen safely. And instead of calling for clear, prescriptive recommendations on reopening, he has pushed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to emphasize the importance of reopening schools, despite the concerns of many C.D.C. scientists that the White House has minimized the risks.

Mr. Biden frequently touts proposals to triple federal spending on schools that serve large numbers of poor students and to provide free preschool to all 3- and 4-year-olds, while reproaching Mr. Trump for not reaching a deal with Congress to provide more emergency school funding. The CARES Act provided an initial $13 billion in April, but groups representing educators have asked for many times that amount.

“President Trump still doesn’t have any real plan for how to open our schools safely, no real plan for how to help parents feel secure for their children,” Mr. Biden said last month about reopening schools.

But while Mr. Biden has presented ideas on how and when school districts should reopen, he has not addressed the divisions that exist within his own party about what conditions need to be in place before sending students and teachers back to classrooms.

Nor has either campaign put forth ideas on improving remote learning, or on how colleges should be handling the return to campuses — deeply relevant issues to huge slices of the electorate.

Jeanine Malec, whose three elementary-school-age children are learning remotely in Minneapolis, said she wished the candidates would acknowledge the particular challenge of remote schooling for special education students, including her daughter. “She isn’t gaining skills right now; in a lot of ways she’s losing ground,” Ms. Malec said. “How will special needs kids be helped back onto their feet in the aftermath of Covid?”

The subject of school reopening is also not a major theme of either candidate’s ad campaigns, and it got less than a minute of airtime at the first debate between Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump last month. Nor is it among the topics that Kristen Welker of NBC News plans to question them on at Thursday’s debate, though “Fighting Covid-19” is.

Education has loomed larger in some previous elections. In 2000, George W. Bush made it central to his campaign by pushing a standardized testing plan that became the bipartisan No Child Left Behind law of 2001. His father, George H.W. Bush, said during his 1988 campaign that he wanted to be “the education president,” while Barack Obama in 2008 spoke often of fixing “the broken promises” of No Child Left Behind.

But this year, the election is so much a referendum on Mr. Trump — and his handling of the pandemic — that there is less space than ever for other policy discussions. The one exception might be health care and coverage, which has dominated campaign advertisements up and down both party’s tickets and is perhaps even more top of mind for voters than schooling challenges.

Still, Frederick Hess, the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank, said both candidates could have more skillfully tapped the widespread angst among parents whose children are learning from home this fall.

“Parents trying to work while supervising second graders — who’s standing up for them?” Mr. Hess said. “It seems like a political winner. But here we are two weeks before the election and we haven’t heard that case made effectively.”

He added: “A Republican president who had evinced some degree of restraint and maturity and thoughtfulness could be making those arguments very powerfully right now — but that obviously doesn’t describe Trump.”

Mr. Biden has a more difficult needle to thread. Some of his strongest support comes from teachers’ unions, which generally have opposed efforts to reopen schools. And in the Democratic cities and swing-district suburbs where schools are more likely to remain closed, and where Mr. Biden’s support is based, many parents also remain resistant to reopening as public health concerns persist and data on the safety of school reopenings is sparse.

“In my district, everybody has their Biden yard signs but it’s about a 50-50 split as to who wants their kids back in school,” said Sarah Reckhow, an associate professor of political science at Michigan State University who studies education politics. “It’s a tricky calculus for him.”

In July, Mr. Biden proposed a “five-step road map” for reopening schools, emphasizing deference to local decision-making and increased federal aid for schools. He called for “clear, consistent, effective” national guidelines to help reopening decisions but did not offer specifics, saying those decisions should be made by state and local officials in consultation with communities.

Daniel A. Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, said many of the superintendents his group represented wanted very specific recommendations. An example, he said, would be a recommendation to reopen only if less than 5 percent of coronavirus tests performed in a community are positive over several weeks’ time, a threshold many epidemiologists support.

“Instead, we have districts with a 20 percent positivity rate opening up,” he said. “There’s been no unifying guidance that says, ‘This is what we’re all going to do together.’”

Michael Casserly, the longtime executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, an organization representing about 70 large urban districts, was more resigned than indignant about the fact that school reopening issues were not a central focus of the candidates. He estimated that about 40 percent of his member districts have at least partially reopened. Some, he said, would rather not have politicians weighing in as they sort through how to address problems from staffing to ventilation to remote instruction.

“Many at the local level are fed up with the mixed messages they are getting from the federal and state levels,” Mr. Casserly said. “We don’t necessarily need for this to be the subject of any more political debate; we’ve had more than enough of that.”

Las Vegas Review-Journal Teachers, school employees’ unions voice opposition to CCSD hybrid plan

By Julie Wootton-Greener Las Vegas Review-Journal November 10, 2020 - 6:37 pm

Unions representing school employees are voicing opposition to the Clark County School District’s proposal to bring employees back to work sites in December and students back to classrooms in January.

The school district, which has about 307,000 students and 40,000 employees, released a 205-page transition plan Monday night. The School Board meets at 5 p.m. Thursday for a possible vote on whether to reopen schools under a hybrid model.

If approved, students would attend in-person classes two days a week and via distance education three days a week. Families would have the option of continuing with full distance education.

But Clark County school employee unions are citing concerns with reopening when the county is seeing a rising COVID-19 testing positivity rate, saying the school district isn’t prepared to do so safely.

Marie Neisess, president of the Clark County Education Association, said in a Tuesday statement: “CCEA’s position has not changed. We do not support any reopening without a robust safety program in place with testing, contact tracing and proper PPE as well as choice for educators to continue working remotely. The Trustees should not approve any plan that does not include those two key pieces.”

Meanwhile, the National Education Association of Southern Nevada released a statement Monday night that said it stands in “strong opposition” to reopening at this time. The association said the school district isn’t prepared to deal with “the consequences of COVID spread on our campuses.”

In its statement, President Vicki Kreidel said: “We must prioritize human lives and re-opening schools for face-to-face instruction during the current spike would be putting other interests above the lives of our educators.”

And the Education Support Employees Association said in a Tuesday statement that the timeline for reopening schools seems rushed and it’s unclear why.

“At this point, the timeline presented by the District in their re-opening plan is not workable with all of the changes that have yet to be made to ensure staff and students are safe in our schools,” President Jan Giles said. “Positivity rates must be 5% or lower before putting students and staff at risk, and we demand that the Trustees and administrators acknowledge that Education Support Professionals are crucial to the well-being of students. We are not expendable, but that’s the message we are receiving.”

Returning to campuses

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Clark County School District — with the exception of seven rural campuses — has been operating under full distance- learning protocols since school began in late August. In a Monday night statement, the school district said return dates to campuses and work sites “may be adjusted and could change based on evolving health conditions and forthcoming information.”

If the plan is approved, employees would return to work sites Dec. 1. And schools would be allowed to bring back individual students or small groups to campuses starting Dec. 1 for screenings, orientations and mental health services.

Employees may choose to bring their own children ages 4 to 18 with them during contracted work hours from Dec. 1-18 if their supervisor approves it in writing and if the employee maintains “direct supervision of the child,” according to the transition plan.

The first group of hybrid students — preschool through second graders, sixth graders, 11th graders and 12th graders, and self-contained programs in all grade levels — would head back to classrooms Jan. 4. Full-time, in-person instruction would start Jan. 4 at rural schools and small urban schools approved to operate under that model. All remaining students would return to hybrid instruction Jan. 11.

School Board Vice President Linda Cavazos wrote Monday night on Twitter that trustees saw the transition plan for the first time the night it was posted online. “We received a one hour briefing this afternoon. I have NOT had a chance to read the whole plan yet. I assure you that we will all read the entire document,” she tweeted.

In a separate post, Cavazos wrote she knows she’s not the only trustee who’s reading a flood of emails. “People are upset, and we understand that. Despite the news reports, this has not been discussed or voted on yet.” The transition plan covers topics such as cleaning protocols, classroom capacity, when employees would be quarantined, what types of personal protective equipment certain groups of employees would use, and how school lunches and busing would work.

The city of Henderson released a letter Tuesday night written Nov. 2 by Mayor Debra March to the board supporting the school district moving forward with a plan to reopen schools.

“School districts both inside and outside our state have safely reopened their campuses using protocols that are designed to protect the health of students, teachers and support staff and CCSD should look to these models as a source of information that can be used to create a plan allowing for the limited resumption of in-person classes by the second semester of the 2020-2021 school year,” she wrote. Reaction from parents

Rebecca Dirks Garcia, one of the administrators for the CCSD Parents Facebook group — which has about 14,000 members — and president of the Nevada PTA, said Tuesday that comments from parents on the transition plan have been mixed.

But she said one of the common themes from parents focuses on “the direct amount of upheaval on individual kids.”

Dirks Garcia said some parents see a need for their child to receive in-person instruction, even for minimal hours, while others are looking at the details of hybrid instruction and are “not sure it’s worth it enough to mess with what’s already happening.” Dirks Garcia said she’s hearing a recognition that “this is probably the worst timing possible” in terms of considering in-person classes while COVID-19 case numbers are rising. But “for the families who really see the need for in- person instruction, that need is regardless of what the testing positivity rate is.”

Regardless of the decision the school board makes, the majority of students will spend the majority of their time in a distance learning environment, Dirks Garcia said. “That’s one of the things the plan doesn’t really address.”

Las Vegas parent Christine Wilson said her eighth-grader has been more focused learning from home and is getting better grades. But she said he misses his friends and needs those interactions.

“We think the hybrid plan of a day or two per week would be beneficial when cases trend back down,” she said in an email to the Review-Journal.

Las Vegas parent Erica Downing said if schools do reopen for in-person classes, her children will be there because they’re “super healthy kids” and while her husband already had COVID-19 and it made him horribly sick, her children didn’t catch it.

“However, I feel that in no way should the district force teachers to go back if not comfortable,” she wrote in an email to the Review-Journal, adding they should be able to make a decision on an individual basis like parents can about whether to send their child back.

“Forcing teachers to go back in to schools is not fair,” she wrote, noting it will spur too many teachers to quit or retire early, or understandably cause resentment toward parents who decided to send their children back in-person.

Other school districts

The Washoe County School District — which covers the Reno area and has about 62,000 students and 8,000 employees — is operating this school year with full-time in-person classes for elementary schoolers, and under a hybrid model for middle and high schoolers. About one-third of its students have opted for fully distance learning.

The school board was slated to meet Tuesday night to consider COVID-19 case updates and whether to make any changes to school operations amid growing case numbers.

The Council of the Great City Schools — an advocacy organization for 76 of the nation’s largest urban school districts, including Clark County School District — released a list to the Review-Journal Tuesday of what instructional model other districts are using.

As of Friday, more than 40 districts — including Clark County — hadn’t reopened for in-person learning, although some have allowed small groups of students to return or have plans to reopen this winter.

Wall Street Journal As Covid-19 Cases Surge, School Districts Ponder Closing Doors More is now known about remote learning and health officials have a better grasp on how the disease spreads among children By Lee Hawkins and Yoree Koh NOVEMBER 13, 2020

School districts nationwide are split on their closing plans as community infection rates vary and transmission in many locations has been relatively contained.

Cities such as Detroit, Boston and Baltimore have shut down or scaled back in- person learning because of increases in coronavirus cases. Other large school systems including Chicago and Philadelphia that didn’t reopen schools during the fall term are deciding to keep students at home longer. Meanwhile, schools in Oregon, Texas and elsewhere are keeping schools open despite increases in infections.

Of the nation’s 75 largest school districts, 36 didn’t reopen this fall for in-person learning, while 33 have welcomed students back to the classroom, according to data compiled by the Council of the Great City Schools. Six districts reopened for in- person learning this fall but have since reversed course.

Schools that offer in-person learning adopted varied and often expensive measures to make schools safe including requiring social distancing, mask-wearing and sanitizing. Many districts have “hybrid” or “blended” schedules that cut down the number of students in classrooms by allowing students to only attend in person a few days a week and learn remotely on other days. Schools have struggled since spring with closure decisions because many parents need to work and lack child care, and some families lack internet connectivity or the resources to help students with online learning. Others have questioned the quality of remote learning.

Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon said recently that Covid-19 will continue to be part of life for a while when announcing new metrics that would allow more students to return to in-person classes. New cases in Oregon increased Thursday to 1,122, a new one-day high. The state’s total cumulative count climbed to 53,779.

As back-to-school season approaches, districts across the country are grappling with concerns over student and teacher safety. In Quincy, Ill., public schools are using a popular hybrid model to reopen. WSJ’s Doug Belkin visited the school days before students are set to arrive. (Originally published Aug. 14, 2020)

Some schools have seen sporadic Covid-19 outbreaks, but the infection rate in schools and among children is relatively low. Emily Oster, a Brown University economist, collected nationwide data that showed an overall rate of about 1.5 infections among 1,000 students in districts with in-person classes during two weeks in late September. The data showed 2.5 infections among 1,000 employees. About 570,274 children ages 5 to 17 years old have had Covid-19, or about 7.5% of U.S. cases in which the patient’s age was available, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Seventy-three children in that group have died. Roughly 56 million children attend prekindergarten through 12th grade.

New York City, home of the nation’s largest school district, saw its seven-day average positivity rate hit 2.6% on Tuesday, up from 2.31% a day earlier. If it hits 3%, it could trigger a shutdown to the city’s public school system in the coming days.

The city’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, is among leaders who have stressed the role in- person interaction plays in the social and emotional learning and development of children. But he might have to close down the district if cases keep rising. “There’s still a chance to turn that around, but we’re preparing for that possibility,” Mr. de Blasio said Thursday. If the rate hits or exceeds 3% on a seven-day rolling average, “then we will move immediately—the next day, schools will be shut down,” he said.

United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said that in the event of a closure, the union will urge the city’s Department of Education to be “very vigilant” about returning to remote classes until the rate falls below 3%. He stressed that many school buildings host children from several different neighborhoods, which could cause the virus to spread more quickly.

In Arizona, the state Department of Health Services recently made it tougher to shut down schools, recommending that schools meet three benchmarks for severe community spread instead of one. The Arizona School Administrators and the Arizona School Boards Association pushed back, saying school districts had discretion on these decisions and should “adhere to their original plans.”

Arizona is currently experiencing a 9.7% positivity rate and 3,708 cases per 100,000 population, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

The Philadelphia school district, which serves about 203,000 students, took the opposite approach, saying Tuesday that it would push back its return to in-person learning until further notice. Pennsylvania recorded a new daily high of 5,488 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, according to the state’s department of health.

Monica Lewis, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia school district, said that the combination of the uptick in cases and concern about travel around Thanksgiving made the district’s latest decision to pause its plan “a no-brainer.”

Jess Davis, of Brooklyn, N.Y., said she doesn’t believe schools should be closed when studies show they aren’t where the transmission is happening. “My son is eating outside in his courtyard at school in the drizzling rain, but yet we’re allowing people to eat indoors from different houses,” Ms. Davis said. “It just doesn’t really translate.”

But other parents, including Brooklyn resident Paullette Ha, are hoping Mr. de Blasio does close schools if the city reaches the 3% threshold.

Ms. Ha said that many schools weren’t equipped for safe in-person learning and that she would like to see officials use another school shutdown to rethink their plans on moving forward.

“We cannot risk what happened in March happening again now,” she said, “just to make people comfortable.”

Kirk Schneider, who teaches three in-person classes to five English as a Second Language and special-needs students at Urban Assembly Gateway School for Technology in Manhattan, said he believes a closure will mean students “that really benefit from getting into the building every day” will suffer, but not learning.

“We’ve been ready for this, so it’s not going to change our education much, when we have to go full remote,” he said. “It’s not like it was in March.”

—Maya Goldman and Valerie Bauerlein contributed to this article.

Cleveland.com How much has the coronavirus set kids back in school? It’s difficult to quantify, experts say

Updated Nov 16, 6:00 AM; Posted Nov 16, 6:00 AM

By Emily Bamforth, cleveland.com CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Educators know about the “summer slide,” the term used to describe the learning kids lose when they’re away from school on summer vacation.

The same phenomenon can apply to the learning lost during the coronavirus pandemic, but education researchers haven’t been able to gather complete data on the extent of the problem. With many students still out of school and dealing with the effects of the pandemic, experts might not be able to gather the data to get a nationwide, or even statewide, picture. So while individual districts may be able to gauge how their students are doing, there’s no big-picture look.

That’s important for making policy decisions, and as a community, knowing where to put resources. Many parents use standardized testing as a marker for how well students are matching up with state standards.

But standardized testing was canceled in the spring, and experts say testing this fall could have some flaws. The Ohio Senate introduced a bill to file an exemption with the federal government, to allow more time for districts and students to stabilize before testing. That will likely not happen, as the Department of Education pre- empted those requests with public statements that there will be no waivers this year.

So now, tests are still on the horizon. But do those really assess how an individual student is doing during the pandemic, soothing frazzled parents’ nerves about learning loss?

Experts say standardized testing, which parents are familiar with as a benchmark, combined with formative testing, which happens in classrooms -- and online -- throughout the course of the school year, will provide a complete picture. Teachers take responsibility for formative testing, using quizzes, activities and other tools to regularly assess a student’s progress.

“Many teachers have a fairly good grasp right now of what’s going on, and the kind of learning loss that’s happening,” said Indiana University associate professor David Rutkowski. “That would be at an individual, school level, where the teachers are able to gauge and maybe even teachers with experience can go back to previous years and look back at scores on tests that they’ve given in the past to be able to gauge that.”

That doesn’t mean looking at the report card at the end of the year, which looks back on student progress. Formative assessments should allow teachers to immediately assess a student’s progress and allow them to adjust learning to the student or class.

Jacob Burgoon, an assistant teaching professor at Bowling Green State University’s College of Education and Human Development, said he’s implemented formative assessments in his own online classes. There are different tools that teachers use, like Flipgrid, where students can take quizzes and do minute presentations on what they’ve learned and have conversations. Teachers can monitor that to see how students are engaging and how well they’re learning material.

“Those kinds of formative assessments, I think, are the key because, number one, they are quicker to administer,” Burgoon said. “Students that have been out of the classroom for a long time, when they come in, and then you give them a standardized test, I think they’re gonna be like, ‘Oh, right, I remember why I hate school.’ There’s the motivational aspect right there. Secondly, they seem less threatening, and they’re more open for teacher feedback. The teacher is going to respond to the task the student just did and can help them immediately.”

Education publication EdWeek surveyed 12 education assessment and instruction experts and came to the same conclusion: immediately testing students when they return to the classroom after an extended absence can be overwhelming. Instead districts should focus on assessing through teaching and avoid using tests as “gatekeepers.”

Schools also use diagnostic tests to see how well students are performing to the state standard, which could provide information when compared to previous years. The Ohio Department of Education released a test bank of questions previously used in state tests for districts to use for assessments. The difference here is that using these banks of questions aren’t as “high stakes” as standardized testing, which can have profound effects.

Standardized tests, aside from informing a student’s path, are usually a factor in teacher evaluations and district report cards. This year, the Department of Education clarified that certain types of student data shouldn’t be used in teacher evaluations, if given. District report cards were issued this year, but didn’t contain any standardized testing data because of the canceled tests in the spring.

“Teachers and administrators far too often end up confusing scale scores with a student’s capacity to learn,” Council of the Great City Schools leaders wrote in restart guidance. “Based on standardized assessment data, teachers place kids into high or low ability groups or provide low levels of instructional rigor to lower performing students. This is not an effective strategy for addressing unfinished learning, and not an appropriate use of assessment data.”

Instead, the council recommends using assessments as “temperature checks,” for how students are doing. Cleveland schools CEO Eric Gordon, who serves as council chair, previously spoke to how the pandemic could prompt the district to unlink time from progress, moving toward a model where grades are viewed as bands with learning benchmarks rather than strict years. Accountability for teachers and schools is often closely tied with standardized testing, but the pandemic revealed layers of how schools need to operate.

Andrew Ho, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, said first schools need to keep tabs on students who may have disconnected and make sure they’re engaged and physically healthy. Then, schools must deal with how kids are doing socially and emotionally. Without understanding those components, it’s difficult to use tests to assess learning loss because the baseline is not the same. Rutkowski said it’s likely students, no matter the learning situation, will experience some kind of negative impact this school year. Early projections from organizations showed a potential jarring learning loss from the pandemic, with testing organization NWEA projecting that students might return to school with 75% of the learning they would have otherwise had in English, and as little as 50% in math. Now, projections aren’t shaping up to be as drastic as initially thought, Ho said.

On an individual level, Rutkowski said parents should make sure their students are staying engaged and talk to them about learning, but also remain in constant contact with teachers.

“The standardized assessment is another check, it’s another indicator, but it’s truly the teacher who has the best idea about the student’s learning,” he said. “These people are professionals. This is what they’re paid to do and this is what they’re paid to understand.”

11/19/2020 Why Some Schools Close as Covid-19 Cases Rise When Others Stay Open - WSJ

Wall Street Journal

EDUCATION Why Some Schools Close as Covid-19 Cases Rise When Others Stay Open Decisions often depend on a community’s density, resources for safety steps, political atmosphere and local risk tolerance

Detroit schools suspended in-person learning last week as the coronavirus test positivity rate neared 5%. Thirkell Elementary-Middle School teachers and students saying goodbye Friday. PHOTO: RYAN GARZA DETROIT FREE PRESS REUTERS

By Leslie Brody and Yoree Koh Updated Nov. 19, 2020 2 32 pm ET

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11/19/2020 Why Some Schools Close as Covid-19 Cases Rise When Others Stay Open - WSJ In New York City, when 3% of tests for Covid-19 are positive, schools close. In Indianapolis, the trigger is 13%.

As the coronavirus pandemic surges, cities and school districts—even those located near each other—are making closure decisions based on differing criteria. Nationwide, the triggers for shutting classrooms vary widely, as do the sets of authorities who make the calls.

Complicating the decision: The understanding of the virus has been changing since schools across the country closed in the spring and sent more than 50 million students to remote learning. Since then, some studies show that schools aren’t major contributors to community spread. Some researchers say decisions to close often depend on a community’s density, transportation patterns, resources for safety steps, political atmosphere and local risk tolerance, as well as trends in the pandemic.

New York City, the nation’s largest school district and one that had stood out this fall for committing to bringing students back to classrooms, said Wednesday that it will temporarily go remote-only, because 3% of the city’s virus tests were positive over a seven-day average, a trigger Mayor Bill de Blasio set this summer in a deal with the teachers union. To families who called on the city to continue in-person learning, the mayor said a rigorous safety standard is needed to instill confidence in parents and staff.

A number of other districts have announced closures in recent weeks after thresholds were surpassed, including Pittsburgh Public Schools and Connecticut’s Bridgeport Public Schools. As of Tuesday, a dozen of the country’s largest school districts have reverted or plan to return to virtual learning after reopening in-person this fall, up from six districts last week, according to information compiled by the Council of the Great City Schools.

Detroit Public Schools Community District announced last week it was suspending in- person learning as the local coronavirus test positivity rate had nearly reached its threshold of 5%.

And in Indianapolis, the public health department ordered private and public K-12 schools to return to virtual learning by Nov. 30, as the rate in Marion County reached 10.3% last week. Starting Nov. 23, public schools will be remote-only. Officials expected the area to hit the previously set threshold of 13% by the end of this week.

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11/19/2020 Why Some Schools Close as Covid-19 Cases Rise When Others Stay Open - WSJ

Part of the reason why the thresholds for closing or opening schools are so scattered may be because there is no science-based consensus on what the trigger should be.

“To me it’s a pretty arbitrary decision to choose a cutoff point whether it’s 2%, 5% or 10%,” said Art Reingold, professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health at University of California at Berkeley. While it’s known that a higher rate of infection is worse, there haven’t been any studies showing at what point it gets to be too dangerous to keep schools open, said Dr. Reingold.

“I don’t know how you make a choice of a particular percentage. I don’t know how you base that on science. I don’t think we have the data to say that 5% is the right figure or 3% is the right figure,” said Dr. Reingold. As a result, school systems and health officials are talking to different experts who are recommending different metrics.

New York City schools are going remote now that the city’s positivity rate has hit 3%. West Brooklyn Community High School in late October.

PHOTO: KATHY WILLENS ASSOCIATED PRESS

A growing body of research in the U.S. and Europe finds that because of safety procedures, schools and child-care facilities aren’t major vectors of Covid-19 transmission.

A dashboard launched by a Brown University professor tracking thousands of schools has found that through early November, infection positivity rates of students at schools with in-person learning were generally lower than the rates in the surrounding communities. A recent study in Spain found that keeping schools and day-cares open during that country’s second surge of infections didn’t increase the risk of transmission of the virus.

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11/19/2020 Why Some Schools Close as Covid-19 Cases Rise When Others Stay Open - WSJ

With daily Covid-19 cases more than tripling since many schools opened in September, there is no national tracking of school-based cases or data-driven directives for what it should take to keep schools open.

A high positivity rate in the community often weighs in favor of closing a district. But without specific metrics for decision-making, debates can be hard to settle. In the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school district in North Carolina, more than 600 people tuned in to watch a meeting Tuesday night during which discussions over the issue grew heated. Some pleaded with the board to open schools to more students, while others argued for a delay. The district brought prekindergarten, kindergarten and first-graders back for the first time this month.

The county has seen its test positivity rate rise to 14% for a two-week period, according to district data, and in that period, there were 400 new cases per 100,000 residents.

Most teachers who addressed the board said going back on campus wasn’t safe. “Asking me to go into a battlefield of Covid germs and risk my life is above my call of duty,” said one teacher.

One mom grew teary as she talked of her daughter, who had been a strong student, failing five classes in the virtual setting. And an elementary student declared, “I want to go back to school because my head hurts from looking at a screen all day and I miss my friends.”

The district’s lack of specific metrics makes consensus harder to reach, some said. “Can we be focused on agreeing on a set of metrics so that the community can see in reality what it is that we need to do to feel like it’s safe?” asked board member Elisabeth Motsinger.

Board Chair Malishai Woodbury cautioned against hard cutoffs, saying many variables must be considered. The board voted to delay bringing back students in grades 2 through 12 until January.

Federal officials have given few specific prescriptions on thresholds for shutting schools, saying local circumstances and mitigation steps should inform decisions.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there is a “higher risk” of transmission in schools, for example, when the community has an 8% to 10% test

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11/19/2020 Why Some Schools Close as Covid-19 Cases Rise When Others Stay Open - WSJ positivity rate, and 50 to 200 new cases per 100,000 residents in the previous two weeks, and only one or two of five recommended mitigation steps are taken.

The measures include correct use of masks, social distancing, hand washing, cleaning and contact tracing. The agency defines “moderate risk” as a 5% to 8% positivity rate in the community, 20 to 49 cases among 100,000 people in two weeks, and three or four mitigation steps implemented.

Whether schools close or stay open can depend on who makes the decision. Health departments, governors, mayors, school boards and teachers unions have varying degrees of say in different locations.

The Montgomery County Office of Public Health in Pennsylvania, for example, has ordered that all public and private schools go fully remote from Nov. 23 through Dec. 6 because of a jump in cases in the area and concern about Thanksgiving get-togethers.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

How are schools in your area responding to the latest surge of coronavirus? Join the conversation below.

In many districts, teachers unions are powerful in negotiating policies.

Los Angeles Unified School District and a major union, the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, said Friday they reached an agreement on how to return for in-person instruction as soon as possible. They didn’t specify a date and the plan needs board approval, but said all of the nearly 700,000 students and 75,000 staff members would have to be tested before coming back to campus.

Earlier this month, Los Angeles Superintendent Austin Beutner said it is unlikely that the district will reopen before January because the city is still above the guidelines that state authorities set for schools to bring students back in large numbers. Schools that are in cities placed in the state’s purple tier—meaning a positivity rate of higher than 8%—can’t reopen.

“There’s only one path back to schools, and it starts with a lower overall level of Covid-19 in the area,” said Mr. Beutner in a community update last week.

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11/19/2020 Why Some Schools Close as Covid-19 Cases Rise When Others Stay Open - WSJ

For more education news visit the WSJ Education page.

—Robbie Whelan contributed to this article.

Write to Leslie Brody at [email protected] and Yoree Koh at [email protected]

Copyright © 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit https://www.djreprints.com.

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New York Times A Week in the Life of a Baltimore School Getting Back to Class

As school districts diverge on handling the pandemic, Baltimore City Public Schools are slowly trying to get students back in the classroom. It has not been easy, but neither has remote learning. by Erica L. Green Nov. 28, 2020Updated 10:21 a.m. ET

BALTIMORE — Zia Hellman prepared to welcome her kindergarten students back to Walter P. Carter Elementary/Middle School this month the way any teacher would on the first day of school: She fussed over her classroom.

Ms. Hellman, 26, dodged around the triangular desks, spaced six feet apart and taped off in blue boxes. She fretted about the blandness of the walls, fumbled with the plastic dividers covering name tags and arranged the individual yoga mats that replaced colorful carpets. Every window was open for extra ventilation, chilling the air.

“I wonder how they’re going to react to all of this,” she said, hands on her hips, scanning the room for the last time. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel, but it feels right.”

Ms. Hellman was among about two dozen teachers and staff members required to return to work on Nov. 16 for the first in-person instruction in Baltimore City Public Schools since March. The city was the first large school district in Maryland and the latest among urban districts in the country to tiptoe into one of the highest-stakes experiments in the history of the nation’s public education system: teaching face-to-face in a pandemic.

Returning to the classroom has not been easy; neither has remote learning.

Educators looking to get back in front of students have had to navigate conflicting guidance from politicians and public health officials. Some teachers’ unions have refused to return to buildings until the virus abates, ostracizing colleagues who dare break with them. On the other hand, the country’s most vulnerable children have sustained severe academic and social harm from the remote-learning experiment. Parents, navigating their own economic and work struggles, are increasingly desperate.

Ms. Hellman has yearned to be back in her school building in northeast Baltimore since September. She also understands the risks. “I feel like I’m a bit in ‘The Hunger Games,’” Ms. Hellman said. “I didn’t volunteer as tribute, I was chosen as tribute. But I want to be here for my students.” Superintendents, meantime, have had to navigate a firestorm of political pressure, parental preference and the weight of a once-in-a lifetime public health crisis.

“Superintendents have always had to deal with conflicting interests, but it’s never been this kind of life-and-death balance,” said Michael Casserly, the executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of large, urban public school systems across the country. “To have interests and decisions changing week to week, day to day, makes this situation unlike anything public education has ever faced.”

For Sonja Santelises, the chief executive officer of Baltimore City Public Schools, the decision to reopen 27 schools on Nov. 16 to about 1,200 academically at-risk students — such as kindergartners, special education students and English-language learners — last week was not a choice but an obligation. She made the call on the advice of the city’s public health commissioner.

“If I were to cling to one-liners or seek to score political points like some people want, I would choose not to see those families who need options, who need translators, those refugee families who walked miles to get their children an education,” Ms. Santelises said. “I will not do that.”

Baltimore reduced the number of planned building reopenings to 27 from 44 as the virus surged in certain parts of the city. But the local teachers’ union is calling for buildings in Ms. Santelises’ district to stay closed until they are deemed absolutely safe or a vaccine is widely available. It has pressured individual teachers against volunteering to go back and encouraged parents to boycott.

Those tensions reverberate across the country, where schools are grappling with the pandemic in widely varying ways, with some closing this month after opening earlier this fall even as others like in Baltimore just now are trying to reopen.

“We’re not just being obstructionist; we’re obstructing the district from putting people’s lives at risk,” said Diamonté Brown, the president of the Baltimore Teachers Union.

More than 70,000 schoolchildren left Baltimore classrooms in March, when the coronavirus outbreak in the United States was declared a pandemic. Since then, school leaders have focused on temporary measures. They bought computers and internet- access devices, sent worksheets to students’ homes, staffed their cafeterias and buses to serve meals to their communities, and waited for direction from local and federal health officials that never really came.

But now, with the pandemic threatening to derail the education and prospects of a generation of children, district leaders are feeling pressure to move on their own.

In Washington, D.C., internal testing data shows steep declines in the number of kindergartners through second grade students meeting literacy benchmarks, The Washington Post reported. In Houston, huge numbers of middle and high school students are failing their first semester, according to The Houston Chronicle. Even affluent, high-performing districts like Fairfax County, Va., a Washington suburb, are reporting alarming rates of middle and high school students failing classes, particularly English-language learners and students with disabilities — two populations that a recent Government Accountability Office report found were poorly served by remote learning.

Among the most alarming statistics are the significant enrollment declines that districts across the country are experiencing, particularly among kindergartners. Public education is out of reach for some families without internet access or with home lives that are unconducive to remote leaning. Some families have simply given up.

‘My Mask Is on My Face’

Ms. Hellman, in her fourth year of teaching kindergarten, understood what returning to the classroom would mean. She would not be able to see her 92-year-old grandmother. She might be subject to “corona-shaming” by colleagues, family and friends who have stayed away from work. She was putting herself personally at risk.

But, she reasoned, “I’m young, I’m healthy.”

At 9:15 a.m., each of the six students whose families had opted for in-person learning in her classroom received temperature checks. Two minutes later, one student was excitedly holding his mask up to show her its design.

“I love your mask,” Ms. Hellman told him, “but I think it would be cuter on.”

At 9:30, all the students were allowed to remove their masks to snack on Cinnamon Toast Crunch and applesauce. “It’s only 10 minutes,” she told them and herself, “and the windows are open.”

By 10:30, things had settled down, and she was just a teacher. Students were practicing writing their letters. By 11, they were preparing for recess by singing to the tune of “The Farmer in the Dell”:

My mask is on my face.

My mask is on my face.

Masks keep you and me safe.

My mask is on my face.

“The purpose of the first day is to feed them, have fun and send them home,” Ms. Hellman said. “We need them to come back the next day.” Not only did her six in-class students return that next day, but so did 19 of her students learning virtually. So did Brandon Pinkney, the school’s principal, who was showing her classroom to a parent who was considering sending her son back.

In the 24 hours since in-person classes resumed, Mr. Pinkney was fielding inquiries from parents intrigued by what they were seeing in the classroom through their children’s computer screens at home.

He canvassed the building, popping his head into different classrooms and mentally reconfiguring the spaces, just in case. He was hoping to reserve an extra desk for a student who told him bluntly that he was done with “that virtual stuff” but would return if the school reopened.

“I know he’s in the streets,” Mr. Pinkney said. “If I don’t see him this week, I’m going to get him.”

Many staff members in the school said they had only returned to the building because it was Mr. Pinkney’s voice on the line, telling them that they had been chosen.

He promised transparency and support, and that was enough for Rachael Charles. A special-education teacher with two teenagers at home, she wasn’t as easy to persuade as Ms. Hellman, who acknowledged that as a young, childless teacher, she did not face the same choice between her life and livelihood.

With the Black community disproportionately affected by the virus, Ms. Charles, who is African-American, had been working out over the summer, taking vitamins and alkaline water, just in case. But she still explored taking a leave of absence.

“I love my students dearly, but I’m coming back into the classroom to take care of children when no one is taking care of mine,” she said.

Safety risks aside, Ms. Charles wondered if she would be able to be the teacher that her students remembered. “I’m very hands-on, and it’s hard to have them right in my reach and not support them the way they need,” she said.

When a student with a slight physical disability struggled to pull his mask down to eat lunch, she initially stood outside his blue box, encouraging him. “Under your chin, you can do it.”

But before long, her hand was on his mouth, and she pulled it down herself.

Downstairs, Mr. Pinkney was in a hallway with a group of clinicians debating whether to do virtual or in-person special education assessments.

“It doesn’t make sense to do them virtually when we have assessment rooms here,” he said. “They’re cleaned every hour on the hour.” “Every hour?” a skeptical voice could be heard asking over a speakerphone.

“On the hour,” a voice chimed in from nearby.

That voice belonged to Donice Willis, the school custodian. A 66-year-old grandmother of 11, she had never stopped working during the pandemic, and she could not wait for children to return to the building.

She said she knew that she was among the highest risk groups for the coronavirus. She hopes to retire at 70, but she said she had relinquished control of that goal to the same higher power she hopes is protecting her from Covid-19.

“You’re going to go one day from something,” Ms. Willis said. “If God gives me 70, I’ll take it.”

When a maskless student walked out of a classroom she was preparing to clean, she barely flinched: “Put your mask on, pookie,” she said.

‘Hold the Line’: A Superintendent Stands Firm

Around dismissal time on Nov. 18, a Wednesday afternoon, news broke that New York City had reached a coronavirus positivity threshold of 3 percent, which would result in another shutdown of in-person instruction. The city’s schools had been open for less than two months. Within the hour, Washington city officials announced that talks between district and union officials had fallen apart.

Teachers in Baltimore wondered how their city leaders would react. Maryland’s positivity rate was above 6 percent.

Ms. Santelises stood her ground. The science was strong that transmission rates in schools remained low, she said. A teacher had emailed, “hold the line.”

Ms. Hellman focused on how well her new normal was going. She was wearing two masks now, and she did not have to remind her students to keep theirs on as much. She gushed over how her in-person students waved at her remote pupils. Her only concern was that her remote learners were missing the banter and nonverbal cues her students were getting in the classroom.

“Today was better,” she said. “It just feels like this is how it is, and it’s only been three days.”

Then came the reality check. Shortly after 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, Mr. Pinkney emailed the staff to say someone had reported Covid-like symptoms, and two classes had been sent home to quarantine.

“Oh my God,” Ms. Hellman said. “It’s here.” Mr. Pinkney followed protocols, alerted classmates and staff members, and submitted the case to the district.

Ms. Hellman felt defeated.

“Covid doesn’t care what day it is,” she said. “It doesn’t care that you have a shield in front of your face, it doesn’t care if you have a mask on most of the day, but not 10 minutes while you’re eating.”

Baltimore announced that same day that schools that had begun offering in-person instruction would not resume it after Thanksgiving until Dec. 7, amid warnings about holiday gatherings and travel. Some of the private schools in the area had done the same.

The actions of Baltimore’s private schools during the pandemic have weighed heavily on Ms. Santelises. Those students have clearly had an educational advantage, and one of them is her daughter. Two of her other children attend public charter schools that are closed.

“As a mom, I’m living the difference, and the inequity is astounding” Ms. Santelises said. “I’m saying goodbye to one every morning at the bus stop, and I’m watching the difference it makes. I see my daughters’ faces looking at me at home, like: ‘You all aren’t even going to try?’”

The announcement of the new delay spurred members of the teachers’ union to protest, and members marched to different buildings calling for the district to shut down the buildings for the rest of the semester. By the end of the week, at least 15 staff members had tested positive for the virus, the union said.

Ms. Brown, the union leader, said the district was insulting teachers who had been working around the clock to deliver quality instruction to their students at home.

“There’s more to education than teachers standing in front of students teaching a lesson,” she said.

Feeling Like Herself Again

On Friday, Ms. Hellman was still standing in front of students. As the day drew to a close, she helped a student draw what he was thankful for. A week in, she was crossing into her students’ blue boxes without much thought.

Outside, as the students played together while awaiting their parents, the directions were even more relaxed: “You can take your mask off, but don’t get too close,” Ms. Hellman said. Sharrea Brown embraced her 5-year-old daughter, Paige Myers. Over the course of the week, Ms. Brown had watched Paige’s mood improve. At home, the frustrated child would yell “You’re not my teacher!” when she tried to help.

Paige said she was nervous about the “bad germ,” so she has a message for other children who want to go back to school: “Keep your mask on.”

Ms. Brown was hopeful that with school open, she could also resume some normalcy. She took a leave of absence from her job in March, and her unemployment was stretching only so far.

“Christmas ain’t looking too good,” Ms. Brown said. “But she’s good,” she said of her daughter. “She’s almost back to feeling like herself again.” Wall Street Journal Largest U.S. Public-School Districts Revert to Remote Learning

By Yoree Koh December 4, 2020

As new reported Covid-19 cases surge to new highs, the nation’s largest public-school districts that had opened for in-person classes this fall continue to retreat to virtual learning.

According to the Council of the Great City Schools, 18 of the country’s 75-largest public- school districts have reverted back to remote learning in the past month. Three of those districts—Birmingham, Ala., Tulsa, Okla., and Wichita, Kan. —made such a decision this week.

At the same time, New York City, the country’s largest school district, is reopening schools for younger students Monday after closing the district in November, when the city’s seven-day average positivity rate surpassed 3%. That rate is now above 5%.

New York Times

New York City elementary schools are reopening while other cities move in the opposite direction. December 7, 2020

New York City is reopening some of its public schools Monday in the teeth of a worsening coronavirus outbreak.

The decision to do so reflects changing public health thinking around the importance of keeping schools operating, particularly for young students, and the real-world experience of over two months of in-person classes in the city’s school system, the nation’s largest.

Schools around the country have had to make the difficult decision of when to close and what metrics to follow, with some staying open amid local positivity rates in the teens and others using low single-digit thresholds.

Of the nation’s 75 largest public school districts, 18 have gone back to remote learning in the past month, according to data compiled by the Council of the Great City Schools and reported in The Wall Street Journal.

In California, many of the biggest school districts were already closed before new restrictions took effect on Sunday in three regions of the state. The new restrictions include stay-at-home orders, but do not require schools that had reopened to close again (an earlier version of this item incorrectly said they do). In the last week, California has reported more than 150,000 new cases, a record for all states.

Decisions to shutter schools have often been made on the local level and in inconsistent ways. Some schools have “paused” for short periods of time — as was the case in dozens of Central Texas districts or recently in Delaware, at the governor’s suggestion. Others have opted for blended learning with some days in school and some days remote.

Many have endured jarring periods of closing, opening and closing again. All of the solutions seem to be leading to burnout, instability and turmoil. New York City students, parents and teachers have felt their own whiplash, from a full shutdown before Thanksgiving to a partial reopening less than three weeks later.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has committed himself to keeping schools open, his aides say, and has started with elementary schools and those for students with severe disabilities. (About 190,000 children in the grades and schools the city is reopening this week would be eligible.)

Three of the country’s largest districts — in Birmingham, Ala., Tulsa, Okla., and Wichita, Kan. — made the opposite decision and closed over the past week. In Birmingham, the superintendent said the pandemic was “drastically impacting our community and our schools.” In Tulsa, two public school employees died recently after testing positive for the virus. And several of Wichita’s public schools had so many staff members quarantined that they could hardly cover vacancies by the time the district decided to close, the superintendent said.

The United States has diverged from other countries around the world in closing schools but leaving indoor dining and bars open. Many parents have criticized that situation, saying that risks of infection are higher in restaurants and bars and that it prioritizes the economy over education. Across Europe and Asia, students, especially very young ones, have largely continued going to school while other parts of daily life have shut down.

While Mr. de Blasio’s decision was applauded by many parents, there is no guarantee that the pattern of chaos that they have faced will abate as the fall turns to winter. New York City’s rules for handling positive cases all but guarantee frequent and sudden closures of individual classrooms and school buildings.

And it remains unclear whether the city will be able to reopen its middle and high schools to in-person learning any time soon.

One thing that could hamper the city’s efforts, officials cautioned, is a truly rampant second wave in New York.

The test positivity rate has only increased since the city closed schools, and the seven- day rolling average rate exceeded 5 percent last week. Hospitalizations have quickly mounted. Still, Mr. de Blasio said on Monday that “the schools in this city are among the safest places to be.” He noted that later this week the city planned to reopen some schools on Staten Island, even though the borough has seen positive infection test rates surge recently.

NBC News

Council of the great city schools on KRBC (NBC) - Abilene, TX Abilene Midday

12/8/2020 11:32:19 AM

there's even discord among school districts ... (gfx) source: council of the great city Play schools of the nation's top 76 school systems... 27 are at least partially teaching in- person...

Council of the great city schools on WEEK (NBC) - Peoria, IL News 25 Mid-Day

12/8/2020 11:34:00 AM

there's even discord among school districts ... source: council of the great city schools of Play the nation's top 76 school systems... 27 are at least partially teaching in-person... michigan's

Council of the great city schools on WDAM (NBC) - Hattiesburg, MS WDAM 7 Midday

12/8/2020 12:03:32 PM

there's even discord among school districts ... source: council of the great city schools of Play the nation's top 76 school systems... 27 are at least partially teaching in-person...

Council of the great city schools on KVOA (NBC) - Tucson, AZ News 4 Tucson at Noon

12/8/2020 12:03:38 PM

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"Great City Schools" on KOMU (NBC) - Columbia, MO KOMU News @ Noon

12/8/2020 12:04:06 PM

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"Great City Schools" on WETM (NBC) - Elmira, NY WETM 18 News at Noon

12/8/2020 12:05:45 PM

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"Great City Schools" on KGNS (NBC) - Laredo, TX KGNS News at Noon

12/8/2020 12:06:47 PM

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Council of the great city schools on KOB-ABQ (NBC) - Albuquerque, NM Eyewitness News 4 at Midday

12/8/2020 12:07:37 PM Play school districts ... (gfx) source: council of the great city schools of the nation's top 76 school systems... 27 are at least partially teaching in-person...

Council of the great city schools on KTSM (NBC) - El Paso, TX NewsChannel 9 at Noon

12/8/2020 12:38:41 PM

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Council of the great city schools on WAVE-LOU (NBC) - Louisville, KY WAVE 3 News at 3:00PM

12/8/2020 3:04:29 PM Play even discord among school districts ... (gfx) source: council of the great city schools of the nation's top 76 school systems... 27 are at least partially teaching in- person... michigan's governor

Education Week Remote Learning Will Keep a Strong Foothold Even After the Pandemic, Survey Finds

By Denisa R. Superville — December 15, 2020

When the pandemic is over, there’s at least one thing that’s likely to stick around in many K-12 schools: online learning.

Twenty percent of district and charter management organizations said in a new survey that they had started or were planning a virtual school or fully remote option this academic year and expected those options would remain after the pandemic. Another 10 percent said the same about hybrid or blended learning, while 7 percent said some lesser version of remote learning will continue when the pandemic is in the rearview mirror. Those are among the findings from a new survey of leaders of nearly 300 traditional school districts and charter management organizations that was released by the Rand Corporation on Tuesday. The survey also revealed that school system leaders had major anxiety about their ability to address students’ emotional well-being and mental health as well as concerns about disparities in the opportunities students have to access schooling, especially among leaders running systems where at least half the enrollment are eligible to receive free and reduced-price meals or are Black and Hispanic.

The survey is the first of its kind of district leaders by RAND, which has conducted similar polling from its panels of teachers and principals.

When district leaders noted the staying power of remote learning beyond the pandemic, they cited increased flexibility for students, parent or student demand, and addressing a variety of students’ needs among the reasons. And virtual schools were the “innovative practice” that most system leaders foresaw lasting for years.

Remote learning and virtual schools have been challenging for many students and districts, particularly those serving large numbers of students in poverty, where lack of devices and internet access continue to be a problem. Some students are often juggling multiple duties – balancing schoolwork and household chores. And across the country, millions of students have not logged on.

“It’s notable that school districts plan to offer more online options. Some students and teachers really value the flexibility,” said Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, which worked with RAND and Chiefs for Change to set up the district leaders’ panel. “Now the challenge will be to ensure virtual schoolrooms provide high-quality instruction and equitable access.”

CRPE has examined school districts’ reopening and operating plans for the new school year and recently published a deep dive into six school systems’ remote learning programs.

Public education will never be the same post– COVID-19. The pandemic has forced public education to adopt new practices on the fly, and many will become lasting changes to the way we do business. Flexible scheduling and virtual instruction are just two practices that will become a part of how we educate children.

With district leaders expecting some form of remote learning to be a mainstay of their educational programs in the future, RAND recommends more state and federal aid to help districts improve technology, including expanding internet access, hire qualified teaching staff, and partner with organizations to provide additional academic supports —like tutoring—to help students. It also emphasized the need for “coherent, high-quality instructional systems for online instruction in academics and social and emotional learning,” as well as continued professional development for teachers, especially those working with students with IEPs and English-language learners. Publishers also must increase support for high-quality instructional materials, and federal funding can help states work with publishers to make those more accessible to school systems, according to RAND.

Internet access also continues to be a top concern for school system leaders, especially those running systems where at least half of the students qualify for free and reduced- price meals or are Black or Hispanic. Forty-four percent of those school systems’ leaders said internet access was an area in which they needed support and guidance this school year, according to the survey. And 40 percent of those leaders said making sure that teachers and students were able to access the internet for remote learning was a “significant challenge.” Only slightly more than a quarter, 26 percent, of leaders in schools where fewer than half the students lived in poverty or were Black and Hispanic said the same.

SEL, Student Mental Health Are Major Challenges

Overall, addressing students’ emotional well-being and mental health continued to be the overwhelming challenge for school system leaders this academic year, with 67 percent of those leading school systems where fewer than half of the enrollment qualified for free and reduced-priced meals listing SEL and student mental health as the area they most needed guidance and resources. Among those leading school systems with higher numbers of poor students, that number was 53 percent.

Providing specialized instructional supports for students and delivering high-quality instruction to all students also ranked among the top three areas where system leaders needed additional resources and guidance, according to the survey.

The survey, conducted between Sept. 15 and Nov. 11, included seven questions that covered areas such as staffing challenges, professional development, and approaches to the 2020-21 school year.

The survey was sent to leaders in 317 regular public-school districts and charter management organizations, who are part of RAND’s district panel. The response rate was 84 percent.

School system leaders expected dealing with disparities in students’ opportunities to learn to be the most significant challenge this school year, with half of the respondents anticipating that to be the case. Again, that need was even more pronounced in systems serving large numbers of students in poverty, with 62 percent of those leaders saying that was the case. Even among their colleagues leading lower-poverty districts, 39 percent said they expected addressing disparities in students’ opportunities to learn would be a major hurdle this school year, according to the survey.

Forty-five percent of high-poverty systems also expected state accountability requirements to be a top challenge this year.

School system leaders expected funding to ensure adequate staffing to be a major barrier this school year, with that concern more heightened in systems serving fewer students in poverty. While 39 percent of the respondents overall said they expected funding to be a “major hindrance” to staffing this year, 45 percent of those leading systems with fewer numbers of students in poverty said that was the case. Slightly more than a quarter, 26 percent, were worried about not having enough qualified instructional staff to cover teaching.

Surprisingly, the number of teachers with health issues did not rank high on the list of concerns, with only 9 percent of leaders listing it as an area of worry. And they said their staff needed professional development in a wide variety of areas, especially in addressing students’ social and emotional well-being, learning loss, and the needs of English-language learners and students with Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs.

The creation of virtual learning communities for teachers and principals, flexible staffing models for teachers, and adjusting instructional time policies were among the most common approaches districts considered this school year.

Unsurprisingly, school system leaders said guidance from local health departments held more sway over their 2020-21 decisions than the media and the U.S. Department of Education. The latter two ranked behind every other option on the survey, including parents, teachers, community members and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And only 13 percent said that guidance from national organizations, like AASA, the School Superintendents Association, and the Council of the Great City Schools, the national organization that represents 76 urban school systems, influenced their decisions.

Principals held slightly more influence in those decisions in schools where at least half of the students qualified for free and reduced-price meals or were students of color. Interestingly, districts with fewer students in poverty often looked to other districts’ plans for guidance in comparison to districts with higher levels of poverty, according to the report.

In answer to an open-ended question, district leaders noted the lack of funding, unclear guidance and substitute teacher shortages as major challenges. Amid all of those difficulties, district leaders highlighted offering students more choices and flexibility as well as delivering meals to students among the bright spots this school year.

There are also some things that districts would like to do but don’t have money to: like hiring more tutors to help students back on track. Twenty-four percent of the districts said they’d like to do so, but couldn’t afford it or did not have the flexibility. That barrier was more acute in districts and charter management organizations serving fewer students in poverty.

You can read the full report here. ideastream

Cleveland Schools CEO "Grateful" For COVID Relief Funding For K- 12 Schools

Jenny Hamel December 22, 2020

The new federal coronavirus relief bill awaiting President Trump’s signature includes $54 billion for K-12 schools nationwide. The amount is four times more than schools received through the CARES Act, passed in March, but far less than what Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Eric Gordon asked Congress for this summer.

In June, Gordon told the U.S House Education and Labor Committee that $200 billion was needed to help K-12 schools deal with the crushing economic impact of the pandemic. Gordon testified as part of the national Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of 61 superintendents from large urban districts around the country.

Though it's not close to what he said was needed, Gordon said he was "grateful" that Congress had passed the nearly 6000-page pandemic relief package overnight Monday, which he expects will be allocated over time.

“This recovery is not going to be immediate. And so it shouldn't also be a whole bunch of money doled out all at once, it should be patterned over time to make sure that school districts move through this pandemic and into the recovery,” Gordon said.

Gordon said the $26 million in CARES Act funding CMSD received is “long gone” after paying for expenses including personal protective equipment and thousands of digital devices and internet hotspots to support remote learning.

“I understand there's some dollars for infrastructure and we still have this digital divide that has not been solved,” said Gordon. “So looking forward to seeing those dollars and dollars to continue the meal plans that we've been providing kids. We’re providing far fewer meals, but we're still staffing all of our kitchens.”

Shifting to hybrid learning and getting students back into the classroom will require additional funding, Gordon said, because the district will need additional staff.

“We know some kids aren't coming back to school even when we open the doors, so we’ll need teachers teaching those remote students,” said Gordon, “while there are going to be other kids where we're going to have to have teacher teams, for example, and we may need some substitutes to support that.”

Beyond a return to the physical classroom, the big concern for Gordon is helping CMSD students recover from educational loss during the pandemic.

“We lost time for learning. And so the way you recover that is you add time to thinking about weekend opportunities, summer opportunities, evening opportunities, and all of the same people have to do that work,” said Gordon. “So that means overtime for all of our educators, including the people that keep buildings open, cook food, clean, all of those things. So there's a lot to invest in and it's coming fast.”

Washington Post

Vaccines, dollars and Biden ratchet up pressure on teachers to return to school

By Laura Meckler, Moriah Balingit and Valerie Strauss Dec. 23, 2020 at 8:04 p.m. EST

Teachers, fearful of returning to classrooms during the pandemic, are facing new encouragement — and new pressure — to go back, raising the prospect that in-person school could resume in many communities before the school year is out.

The Centers for Disease Control recommended Sunday that states prioritize teachers as part of the second group of people eligible for the coronavirus vaccines. Two days later, Congress cleared a coronavirus aid package with $54 billion for K-12 schools, which, if the president signs it, is expected to help pay expenses associated with in-person education. That could include protective equipment such as masks and plexiglass dividers, upgrades to ventilation systems and additional staffing.

And President-elect Joe Biden is pushing for schools to reopen for in-person teaching. His nominee for education secretary, Miguel Cardona, worked to reopen schools in his home state of Connecticut, and all but one of about 200 districts offered some in-person school at some point this fall.

Biden says he wants most schools open by the 100-day mark of his presidency, this spring. “Reopening schools safely will be a national priority for the Biden-Harris administration,” Biden said Wednesday in introducing Cardona, Connecticut’s schools commissioner. He called his 100-day goal “ambitious but doable.”

Adding to the reopen pressure is emerging evidence of deep learning losses among children engaged in remote education and growing data showing the virus is not spreading much inside schools.

It puts teachers in a precarious position. Many districts stayed shut because of their fears of going back, and some complain that teachers have gone from heroes to villains in the public mind.

“People loved teachers in March when we were doing all this stuff, and now they think we’re lazy and scared and demanding,” said Sherry East, president of the South Carolina Education Association.

She said that districts operating in person in her state have not seen elevated virus transmission, and it’s possible that teachers overreacted to the risks of return. Nonetheless, she said, teachers are genuinely scared of becoming infected with a deadly disease, particularly as infection rates surge.

“That fear is real for them, whether it’s unwarranted or not. It is a real fear,” she said. She added: “Face-to-face (teaching) is absolutely best for most kids, and we need to get there as quickly as we can.”

The vaccine rollout could be a game changer, although it’s not clear how quickly.

The CDC advisory panel recommended Sunday that teachers be included in the next group of about 30 million “front line essential workers” vaccinated against the coronavirus. That would put teachers alongside people working in meat plants, grocery stores and prisons, as well as about 19 million people age 75 and older.

Each state will decide for itself how to prioritize different groups, and lobbying is intense on behalf of teachers in several states. Some governors have said they will prioritize teachers. In Utah, Gov. Gary R. Herbert (R) is including teachers in the vaccination group immediately after health-care workers. That means many teachers will get both doses of the vaccine next month.

Salt Lake City school leaders had planned to bring back elementary school students on Jan. 28. Now, citing the vaccines, interim superintendent Larry Madden is asking the school board for approval to reopen middle and high schools on Feb. 8, a week after teachers are scheduled to get their second dose. In Arizona, Gov. Doug Ducey (R) signaled the same. “We want our schools open and our teachers protected,” he said this month. “Teachers are essential to our state, so under our plan, they will be prioritized.”

“There appears to be growing impatience on the part of parents to reopen as quickly as we possibly can, and this vaccine and the additional money is going to help us to do that,” said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of large urban public school systems.

The developments come as some districts are increasing pressure on teachers to return to classrooms.

In Chicago, where the teachers union has resisted, the school system is set to try to force them back. Buildings will begin reopening next month, and some teachers must return as soon as Jan. 4, said Chicago Public Schools spokeswoman Emily Bolton. The Chicago Teachers Union unsuccessfully petitioned the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board to halt the reopening plan but has floated the idea of a strike.

“There appears to be growing impatience on the part of parents to reopen as quickly as we possibly can, and this vaccine and the additional money is going to help us to do that,” said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of large urban public school systems.

The developments come as some districts are increasing pressure on teachers to return to classrooms.

In Chicago, where the teachers union has resisted, the school system is set to try to force them back. Buildings will begin reopening next month, and some teachers must return as soon as Jan. 4, said Chicago Public Schools spokeswoman Emily Bolton. The Chicago Teachers Union unsuccessfully petitioned the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board to halt the reopening plan but has floated the idea of a strike.

Schools CEO Janice Jackson told the Chicago Sun-Times earlier this month that teachers “don’t have a choice of opting in or out,” unless they are approved for medical leave, and could face consequences for failing to show up.

“If they don’t show up to work, it will be handled the same way it’s handled in any other situation where an employee fails to come to work,” Jackson said.

The union remains concerned about employees returning to classrooms before they are inoculated, and for students who could unwittingly contract the virus and spread it to their classmates. It has raised concerns about ventilation in aging buildings and whether the school system would provide masks for staffers and students.

Teachers have said that they have little trust that the school system will do what is necessary to make buildings safe. Some building were erected in the 19th century, and the school system has about $3.4 billion in deferred maintenance.

“We want to be able to trust that those things have been done, and that has not always been our experience when it comes to dealing with Chicago public schools, regrettably,” said Tara Stamps, an elementary school teacher who is working for the union.

She said she is particularly concerned that poor neighborhoods, already hit hard by the virus, will not get the sort of mitigation measures they need to keep teachers safe. “We know the city is not equitable and the resources that get disbursed in the city [are] not equitable.”

The new federal funding is meant to address some of these issues, though it’s unclear exactly how districts would use the money or whether it would arrive in time to make a difference this academic year. There are also fears that cash-strapped states, through budgetary sleight of hand, would divert the funding elsewhere.

Still, the $54 billion allocation is more than four times the $13.5 billion that K-12 education was previously given.

“There’s no way that Congress can pass $54 billion and it won’t help some schools open,” said Noelle Ellerson Ng, associate executive director for advocacy and governance at the School Superintendents Association, known as AASA.

In Chicago, for instance, officials anticipate receiving about $800 million from the relief package, and Jackson said it could help a return to in-person education. “This crucial federal funding ensures our ability to support the critical resources needed to reopen classrooms,” she said in a statement. She said she would use the money to pay nurses and social workers and provide additional funding for the highest-need schools, among other things.

“Black and Brown families in Chicago need the option to send their children to school this academic year, and this funding relief is essential to the safe and supportive learning environments needed to mitigate learning loss and prevent long-term harm,” she said.

Ng thinks Biden also will make a difference, as the president-elect emphasizes helping schools to reopen rather than bullying them into it.

“He’s not Trump. That’s just a reality,” she said. “Any president who isn’t Trump would get a fresh bite at this push to reopen schools.”

But many teachers are profoundly frightened of going back, especially without a vaccination and given the surge of cases in recent weeks.

“I’m petrified,” said Tassie Zahner, a history teacher at Northwood High School in Silver Spring, Md. “I don’t want to get sick and die for my job.” She emphasizes the successes of remote learning. She said some of her students are motivated to succeed, and some are not — just like in regular school. She doubts the data that finds little virus transmission inside schools.

Still, she said she would be willing to go back if she were offered a vaccine.

“I think that if you want teachers to feel safe enough to go back into the classroom, you want to reopen schools, (then) teachers need to be moved up on the list,” she said. Other teachers say a vaccine may not be enough.

Terrence Martin, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said some Black educators, in particular, remain suspicious of the vaccines and fear getting inoculated. The pandemic has taken a deep toll in the Black community in Detroit and elsewhere, and there’s a long history of mistreatment by the medical establishment. “There are folks who just don’t trust the government, don’t trust vaccination and obviously for good reason,” Martin said.

In Los Angeles, a vaccine will not allow a return to school as long as community transmission rates remain high, said Austin Beutner, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, which serves nearly 600,000 students.

He said it will take a long time for everybody to get vaccinated and for the vaccination to take effect. He said he also worries that even vaccinated people can spread the virus. “So, we are a long way from having students and staff in school,” he said.

At some point, he added, he expects students and employees will be required to get a coronavirus vaccine, just like they are required to take other vaccines. “I think at the end of the day coronavirus vaccine will not be any different than those,” he said.

Las Vegas Review-Journal Clark County schools stick to distance learning as others experiment

Author/Byline: Julie Wootton-Greener /

January 3, 2021 - 11:52 pm While nearly all of the public schools in the Las Vegas Valley have relied entirely on distance learning since they were closed in March, most of the other nine biggest school systems in the nation have restored at least some in-person instruction. Seven of the Big 10 have resumed classroom instruction for at least some students, Review- Journal research shows. And some — primarily in Florida — are open to any student whose family decides they would be better served by in-person interaction with an instructor. The other districts that have stuck with the all-distance approach are the Los Angeles Unified School District and Chicago Public Schools, though the latter plans to let younger students begin returning to the classroom this month. Something similar may be in store for CCSD, where leaders are fast approaching a tough decision about the possible reopening of valley campuses as the coronavirus continues to rage. Trustees — including three newly elected members — are slated to consider a phased- transition plan in a Jan. 14 meeting and could also set a timetable. The plan, announced last month by the school district and the teachers union, calls for a staggered return to in-person classes, starting with preschool through third graders. Most districts still in remote mode In sticking with distance learning this long, Clark County — the fifth-largest school district in the nation with around 307,000 students —has been in sync with a majority of large school districts in the country, according to the Council of the Great City Schools. But the tide may be turning, according to the Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization, which represents 76 of the nation's largest urban school districts, including CCSD. Now many more districts are looking at phased transitions similar to the one being discussed at CCSD as early as this month if health conditions allow. At the same time, cautioned Raymond Hart, the group's research director, a number of school districts have pushed back targeted reopening dates recently to buy more time. "I think most folks are going to take a look at where the virus cases are when they return from their holiday breaks in their local communities," Hart said. No single approach makes sense for every district, he said, given differences in size, geography, public school funding and local COVID-19 transmission and test positivity rates. But he observed that two primary factors — local coronavirus conditions and state expectations for what districts should be doing — often determine how different districts have handled school reopenings and closures during the pandemic.

The Long Beach Unified School District in Southern California, for example, had hoped to begin bringing its 70,000 students back for in- person classes in late January. But amid a surge in cases, it now plans to continue with distance learning until at least March 1. How school districts are operating

Of the school districts the Council of the Great City Schools works with, about 30 — including Atlanta, San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego, Seattle, Chicago, Portland, Oregon, Anchorage, Alaska, and Albuquerque, New Mexico — operated under distance education throughout the fall semester.

Some have allowed a limited number of students, such as those with special needs, to return to campuses for in-person instruction. "By and large, it has been small numbers," Hart said. Boston, Denver, Detroit and Indianapolis are among about 20 large school districts that were offering in-person classes at some point this fall but switched back to distance learning because of rising COVID-19 case rates. Some later resumed some in-person classes or plan to do so soon. And about 25 districts — including New Orleans, Miami-Dade County, and Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston— are currently offering at least some in-person learning. School districts in Florida have tried to open for as many students as possible under a state mandate to do so, Hart said. And governors in some states have threatened school districts with losing funding if they don't open up to students whose families are interested in in- person classes, Hart said. In July, Florida Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran issued an emergency order saying all "brick and mortar schools" had to reopen in August five days a week for all students whose families wanted them to attend in-person classes. In August, a county circuit judge said parts of the order were unconstitutional and granted a temporary injunction. But in October, a state appeals court sided with the state and schools reopened.

Conversely, Oregon required school districts to close campuses if their local county's COVID-19 metrics rose to certain levels. But Gov. Kate Brown announcing last month that schools will be allowed to offer in-person classes starting Jan. 1 and closures won't be mandated. She indicated she'd like to see a Feb. 15 target date for more students returning to campuses.

California aims for spring California Gov. Gavin Newsom last week released a plan for schools to resume in-person teaching in the spring, starting with the youngest students and those who have struggled most with distance learning, while promising $2 billion in state aid for coronavirus testing, personal protective equipment and increased classroom ventilation, The Associated Press reported. Many schools are already offering in-person classes, even with surging coronavirus cases, and there have been few outbreaks, said Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the California State Board of Education and an emeritus Stanford University education professor. More than 1,730 schools have received state waivers to reopen classrooms. The Review-Journal reached out to about a dozen large public school districts across the country to see how they have been operating during the pandemic — via distance learning or in-person classes — and what their reopening plans are. Most weren't available to comment in late December because of winter break, while others provided information but not interviews. Here's a look at what five are doing: Los Angeles Unified School District The nation's second-largest school district has more than 600,000 students — about twice as many as CCSD. It's been operating under distance education and doesn't have a reopening date. In the fall, the school district provided in-person individual and small-group tutoring for students, athletic conditioning programs for student- athletes and on-campus child care for children of school-based employees and for high-needs families. But the district announced Dec. 7— the day after a regional stay-at-home order went into effect — that it was suspending in-person offerings and providing tutoring online instead.

"Because of the extraordinary high level of COVID-19 in the Los Angeles area, it is no longer safe and appropriate to have any students on campus," Superintendent Austin Beutner said in a news release last month. "We will also be asking those who are currently working at schools to work from home if at all possible for the rest of the semester."

In a Dec. 21 video message — the most recent one available — Beutner said it won't be possible to reopen school campuses by the time spring semester starts Jan. 11. The district and the United Teachers Los Angeles union have reached an agreement on "enhancements to online instruction for students" for the next semester, Beutner said in a news release last month. That includes continuing current class assignments, an additional 30 minutes of office hours Tuesdays through Fridays, 20-30 minutes of additional live instruction for first through 12th grades on Mondays and increased employee training on social emotional learning. The district and union agreed to a Jan. 24 deadline to complete a plan for offering hybrid instruction — a mix of in-person and remote instruction — when health conditions allow.

New York City Department of Education The nation's largest school district, with about 1.1 million students, opened under a hybrid model when a new school year began but also offered families a distance learning option. New York City, a coronavirus hot spot early in the pandemic, was one of the only large districts in the nation to start the new school year with some in-person classes. All schools temporarily closed Nov. 19 and students were transitioned to full distance learning after exceeding the benchmark seven-day rolling average test positivity rate of 3 percent. Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza announced a plan Nov. 29 to reopen campuses for young students and those who have a disability, about 190,000 of the district's students. Middle and high schoolers are continuing with distance education. The plan called for students in preschool through fifth grades who had already opted for in- person learning earlier this school year to return Dec. 7. Students in all grade levels who have disabilities and attend District 75 schools were allowed to return to in-person Dec. 10. Each school conducts random testing weekly for 20 percent of people on campus, according to a late November news release from the mayor's office. And schools are continuing to work toward being able to offer five days a week of in-person classes. The news release also included the most recent test positivity rate in schools at the time — 0.28 percent. As of Dec. 29, the district has seen 6,867 confirmed coronavirus cases — 2,999 among students and 3,868 among employees — since mid-September. Chicago Public Schools The nation's third-largest school district, with about 340,000 students, operated with distance learning in the fall. "Under this model, all instruction will happen with students attending classes from home, with the exceptions given to diverse learning students with IEPs and other specialized learning needs," according to the school district's website. The district is planning for a phased reopening after winter break, with the option for families to send their students in preschool and "moderate and intensive cluster programs" back to classrooms in person Jan. 11 and children from kindergarten through eighth grades back Feb. 1, according to the district's website. High school students are slated to continue with remote instruction. Salt Lake City School District The district, which has about 24,000 students, operated with distance learning during the fall semester. It will offer an in-person learning option for elementary school students, with a phased return starting the week of Jan. 25. And it announced last month it has a plan to bring back middle and high school students Feb. 8, subject to School Board approval Jan. 5.

In a Dec. 18 news release, Interim Superintendent Larry Madden said the district knows it can have COVID-19 vaccines for educators and "frontline school employees" by Jan. 8 and 9. The second dose of the vaccine will be administered Jan. 29 and 30. Omaha Public Schools This Nebraska district, which has more than 53,000 students, started its school year with distance learning but transitioned in October to a "Family 3/2" plan — a hybrid model with two cohorts alternating which days they attend in-person classes. Families in Omaha, which has nearly 480,000 residents, also have the option of full-time distance learning. Students are in cohorts based on the first initial of their last name.

Some students in specialized programs, such as for those who have special needs, attend in person five days a week. The second semester will start initially with distance learning, but students will return in phases this month to the same format for classes as the fall semester. A weekly summary of COVID-19 cases for Dec. 11 — the latest information available from the school district — shows 66 new diagnosed cases among staff, 86 current active cases and 287 who are isolated or in quarantine. Among students, there were 89 new diagnosed cases, 141 active cases and 1,294 in isolation or quarantine.

Washington Post

CDC foresees spread in U.S. of highly contagious coronavirus variant By Joel Achenbach and Ben Guarino Jan. 6, 2021 at 5:52 p.m. EST

The mutant variant of the novel coronavirus first seen in Britain is likely to be present in much of the United States. Although the variant has so far been detected in a very small fraction of infections, it shows signs of spreading and may become significantly more common in coming weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and infectious-disease experts.

The cases have been mostly isolated: One in New York, one in Florida, one in Georgia and two in Colorado. The exception has been California, and specifically San Diego County, where a robust surveillance operation has found 32 cases of the variant. National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins told The Washington Post on Wednesday: “I would be surprised if that doesn’t grow pretty rapidly.”

There is no evidence that the variant, which has recently been detected in more than 30 countries, carries a greater risk of severe disease or death. But the appearance of coronavirus variants, including another mutation-laden variant that has shown up in South Africa, presents a challenge for every country hoping to crush the pandemic.

A more transmissible virus could drive more patients into hospitals and boost the covid- 19 death toll. It also could prolong the march toward herd immunity. That’s the point at which a pathogen circulating through a population will slam into so many people with immunity that any outbreak quickly dies out and doesn’t turn into an epidemic. The percentage of people who need to be immune for a population to achieve herd immunity is higher for more infectious pathogens.

The rise of variants also could limit the efficacy of monoclonal antibody treatments because such therapeutics are very narrowly focused and potentially could be eluded by a single mutation.

The implications for vaccines are fuzzy over the long term because the coronavirus will keep mutating. But the consensus is that the newly authorized vaccines are likely to remain effective against any variants seen so far because they elicit a broad array of neutralizing antibodies and other immune system responses. Moreover, the mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna can be readily tweaked if necessary in response to mutations.

All of this argues for increased surveillance of the virus as it spreads through the population and collides with natural and vaccine-induced immunity. The virus is not static, and although the mutations are random, natural selection will lead to variants that are more capable of infecting and replicating in human beings. A study published last week by scientists at Imperial College London, and not yet peer-reviewed, estimated that the variant first detected in Britain is 50 percent more transmissible than the more common strain of the virus.

“Here at the CDC, we’re definitely taking this seriously, and we’re assuming for now that this variant is more transmissible,” said Greg Armstrong, the leader of the strain surveillance program at the CDC, which is still ramping up. The British variant “is probably not in every state at this point, but I think in a lot of states.” Experts say this heightens the urgency of vaccinating as many people as possible, and some respected scientists have argued that the protocol for distributing two-dose vaccines should be altered to get more people inoculated, even if that means cutting doses in half or delaying the second dose. The Food and Drug Administration this week said it would stick with the two-shot dose backed by randomized clinical trials.

All viruses mutate, and SARS-C0V-2, the novel coronavirus, doesn’t mutate quickly or in any unusual way. But with tens of millions of people infected around the world, the virus has had abundant opportunity to shape-shift randomly, and natural selection does the rest, potentially giving the virus the ability to evade natural or vaccine-induced immunity.

“We are in a race against time,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “We need to increase our speed in which we act so that we don’t allow this virus to spread further and allow this variant to become the dominant one in circulation. The clock is ticking.”

The United States has been slow to develop the kind of genomic sequencing that has enabled Britain to closely monitor mutations in the virus and the spread of different variants. The CDC established a consortium last spring to collect data on genomic sequences and in November created the new program in strain surveillance.

Armstrong said in an interview that in the next two weeks, the agency and its contracted partners hope to more than double the number of genomic sequences posted on public websites.

“We’re not sequencing enough yet, and we need to continue to build what we’re doing,” Armstrong said.

The South African variant hasn’t been detected in the United States, he said. But the British variant may have been here since October, according to preliminary data from private coronavirus tests. That data is not fully conclusive because it is not based on comprehensive genomic sequencing.

Instead, the British variant is missing a portion of the genetic code seen in the common coronavirus. By chance, the commonly used Thermo Fisher PCR test can detect that dropped gene in positive test results. Other variants that are not of concern also have that missing gene, and so it is not possible, without a full genomic sequence, to know if a dropout is actually a signal of the British variant.

But according to Armstrong, the dropout signal increased from .25 percent to .5 percent in a couple of months among the positive results detected by that PCR test. In Britain, the same pattern held — very gradual increases in the prevalence of the variant, followed by a sudden surge in which it became the dominant strain in southern England and led to a new set of lockdowns.

The variant first appeared in genomic sequences obtained by British scientists in late summer or early fall, according to the Imperial College study. But it was formally identified as a “variant of concern” in early December and was announced to the British public and the rest of the world on Dec. 14.

Armstrong said CDC officials immediately assumed it was already present in the United States because of the large volume of travel between the countries. He said the CDC anticipates it will become a rising proportion of all cases: “Assuming the data we’re seeing out of the U.K. is correct — it’s 50 percent more transmissible — over the next couple of months we’re likely to see this increase.”

There is no evidence that this variant is driving the fall/winter surge in the United States. If it were, it would have turned up in more of the genomic sequences analyzed by researchers in recent weeks.

The variant, dubbed B.1.1.7, has 17 mutations, including eight that affect the structure of the spike protein that protrudes from the surface of the virus. Although the precise consequences of each mutation are unknown, the genetic alterations appear to allow the virus to bind more easily with receptor cells in humans, resulting in a higher viral load in those infected with it.

That higher viral load may not mean a more severe illness but plausibly would lead to greater transmission as people shed more virus with every cough or sneeze. “The data are really concerning. All signs right now are pointing to the fact that this is something we should be worried about,” said Mary Kathryn Grabowski, an infectious- disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Even a seemingly modest increase in transmissibility, she said, “can mean huge, huge numbers of cases.”

The spread of the variant could potentially compel public officials to impose new restrictions or delay scheduled reopenings.

“If [the variant] starts to take over because it is more aggressive, the measures that we’ve had in place that aren’t working that great to begin with are going to be less effective in controlling the virus,” Columbia University epidemiologist Jeffrey Shaman said.

The more contagious coronavirus variant may have had a disproportionate impact on people under 20, according to the Imperial College study. This may have had a societal cause — it was observed when schools were open but the rest of the country was under lockdown — rather than a biological one, the study authors said.

The study authors analyzed genomic and epidemiological data collected in Britain from early November into December. By measuring what’s called the reproduction number — the tally of other people infected by an individual with the virus — the scientists concluded that the variant has a “substantial transmission advantage” compared with other strains.

In the United States, schools superintendents and boards of education are monitoring infection rates in their communities involving the new covid-19 strain, said Michael Casserly, the executive director of the Council for the Great City Schools, a nonprofit organization that represents the largest urban school districts in the country.

“The exact opening dates in many of our big-city school districts continue to be fluid as our superintendents and boards monitor infection rates in their communities from this new strain of covid,” he said.

Bob Runcie, the superintendent of Broward County Public Schools in Florida, said school resumed Monday for any student who wanted to attend in person. “Given the data that we have, and the consultation we’ve had with public health officials and medical experts, our school sites are not places of significant transmission of the coronavirus, and so our schools are relatively safe,” Runcie said.

Washington Post

Biden, aiming to reopen schools, set to request infusion of cash

By Laura Meckler Jan. 14, 2021 at 1:04 p.m. EST

President-elect Joe Biden will ask Congress for $130 billion to help K-12 schools reopen, plus billions more to implement rapid coronavirus testing in schools, a far more aggressive response than anything lawmakers have approved to date. Another plank of Biden’s proposal, announced Thursday, aims to mount a national vaccination plan that could facilitate school reopening as well, with vaccinated teachers more willing to return to classrooms.

The proposals are part of a $1.9 trillion “rescue plan” that also includes $1,400 stimulus checks to most households and other aid to state and local governments, transition officials said. A senior official called it a “bold and historic emergency package to change the course of the pandemic.”

For schools, Biden says his goal is to have a majority open for in-person classes within 100 days of his inauguration. It’s unclear how he will measure success, and some research suggests the nation may have achieved his goal.

The Trump administration has not kept track of how many schools or school districts are open for in-person classes, and a transition spokesman said the new administration will work to improve data collection.

Biden reiterated Thursday that he would do everything he could to safely reopen “a majority of our K through 8 schools” by the end of his first 100 days. “We can do this if we give the school districts — the schools themselves, the communities, the states — the clear guidance they need as well as the resources they need that they can’t afford right now,” he said.

Biden hopes to achieve his goal with the help of a hefty federal aid package. At $130 billion, the K-12 schools piece of his proposal is more than twice the $64 billion provided to date over two previous relief packages. School advocates have complained that the dollars allocated so far fall far short of the need.

The K-12 funding is meant to address a wide range of needs. That includes expenses associated with mitigating virus spread inside buildings, such as improving ventilation systems, buying personal protective equipment and ensuring schools have nurses. It also addresses expenses associated with social distancing inside schools — reducing class sizes, modifying spaces and increasing the number of buses.

The package includes funding for mental health support for students and tutoring or summer school to help recover lost time in the classroom and learning. The money also could be used by states to prevent cuts to pre-K programs.

A portion of the funding would be reserved for an “educational equity challenge grant.” Details are not yet clear, but this suggests the Biden administration will try to use the new funding to advance equity goals, perhaps the way the Obama administration used stimulus funding in 2009 to advance its education change goals.

“It is absolutely imperative to have a package that focuses on both rescue and recovery,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “I’m glad that the president-elect is putting forward a comprehensive package and someone is acting like a president.”

The outline of the package released Thursday did not specify how prescriptive Biden would like the funding to be. Under President Trump, states and school districts were given wide latitude in how they used federal aid.

The rescue package includes $35 billion in aid to public colleges and universities and to public and private historically Black colleges and universities as well as other minority- serving institutions. There does not appear to be dedicated funding for other private universities.

The plan arrived the same day the Education Department made $21.2 billion in stimulus funding available for colleges and universities to shore up their operations and support students through the pandemic. The latest round of congressional funding was met with disappointment from higher-education groups who pleaded with lawmakers for at least $120 billion in support.

Biden’s package also includes $50 billion to ramp up coronavirus testing nationally, including in schools. The hope is that by regularly testing students and educators, asymptomatic carriers of the virus can be identified early. A system of random testing is in place in New York City schools, but not many other districts have implemented that sort of system.

In addition, once Biden takes office, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to issue a new set of guidelines for schools that better helps administrators safely operate in-person classes. For instance, districts have been asking for guidance on quarantining — who needs to quarantine after an exposure to someone who tests positive, and for how long.

Another key to reopening will be getting vaccinations to teachers, and Biden put mounting a national vaccination plan at the center of his rescue plan. The CDC has recommended that states include educators in the second-highest priority group, but the vaccine rollout has been inconsistent across the country.

“The one thing that’s going to help teachers more than anything is getting this vaccine out,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research at the University of Minnesota and a member of Biden’s covid-19 advisory board. Biden has said his goal is to open a majority of schools within 100 days of taking office, but several experts in education policy said they had no idea how the incoming administration plans to measure that.

Some researchers have studied samples of districts, but no one has a definitive national picture of how many schools are open today. With school districts open throughout Texas and Florida and in many other communities, it’s possible the goal has been reached.

Khalilah Harris, managing director for K-12 education policy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, said Biden’s call was more of “a values statement” than an explicit measurement.

“I think it is a good goal, but I do not know how they plan to measure or track it,” said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents urban school systems.

A transition spokesman said the federal government does not have tools to measure school reopenings and said the incoming administration is “working to enhance the federal government’s ability to effectively capture this data and assess progress toward safely reopening America’s schools.”

On Thursday, Biden clarified that his goal is limited to K-8 schools. Younger students have more trouble with remote learning and also are less likely to become infected with the coronavirus. It’s likely that hybrid systems, where students learn part-time from home and part-time from school, probably would count as open, said people familiar with the transition planning.

Vaccines, dollars and Biden ratchet up pressure on teachers to return to school With the virus surging, it appears that districts are moving in the opposite direction. Many that were open have closed, according to a new analysis from the Center on Reinventing Public Education, which tracks a national sample of 477 school districts.

It found that in early November, 21 percent of school districts were operating fully remotely. By December, that had risen to 32 percent. Still, the center’s data suggest three-quarters of districts had some form of in-person learning — well over a majority.

The Council of the Great City Schools keeps a tally of its members and found 18 districts closed after having reopened this fall. Another 28 school systems are open now, the group said, including Chicago Public Schools, which opened this week even as many teachers refused to return to their classrooms, citing safety concerns.

Erica Werner and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel contributed to this report.

Wall Street Journal Parents of Remote Learners Have Smaller Roles in U.S. Workforce Students who go to school in-person are more likely to have parents who work full time, new survey shows

By Yoree Koh Jan. 26, 2021 4:30 am ET

Parents of school-age children who are spending part or all of their time taking classes from home are less likely to be employed full-time, in the latest indication of how the pandemic- fueled school closures have taken a toll on working parents.

About 47% of parents with children who are learning entirely remotely or are in hybrid situations because of the coronavirus pandemic are working full-time, compared with 71% of parents whose children are physically back in school buildings, according to results of the Franklin Templeton-Gallup Economics of Recovery Study released Tuesday.

About 24% of parents whose children are attending school virtually aren’t working at all compared with 15% of parents whose children are attending school in person every day, according to the survey. About 73% of the surveyed parents said their child is learning remotely at least part of the time.

The results are the latest to illustrate how the prolonged school closures have increased the pressure on working parents. About seven million adults said they weren’t working because they were home caring for children who weren’t attending day care or school in-person, according to recent U.S. Census survey data conducted in late October and early November, up from around six million in May.

The results are the latest to illustrate how the prolonged school closures have increased the pressure on working parents. About seven million adults said they weren’t working because they were home caring for children who weren’t attending day care or school in-person, according to recent U.S. Census survey data conducted in late October and early November, up from around six million in May.

Twenty-seven of the nation’s 75 largest school districts have remained physically closed since last March, while 14 have returned to distance-learning after initially resuming in-person instruction this school year, according to the Council of the Great City Schools. Some districts are planning to gradually welcome students back inside buildings in the coming weeks as growing concerns about the mental health of students and strains on parents are being given greater weight against the risks of spreading the virus.

The mass switch to online learning has affected both men and women. Regardless of gender, those who have children learning virtually are more likely to be working part-time or to be unemployed compared with those whose children aren’t learning remotely.

Yet, women with school-age children are more likely to be dialing back from work compared with men. About 41% of women with school-age children said they are working full-time, compared with 69% of men, reinforcing other findings that pandemic-era joblessness is disproportionately affecting women.

Women account for 55% of the overall net jobs lost since the start of the crisis, with women of color hit especially hard, according to the National Women’s Law Center.

But the differences among women widen depending on whether their child’s school is offering in-person instruction: One-third of mothers with remote learners aren’t working, compared with one-fourth of mothers with children in school buildings full-time.

The survey results are based on online interviews with a sample of 1,374 parents of school-age children conducted in early December.

How School Districts Can Run a COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic

By Catherine Gewertz — February 04, 2021

As pressure builds to reopen schools safely for students and staff, a growing number of districts are no longer content to wait on the sidelines for vaccines. They want to administer the vaccines themselves.

On that restive landscape, the Anchorage school district has stepped out ahead of the pack, assembling a large-scale community vaccination program that’s responsible for a significant share of all the doses administered in Alaska.

Standing up the clinic has been a high-energy mix of logistics, imagination, surprises, and quick-pivot responses. But the Anchorage school system’s experience has key lessons to offer other districts as they consider or plan to operate vaccination clinics.

Some school districts have partnered with their local health departments to vaccinate their staffs. Dozens of large districts, under the aegis of the Council of the Great City Schools, wrote to President Joe Biden, noting that their skill, facilities, and community connections position them to make an impact in the fight against COVID-19. Los Angeles Unified has been approved by its county to serve as a vaccine provider.

But Anchorage is one of only a handful of districts nationally so far to actually launch its own vaccine program. To bring its 42,000 students and 8,000 staff members back to buildings safely, the district knew that pitching in on community vaccinations was key, even though nearly all its own staff members are not yet eligible.

“A lot of our students live in multigenerational households,” said Jennifer Patronas, the district’s director of health services. “For families to feel safe sending their child back to face-to-face learning, vaccinating grandma and grandpa is a part of that.”

Helping vaccinate health-care workers and the elderly had two additional benefits for the district: It would give its nurses valuable practice with administering the vaccines, and enable the state to move more quickly through its eligibility tiers, opening the doors sooner to teachers and school staff, said Superintendent Deena Bishop.

Fall planning: flow charts and “what ifs”

Anchorage knew it would conduct a clinic for its own staff members when they were eligible, and began planning in November. They chose their headquarters—a former shopping mall with a soaring atrium in the center—as the clinic site. The space is no stranger to large, one-time events; it served as a polling place in November and an emergency operations hub after a major earthquake in 2018.

District leaders made sketches and flow charts to configure the space for the clinic. They applied to the state to become an approved vaccine provider. They imagined administering about 200 doses a day. They didn’t know then that they’d end up vaccinating close to 1,000 people a day.

There’s a deep well of military experience among Anchorage school district staff, and it paid off in planning the vaccine clinic. Tom Roth, its chief operating officer, oversaw deployment of 3,500 troops to Iraq as a battalion commander in the U.S. Army. Patronas, the health-services chief, served 20 years in the U.S. Air Force. They, and many of their staff members, know a little something about moving large numbers of people through service and supply stations efficiently.

Roth and Patronas played lead roles orchestrating district staff from many departments to set the moving parts in motion. The district’s risk-management and legal teams developed a consent form for clients that released the district from liability. Department leaders made sure everyone was trained and ready to go, conducting a walk-through practice just before the winter break.

During that break, they got a call from the state department of health: Could the district expand its role and vaccinate more health-care workers? The district agreed.

The district team refined its planning. They would need 15 to 20 of their 108 registered nurses to run the vaccine stations each day, plus about 20 staff members from other departments to move clients through the lines, into the vaccination stations, and then into the observation areas where nurses would monitor them for allergic reactions. The district created 2,000 appointments on the state’s vaccine signup system. By the next morning, every appointment was booked, with hundreds more on each day’s wait list. Patronas noticed that most of the people who’d signed up weren’t even eligible yet: seniors, many in their 80s and 90s. She grabbed the phone to the state health department. Can we do this? She got the nod. Go ahead.

Countdown to clinic opening: making all the moving parts work Dozens of tables and chairs were ferried in. People from the technology department ran power lines and set up computers in the main room and in the observation area, so people could sign up for their second doses while they awaited allergy clearance. The Wi-Fi was sufficient, since several hundred people normally work in the building. Supplies of masks and gloves were checked and replenished. Maintenance crews built space dividers from PVC pipe and plastic sheeting, and posted outdoor signs directing clients where to go. The communications staff created indoor signs.

At noon on Jan. 6, the clinic opened its doors. School security officers worked the lines outside, answering questions and troubleshooting. Portable heaters were hustled in to keep people warm. Inside, bus drivers and other staffers greeted people and funneled them into different lines to register or to wait for vaccines. At the 10 vaccine stations, nurses took health histories, injected doses, and entered data on each client. Custodial staffers disinfected each station as clients moved on to the observation area.

“A lot of this is about managing the movement of people, about taking care of them, being friendly, explaining things,” Roth said. “It’s that human connection.”

Within hours, it became clear that hundreds of people were showing up at the district’s clinic without appointments. Many didn’t have good computer access or understand how to navigate the tricky signup process. But there they were, hoping for vaccines. Suddenly, the district was running a walk-in clinic.

The team pivoted quickly, adding 10 more vaccination stations and reworking its flow chart. Now there would be a check-in station at the beginning, where someone would direct those with appointments into a vaccine line, and those without them to registration tables.

The district realized it had overestimated its clients’ computer skills. The team had set up tables with computers where people could register or make second-dose appointments. But most couldn’t do that without assistance, so the team assigned someone to help at each table, said Tina Smith, an IT specialist in the health services department.

Superintendent Bishop, who worked some of the stations herself, said she often had seniors throw up their hands when they tried to manage the computers themselves. “A lot of times, it was, ‘I can’t even see the screen, honey, you just do it for me,’ ” she said.

Refining the plan for equity, allergies

The first days of the clinic also showed the district that it had to refine its ways of monitoring clients after their vaccines. It needed a way nurses could immediately differentiate those with lower risk of allergic reaction—those who had to wait only 15 minutes—from those at higher risk, who had to stay for 30 minutes. They tried handing each client an index card, but that didn’t work. They ended up pasting bright red sticky labels on the clothes of the higher-risk clients.

District leaders also noticed that most clients were white, in a district where most students are of color. Bishop alerted her equity department, which reached out to churches and faith-based groups, and Black sororities, and soon the clinic started seeing more Black and Asian clients come through its doors.

The district conducted a follow-up clinic on Jan. 28, and is conducting another, larger one this week, to give people their second doses. By the end of the day Feb. 3, the Anchorage school district had administered 7,394 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, 13 percent of all those given in Anchorage—a municipality the size of Delaware—and 5 percent of the doses given statewide. Another round of first-dose clinics is scheduled later this month.

Moving into second-dose clinics

The second clinics were configured a bit differently, since no registrations were involved. Clients move more quickly through the vaccine stations, so the observation areas were expanded. Since elementary-age students are phasing back into school buildings now, the second clinics use more volunteer preservice nurses from local colleges to ease the load on the district’s own registered nurses.

Some education activists around the country are hoping that more districts embrace roles as vaccine providers.

“We are eager to do our part,” said Michael Casserly, the executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents 76 of the country’s largest districts. “It seems to me that the nation can use all the help it can get right now.”

Michael Magee, the president of the superintendents’ group Chiefs for Change, said that even though there are many things to think through, from liability to seamless coordination with a state’s vaccine data tracking system, he believes most districts can stand up their own vaccination programs, and have much to gain—and to contribute to their communities—by doing so.

Smith, Anchorage’s health-services IT director, said that was certainly her experience.

“It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life to be able to give back to the community like that,” she said. “We do flu clinics, but they feel less urgent. The amount of gratitude was just profound.”

Editor’s Note: Welcome to Weekly Education: Coronavirus special edition. Each week, we will explore how the pandemic is reshaping and upending education as we know it across the country, from pre-K through grad school. We will explore the debates of the day, new challenges and talk to movers and shakers about whether changes ushered in now are here to stay.

EDUCATION POLICY WISH LISTS FOR THE NEW ADMINISTRATION — As the Biden transition kicks into full gear in the coming weeks, the policy wish lists from various groups are piling up. Many have comprehensive agendas for both the incoming administration and new Congress.

Some of the recommendations for executive action from groups likely to have the Biden administration’s ear when it comes to crafting education policy:

— Prosecute for-profit college executives. Student Defense, an advocacy group, proposes the Biden Education Department more robustly use its existing legal powers to make the owners and executives of for-profit colleges personally liable for the misconduct of their institutions. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is among the Democrats who endorse the plan.

— Cancel student loan debt. Biden faces growing pressure from progressives to provide at least $10,000 of loan forgiveness for each borrower. He endorsed the idea on the campaign trail but hasn’t said whether he would pursue debt cancellation through legislation or unilaterally. The Student Borrower Protection Center and Dēmos compiled a policy playbook that charts a path for Biden to cancel student loan debt through executive action, using existing laws.

— Issue guidance on school desegregation. The Education Trust says the next administration should help schools legally pursue desegregation. The group also wants the Education Department to revive the “supplement not supplant” rule for Title I funding the Obama administration started but dropped during its final days in office.

— Nominate a higher education-focused secretary. Higher Learning Advocates, a bipartisan policy organization, and other groups, are urging Biden to pick an Education secretary “who holds both classroom experience and higher education experience” — a role that’s often been held by someone with more K-12 education focus.

— Restore a "welcoming environment for international students." NAFSA: Association of International Educators has a playbook for how the Biden administration should reverse what it called the “severe damage to this country’s reputation as the premier destination for international students and scholars” caused by the Trump administration and the pandemic. Among the recommendations: reversing immigration policies that tightened the rules on student visas, rolling back travel bans, restoring DACA protections and establishing a coordinated U.S. strategy for recruiting talented students.

— End “politically motivated” investigations into colleges. Colleges and university groups want the Biden administration to end a slew of investigations opened by the Trump administration that they view as politically motivated. That includes a recent inquiry into Princeton over its admission that there is “systematic racism” embedded at the school. The American Council on Education and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities are also calling on Biden to scale back DeVos’ crackdown on foreign funding in higher education, including the dozen investigations opened over universities’ reporting of the money.

— Prioritize school employees, students and families for Covid-19 vaccines. The Council of the Great City Schools is also calling on Biden to appoint a big-city school superintendent to the White House Coronavirus Task Force and better coordinate the distribution of Covid-19 protective and testing equipment to schools.

— Postpone standardized testing during the pandemic. “Suspend federal testing requirements until after the Covid-19 crisis has passed,” the National Education Association policy playbook recommends. Civil rights groups and some congressional Democrats, however, say the testing requirements should remain.

— Boost accountability policies in higher ed. A coalition of groups called for the Biden administration to expand protections for students and student veterans from “shoddy higher education programs” they said DeVos “systematically dismantled." They’re also calling on the Biden administration to reverse DeVos efforts to ease state oversight of college programs and federal accreditation requirements.

BY NICOLE GAUDIANO Presented by Educators for Excellence

With help from Andrew Atterbury and Michael Stratford

Editor’s Note: Welcome to Weekly Education: Coronavirus special edition. Each week, we will explore how the pandemic is reshaping and upending education as we know it across the country, from pre- K through grad school. We will explore the debates of the day, new challenges and talk to movers and shakers about whether changes ushered in now are here to stay.

This newsletter is a weekly version of POLITICO Pro’s daily Education policy newsletter, Morning Education. POLITICO Pro is a policy intelligence platform that combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day’s biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro.

READING, WRITING AND VACCINES: The nation’s K-12 public schools are often equipped with spacious gymnasiums and big parking lots, and many have full- or part-time nurses. They are located in communities and can accommodate football games and graduation ceremonies. So why not use schools as vaccination sites?

— It’s a question education groups are asking as the federal government aims to get more shots into arms and kids into classrooms. The race against time isn’t lost on education leaders as variants of the virus emerge and learning loss continues with many kids still stuck at home, learning virtually. School vaccination sites come with challenges, but some districts are already moving forward, helping deliver vaccines.

— “The whole vision that we cast for the county is that high schools could be the hub of vaccinations,” said Chad Gestson, superintendent of the Phoenix Union High School District, which hosted a vaccination event for educators last month as a first step.

IT’S MONDAY, FEB. 8. WELCOME TO MORNING EDUCATION. President Joe Biden, in a CBS News interview with Norah O’Donnell that aired Sunday, said the CDC will issue guidance on minimum requirements for reopening schools “as early as Wednesday.” Our Juan Perez Jr. reported Friday that the Education Department is launching a national survey to better understand the status of in- person learning at schools.

Please send tips to your host at [email protected] or to my colleagues, Juan Perez Jr. at [email protected] , Michael Stratford at [email protected] and Bianca Quilantan at [email protected]. And follow us on Twitter: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro.

ANOTHER SHOT AT DISTRIBUTION: The Biden administration is pushing to get at least 100 million shots administered in 100 days. FEMA has obligated nearly $2 billion to states, tribes, territories and D.C. for community vaccination centers , and as of Thursday, there were 175 federally supported vaccine centers operational across the country. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris today will virtually tour the State Farm Stadium vaccination site in Glendale, Ariz., according to his schedule. Last week, the administration announced a plan to begin shipping vaccine doses directly to pharmacies. — Biden last month said he wanted FEMA to set up more vaccination sites in “convenient and accessible” places such as school gymnasiums, sports stadiums and community centers. But state, tribal and territorial governments select the sites, according to FEMA.

— Since vaccine supply has been so constrained, involving schools in vaccine distribution has been “a bit of an afterthought” for some state leaders, and that’s a mistake, said Mike Magee, CEO of Chiefs for Change. Governors and health departments should already be working with school systems to plan for mass vaccinations as soon as supply increases.

— “We would certainly appreciate it if the President made this a point of emphasis, because I think states are looking for guidance about how they can surge capacity as supply surges,” Magee said.

A message from Educators for Excellence:

Educators for Excellence just released Voices from the Classroom 2021, a nationally representative survey that captures the opinions of teachers on key issues facing public schools. This survey provides decision-makers with insights from the untapped experts — teachers — on how to recover and transform our public schools.

K - 12

THE CASE FOR SCHOOL SITES: Some 12,000 school buildings located in every major city could be used as vaccination sites, rather than centralized sites or sparsely located hospitals, The Council of the Great City Schools, which includes 76 of the largest urban public- school systems, wrote in a Jan. 22 letter to Biden.

— The letter touts urban schools’ all-purpose rooms for vaccinations, smaller rooms for observation sites, buses for transportation or mobile vaccination facilities, communication systems, custodians, information technology staff and school nurses. The schools are often used for Covid-19 testing. “Concerns about equity and access are helped by using facilities that are already there, sometimes in very poor communities,” said Michael Casserly, the group’s executive director, who detailed the proposal in a meeting with White House Covid team members on Friday.

— The American Federation of Teachers has recommended using some schools as vaccination sites, as they were used to help eliminate polio, AFT President Randi Weingarten said. “To do that with Covid, you need to implement complex storage and handling practices which takes infrastructure, organization, leadership and most importantly, resources,” she said. “We can also make schools distribution hubs to consolidate supplies and push the vaccine out to secondary access points.”

— There is precedent for school vaccination sites, said Laurie Combe, president of the National Association of School Nurses. During the H1N1 outbreak, the school district where she worked in Texas partnered with Harris County Public Health to vaccinate members of the general public on weekends at strategically located schools. “Frankly, I’ve been a bit surprised that we haven’t used that method,” she said. Vaccine access is proving difficult, she noted, and when schools or even church communities are used for distribution, “then you’re right there in neighborhoods where families are.”

— Not all schools will have appropriate refrigeration equipment for the vaccines, she said, but they are prime locations for partnerships with public health providers or large hospitals.

Education Week Governors, State Lawmakers: Schools Should Reopen for In- Person Learning

By Evie Blad — February 11, 2021

After months of leaving the decision of whether to return schools to in-person learning in district leaders’ hands, many governors and state legislatures are taking a more direct approach.

Efforts in states such as Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin to set firm requirements for in- person classes come as some parents say their school systems have repeatedly shifted the goal posts throughout the school year, changing the criteria and timelines in their reopening plans.

And, as the country nears a full year since most states issued broad closure orders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, some parents and policymakers fear children may not have an opportunity for any face-to-face learning this academic year if their states don’t take action soon.

“When you set a goal, your conversation becomes about how to achieve the goal,” said Virginia state Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, a Republican. “If you never set a goal, your conversation is aimless.”

Dunnavant, a physician, championed a one-sentence bill passed by the Virginia Senate Feb. 2 that would direct schools to open for in-person learning. If enacted, that bill, like other new state laws, would not take effect until July 1, but Dunnavant says she would push for an emergency clause so it would take effect immediately.

Concerns persist even as new research emerges

Lawmakers in other states —including California, North Carolina, and Tennessee— have filed similar bills that would allow governors to order school openings or set new mandates for in- person learning. Republican lawmakers on the Wisconsin legislature’s joint finance committee voted Feb. 10 to direct more federal relief aid to districts with in-person options.

Their efforts come after research published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month suggested schools could safely reopen and limit the risk of virus transmission in their buildings with extensive protocols, like social distancing, the use of masks, and keeping students in classroom cohorts to limit interaction with their peers.

There is no definitive tally of how many students attend school in person. Currently, at least five states require some form of in-person instruction, and the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents many of the nation’s largest districts, says 43 of its districts are open for some form of in-person instruction.

Districts that remain in remote learning say some of the precautions necessary to reopen are difficult or impossible in aging buildings with dated ventilation systems. They’ve struggled to negotiate details with employees, such as how to accommodate teachers with medically vulnerable people in their households. They’ve also expressed concerns about emerging, more contagious variants of COVID-19. And, in some areas, teachers have pushed for staff to be fully vaccinated before working in school buildings.

After Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, called for full-time in-person instruction in her January State of the State Address, Iowa State Education Association President Mike Beranek said she was telling schools “to return our state to a normal that is not yet possible.

Iowa schools were previously required to offer students in-person learning at least 50 percent of the time. Reynolds signed a new law Jan. 29 that requires districts to provide five days of on-site classes to families that want them. Other states mandating that schools offer in-person classes for at least some grades are Arkansas, Florida, Texas, and West Virginia, according to an Education Week tracker.

President Joe Biden has been sympathetic to educators’ concerns. He’s called for $130 billion in additional relief money for K-12 schools to help with issues like sanitation and summer learning. At the same time, he’s set a goal of getting a majority of K-8 schools open in the first 100 days of his term, although White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki faced pushback this week when she said schools could meet that requirement by offering in-person instruction just one day a week.

Though some have questioned whether Biden’s goal is ambitious enough, it may have provided some political cover for governors, including Democrats, to push the issue, said Rebecca Jacobsen, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University.

“I actually think this is something people call ‘borrowing strength,’” she said. “Governors think they have cover. They can say ‘I didn’t say it. They did.’”

Governors may also recognize the effects of “pandemic fatigue” a year in, and they may be concerned about harm to their states’ economies if they don’t provide some normalcy for families, said Patrick McGuinn, a professor of education and political science at Drew University.

“The interconnection and entanglement of education and the economy is really a lot of what’s driving it,” McGuinn said. “There’s a push to reopen schools because there’s a push to reopen the economy and the two of them are linked. You can’t do one of them without the other.”

Governors use their bully pulpits

Short of mandates, some state leaders have sought to use their bully pulpits to turn up the pressure. Governors in Maryland and Virginia have told districts to reopen by early or mid- March, for example.

Even as Virginia lawmakers considered Dunnavant’s school reopening bill, Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, called on superintendents and school boards there to open schools to make in-person learning available by March 15 “to prevent irreparable learning loss and psychological damage.”

About 500,000 Virginia students attend schools that have only offered remote options, he said in a Feb. 5 letter that cited recent research released by the CDC and January guidance from the state’s education department. “Many Virginia students are approaching a full year without in-person access to their school communities,” wrote Northam, a pediatric neurologist. “This is having a real and significant impact on their educational and social development— but after a year of experience, we are now equipped as a society to safely open schools and operate them in ways that protect students, teachers, and staff members.”

He encouraged schools to prioritize students “who need in-person learning the most,” including students with disabilities, students from preschool through 3rd grade, and English-language learners. But he said districts should extend the option for all students and should consider extended summer school options, remediation, and even year-round schooling.

Some of Virginia’s largest districts, which have largely offered remote learning this school year, have since announced plans for gradual reopenings. But those announcements come after months of false starts, some parents said.

Yael Levin-Sheldon, an Henrico County mother who supports Dunnavant’s bill, said she fears Northam’s push is too vague to spur effective action.

Levin-Sheldon has paused her work as a freelance data analyst this year so that she can supervise a “learning pod” of her two children, who are in 6th and 8th grades, and six of their peers in her home. The children complain that a day in front of a screen is exhausting and that their peers don’t turn on their cameras during class, removing a tiny chance for interaction.

“My boys used to love school,” she said. “They are both gifted and always had straight As. They are struggling and they hate school now.”

Levin-Sheldon, who has a math degree, sometimes helps students understand geometry concepts that may be difficult to grasp. She worries about the students who don’t have as much support at home.

She’s used her professional skills to analyze public data on issues like increases in youth suicide rates, using her findings in her efforts to advocate for reopening schools. And she and her children have spoken before their local school board multiple times.

“I can get my kids through this year, but my biggest concern is all the kids who are home alone during this, all the kids who are not only doing virtual school alone but are also helping their younger siblings, kids in abusive situations, kids with food insecurity,” Levin-Sheldon said. “There are some kids for whom school truly is the only safe place.”

States struggle to find a balance

The situation has tested every layer of school governance, which is affected by local, state, and federal laws. And state leaders have wrestled with a carrot vs. stick dilemma. Many have sought to create conditions for safer reopenings by releasing new guidance and prioritizing teachers for early vaccine doses.

But an increasing number have sought to impose more direct mandates. When states take such actions, it can present an array of health, employment, and logistical challenges for districts. In Iowa, the Des Moines district has sparred with the state over how to operate its schools since the start of the school year, even unsuccessfully suing to operate in remote learning. Among its concerns: Iowa’s health metrics that would allow schools to close based on the level of infection in their communities were much looser than those in other states, part of an inconsistent patchwork of state policies around the country.

Schools in Des Moines eventually opened shortly after Labor Day under a hybrid model, in which students learn in classrooms and remotely on alternating days. That model, which allows for more spacing of desks and students, isn’t possible under the new law, which requires five days of in-person instruction and prohibits even short-term closures unless the governor issues a new emergency order.

“This limits what we can do to mitigate COVID in schools,” district spokesperson Phillip Roeder said. “Some things, most notably social distancing, will be a thing of the past.”

Some have also criticized Reynolds for signing onto the new school mandates while she also lifted other policies, like mandates and limits on businesses, designed to reduce the risk of community spread.

About 65 percent of Des Moines students plan to return to full in-person learning when the district offers it, starting Feb. 15. The option is more popular among students in younger grades, Roeder said. Having that many students in the building full-time means twice as many desks in classrooms, he said.

The district feels like it is “preparing for the first day of school while school is going on” as it readies for the transition. Principals have placed additional directional signs on walls and floors in an attempt to limit crowding.

And the district partnered with a local health provider to give the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to 1,000 employees, prioritizing bus drivers and cafeteria workers who work in close quarters.

Whose call is it?

In some states, leaders at various levels of government have faced off over who bears the responsibility —and the blame—for school reopening decisions.

School leaders say efforts to return to classrooms must be accompanied by community wide efforts to get virus rates down through actions like prohibiting indoor dining and limiting the capacity of stores and businesses.

In California, the city of San Francisco has sued its district to push for in-person learning. And some Los Angeles leaders have pushed for a similar action.

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner responded with a Feb. 5 open letter, calling the potential lawsuit “a grandstanding political stunt.”

“We are ready to reopen and want nothing more than to welcome children back to classrooms safely, but we cannot break state law to do so,” Beutner wrote. “What we cannot control is the community spread of COVID-19 in the Los Angeles area, which has not for one single day since the beginning of the crisis met the state standards for school reopening. ... That should be of grave concern to all of us because each of these new cases is a human being. And the continued high rates of the virus are having a disproportionate impact on the low-income families of color served by our schools.”

The school district was not the one that decided to reopen “indoor malls before infection rates were low enough to unlock the schoolyard gates.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said in a Feb. 9 press briefing that he is nearing a deal with state lawmakers “get our youngest children back into schools in small cohorts.”

Negotiations, still in progress this week, center on issues like additional funding and statewide standards for the use of protective equipment, social distancing, and testing in schools.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has promised to release similar federal guidance this week at Biden’s direction.

“Not to open is not a plan,” Newsom said.

Biden is accused of shifting goal posts on reopening schools as CDC readies new guidelines Joey Garrison and Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY Fri, February 12, 2021, 9:04 AM

WASHINGTON – Pressure is mounting for President Joe Biden to deliver on reopening the nation's schools amid the coronavirus pandemic as Republicans seize on his cautious approach and parents demand more aggressive action to address what he called a "national emergency." Biden was already walking a tightrope politically on the contentious issue, caught between teacher union allies who have resisted in-person learning until safety measures are assured and parents nationwide frustrated their children remain home. Now, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention set to release reopening guidelines Friday, Biden will have one of the components he said was needed to achieve his goal of having most public schools open within his first 100 days in office. He's at Day 23. Many parents want fast progress. But if recommendations include updating ventilation systems in aging school buildings or smaller class sizes – safety measures the president has discussed – fixes might not be quick. Yet few months remain in the 2020- 21 academic calendar before summer break. "President Biden is getting close to breaking his first promise," said Rory Cooper, former communications director for Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and a parent of three children who attend public schools in Fairfax County, Va., where classrooms remain closed but are scheduled to reopen. He pointed to Biden's remarks on the campaign trail in September when Biden called closed schools a "national emergency" and accused then-President Donald Trump of lacking a plan. Like other skeptics, Cooper accused Biden of giving too much sway to teachers unions in cities, where the majority of schools conducting classes exclusively online during the pandemic are concentrated. "Now that he's president," said Cooper, who was an outspoken critic of Trump, "things seem to be going backwards."

Goal made more attainable Disappointing many parents, the White House downsized Biden's goal this week, clarifying it hopes for 50% or more of schools to open "for at least one day a week" within 100 days, not necessarily fully reopened. Some projections suggest the U.S. has already crossed the threshold. “It’s not an especially high bar,” said Jon Valant, an education expert and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. The White House does not have a current count of schools operating in-person, fully remotely or with mix of online and in-person instruction. Officials pointed to an upcoming survey led by the U.S. Department of Education, at Biden's direction, that will compile data the Trump administration did not track. A report is expected in March. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the lower bar is not the end goal. "The president will not rest until schools are open five days a week," she said Thursday. When he announced the goal in December, Biden said he aimed to ensure "a majority of our schools" are open within 100 days. But in his plan to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic, released on Biden's first full day in office, the White House lowered its marker, saying the goal applies only to "a majority of K-8 schools," not high schools. "Parents have been concerned for quite some time about the endlessly moving goal posts about reopening," said Karen Vaites of Manhattan, whose daughter is in third grade. She called it "ridiculous" to have a reopening goal that's likely already met. Vaites said she understands the president's authority is limited on decisions made by locally controlled school districts. But she said Biden could use the "power of the pulpit" to ease fears about children attending school in-person. "We have states across the political spectrum that have successfully opened their schools," Vaites said. "The best thing that Biden could do is to elevate that and to talk really openly with Americans about what's working in those states that are open."

Superintendents seek guidance, funds and vaccines Biden has repeatedly pointed to the CDC guidelines – expected to cover a host of issues such as masks, social distancing, proper hygiene, building ventilation and whether teachers need vaccinations – to provide direction for schools. The president has also proposed $130 billion for school reopenings in his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, dubbed the American Rescue Plan, that he hopes to push through Congress within the next few weeks. The money would help pay for increased staffing to reduce class sizes, modifications to improve ventilation, and protective gear to mitigate the spread of infection. It could also go toward extended learning opportunities for students who have fallen behind. "I think it's time for schools to reopen safely – safely," Biden said in a recent interview on CBS. "You have to have fewer people in the classroom, you have to have ventilation systems that have been reworked." Some school districts – including public schools in San Bernardino, Calif, Richmond, Va., and Durham, N.C. – have already shut down in-person learning for the remainder of the year. Others are preparing to reopen this spring even before the release of the CDC guidelines and passage of Biden's COVID-19 relief package. "Every day that a child is out of school is a day lost," said Brenda Cassellius, superintendent of Boston Public Schools, explaining why Boston is moving forward with reopening in-person classrooms beginning with K-3 students March 1. "They need to get back in school." To make the transition, Boston's public schools – using guidance from local health officials – purchased personal protective equipment and N95 masks for students and staff at all 125 schools, installed new air purifiers, replaced air filters, repaired 7,000 windows, and hired more custodial staff and bus monitors. The district spent $32 million approved in last year's CARES Act and is in need of more federal assistance. Superintendents said they need clear guidelines, such as whether three feet of social distancing is adequate or whether it should be six feet. Cassellius said she would like to see the Biden administration work to deliver vaccines to teachers, other staff and eventually students. "That's the No. 1 thing we need," she said. "They need to release these vaccines to teachers. The second thing is really clear guidance on what the health and safety protocols are because different states have different measures." Scott Brabrand, superintendent of Fairfax County Schools, outside Washington D.C, expressed optimism that "hope and help is on the way." Fairfax, one of the 10 largest school district in the country, is moving forward on a phased reopening of in-person classrooms beginning Feb. 16. The system initially reopened in the fall but quickly reverted to virtual learning as COVID-19 cases spiked. "The clearer the guidance, the more confidence that we can have," Brabrand said. "Honestly, President Biden has inherited a crisis of confidence about how to handle this pandemic as it relates to schools. And we're in the middle of restoring that confidence, and I think President Biden's plan is a great first step forward."

Teachers union head doesn't expect full school this year Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, told USA TODAY in an interview she hopes for “clarity and consistency” in the new CDC guidelines, calling the constantly shifting guidelines of the Trump administration "chaos.” Weingarten said she expects the CDC will say mitigation strategies – including mask wearing, ventilation, and cleaning – are “absolutely necessary.” And she hopes the agency will also spell out “how they’re going to use the bully pulpit to make states do it.” If the guidelines include physical distancing, as she expects, that means full schooling can’t happen this school year unless schools can find 20% to 30% more space and more educators, Weingarten said. “What you will have is, you’ll have less and less remote full time and you’ll have more and more kids come in for a certain portion of time,” she said. “Will we see this year that everything is back to what we saw in September 2019? I don’t see that happening.” Teachers unions in some cities including Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Buffalo and Montclair, New Jersey, have pushed back fiercely to opening classrooms because they don't trust their districts could do it safely. Chicago's teachers headed back to classrooms Thursday after union and city leaders clashed for more than two weeks over the plan to bring more K-8 educators and students back to buildings. Although a federal tally of closed schools isn't ready, Burbio, a company that aggregates school district calendars, found about 64% of U.S. students are attending schools offering at least some in-person learning – therefore already meeting Biden's goal. About 35% are attending schools with virtual-only plans. And 43 of 75 large districts that belong to the Council of Great City Schools, a member organization, are offering some in-person learning, according to a tally kept by Education Week magazine and the Council. The extent of classroom instruction varies widely, however.

'Lack of coordination' before Biden created a messy situation. Debates about school reopening plans have raged for weeks as new variants of the virus spread, as vaccine distribution varies widely, as teachers unions in some cities push back, and as many parents grow exasperated with the lack of an in-person learning option. Some have called for increased, rapid COVID-19 testing in schools as a way to reopen more classrooms. Weekly, rapid antigen tests administered at K-12 schools in Los Angeles, New Orleans and Washington reduced transmission of the coronavirus by about 50% when both teachers and students participated, according to a new study commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation. The nation’s top disease expert, Anthony Fauci, didn’t publicly name infection thresholds to be used as a guide for holding in-person classes until fall, after many districts already had chosen an instruction model to launch the new year. Former U.S. education secretary Betsy DeVos took a largely hands-off approach, other than to waive federal requirements for state testing. Miguel Cardona, Biden's nominee for education secretary, is awaiting confirmation by the full Senate. “The lack of coordination of everything at the state and national level left every district to do their own thing,” Dan Domenech, executive director of AASA, the school superintendents association, said in January. Valant, of the Brookings Institution, said Biden’s goal for schools is a different type of metric from his pledge to administer 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine within 100 days. Instead of setting a numeric threshold for opening schools, he said, the goal should be to reopen wherever its safe to do so. Determining what that is has been difficult, he said, because there wasn’t a clear federal voice during the Trump administration, contributing to states and localities setting different safety benchmarks. "The federal role is somewhat limited," he said, "but certainly part of their role in a situation like this is being very clear about research and what we know about when and how it’s safe to open schools.”

Republicans hit Biden on reopenings As Republicans look to reclaim the House and Senate in 2022, reopening schools has already become a top line of attack. Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, who heads the political arm of House Republicans, told Politico this week that school reopenings are one issue that will help his party retake the House in the 2022 midterm elections The National Republican Congressional Committee that Emmer chairs has accused Biden of backtracking on his pledge and is trying to use that against Democrats in competitive districts “Why hasn’t Abigail Spanberger spoken out against Biden’s broken promise?” NRCC spokeswoman Camille Gallo asked in a news release Wednesday about Spanberger, a Virginia Democrat. Spanberger is one of 12 Democrats targeted in an ad campaign on the issue announced Thursday by the American Action Network, a conservative advocacy group aligned with the GOP. Suburban women were crucial to Biden’s victory and opening schools is a top priority for them, said Republican pollster Christine Matthews. “If you have a child in K-12, this is your No. 1 issue,” she said.

How much breathing room does Biden have? Parents are worried about the toll online learning has taken on their kids and on their own ability to work while supervising at-home learning. But eagerness to send their kids back to school splits along racial and ethnic lines. Black and Latino parents may be more reticent than white parents because their communities have been hit harder by the pandemic and because they may have experienced more problems with their schools being able to handle even basic services like heating, Matthews said. “There’s a level of trust here, which is like 'How successfully can my school do the things necessary to keep my child safe?’” Matthews said. “If you’re in an affluent, white, public school, your confidence is probably a little higher.” While Biden has taken ownership of speeding up the vaccination rate and will be judged on that, Matthews said, parents are more likely to pay attention to what their school superintendent, mayor or governor is saying about schools reopening than what the president is doing. . “I think the stakes are a little lower for Joe Biden on this because I don’t think people are looking to him as the sort of deciding factor as to whether their particular school opens or not," she said. Some parents are looking squarely at Biden, though. Cooper said if Biden believes school buildings across the country need retrofitting to reopen safely, then that needs to start happening today, not after his COVID-19 legislation passes. "My fifth-grader will have spent half of fourth-grade, all of fifth-grade and possibly all or half of sixth-grade not going to school full-time," he said. "At what time does this begin to concern political leaders that our children are simply not being educated?"

Seattle Times Look to refugee schools for lessons on teaching kids after COVID, some experts say

Feb. 22, 2021 at 6:00 am Updated Feb. 23, 2021 at 8:16 am By Danielle Dreilinger

Eleventh-grader My-Linh Thai sat with her guidance counselor at Federal Way High, Vietnamese-English dictionary in her bag. “I want to go to the University of Washington and become a doctor,” she said. “That’s not possible,” the counselor said. Thai had entered the state school system near the end of 10th grade, part of a wave of Southeast Asian refugees who came to Washington between 1975 and the early 1980s. She didn’t know English, and although Thai was at the top of her class in her home country, her small town had no library, the school was so crowded it had to take kids in shifts, and the power cut out at 6 o’clock. Now she was an English-language learner who couldn’t stay after school for tutoring because she had to work. The culture shock was like plunging into an ice bath on a steamy day. Kids called teachers by their first names! Still, Thai dreamed of being a doctor. She asked the counselor to write down exactly what she needed to do to graduate and go to university. “I completed everything on that list,” Thai said. “It was possible.” It’s hard to feel hopeful right now as we read terrifying stories about the amount of learning students might be losing during the pandemic, and it’s doubly crushing when we know how incredibly hard teachers, parents and children are working. Even so, educators who work with refugee students say children who come to this country at a disadvantage in every way — recovering from trauma, struggling to parse a new language, behind academically — can catch up to their peers and even excel, if they’re given the right support. That bodes well for the millions of children who have been left behind by COVID-19. “In our work, we have to be relentlessly optimistic,” said David Song, director of Seattle’s Kandelia, the immigrant/refugee group formerly known as the Vietnamese Friendship Association, whose youth programs are based at Seattle Public Schools’ World School. In the years since Thai figured out how to succeed on her own, a network of educators has created immigrant-focused schools to help students make up for lost schooling and recover from trauma — and all while learning a new language. “Newcomer” schools, like Seattle World School, are devoted to serving refugees and immigrants. And their expertise holds lessons for everyone when students finally come back to the classroom. COVID-19 has, in a way, turned all schools into newcomer schools. Not every student in newcomer schools lags academically or went through trauma, but many have. John Starkey, principal of Lafayette International High in Buffalo, N.Y., has students who grew up in refugee camps, and Tibetan teens whose previous education took place in classrooms of 100. He still berates himself for the day he reprimanded a student for being disengaged — only to learn that the young man’s school in Aleppo, Syria, had been destroyed by a bomb while he and his friends were still inside. Brain research shows that trauma can interrupt learning and communication skills. “People say, ‘How can they make it with all these risk factors?’ ” Starkey said. But “they can. It’s just contingent on us re- evaluating and revamping the whole system.” Data show newcomer schools are a success. Across the Internationals Network’s 28 schools, which include Lafayette International, 70% of students graduate in four years, a five-point improvement over the national average for English-language learners (ELL), executive director Joe Luft said. It’s 73% at the network’s New York City schools, where the average for ELL students is only 41%. The Learning Policy Institute praised the network’s “integrated and rigorous approach,” and said that its New York City schools’ college acceptance and matriculation rates were also above average. Here’s advice from these experts on how schools can manage the aftermath of COVID-19. Meet students’ needs holistically Struggling in school makes kids feel bad about themselves. And catching up while recovering from disruption is a lot of work. So students have to feel loved, and be supported in both emotional and tangible ways. If you expect a child to learn, you have to make sure “that they’re fed, that they have a roof over their heads. You can’t have one without the other,” said Kandelia community engagement manager Sieng Douangdala. Such work requires connecting with community partners. “It takes a village, to be honest.” Lafayette International focuses first on food, housing, safety. Every staffer doubles as an investigative social worker to figure out what’s missing at home. Then there are emotional needs. Refugee/immigrant schools work overtime to make students and families feel like they belong. Internationals Network students “will often talk about their school as a family,” Luft said. That’s by design. Small, interdisciplinary teams of teachers share a common group of students and meet to discuss their needs. When there’s not a pandemic, Kandelia offers a full array of Saturday sessions, both academic and recreational, with offerings for parents as well. On those Saturdays, Kandelia spins the globe to pick the food: tamales, egg rolls, Somali sambusas. The celebration of students’ cultures “makes them feel comfortable in a way that — wow, I’m not going through this alone,” Douangdala said. They don’t feel “so invisible or so misunderstood.” “It’s got to start with the healing,” Starkey said. The point is “to get them to start believing in themselves, to have a little hope.” That rich support was on display at a December-morning Lafayette English class that Starkey visited. First he encouraged students to turn on their cameras, cajoling, “No one has as bad of a hair day as me!” (He’s bald.) More seriously, he said, “It doesn’t matter what’s on the outside or what’s in the background … it’s about what’s on the inside, in your heart.” He reminded them of their strength: how flexible they were, moving to a new culture, learning new languages, now dealing with COVID: “Not everybody would survive all of that.” Afterward, teacher Dana Kemp led a breathing exercise, saying, “We want to trust our instincts and trust our guts.” Only then did the class turn to 19th-century poetry. Rethink the curriculum Newcomer schools can’t give kids six months of English before they start studying chemistry. They can’t stop and teach students all the U.S. history they never learned, or the math they didn’t get in their previous country. When a student enters the U.S., they pick up in the grade they left off. Even if a Kenya refugee camp’s 10th-grade work corresponds to Buffalo’s eighth grade, that kid’s a sophomore. And “there’s only so much time in the day,” Luft said. “You have to figure out some way to accelerate.” The similarities to COVID-19 learning loss are obvious. The Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of the nation’s 76 largest urban public school systems (including Seattle), is recommending that schools “stick to grade-level content” rather than stopping to backfill. Educators should fill in gaps along the way, via small groups or individual tutoring, when it becomes clear that a student missed something that they need to solve the problem of the day. “Because it is inadvisable (and impossible) to try to teach every missed concept all at once, it is necessary to prioritize the concepts and skills that are of immediate importance in helping students access grade-level work,” the Council wrote. If a student has missed 25 assignments, clearly something is wrong, and schools need to switch gears, Starkey said, not “just be encouraging it and hoping it happens.” Instead, he said, zero in on the key outcomes and the learning standards, and figure out a way for students to learn that material and show their knowledge. For example: Can a student make a tourism pamphlet for Indus Valley civilizations rather than complete 10 homework packets? Otherwise schools risk writing students off — and having them just give up, because they’re so far behind on assignments there’s no way they’ll be able to pass the year. Such condensing and acceleration requires schools to think differently about education. That extends to assessments and accountability. Hold a holistic view of education School needs to be focused on helping students get that college degree or job certification, not about passing tests. That means designing different ways to measure learning. “This is a group that is unique and requires a unique approach,” Starkey said. He considers relying on standardized tests “antiquated,” and advocates portfolio evaluation instead. Lafayette International students embark on projects and defend them like dissertations as teachers pepper them with questions. Those projects let students work from where they are and draw on their multiculturalism as a strength, instead of focusing on what’s lacking. Ironically, pretty much all schools went this route during COVID, as states canceled spring standardized testing. Lafayette International’s graduation rate went up by close to 20 percentage points, to 83%. Judging newcomer students by the standard metrics — such as the standard graduation rate, which measures the percentage of students finishing in four years — doesn’t make sense, Starkey argues. “We have some students who need a fifth year or a sixth year,” Luft said. Along with stigma, there are institutional barriers. One of the biggest problems that newcomer high schools face is the clash between graduation tests and the end date of public education. What runs out for students is not mental capacity, it’s time. Washington and New York, like most states, provide public education only up to age 21. An 18- or 19-year-old who has already failed 10th- grade tests knows that “time is ticking for them to age out of school,” and they probably won’t make it, Starkey said. They may decide instead to get a menial job to help support their family. Some students don’t have the skills to make it academically, but also don’t qualify for special education, Starkey said. It’s a tough hand. “They try and they try and they try. We struggle to meet their needs … In a lot of schools they’re just written off.” Maybe allowing alternative assessments and lifting time requirements will make sense for all students, at least for a while post-COVID, because returning from the pandemic is going to be rough. Schools need a re-entry plan, Luft said — one where expectations are high but humane. “You’re not going to be able to double the amount of learning next year,” he said. “I’m reluctant to say you can’t make that up … [but] what’s your expectation about how quickly that can happen?” He’s concerned especially because national data show that COVID-19 learning losses are more severe among majority-minority and low- income students. McKinsey predicts that students of color will have lost 11 to 12 months of learning by June, and white students five months or more. Worse, “this could be just the beginning,” McKinsey analysts wrote. “Learning losses are likely to compound over time.” Rather than just tell everyone to work harder and faster, Luft hopes that schools will address the underlying reasons that some students — particularly those who are not white, affluent, nondisabled and native English speakers — are behind. The pandemic as ‘a small setback’ “I don’t think there’s any permanent loss in our students. I see only potential,” Song said. Thai shares that belief. The Vietnamese refugee who went to school in Federal Way thinks that even with the pandemic, children can succeed. The extra stress over students falling behind comes from adults, she said: “We expect them to learn math and science and English the same way [as] in normal times, and this is nowhere near normal.” At college, she connected with fellow Vietnamese refugees, got involved in social justice activism and decided to go to pharmacy school instead of medical school. She became a medical interpreter, Bellevue School Board director and, in 2018, the first refugee elected to the state House of Representatives. Her two college-age children learned from home this fall, online, like millions of others. At the end of their school day, she brings them cups of tea. “I think our kids are amazing,” she said. “We need to give them hope. We need to tell them that this is a small setback and you’re not alone. In fact, the entire world is with us.” She added, “Oh my God, if anything, I would hope that by the time we get out of this, we would pat ourselves on the back and … celebrate all the overcoming and becoming.” This story was produced with support from the Education Writers Association Reporting Fellowship program.

CURRENT EVENTS AND ISSUES IN EDUCATION

Washington Post Education, civil rights groups blast Trump for inciting violence

A mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, surrounding statues and scaffoldings set up for the inauguration of President-elect Joseph Biden. (Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post)

By Valerie Strauss Jan. 7, 2021 at 11:28 a.m. EST Education and civil rights groups are condemning President Trump for inciting the mob that invaded the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, and some are calling for his removal from office.

Council of the Great City Schools, a nonprofit group that represents dozens of the largest school districts in the country — from chief executive Michael Casserly School leaders, teachers, and educators from the nation’s urban public schools condemn the actions of the violent rioters who stormed and desecrated the Capitol at the encouragement of our president and his enablers. Make no mistake — this was not only an attack on the Capitol building, but on democracy itself. Citizens of the world are watching this display of lawlessness with shock and horror as the world’s beacon of civility — the shining “city upon a hill” — is reduced to a crime scene. Public school educators everywhere teach our children to respect our leaders, our institutions, and the process by which we as a nation choose our representatives, and we weep now at the loss of innocence and trust these events have wrought. Defiling our capitol and disrupting the work of the people’s House and Senate in an effort to overturn a free and fair election is a betrayal of our founding principles. Unfortunately, we are in this position because our president has lied repeatedly to the American public about who won this election and has promoted the treasonous notion that people should take matters into their own hands in attempting what is nothing short of insurrection.

As we struggle to help our children understand how this happened and what it means, we should be clear about our collective outrage and our commitment to restoring peace and democracy in the months and years to come. Our students have lost so much over the past year, and now they must reconcile what they have been taught about the ideals of our democratic nation with the criminal attacks they are witnessing unfold in our capitol. The process of rebuilding and healing our country is now the great challenge of our lifetimes, and the nation’s public-school educators welcome our responsibility and charge to work toward a brighter future on behalf of our students and our country. AASA, The School Superintendents Association — from executive director Dan Domenech

Yesterday families across America watched in horror the images that flashed across their television screens generated by the assault on one of our nation’s most hallowed grounds.

The herculean efforts being done by school district administrators, building leaders, teachers and parents to educate our young learners regarding what’s right and what’s wrong was indirectly challenged following the senseless acts of vandalism at the Capitol building.

With the holiday season in our rearview mirror and the new year just a week old, the question before our school system leaders is ‘How do we move forward, while at the same time, grapple with the ongoing public health crisis?’ NAACP — from President Derrick Johnson

What we are witnessing at this moment is the manifestation and culmination of reckless leadership, a pervasive misuse of power, and anarchy. This is not protesting or activism; this is an insurrection, an assault on our democracy, and a coup incited by President Trump.

For the past four years, we’ve seen him chip away at the civility, integrity, and dignity of our nation. The pattern of President Trump’s misconduct is unmistakable and has proven time and time again that it is a grave threat and harm to the fragile fabric of our country. In the latest show of failed leadership, we witnessed the Capitol under siege by bad actors who had no other objective than to disrupt the constitutional proceedings of a fair and rightful transition of power. At this moment, President Trump is silent and continues to perpetuate lies and disinformation for his selfish amusement and personal gain.

We must not allow President Trump to continue to place our nation in peril. The NAACP calls for President Trump’s impeachment so that he will never again be able to harm our beloved country, and more importantly, its people. American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education — from president and chief executive Lynn M. Gangone

Our nation experienced a serious threat to our treasured democracy as rioters stormed one of our nation’s sacred buildings, the U.S. Capitol, intending damage and insurrection. We witnessed a challenge to our democracy that none of us could ever have imagined. Generated by our nation’s President, some Members of Congress, and their denial of the results of our free and open electoral process, this unlawful invasion of the Capitol has left us all stunned. Never could we imagine such an event would occur in our nation’s capital, the seat of our democracy.

We are further outraged by the vast difference in how these rioters were treated by police as compared to how peaceful protesters for Black Lives Matter have been treated. The discrepancies are stark and maddening.

As educators, we hold our responsibility to instill the values of democracy in our students as a core mission. We reinforce the will of the people by honoring the outcome of elections. We believe in equal opportunity and fairness for all citizens, and we name violations when we see them.

The denigration of our democracy we experienced was fueled by incendiary rhetoric and unfounded allegations. We will not allow them to stand. Today, we renew our commitment to resisting hate and restoring hope, to our compact with Americans to promote the common good, to ensure equity, and to bring forth the American spirit that is the foundation of our nation.

AACTE joins with like-minded citizens around the country who are determined to preserve our democracy and ensure the continuation of free and fair elections. Together, we will rise above the recklessness of these actions and focus on the peaceful transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President elect Kamala Harris on January 20. We join our education colleagues in working tirelessly to ensure an inclusive, equitable and just society. Collaborative of nine leading racial equity organization: Advancement Project National Office, Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, Demos, Faith in Action, NAACP, National Congress of American Indians, National Urban League, Race Forward, and Unidos US.

WASHINGTON - The vigilantism and attacks in Washington, DC yesterday are nothing short of treason. They are part and parcel of the arc of violence enshrined in the modus operandi of white supremacy and white nationalism. These terrorist and seditious actions have been fomented by President Trump. Throughout his Presidency, Trump, and members of the GOP, have fueled up racism, xenophobia, and antisemitism — and Trump has continually encouraged his supporters to bear arms and riot. President Trump advised the Proud Boys, a known white supremacist terrorist organization, to “stand back and stand by.” They listened. Yesterday’s events are therefore no surprise. This attack on our country was years in the making. Further, President Trump is simultaneously inciting violence through his calls to his supporters while asking for the support of law enforcement and Capitol Police and delaying the deployment of the National Guard. The difference in the state’s use of force on these seditionists versus the violent and unlawful use of force against peaceful protestors for Black lives or those working to preserve their health care access is abhorrent, and yet another stark example of racial inequity. The ability of those who stormed the Capitol yesterday to comfortably take seats in the building and take selfies with Capitol Police without fear of arrest or assault is the height of white privilege. We cannot state this more clearly: Law enforcement officers allowed armed white vigilantes to take a federal building by force. This is the epitome of racist hypocrisy. This attempted coup did not succeed, and these actions are simply an unacceptable intrusion into our democracy. Voters elected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and despite the seditious acts of Trump supporters, Congress confirmed the election of President- Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris. Those who aim to obstruct the most basic element of American government — the peaceful transition of power — must be held accountable.

Yesterday’s events followed the calls of the two Senate runoffs in Georgia which secured Democratic control of the US Senate. The victories in Georgia, as many earlier in November, build on the pivotal organizing work in communities of color, throughout a prolonged and contested election cycle. Black, Latino, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islanders, American Indian and Alaska Native communities led us to historic voter turnout and participation in our democratic process. The American people voted for President Elect Biden and Vice President Elect Harris to lead our nation for the next four years. States have been through recounts, audits, and litigation — all of which have certified their results. There is no question that this election was properly administered. We look forward to the Biden/Harris administration taking office and centering racial justice and racial equity, as the soul of our nation hangs in the balance. We are confident that the goodwill of the American public and our enduring spirit of democracy will prevail.

Council of Chief State School Officers -- from chief executive officer Carissa Moffat Miller

The peaceful transition of power is a pillar of the American democracy that has been an example to the world for more than 200 years. The assault on the U.S. Capitol today was abhorrent and violated every norm of American governance. As educators, we take seriously our responsibility to prepare young people for civic life and to be models of peaceful participants in a democratic society that serves all people. What we witnessed at the Capitol today was the antithesis of that ideal. Our democracy is one of the most precious legacies we leave our children. We must protect it.

Times of San Diego Amid Wide Praise for Cindy Marten, San Diego NAACP Hits Biden Pick for Post

By Ken Stone

Jan. 18, 2021

Praise for San Diego Unified schools chief Cindy Marten poured in after her nomination to a federal education post was announced Monday.

Mayor Todd Gloria called it “a great pick” by President-elect Joe Biden for deputy education secretary, saying: “I’m excited that San Diego will be at the table in the new administration.”

Current and former school board members were unified in support of Marten as were a variety of business and education groups.

Even a former student chimed in.

“Cindy Marten was my second-grade teacher,” tweeted Jacob Reed. “She is a wonderful, thoughtful, and inclusive person and a fierce advocate of disability rights.”

But the NAACP’s San Diego chapter and community activist Tasha Williamson, the former mayor candidate, issued bruising statements opposing the Marten nomination.

Katrina Hasan Hamilton, the local NAACP’s education chair, said: “Educators at all levels must have a track record of dismantling the harmful practices of Anti-Black Racism that occur in schools. Cindy Marten has a historical pattern of allowing the excessive suspension and expulsion of Black students in San Diego.”

Addressing Biden, Hamilton continued: “With all of the qualified educators we have in our nation, this is not a good choice for healing Black students, families and educators, nor is it a step in the right direction for repairing harm in our schools.”

In a Facebook post Monday morning, Williamson said Biden couldn’t have made a worse choice than Marten.

“She has committed so many atrocities against children, parents and staff!” Williamson said. “I think everyone impacted should write a letter to Washington and send it to me to be provided in a packet with others!” Marten, she said, “is horrible and continued the legacy of racism.”

On a Zoom news conference, school board president Richard Barrera was asked his response to Williamson.

He said: “What we’ve seen today is an outpouring of support for Cindy’s nomination and particularly for her work in advancing equity from her time as a principal at Central Elementary and in this district. That’s the only response I’ll have.”

(The news conference was held before the NAACP registered its opposition.)

Another national group was enthusiastic for Marten.

Michael Casserly, executive director of Washington-based Council of the Great City Schools, said: “Cindy Marten will be the perfect complement to Secretary-designate Miguel Cardona. Both have been school-level leaders and thoroughly understand the complexities of public education at the state and local levels like few other leadership teams in the department’s history.”

He said Marten has boosted graduation rates and developed a reputation for excellence, collaboration and fairness among stakeholders.

“[She] has led the school systems to be among the fastest improving urban school systems in the nation on the National Assessment of Educational Progress,” he said in a statement.

Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, the former San Diego school board president being elevated to California secretary of state, called Marten “a great voice for our students and educators. Thank you for your equity work, spanning 31 years in education.”

In her own message Monday, Marten said she had already spoken with Education Secretary- designate Miguel Cardona, “and I have never been more optimistic about the future of the American education system.”

In a note to district families, she said she shared excerpts from a poem — “Continue” — by Maya Angelou “that I have turned to many times during the current crisis for inspiration.”

“I encourage you to read the poem with your family today, of all days, as we remember the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Marten said.

Los Angeles Times By KRISTEN TAKETA JAN. 25, 2021 5 AM SAN DIEGO — The recent announcement that San Diego Supt. Cindy Marten was tapped to become the next deputy U.S. Education secretary drew widespread praise among policymakers and educators, who say Marten has championed equity within schools.

But some local parents, community members and the NAACP San Diego are criticizing the choice, saying Marten has not reduced racial disparities in schools for Black and Latino children and that her failure to reopen schools for 98% of San Diego Unified students has caused students to fall behind.

The nomination of the former teacher and principal drew praise from Secretary of State Shirley Weber, state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, the San Diego Unified school board, the San Diego teachers union, the national Council of the Great City Schools, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, former Mayor Kevin Faulconer and San Diego County Dist. Atty. Summer Stephan, among others.

“Cindy Marten will be a great voice for our students and educators,” Weber tweeted. “Thank you for your equity work, spanning 31 years in education, including 17 years in the classroom.”

“Congratulations to [Marten], who has dedicated her career to improving the lives of students, inspiring countless educators, and championing equity,” Thurmond tweeted. “A great day for California and our nation, and I am proud to call you a colleague and friend.”

“This is a great pick by @JoeBiden,” tweeted Mayor Todd Gloria. “Since her time as Central Elementary’s principal I’ve seen [Marten’s] passion for educating students. I’m excited that San Diego will be at the table in the new administration.”

But some local parents and community members who have long had complaints with San Diego Unified have criticized the nomination and challenge the idea that Marten has succeeded in making schools equitable. One of the criticisms is that Marten has kept students out of school for the past 10 months of the pandemic.

Parents say distance learning has exacerbated inequities because it often leaves much of the teaching and supervision of children to parents, hurting families that have essential workers or are otherwise not able to help children learn at home.

Many students also lack a suitable home environment for learning, and some students, particularly those with disabilities, can’t learn effectively online or through Zoom.

“If one of Biden’s focuses is to reopen schools, how can Cindy Marten be a role model?” said Tamara Hurley, a parent whose children graduated from the district.

San Diego Unified officials have repeatedly said the district is taking a “science-based approach” to reopening, consulting with UC San Diego experts and choosing to keep campuses closed because community rates of the coronavirus have been high in some areas of the district.

Several parents have supported the school closures, saying they’d rather their children stay home than risk being exposed to the virus at school.

Many large districts, including Los Angeles, also remain closed. Marten was among a group of California superintendents who called on Gov. Gavin Newsom to provide more support for schools to reopen, including more testing and funding.

San Diego Unified has offered limited in-person support sessions to students on an appointment basis. But that has been a disappointment because it is serving a small number of students — currently about 1,100, or 1%, of the district’s students — San Diego Unified school board members have said.

Others say that, even before the pandemic, Marten failed to provide equity for all children, particularly for Black students.

NAACP San Diego has called on Biden to rescind Marten’s nomination because the district suspends and expels Black students at disproportionately high rates — a disparity that is widespread among schools nationwide. “Dr. Marten in the past year has attempted to correct harm by having anti-Racist trainings that included changing policies on grading. While this is commendable, it does not erase the fact that SDUSD has a history of harming Black children,” NAACP San Diego said in a statement.

Disparities by race

In the 2018-19 school year, Black students in San Diego Unified were suspended more than three times as often as white students, and they accounted for 18% of students suspended despite making up 8% of the student body.

The suspension rate for Black students that year was unchanged from 2013, when Marten took the helm.

“Someone at the level of deputy secretary should have a long track record of success within education for all students, for providing equity for all students,” said Katrina Hamilton, education chair for NAACP San Diego. “And while we have folks who are saying that [Marten] has 31 years of equity, where is that track record?”

Racial disparities are evident in other aspects of San Diego Unified schools, including the national test scores that President Biden’s team cited as one reason for choosing Marten.

In 2019, San Diego Unified was one of two large urban districts nationwide to outperform the average on national test scores for math and reading for fourth- and eighth-graders.

Despite that record, achievement gaps for Black and Latino students compared with white students remained largely unchanged from 2013, the year Marten became superintendent, according to NAEP, the Nation’s Report Card.

State test score data also tell an inconsistent story about performance.

State data show the district raised the performance of all students — including Black, Latino and white students — between 2015 and 2019. But while achievement gaps between Black or Latino students and white students shrank slightly, they still exceeded 30 percentage points for both English language arts and math.

About 62% of Black students and 57% of Latino students did not meet state standards for English language arts in 2019, while 72% of Black students and 68% of Latino students did not meet standards for math in 2019.

In graduation rates, there is a 10-percentage-point gap between Black and Latino students — at 84% — and white, Asian and multiracial students — who had rates of 94% or greater.

The district’s overall graduation rate is 89%.

Some local leaders dispute the criticisms about Marten, saying they unfairly disregard the progress she has made in the district.

“She has worked hard to bring about positive change when it comes to equity,” said Frank Jordan, a past president of the San Diego NAACP and California NAACP.

“It’s very easy to complain, but what have you done to create that dialogue and open doors yourself?” he said. Marten “has tried, she has honestly tried. You cannot snap your fingers and create change. To create positive change, it takes work.”

Equity reforms

A report by the Learning Policy Institute, an organization led by the state school board president that helped amplify San Diego Unified’s reputation as a well-performing district, found that San Diego Unified was one of multiple California districts where Black, Latino and white students performed better academically than predicted — given the socioeconomic status of families in the district.

The report noted that percentages of all student racial groups and low-income and non-low-income students reaching proficiency on state tests rose between 2015 to 2017. About 57% of San Diego Unified students are low-income. San Diego Unified’s Black and Latino students also graduated at higher rates than did Black and Latino students in California as a whole.

Under Marten’s leadership, San Diego Unified has implemented several racial equity reforms, including changing the way students are graded to be less punitive, requiring restorative discipline, launching efforts to increase staff diversity and studying the role of school police.

San Diego Unified Board trustee Sharon Whitehurst-Payne recently said the district was moving in the right direction.

“I don’t think anybody existing is perfect, and that goes for me, you, superintendent and the rest of us,” Whitehurst-Payne said. “But the question is, are we on a continuum to improve? We at least have discovered a path, and we’re following that path.”

Marten will stay with the district until she is confirmed by the Senate, which school board officials expect to happen next month.

Kristen Taketa writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

USA Today

Biden's education pick Miguel Cardona says 'reopen schools.' Here's where he stands on other issues

Erin Richards and Chris Quintana USA TODAY Feb 11

A Senate committee advanced the nomination of Miguel Cardona as the next U.S. education secretary Thursday, putting him a step closer to guiding the reopening of more schools, albeit under a scaled-back plan announced by the White House this week.

Cardona, the commissioner of education in Connecticut, won praise from Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Members voted 17-5 to approve him, and the full Senate will probably do the same soon.

Cardona would succeed Betsy DeVos and take the helm of American schooling at a fraught time. Debates about reopening K-12 classrooms have pitted teachers, administrators, school boards and parents against each other. Colleges are bleeding money. Student debt is mounting. Learners are struggling to keep up with classes online.

Congress is debating another enormous coronavirus relief package that, if passed as proposed by President Joe Biden, would send $130 billion to schools.

As a first-generation college student, a former teacher and administrator, a father of school- age children and someone who grew up poor and speaks English as a second language, Cardona has personal experience with just about all the key issues in K-12 and higher education.

Although the federal government's role in local education matters is limited, Cardona would have broad oversight powers and can set the tone for what's important. Here's what he'd probably focus on first. Schools can reopen safely, Cardona says

Biden scaled back his election pledge to reopen the majority of K-12 schools within his first 100 days. Biden's team first narrowed that to K-8 schools. Tuesday, the administration said the new goal is to open more than half of K-8 schools for at least one day a week of classroom instruction.

By some measures, that's already happening – which may pose a hurdle for Education Department messaging. About 64% of U.S. students attend schools offering at least some in- person learning, according to Burbio, a company that aggregates school calendars. About 35% attend schools with virtual-only plans, the company said. Forty-three of 75 large districts that belong to the Council of Great City Schools, a member organization, offer some in-person learning, according to a tally kept by Education Week magazine and the council. The extent of classroom instruction varies widely.

Teachers unions in cities including Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Buffalo, New York, and Montclair, New Jersey, have pushed back against opening classrooms because they don't trust their districts could do it safely. Chicago's teachers headed back to classrooms Thursday after union and city leaders clashed for weeks over the plan to bring more K-8 educators and students back to buildings.

Schools can reopen safely without all teachers being vaccinated against COVID-19, Cardona said at his confirmation hearing Feb. 3, a sentiment echoed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC is likely to release more guidance on school reopening Friday.

Cardona said schools need more resources to reopen and to provide extended learning opportunities. Teachers should be able to get vaccinated swiftly – at public and private schools, he said.

"There is no substitute for a classroom experience for our students," Cardona said, adding that he'd bring a "mentality of partnership and clear communication to help recover our public education and reopen our schools." Standardized tests this spring?

Will students have to take state standardized achievement tests this spring? And if so, will the results be used to judge the performance of students and teachers?

Federal law requires states to give annual standardized achievement exams in reading and math to students in grades 3-8 and once to those in high school, and to report the results. Many schools issue their own quick tests for progress over the year, but those are locally decided and not federally mandated.

Amid school closures last spring, DeVos and her team waived the federal testing requirement in 2020.

Cardona didn't say whether that would happen again this year. It's important to test students for a guidepost on how far they've progressed academically, he said at his hearing, but he acknowledged the pandemic and remote learning present major hurdles.

"If the conditions under COVID-19 prevent a student from being in school in person, I don’t think we need to be bringing students in just to test them," Cardona said.

Before the pandemic, a school's low scores on state exams could trigger anything from additional money for improvement efforts to additional scrutiny from the state or federal government – or both. Cardona hasn't specified how the Department of Education should use the results of any exams administered this year, but he did say states should have a voice in that matter. Increasing support for English learners, community colleges

Cardona stressed that he's in favor of strategies to help disadvantaged children get ahead, such as increasing opportunities for students to take college classes in high school, expanding support for English learners and encouraging more pathways to college and technical careers.

Cardona has repeatedly praised the work of community colleges, calling them "the nation's best- kept secret" in his hearing. This echoes sentiments from Biden, who said he would push for legislation making two-year programs tuition-free, and first lady Jill Biden, a community college instructor.

Student enrollment has sunk at these institutions during the pandemic, which is likely to affect their long-term financial health.

Cardona's championing of community colleges has received some bipartisan support. Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., said he and his wife were community college graduates, and he hoped students would consider attending these institutions as a way to save money.

Cardona said community colleges would be important for economic rebuilding.

“They serve the community, it’s in the name,” Cardona said. “What we need to do more is make those programs more available and accessible earlier for our learners.” A focus on civil rights, LGBTQ students

"We're going to make sure learning environments are places that will be free of harassment for LGBTQ students," Cardona said at his hearing.

Cardona stressed the legal rights of transgender children when pressed by two Republican senators about transgender girls competing against biological girls in high school sports.

"The Supreme Court ruled discrimination based on gender is illegal," he said.

The Department of Education sets guidance for how schools and districts should handle issues around civil rights and equity for children, but there's long been debate about the proper scope of that guidance.

Under the Obama administration, the Office of Civil Rights collected data from schools about systemic issues, such as racial inequities in discipline. Under the Trump administration, DeVos and her team focused more on investigating individual civil rights complaints against schools.

Big-picture data-gathering would probably ramp up under a Cardona administration. The Education Department announced a national survey to track how school districts offer instruction this year, with enrollment and attendance rates by race, income, disability and English learner status. All the plans that are missing

Cardona will need to provide plans on a number of other topics, such as how to handle sexual assault complaints on campuses, whether student loan debts should be forgiven and how far to go in guiding plans for helping students catch up academically.

Students from vulnerable backgrounds – those who are low-income or racial minorities or have special learning needs – were more likely to fall behind, not graduate and not pursue a post- secondary education compared with their wealthier peers, even in pre-pandemic times.

"We will boldly address educational inequities head on," Cardona said at his hearing.

But the specifics are yet to come.

Center for Digital Education

Petition Calls for E-Rate Funds for K-12 Cybersecurity Needs Feb. 9, 2021 Ed tech policy advocates are asking the FCC for help funding cybersecurity in public schools, as virtual learning continues and K-12 education is the most- targeted public sector for ransomware attacks. The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) submitted a petition Monday asking the Federal Communications Commission to invest in cybersecurity protections for public K-12 school districts through the federal E-rate program.

According to a news release, the petition offers cost estimates for three options: $738 million for next-generation firewalls, $1.606 billion for next- generation firewalls and endpoint security features, or $2.389 billion for all layers of cybersecurity.

Those figures came from the CoSN E-rate Cybersecurity Cost Estimate, developed through a partnership with Funds for Learning. Costs were based on five-year price models for hardware, software and cloud-based services used to guard schools against cyberattacks.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and FBI have received a slew of reports about ransomware attacks against students continuing their studies virtually during the coronavirus pandemic.

Developed as a way to help schools and libraries afford broadband, the current E-rate program only allows investments in basic network security, but CoSN CEO Keith Krueger said in a public statement that students are more vulnerable than ever to cyberattacks.

“The reality is that, nowadays, school districts are home to a vast amount of valuable personal data that cybercriminals are interested in stealing — that is why the FBI has warned that K-12 education is the most targeted public sector for ransomware attacks,” he said. “But schools lack the federal funding required to effectively combat these intrusions.”

The CoSN-led petition received support from the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA); the State E-rate Coordinators' Alliance (SECA); the Alliance for Excellent Education (All4Ed); the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHLB) and the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS).

The Journal

New Push Made for FCC to Add Funding for Cybersecurity to E-rate

• By Dian Schaffhauser

• 02/17/21

A group of K-12 organizations has banded together to urge the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to incorporate cybersecurity purchases into the E-rate program. The goal of the 35-page petition is to help school districts protect their networks and data by expanding E-rate in three ways:

• By defining all firewall and related features as "basic" beginning in funding year 2021;

• Increasing E-rate's five-year Category 2 budget cap in future funding years to support

additional cybersecurity investments; and

• Updating the agency's definition of "broadband" to include cybersecurity.

The filing was done by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN); the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA); the State E-rate Coordinators' Alliance (SECA); the Alliance for Excellent Education (All4Ed); Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHLB); and the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS). "With cyberattacks threatening the broadband networks and data of schools, including the school systems serving some of the country's most economically and academically vulnerable students, the

Commission must update the E-rate program to cover firewalls and related features," the petition noted. "Achieving broadband equity for students will not be possible if school networks and sensitive student and employee data remain at the mercy of cyber-attackers. The Commission should address this need expeditiously to help schools prevent further attacks during the expanded remote learning required by the pandemic." CoSN and Funds for Learning published a report in January 2021, providing a cost estimate for E-rate cybersecurity. Adding next-generation firewalls to every district supported by E-rate would cost about $738 million annually. Building in endpoint protection as well would boost that yearly total to $1.6 billion. And adding "advanced+ security" (such as multi-factor authentication) would take the annual price tag up to $2.4 billion.

The cost estimates were based on an analysis of five-year price models for third-party hardware, software and cloud-based services used to guard schools from online attacks. Cost data was provided on a confidential basis by leading cybersecurity manufacturers.

"The reality is that, nowadays, school districts are home to a vast amount of valuable personal data that cybercriminals are interested in stealing--that is why the FBI has warned that K-12 education is the most targeted public sector for ransomware attacks. But schools lack the federal funding required to effectively combat these intrusions," said Keith Krueger, CEO of CoSN, in a statement. "We provided a comprehensive report that lays out the key elements of how to secure these vulnerable school networks, including costs, so that the FCC can take action on this critical issue."

"As cyberattacks on school networks have expanded, so, too, has the need for more robust firewalls and other cybersecurity devices. We are regularly asked by school technology officials whether and when E- rate funding will be made available for this purpose," added Debra Kriete, SECA chair. "We hope the FCC will agree that E-rate funding should be made available to help pay for sufficient cyber-protections."

"The E-rate program is relied upon to provide financial aid for internet connections to 95 percent of K-12 students. E-rate offers the most practical, efficient and cost-effective infrastructure to mount a strong defense against prolific cybersecurity attacks in K-12 education," noted John Harrington, CEO of Funds For Learning. "We encourage the FCC to leverage E-rate to administer aid for cybersecurity measures outlined in this report."

COUNCIL REPORTS AND REVIEWS

Editor’s Note: Welcome to Weekly Education: Coronavirus special edition. Each week, we will explore how the pandemic is reshaping and upending education as we know it across the country, from pre-K through grad school. We will explore the debates of the day, new challenges and talk to movers and shakers about whether changes ushered in now are here to stay.

EDUCATION POLICY WISH LISTS FOR THE NEW ADMINISTRATION — As the Biden transition kicks into full gear in the coming weeks, the policy wish lists from various groups are piling up. Many have comprehensive agendas for both the incoming administration and new Congress.

Some of the recommendations for executive action from groups likely to have the Biden administration’s ear when it comes to crafting education policy:

— Prosecute for-profit college executives. Student Defense, an advocacy group, proposes the Biden Education Department more robustly use its existing legal powers to make the owners and executives of for-profit colleges personally liable for the misconduct of their institutions. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is among the Democrats who endorse the plan.

— Cancel student loan debt. Biden faces growing pressure from progressives to provide at least $10,000 of loan forgiveness for each borrower. He endorsed the idea on the campaign trail but hasn’t said whether he would pursue debt cancellation through legislation or unilaterally. The Student Borrower Protection Center and Dēmos compiled a policy playbook that charts a path for Biden to cancel student loan debt through executive action, using existing laws.

— Issue guidance on school desegregation. The Education Trust says the next administration should help schools legally pursue desegregation. The group also wants the Education Department to revive the “supplement not supplant” rule for Title I funding the Obama administration started but dropped during its final days in office.

— Nominate a higher education-focused secretary. Higher Learning Advocates, a bipartisan policy organization, and other groups, are urging Biden to pick an Education secretary “who holds both classroom experience and higher education experience” — a role that’s often been held by someone with more K-12 education focus.

— Restore a "welcoming environment for international students." NAFSA: Association of International Educators has a playbook for how the Biden administration should reverse what it called the “severe damage to this country’s reputation as the premier destination for international students and scholars” caused by the Trump administration and the pandemic. Among the recommendations: reversing immigration policies that tightened the rules on student visas, rolling back travel bans, restoring DACA protections and establishing a coordinated U.S. strategy for recruiting talented students.

— End “politically motivated” investigations into colleges. Colleges and university groups want the Biden administration to end a slew of investigations opened by the Trump administration that they view as politically motivated. That includes a recent inquiry into Princeton over its admission that there is “systematic racism” embedded at the school. The American Council on Education and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities are also calling on Biden to scale back DeVos’ crackdown on foreign funding in higher education, including the dozen investigations opened over universities’ reporting of the money.

— Prioritize school employees, students and families for Covid-19 vaccines. The Council of the Great City Schools is also calling on Biden to appoint a big-city school superintendent to the White House Coronavirus Task Force and better coordinate the distribution of Covid-19 protective and testing equipment to schools.

— Postpone standardized testing during the pandemic. “Suspend federal testing requirements until after the Covid-19 crisis has passed,” the National Education Association policy playbook recommends. Civil rights groups and some congressional Democrats, however, say the testing requirements should remain.

— Boost accountability policies in higher ed. A coalition of groups called for the Biden administration to expand protections for students and student veterans from “shoddy higher education programs” they said DeVos “systematically dismantled." They’re also calling on the Biden administration to reverse DeVos efforts to ease state oversight of college programs and federal accreditation requirements.

Politico

November 23, 2020 — The COVID Collaborative, Council of Chief State School Officers, Council of the Great City Schools and the National Governors Association are out with a new report, endorsed by a handful of former Education secretaries, on how to improve online learning. Tampa Bay Times Spending cuts in Hillsborough schools warranted, report says

The school district had 3,000 excess employees and transferred $200 million to meet expenses, the report shows.

By Marlene Sokol Published December 3, 2020

TAMPA — For years the Hillsborough County School District has been living beyond its means — to the tune of 3,000 excess jobs, and nearly $200 million in transfers from a capital fund to cover losses.

These are among the findings in a professional report that largely validated the actions Superintendent Addison Davis has taken since he took over the large district in March — actions so unpopular, they inspired public protests and loud derision on the district’s social media.

A team from the Council of the Great City Schools, a membership organization of large school districts, says the job cuts were necessary — and that the district should do even more to align spending with resources.

“Past administrations allowed structural imbalances in the district’s general operating fund by failing to adjust spending for losses in revenue and increases in costs, and using one-time monies to cover resulting shortfalls,” the consultants wrote.

They noted that principals in Hillsborough are able to fill jobs that have no funding, and grant- funded projects continue after the grants run out. Duplication runs rampant, they wrote. They were told, “the district had 126 different programs aimed at curtailing bullying.”

Just as Jeff Eakins inherited a budget mess when he became superintendent in 2015, Davis was taken aback at the problems he encountered this summer.

At one point, it appeared the district’s main reserve account had shrunk by $50 million since the previous year. The district made some adjustments and wound up with only a $32 million loss.

But to protect that reserve, the district transferred $40 million from its capital fund into the general fund, which covers ongoing expenses such as payroll. As chief financial officer Gretchen Saunders explained, such transfers are allowable because some of the general fund money supported capital projects. But such transfers, since 2014, have added up to $197 million. Davis enlisted the council in September to perform the study. Even before the project began, he and deputy superintendent Michael Kemp developed a staffing matrix and, school by school, looked for positions that were not supported by student enrollment and funding, and could therefore be cut. Pushback followed from teacher and parent groups, and from the teachers’ union. The district wound up cutting roughly 800 district and school-based jobs. In more than half of those cases, the jobs were already unfilled. Other affected employees found positions through the district’s hiring pool. This was the first of three phases; more cuts are planned in the first and second semesters of the 2021-22 school year. Stephanie Baxter-Jenkins, executive director of the teachers’ union, said she is not surprised that the Great City Schools report supported Davis’ actions. She said it was “a surface-level look at things and not a deep dive,” clearly based on conversations with Davis and his executive team. Although she believed the report raised some valid points, it also stated, incorrectly, that it is unclear how spending is related to the district’s equity goals. In fact, Eakins’ administration went to great lengths to assign extra resources to those schools that needed them the most, based on risk factors among their students.

Baxter-Jenkins said she believes the staffing matrix used by Davis and Kemp goes too far.

“I’m very worried about staffing, the amount of burnout I’m seeing among teachers, and what they are having to handle,” she said. “I think right now we keep putting more on people, and they’re ready to throw their hands up. You don’t want to over-budget or over-staff, I get that, for money purposes. But understaffing so much brings a whole different set of problems.”

And she said she wished that, in its budgeting process, the district would assume it will give teachers a yearly raise.

The council commended Davis for what it termed a “soft landing” financial recovery plan. The goal is to accomplish as much as possible through natural attrition, transfers of qualified staff, and by eliminating vacant positions.

One problem: The way the district maintains its records, there are sometimes positions that have no funding. The report described one hiring freeze in which district leaders learned that of 1,129 vacant positions, only 424 were funded in the budget.

Other times, they wrote, “the budgets for specific positions are created only after the position is filled, and the incumbent is paid by the payroll system.”

The district’s credit has suffered, largely because of losses to the reserve account. Now down to $118.2 million, the reserve represents 3.9 percent of general fund expenditures, which is just slightly above the state minimum of 3 percent and below a 5 percent threshold that the School Board enacted after the 2015 crisis. The report also noted the volatility of school finances in the current pandemic. In September, the district reported a year-to-year loss of 7,300 students. That loss was adjusted to 5,600 later in the month. “While this is an improvement,” the authors wrote, “it illustrates the elusiveness of predictions in the current environment.”

Other practices came under scrutiny as well. The district pays millions to a substitute staffing service, when it could use some of its overstaffed employees to fill vacancies. There are not enough controls on district purchasing cards. And, the way financial reports are written, it is not easy for the administration or School Board to spot troubling trends.

Tampa Bay Times

Hillsborough schools’ budget setbacks prompt worry, and a Zoom call

Community leaders express concern as the district’s reserves continue to decline.

By Marlene Sokol Published Dec. 18

TAMPA — Lawmakers in Hillsborough County and beyond are expressing concerns about financial problems in the Hillsborough County School District, and possible consequences from the state.

While there is no evidence that the state plans to take any action, a conversation between two lawmakers appears to have prompted a Zoom meeting on Tuesday with more than a dozen participants.

Some were lawmakers, others were community leaders. The word “receivership” was uttered. “Everybody is committed to making sure it doesn’t happen,” said Rep. Andrew Learned, a Democrat who listened in on part of the call.

Education advocate Damaris Allen was on the call too. “The word receivership hasn’t been tossed around previously,” she said. “That’s what caught my attention.”

State officials have not described any plans for the school district to enter receivership, a legal tool where control of an insolvent organization is given to another party, a “receiver.” District leaders say they are working collaboratively with the state to stabilize their budget of more than $3 billion.

But, according to an email that superintendent Addison Davis sent the School Board after hearing about the Zoom meeting, the outlook right now isn’t good.

School districts, he wrote, are required to alert the state if their reserve balance falls below 2 percent at the end of the calendar year. State law requires a reserve of 3 percent of yearly operating revenues.

Hillsborough, Davis wrote, had to send such a letter. He added that the district is on course to show a negative balance in its reserves at the end of May and a $120 million decline in the fund from the previous year at the end of June.

A School Board workshop is planned Jan. 12. At that time, Davis wrote, he will present a corrective action plan, as the state requires. Since summer, Davis and his team have been sounding alarms that the district must rein in spending. A study by the Council of the Great City Schools confirmed Hillsborough Schools cannot support its current workforce of more than 24,000 without deficit spending. To protect its main reserve, the district transfers money yearly from a capital account. A bridge loan of $75 million enabled the district to meet payroll in recent weeks.

Hillsborough’s predicament came up at a meeting of the Florida Senate’s Subcommittee on Appropriations for Education, of which Pensacola Republican Doug Broxson is chair.

Broxson said that as a courtesy, he placed a call to Sen. Janet Cruz, a Democrat in Tampa. “I said, this is in your backyard,” Broxson recalled telling Cruz. “You can dig into it and see what’s going on.”

The Zoom meeting came together, and speculation spread throughout the week.

Neither Cruz nor Davis were available to comment on Friday. Davis, called away for a family emergency, did manage to have a phone conversation with Learned. The newly elected Brandon representative was reassured by Davis’ response to the financial situation. “He seems to have his hands around it,” Learned said.

District spokeswoman Tanya Arja blamed a number of factors for the reserve loss: decreased student enrollment, costs associated with the pandemic, and a drop in tax collections.

“We will work with the board in January to discuss strategies and receive the board’s direction as we move forward with the state, and to ensure Hillsborough County Public Schools maintains a fiscally stable organization” Arja said. Chalkbeat Philadelphia

By Dale Mezzacappa Dec 10, 2020, 10:04pm EST

The Philadelphia Board of Education is embarking on an ambitious effort to reframe its stewardship of the school district around improving student achievement, outlining a strategy that will require big changes in the way it has traditionally done business.

Superintendent William Hite called it a “game changer.”

“It’s time to move beyond ‘system survival’ mode and to focus on the success of all our students,” Joyce Wilkerson, board president, said in unveiling the five-year strategic plan. The plan, she said, is the board’s effort to “deliver on the promise of local control, and it starts with the most basic question, ‘Why do our schools exist?’ They exist to provide every student with the tools and experiences they need to be successful.”

Board members said they spent two years on this project, consulting with the Council of Great City Schools and talking to their peers across the country. They also held town hall meetings with parents, teachers, and community members locally.

Part of that time was spent comparing Philadelphia’s test scores to other cities’ on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the “nation’s report card,” or NAEP. The test is given to a sample of students across the country and is widely viewed as one of the best benchmarks of student learning. It has no high stakes.

The bottom line for Philadelphia: When measured by national tests, the district scores far worse compared to other large urban districts with a large number of low-income students. Fewer than 20%of the city’s fourth and eighth graders met national benchmarks in math and reading on the last NAEP test, which was administered in 2019. That performance put Philadelphia – the nation’s poorest big city – behind 16 other districts in fourth-grade math and eighth-grade reading and math. In fourth-grade math, it was behind 19 other districts.

“Philadelphia is not keeping up with our peers,” Wilkerson said. “It’s sobering. It shows that as a whole, we are not doing what we need to for our students.”

She added: “We know it’s possible,” based on what other cities have achieved and the pockets of individual school successes in Philadelphia.

Calling their new direction “goals and guardrails,” board members plan to focus on making sure all students stay on grade level throughout their school careers and graduate high school with the “tools and experiences they need to succeed in the global economy.”

“I’m not sure whether those who are listening realize how this is a paradigm shift,” said board member Angela McIver.

The guardrails set “non-negotiable” conditions for schools, including a welcoming environment, access to “well rounded” experiences for all students, including arts and athletics, robust partnerships with students’ families, and addressing systemic racism. It is both “obvious and revolutionary…to focus on student achievement,” said board member Lee Huang.

The school board resumed control of the district in April 2018 after nearly two decades under the state-dominated School Reform Commission, an era that Wilkerson – who served briefly as the SRC chair – said paid little attention to student achievement, focusing instead on management tasks, such as approving vendor contracts.

“In one evaluation, the Council of Great City Schools estimates that the SRC spent just 10% of the time talking about student learning,” she said. “Let’s focus less on who gets what contract and more on the big picture.”

Even so, some progress was made in the reform commission era, she said. Based on state tests, more schools moved into the high-performing category and many moved out of the lowest performing category. The graduation rate went up.

Board meetings will look different from now on, with more public engagement and discussion of data, members said. There will be monthly monitoring in public, using data. The vision will guide board self assessments and the annual evaluation of the superintendent.

The first specific goal is to grow the percentage of third through eighth graders who read on grade level according to state tests from 35.7% to 65% by 2026. The board will also compare the academic performance of different subgroups of students, including the economically disadvantaged, racial and ethnic categories, English learners and special education students.

“Systemic racism is alive in our district,” Wilkerson said in a briefing for reporters on Wednesday.. “We’ll be tracking suspension data carefully,” she said. “We’re taking a look at everything in the curriculum…retooling the way we spend money and developing more effective academic programs and getting more out of the resources we have.”

The project is beginning in a time of crisis, when the district is looking at looming funding shortfalls due to the pandemic and still trying to determine how virtual schooling has further damaged students academically.

But Wilkerson and other board members said this is the right time to change direction.

“It’s essential to do this at this moment,” said Mallory Fix-Lopez.

Hite agreed. “It does provide us with a focused effort around student outcomes,” he said. “This changes how we look at data…and changes the types of questions we should be asking.”

Board member Julia Danzy said that this may be unsettling to teachers and others who work in the district. She said she understands that people are working hard and trying their best. But doing that and not getting the desired results “causes burnout,” she said. “Our actions are not indictments against you but a critical examination of the system.”

The board faces many obstacles trying to bring about dramatic change: It does not control its sources of revenue – it is dependent entirely on the city and state for funding — and, unlike other school boards in Pennsylvania, it has no taxing authority. The teachers’ contract also dictates how teachers are assigned to schools. Fix-Lopez said that one issue they know affects student learning is class size, but changing the way teachers are allotted to direct more to the neediest schools would require agreement from the union.

At the board meeting, some members of the public were skeptical about the plan and urged stronger actions.

Community member Horace Clouden said the board should replace Hite, crack down on what he said was poor teacher attendance, and dismiss principals whose schools are underachieving. “Start firing people and not relocating them,” he said.

Cheri Micheau, who used to work in the district with English language learners and students who have immigrated, said she is not confident their concerns will be fully addressed, especially regarding their access to special admission schools.

“These failures are to be sure examples of racism, ethnic discrimination and linguicism. I urge you to mention these students specifically in this document since they are members of yet another group disadvantaged in their daily educational experiences in Philadelphia schools.”

Parent Stephanie King said the board has a long way to go to rebuild trust with the community.

“The goals are aspirational, the guardrails would be a welcoming environment to achieve those goals,” King said. “And I am here to tell you that you cannot achieve any of those things unless you repair the trust and relationship with the people in the schools. The students, the parents, and the teachers. You say you want every student at grade level for math and reading, but you refuse to listen when teachers tell you what they need.”

Mayor James Kenney is in the process of naming three new members to the nine-member board. Activist groups want more input into the process. Two members, Chris McGinley and Ameen Akbar, resigned earlier this year. Huang announced his intention to step down as soon as a replacement is seated.

Jamaica Plain Gazette

School Committee Affirms Focus on Equity and Antiracism by staff • January 22, 2021 • 0 Comments

The Boston School Committee re-elected both Alexandra Oliver-Dávila to Chairperson and Michael O’Neill to Vice Chairperson in unanimous votes during its Annual Organizational Meeting on January 4.

“I am proud to formally welcome Alexandra Oliver-Dávila to her new role as Chairperson, and Michael O’Neill to his role as Vice Chairperson, and thank them both for their service on behalf of our students,” said Mayor Walsh. “Already, they are leading the charge to sharpen the School Committee’s focus on equity and antiracism in service of the students and families of the Boston Public Schools. There is much work to do to dismantle the systemic inequities that have permeated our society, and I am glad to see it is a priority area for the Boston School Committee.”

In December, the Committee engaged in professional development training which was led pro bono by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, as part of its efforts to examine policies and more deeply understand their impact on our communities of color. The Committee held a public retreat on December 12, featuring a discussion facilitated by A.J. Crabill, Director of Governance of the Council of Great City Schools, to develop tools and metrics to help the School Committee define its mission. Mr. Crabill spoke about the need for governing bodies to maintain a sharp focus on student outcomes and to distinguish between our desired intent and resulting impact. During the six hour retreat, members worked towards shared goals for students, including: kindergarten readiness, grade-level performance, on-time graduation, and career and college readiness.

“In the Boston Public Schools we are committed to fostering a safe, welcoming, inclusive, and antiracist learning and working environment for our students, staff and families,” said Superintendent Brenda Cassellius. “I am incredibly appreciative of the leadership of Chair Oliver-Dávila who has seized this unique opportunity for the School Committee to fully implement the Strategic Plan, and more deeply evaluate its mission to equitably promote and sharpen our accountability on student outcomes. I look forward to taking a deeper dive into this critical work in partnership with my School Committee colleagues.”

An additional two-day public retreat is scheduled for January 21-22, 2021. Mr. Crabill will work with the Committee to strengthen its governance model over the next 12-18 months, as the Committee and the district work to implement the BPS Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan, approved by the Committee in April 2020, and informed by Superintendent Cassellius’s Fall 2019 community tour, will guide the work of the district over the next five years to improve student experiences and accelerate outcomes, close opportunity gaps, and increase instructional quality and rigor. The six commitments outlined in the plan include: (1) Eliminate Opportunity and Achievement Gaps; (2) Accelerate Learning; (3) Amplify All Voices; (4) Expand Opportunity; (5) Cultivate Trust; and (6) Activate Partnerships.

Each commitment is tied to a set of priorities and progress will be measured by clear and measurable goals. The operational plans aspire to lift up and support schools — starting with those most in need — increase academic rigor in all grades across all schools, improve funding equity in the way resources are distributed, and provide deeper engagement with students and families.

“Growing up as a Latina learning English in Boston, I am intimately familiar with the hurt and pain caused by racist practices and ideologies, and I have experienced the barriers to opportunity that our young people encounter every day,” said Chairperson Oliver-Dávila. “There is much challenging work ahead to develop our competencies and closely examine our policies to improve outcomes for our students. I thank my fellow members for their support and their unwavering commitment to our students and families.”

Said O’Neill, “In her short time as Chairperson, Ms. Oliver-Dávila has already led the Committee to re-examine our priorities, as well as how we work with and for our community. Her commitment to engagement is clear from her immediate steps to increase translation services as well as how she is planning for the Committee to focus intensely on improving student outcomes. I deeply value my years spent as a member of this Committee and thank the School Committee Nominating Panel for nominating me, and Mayor Walsh for reappointing me to continue this critical work. I look forward to working alongside Superintendent Cassellius, Chair Oliver-Dávila, and my fellow members in implementing the Strategic Plan to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for our students.”

The seven members of the School Committee are Boston residents appointed by the Mayor of Boston to serve four-year staggered terms.

Richmond Times Dispatch UPDATED: Richmond school officials, community members at odds over extension of superintendent's contract January 26, 2021 Chris Suarez , Kenya_Hunter

Richmond community members are divided over the length of Superintendent Jason Kamras’ contract renewal, which comes up in June.

Supporters and detractors of the 2005 National Teacher of the Year are at odds over how long to extend his contract. Some cite the need for consistent leadership, while others question academic progress since Kamras began his tenure in 2018.

“It takes five to seven years to flip a school. But to flip a system [in] which you have so many deficits? That’s not going to be done in three years,” School Board Chairwoman Cheryl Burke said. “I don’t want him to leave, but he has other opportunities, I’m sure, as well.”

Board members are largely declining to discuss the matter, citing a confidentiality clause in Kamras’ contract, which open government advocates say should not apply to decisions on superintendents.

“We have long held a position that we think that the review of what amounts to a chief executive officer, like superintendent or city manager or county administrator ... that should be a more public process,” said Megan Rhyne, the executive director at the Virginia Coalition for Open Government.

She added: “These people are making the most important decisions.”

Neither board members nor Kamras would go into detail about the findings of a report this month from the Richmond Free Press, which stated that Kamras might seek other opportunities if the board, deadlocked over a two- or four-year renewal, offered him only two more years.

Kamras would say via email only that he hopes to remain “for many, many years.”

Since becoming public, the debate over his tenure has roused the superintendent’s supporters, activists groups, parents and students into speaking out.

Fifth District board member Stephanie Rizzi said she and her colleagues have heard from Kamras’ supporters. She said some have gone as far as to accuse her of anti-Semitism; she has not publicly stated her stance on the contract.

“I mean, we are all getting letters. Condescending, threatening, questioning my intelligence,” she said. “I want to hear from the parents whose kids have been suspended. I want to hear from the parents of the kids who haven’t graduated. I want to hear that these things are getting better. But I can’t hear it among all the threats. ... We’re not having a real discussion here.”

Dozens sent in public comments during a recent School Board meeting to say RPS needs consistent leadership.

According to the Council of Great City Schools, the average tenure of a superintendent in an urban school district such as RPS was 3.18 years in 2014.

Kamras’ predecessor, Dana T. Bedden, was pushed out by a new School Board after three years at the helm. His predecessor, Yvonne W. Brandon, left after being on the job for five years. A new School Board also asked her to step down.

Kamras is a former math teacher who ascended to leadership roles in the Washington public school system. He also served as an education policy adviser to President Barack Obama years before the Richmond School Board named him superintendent in late 2017. When he came to the district, he vowed to have all schools accredited by the beginning of the 2023-24 school year.

In 2019, 20 of the 44 schools in RPS were fully accredited. Last school year’s accreditation standards were waived due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, Richmond Public Schools has the worst graduation rate in the state at 71.6%. Latino students are falling the furthest behind, with just 1 in 3 graduating on time.

Supporters online have praised Kamras’ response to the pandemic, which included a newsletter update with each positive COVID-19 case in the city school system, along with an effort to get laptops into the hands of all students — a first for RPS. He also received praise for advocating for remote learning, even as other school districts in the Richmond area have opted to start bringing more students to school in person.

City Councilwoman Stephanie Lynch, who represents the city’s 5th District and chairs the council’s education and human services committee, said she worries that a shorter extension may encourage Kamras to consider other job offers.

She said she trusts Kamras and the culture “of love, equity, engagement and communication” he is attempted to bring about, but Lynch understands why there’s still frustration among parents and school leaders.

“As an RPS parent and a policy maker, I am simultaneously one of RPS’ biggest critics and fiercest advocates — and maybe that’s what it means to be an RPS parent in this moment as we find ourselves reaching and wanting for a dream of what could be, when the reality just is not here yet,” she said. “A broad band of diverse voices are supporting a longer tenure right now because they believe he can help us get there, and I think we should listen to them.”

Organizations critical of the superintendent have publicly supported a two-year renewal, citing a need to see more academic progress in the district. The Richmond Crusade for Voters on Tuesday released a statement supporting a two-year contract. Rizzi is a member of the organization but does not serve on the organization’s nine-member board, which took the vote.

“Richmond Public Schools still ranks at the bottom, when compared to all Virginia public schools, for 2018-2019 and 2019-2020,” according to a statement from the organization. “The Richmond School Board should make public its past and future evaluations regarding what Superintendent Kamras has accomplished as well as his shortcomings since he has been serving in his position.”

The Richmond NAACP on Thursday voted unanimously to support two more years.

Organization President J.J. Minor said the stance does not mean that the group doesn’t support Kamras. However, members think a two-year renewal would coincide with the deadline for the goals of Kamras’ five-year strategic plan to have been met, and perhaps a better graduation rate.

“The buck stops with the superintendent,” Minor said. “We have to get schools accredited. Almost 29% to 30% of our students didn’t graduate [last year].”

The School Board is expected to vote on the matter in February.

Kansas City Star

Kansas City schools deserve Missouri accreditation, national education group says

BY MARÁ ROSE WILLIAMS FEBRUARY 04, 2021 10:30 AM

The Missouri education department asked a respected and powerful national urban education coalition for its assessment of how Kansas City Public Schools performed over the last few years.

The group’s answer: “KCPS has made substantial progress and has only gained momentum,” in academics, leadership and other areas. It concluded: KCPS is “worthy of a fully accredited district.”

That’s good news for KCPS, but the blessing from the Council of the Great City Schools alone won’t determine whether the state will raise the district’s status from provisionally accredited to full accreditation.

That decision could come this summer, but that’s not set in stone, officials with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education told The Star.

“KCPS has improved faster in both reading and math than the state and most other major city school systems,” Michael Casserly, executive director of the council, said in a statement shared with The Star.

Accreditation has been an elusive goal for KCPS for nearly a decade. Not having it, district officials say, has hampered their efforts to change the perception that it is a troubled school system. Since 2011, the district has been battling attendance problems and struggling to improve student achievement to regain its full accreditation.

Twice in the last four years, Kansas City has come close to the goal — meeting the accreditation standard one year and then slipping below it the next. The state requires a district that has lost accreditation to meet certain performance measures and maintain or improve on them for at least two consecutive years before it considers bumping up its status.

The Council of the Great City Schools is the nation’s primary coalition of large urban public- school systems, 76 in all, including Chicago, New York, Boston and Los Angeles. It regularly keeps track of how well each of its member districts, including Kansas City, is performing.

Casserly said it had last assessed KCPS performance in 2016 at the request of district Superintendent Mark Bedell, who at that time was beginning his leadership here and wanted to know what he was walking into. Last fall, after a conversation about KCPS with Missouri Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven, the council began another assessment using raw district data set to its own performance metrics. Missouri education officials said the council measures KCPS progress differently than they do.

“We have great respect for the Council of the Great City Schools’ position,” said Chris Neale, an assistant state commissioner of education . “We found it informative and interesting.” But, he said, the council compared KCPS against other urban districts across the country, while the state must judge it on state standards to determine “how well students are performing and how fast they are improving.”

Bedell agrees that council data and state data are “apples and oranges.” But, he said, “we know that we have been doing a wonderful job of growing these students at a fast pace, and that means a lot. It’s a part of the state’s accountability — taking kids who may not be up to par when they show up and closing those gaps.”

Academically, Bedell said, “we have been trending in the right direction. We have been getting more and more points on our academic achievement.”

Traditionally the state measures five areas, giving districts points for academics overall, for performance by at-risk subgroups, for how well-prepared students are for careers and college, for attendance and for graduation rates.

Because of COVID-19, students did not take state assessment tests last year, so new academic achievement data wasn’t available. The state also decided not to consider attendance data since schools all went online in March.

With no annual performance reports to go by, state education officials lacked the usual measurement for determining district progress.

Neale said the lack of new performance data blocked the pathway to full accreditation for provisionally accredited districts such as Kansas City. “That was on our conscious,” he said.

So the state started looking for some other way to measure progress for districts that asked them to do so. One possibility, he said, would be to look at a district’s performance history coupled with how well students have done on other standardized tests. But they have not decided to do that yet.

What is certain, Neale said, “we can’t just make a decision on Kansas City absent of academic data.” And no decision at all could be the state’s conclusion. “It doesn’t mean they are good or bad. It just means there isn’t data.”

In the meantime, Bedell said, he wants the city, state lawmakers and his staff to know how well Kansas City is doing and that its progress has been recognized nationally.

Casserly said district performance is improving on several fronts, including student achievement, graduation rates and attendance. He said the district “has also demonstrated stability and leadership within the region and nation, strengthened its financial health and implemented a comprehensive district-wide improvement plan.”

What KCPS has accomplished, Casserly said, “doesn’t happen overnight. It takes years of hard work and consistent progress to change a big city school system.

“They have made progress that suggests that Missouri should look favorably on full accreditation for Kansas City Public Schools.”

For example, four years ago KCPS graduation rate was at 68%, and now it’s 74.8%, Bedell said. When he arrived at KCPS, no students in the district were taking Advance Placement tests. Now they are given at every high school except Lincoln College Preparatory Academy, where instead students take International Baccalaureate exams. And moreover, 53% of the students taking AP tests are passing them.

Despite improvements, there’s still work to be done.

“I don’t want anyone to get anything conflicted,” Bedell said. “No, we aren’t at state averages in some areas, but what we have been doing is closing against the state every year.

“We have been able to state that we are making steady progress, contrary to the narrative that is being put out there that our kids aren’t learning.”

Still, Bedell said, if the state isn’t ready to raise the district’s accreditation status, he is ready to keep pushing toward it.

“I don’t want no handouts. I’m too competitive for that,” he said. “And I believe that we have done the work.”

The Advocate

Superintendent sways Baton Rouge School Board to hire hand- picked Utah firm for strategic plan

BY CHARLES LUSSIER | STAFF WRITER PUBLISHED FEB 4, 2021 AT 6:55 PM | UPDATED FEB 4, 2021 AT 9:16 PM

With little discussion, the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board on Thursday agreed unanimously to hire a Utah-based consulting firm to help develop a new strategic plan for the school system, replacing a rarely used plan approved in 2013.

The goal is to have a new plan in place by June, in time for the start of the next school year. The strategic plan will lay general priorities of the school district meant to guide future decision-making.

The frictionless selection of the Arbinger Institute was an early success for new Superintendent Sito Narcisse, who pushed for the hiring of the suburban Salt Lake City organization.

Narcisse, who started full time on Monday, prevailed upon the School Board to quickly organize Thursday’s special meeting, which was held before other School Board business that night.

Narcisse emphasized the Arbinger Institute’s past experience doing similar work in other large urban school districts. One of those was Metro Nashville public schools, where Arbinger did work while Narcisse served there as chief of schools from 2016 to 2019.

In hiring Arbinger, the School Board passed over other firms interested in this work who responded to a Request for Quotes and Qualifications, or RFQQ, approved by the board on Nov. 19. The Advocate on Thursday submitted a public records request seeking to review those proposals, but the school system has not as yet responded. Arbinger did not participate in that process.

One reason that Narcisse said he’s behind Arbinger is because the school system won’t be paying for their services. In a memo sent to board members on Monday, Narcisse said “please note that the Arbinger Institute’s services will be paid entirely by funds arising from private donations through the Foundation for East Baton Rouge School System.” Narcisse, however, has yet to say how much that work would cost or identify any donors. The Advocate has asked but has yet to receive more information on both fronts.

Narcisse also is using private financing from unidentified sources to pay for outside consultants who are interviewing district staff for a series of transition reports that the new superintendent is using to guide his early decisions.

Using outside money for such purposes is not new for the school system.

When the last strategic plan was developed between 2011 and 2013, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber put up at least $25,000 to employ SSA Consultants to develop the plan, covering roughly two-thirds of the cost.

The downsides of that planning process, however, are helping to shape the new strategic planning process.

The bulk of that 2013 plan was developed while one superintendent, John Dilworth, was leaving and before his ultimate replacement, Bernard Taylor, came on board. Taylor ended up with a plan he had little input on and consequently diminished investment in carrying out.

By taking a lead role in the new strategic plan, and having his hand-picked firm leading the process, Narcisse is forging a different path.

The 2013 strategic plan also was ambitious. For instance, a key "bold goal" was to move from the lower end of annual academic rankings of school districts to the top 10 by the year 2020. In 2019, the last year rankings are available, East Baton Rouge ranked 54th out of 70 traditional school districts in Louisiana.

Thursday was the first School Board meeting that Narcisse attended in person. Narcisse was accompanied Thursday by two newly hired administrators, Chief Academic Officer Michael Robinson and Chief of Staff Caron Smith. They are two of four new top administrators the School Board agreed to let Narcisse hire at its Jan. 21 meeting.

Robinson, who served from 2016 to 2018 as superintendent in Pine Bluff, Ark., worked with Narcisse in a previous job in Prince George’s County, Md. Smith is a Baton Rouge native who worked with Narcisse in Washington, D.C. public schools, where she served as director of secondary academic scheduling and support.

Two more administrators have been hired, but were not in attendance Thursday: Chief of Operations Frank Chester and Chief of Schools Sharon Williams. Chester previously worked as chief human resources officer in Pittsburgh, where Narcisse once worked, and in a similar position in Bridgeport, Conn. Williams has been serving as chief academic officer for public schools in Holmes County, Miss.

Also on Thursday, the School Board voted unanimously in favor of another Narcisse initiative, to rejoin the Council of Great City Schools. The council has 72 urban school districts as members, including Metro Nashville. The membership will cost the school system about $40,000 a year. East Baton Rouge Parish was a member of the Council of Great Schools for years until 2015 when it was dropped around the time of the arrival of Superintendent Warren Drake.

Several board members spoke Thursday about how they’d pushed to pull out of the Council years ago, but are willing now to give Narcisse the benefit of the doubt.

“When we reviewed how we were using those resources, we weren’t really using them,” Board President David Tatman explained.

Narcisse promised he would make use of the Council’s services, including auditing services and the development of key performance indicators.

“My goal is that we use them extensively,” Narcisse said.

the gothamist

City Is Sued Over District 75 Schools For Students With Disabilities BY SOPHIA CHANG FEB. 5, 2021 4:14 P.M

The city’s separate schools for children with disabilities is under fire in a new civil rights class action lawsuit that alleges these schools deprive students of an equal education.

Three Staten Island students and Disability Rights Advocates' New York chapter are seeking reforms to the Department of Education’s system so that students with disabilities have the option of attending their neighborhood schools with appropriate support, instead of traveling to dedicated schools known as District 75, which serve students with moderate to severe disabilities.

More than 25,000 students attend District 75 schools in New York City, with about 2,000 students on Staten Island, according to Disability Rights New York.

The plaintiffs declined to be interviewed, but their lawyers say the separate schools mean they don’t have equal access to typical school facilities such as playgrounds, cafeterias and libraries, and different programming for electives and extracurriculars. Commuting to the District 75 schools, especially on Staten Island, can take up to two hours a day as well, the lawsuit said.

One plaintiff is identified as E.F., an 18-year-old student who was diagnosed with autism when she was four years old, according to the lawsuit. She attends P 37R The David Marquis School of the Arts, a District 75 school on the campus of Great Kills High School, though her neighborhood school is Tottenville High School which offers many electives, sports and extracurricular activities that her school lacks, the lawsuit said.

“E.F. struggles socially because she does not have age-appropriate peers without disabilities to serve as behavioral models,” the lawsuit said, and she spends her school days on vocational instruction including mopping and sweeping instead of academic achievement. With the right educational and social supports and a plan that minimizes disciplinary suspensions, E.F. should be able to attend Tottenville High School successfully, the lawsuit said.

“The law guarantees all students a meaningful opportunity for community integration and this segregated system completely shatters that promise,” said Emily Seelenfreund, Staff Attorney at Disability Rights Advocates, in a press release. “Students with disabilities deserve a rigorous education, and they are entitled to choose to receive that education alongside their neighborhood peers with and without disabilities. The City must immediately invest in providing more supportive services in Staten Island community schools, so all students have the option of an integrated educational placement.”

DOE spokesperson Danielle Filson said the students who attend District 75 schools do so on the recommendation of their advisory teams, which include their parents.

“District 75 provides high-quality learning environments for students with disabilities with extensive needs, in the least restrictive environment appropriate for them. We will review the suit,” Filson said in a statement. The DOE said the vast majority of students with disabilities, at 85%, attend programs that are inside traditional schools and have interaction with the entire school communities, though the DRA lawsuit said, “regardless of the District 75 setting in which students are placed, District 75 students spend all or almost all of their school day segregated from students without disabilities.”

In 2008, a report from the Council of the Great City Schools found that the District 75 schools meant "the isolation of students [is] more pronounced in the New York City school system than in other major urban school systems," the lawsuit cited.

The consequences of this isolation means they don’t have “access to a curriculum that meets the requirements of a regular high school diploma, higher educational expectations set by both teachers and peers, and learning appropriate social skills and behaviors modeled by classmates without disabilities,” the lawsuit said. It also adds to stigma and fear of students with disabilities who are perceived as “as unfit to learn and unwelcome in their Staten Island community schools.” silive.com Lawsuit: S.I. students with disabilities in ‘segregated, unequal’ public schools, classrooms

Updated Feb 06, 2021; Posted Feb 06, 2021

By Irene Spezzamonte | [email protected] STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A class action lawsuit filed last week against the New York City Department of Education (DOE) and Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza alleges Staten Island students with developmental disabilities who are enrolled in District 75 “are being educated in segregated and unequal public schools and classrooms,” effectively subjecting them to discrimination.

The litigation seeks to integrate the students from their district into neighborhood classrooms should they choose.

District 75 was created bout 40 years ago to provide “highly-specialized instructional support for students with significant challenges,” including autism spectrum disorders, significant cognitive delays and multiple disabilities, according to the DOE.

The lawsuit, which was filed by three children and their mothers on behalf of 2,000 students with disabilities in the U.S. Eastern District of New York, alleges that District 75 isolates students unnecessarily ”and perpetuate[s] stigma, misunderstanding, and fear and reinforce[s] feelings of shame and unworthiness for students with disabilities who have been labeled as unfit to learn and unwelcome in their Staten Island community schools.”

“The Staten Island District 75 school system denies students with disabilities equal educational opportunities by forcing them into a segregated environment, providing them with an education that is not comparable to that which students without disabilities receive, and denying them access to electives, extracurricular activities, or other opportunities to interact with students without disabilities, such as lunch or recess,” the lawsuit further alleges.

According to the lawsuit, there are four schools within District 75: I.S./PS 25 in Pleasant Plains (South Richmond High School), PS 721 in Clifton (Richard H. Hungerford School), PS 37R in Great Kills (David Marquis School of the Arts), and PS 373 in New Brighton.

One of the plaintiffs, only identified with the initials E.F., is an autistic 18-year-old who currently attends P. 37R.

E.F. is currently “not receiving appropriate academic instruction,” the suit alleges.

“When E.F. was fourteen, DOE staff told [her mother] that the focus for E.F. would be on vocational skills, not academic achievement,” the suit details. “A significant portion of E.F.’s day is now spent on vocational instruction, which often includes mopping, sweeping, picking up recycling, making office furniture, and setting tables at a catering facility.” Students are also placed in the four schools within District 75 “without regard to the neighborhood in which they reside,” causing longer commutes, according to the lawsuit.

For instance, a child identified A.S., a 9-year-old, autistic student who has attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), was transferred to PS 373 in January of his kindergarten year, where he remained until March 3, 2020.

The transfer made A.S.’s commute an hour long and forced him to leave at 6:55 a.m. every day, the lawsuit said.

DOE RESPONDS “District 75 provides high-quality learning environments for students with disabilities with extensive needs, in the least restrictive environment appropriate for them,” Danielle Filson, a DOE spokeswoman, said in a statement to the Advance/SILive.com. “We will review the suit.”

The Council of the Great City Schools, the largest coalition of urban public school systems in the country, released a report in 2008 that focused on the pros and cons of District 75.

“District 75 is something of a life raft, floating unmoored and isolated in a sea of expertise and reform that it little notices. And it assumes that life in the raft is better than being on the mother ship. Unfortunately, this situation has ramifications not only for those steering the ship, but also for those aboard it,” the report noted. “Students attending District 75 schools or co-located programs are often cut off from their non-disabled peers and segregated from programs and services that could be beneficial. This segregation exists from the top of the Department of Education all the way down to the classroom. Special education leadership operates in silos that barely acknowledge each other.”

The plaintiffs are not seeking monetary damages, according to a press release from the non- profit corporation Disability Rights Advocates, which is representing them in the case.

“Rather, they seek reforms that will compel the New York City Department of Education to provide the resources necessary so that every Staten Island District 75 student has the opportunity to attend their neighborhood schools if they choose,” according to the press release.

IMPACTS OF COVID The spread of the coronavirus will cause further segregation as restrictions are being put in place, the suit alleges.

“Defendants’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic will further entrench segregation and deny students with disabilities access to the same quality of education in the most integrated setting enjoyed by their peers without disabilities,” according to the suit.

Emily Seelenfreund, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, told the Advance/SILive.com Friday that the coronavirus pandemic “has made everybody think how we can re-structure” and “re-think” how we educate children.

“Education is firmly rooted in integration and equal opportunities,” said Seelenfreund, who is a staff attorney at Disability Rights Advocates. “The issues that impact our plaintiffs, they impact pretty much every student who is in a Staten Island District 75 school or who is at risk of being in Staten Island District 75 school.” Chalkbeat

Aurora board calls special meeting as superintendent dispute with union boils over By Yesenia Robles Feb 20, 2021, 3:03pm MST

The Aurora school board has called a special meeting to discuss the actions of Superintendent Rico Munn after he sent a letter to all district employees accusing Aurora teachers union leadership of “dishonest and inappropriate” claims in an ongoing and public dispute over how to handle education in the pandemic.

The Tuesday meeting has only one agenda item, a personnel matter, but, unlike most personnel discussions, this one will be public. There will not, however, be public comment.

Board member Marques Ivey confirmed that the meeting was called by the majority of the board to discuss the superintendent.

“We’re going to evaluate the situation as a whole to see what happened,” Ivey said.

Aurora’s superintendent and the teachers union have been at odds several times over the years, including over when and how to offer in-person instruction during the pandemic. The school board, whose majority was elected with union support, has played a more hands-on role than others, sometimes overruling Munn on school opening decisions. The disagreements heightened tensions between the board and superintendent over the proper role for each of them.

A recurring concern from the board is whether Munn has done enough to engage the community or teachers about difficult decisions.

The most recent dispute started over plans to consider eliminating asynchronous learning Fridays. After an unplanned and heated discussion of the idea at last Tuesday’s school board meeting, the superintendent sent a sharply worded letter to all district staff members in which he disputed union claims and accused the union board of operating in a divisive manner.

Munn described the approach taken by union leadership as “emblematic of a growing and intentionally divisive tone” and “a desire to not have a genuine working relationship that benefits both staff and students.” Countering union claims, Munn wrote that he consults regularly with teachers, and the district has followed science and data in its reopening decisions.

Ivey said he was concerned that the letter had gone out to all staff and not just the board of education. For those who may have seen the letter and felt confused, “the board has received it, and the board is taking action.”

But his main concern, he said, is to consider if the district’s “top executive is operating in a fair and professional manner,” and whether employees feel like they’re getting the best from their leadership. “I think it’s important to evaluate those things,” Ivey said. “I can’t tell you how the meeting’s going to go. You hope these things can be repaired. That staff can feel confident in the leadership and the board can move forward.”

Munn said Saturday he felt the district had to respond publicly to correct the record after claims he considered dangerous were included in a letter sent by the teachers union’s board.

“Everything we do is public,” Munn said. “I don’t think a distribution list matters. It’s a public letter one way or another.”

Munn also said he has received comments from staff who “reached out to support what I had to say. I think people appreciate hearing the truth directly from me.” Personnel matters can be discussed in closed executive session, but Munn said he chose to make Tuesday’s special meeting public given that the meeting will be about two public letters.

“There was no victory for APS children in this style of communication both ways,” board member Kevin Cox said. “I believe every member of our staff deserves to be treated with the utmost respect. Whether or not that communication was explicitly in violation of a particular policy, it robs our staff of dignity that I believe they deserve. They have too much on their plates to deal with right now, and I always support workers.”

In the district’s most recent written update on increasing in-person learning, Munn noted that the district was considering whether to change the asynchronous learning day. Up until now, the district has left Fridays as a day for students to do independent work to allow teachers more planning time. Munn told the school board he is concerned that student engagement drops significantly on Fridays.

As of mid-February, Aurora elementary students have the option to go to school in-person four days a week every week, while middle and high school students remain on a hybrid schedule. Students in all grade levels and all learning modes still have Fridays as a virtual independent work day.

Leaders of the teachers union responded to the update with a letter of their own, sent to the board but not the superintendent, arguing that Munn has not taken teacher voices into consideration in these plans.

“Since the Board of Education ceded control of COVID and learning model decisions back to Superintendent Munn, he has forced through and rushed major changes without regard to concern from teachers, building leaders, and the community,” the union’s board of directors wrote. “Mr. Munn continues to misrepresent the voice of [the Aurora Education Association] and has not included the association in any decision making or solicited input since before winter break.”

Munn specifically denied that and said the letter itself contradicts those claims.

Union President Bruce Wilcox could not be reached for comment Saturday. After Munn gave the board his regular update on the status of in-person learning, board members asked questions about the union’s claims. They then brought in Wilcox, the union president, and mediated a short back and forth spat between the two leaders.

During the meeting, Munn called the union’s letter “offensive” and said it “grossly misstates and misrepresents any number of things.”

Wilcox kept his comments brief but explained that teachers who are providing instruction at the same time to students who are in front of them and who are on the other side of a screen need the extra time to plan.

Shortly after that exchange, A.J. Crabill, a consultant from the Council of the Great City Schools who has been working with the board to improve their leadership, criticized the board for that interaction. When the board president tried to explain that board members felt they had to evaluate if the superintendent is following their guidance to always seek input from staff and community, Crabill told them that the discussion had not accomplished that.

“You received no meaningful data from your superintendent regarding this compliance, so you have no better clue,” Crabill said. “Don’t confuse that for ‘this is us monitoring.’ That did not happen this evening. You just had a random conversation.”

Crabill has encouraged the board to be less involved in every decision Munn makes and instead practice regularly scheduled monitoring of their goals. On Tuesday, he told the board that if his boss tried to evaluate him the way the board just had, he would not feel valued or supported as an employee.

Ivey said that in asking questions about the letter, he didn’t mean for the discussion to devolve into that public argument. “It was meant to generate discussion,” he said.

In the letter Munn wrote after the meeting, he said he wanted to correct the misinformation that was in the union’s letter, including that he has not consulted with teachers and other staff.

“It’s my responsibility to make sure that, particularly in a time of crisis, that truthful information is communicated to our community and to our staff,” Munn said in an interview.

In the letter, he added, “My deepest hope is that a clear response can allow us to move our focus back onto serving our students in the safest and most appropriate environment we can provide.”

Asked if he was concerned about keeping his job, Munn said he stands by his actions and is dedicated to the district and its students.

Munn’s current contract goes through June 2023. The board can choose to end the contract early for certain reasons such as “incompetency, neglect of duty, immorality, unsatisfactory performance, insubordination,” or criminal convictions. To do so, the board must give the superintendent three business days advance written notice of the alleged cause. Otherwise, the board may terminate the contract by paying a severance, which must be $200,000 if the termination happens before June 30, 2021.

ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Dallas Morning News

Longtime Dallas schools leader receives top honor for being a ‘champion’ for urban education

Michael Hinojosa, Dallas ISD’s superintendent, was named the Green-Garner Award winner this week by the Council of the Great City Schools

By Corbett Smith

6:56 PM on Oct 16, 2020 CDT

Dallas ISD superintendent Michael Hinojosa has been named as the 2020 Urban Educator of the Year by the Council of the Great City Schools.

Hinojosa, 64, was presented the award this week in a virtual ceremony during the Council’s 64th annual fall conference. He was the lone finalist for the honor, also known as the Green-Garner Award.

“Michael Hinojosa has been a true champion for urban education and his passion for equity and excellence has had a profound effect on how all of us advocate for our urban students,” said Council Executive Director Michael Casserly in a statement. “Over his 41-year career, his dedication and humility have made a difference in the lives of the students he serves and there could be no one more deserving of this award.”

Hinojosa said the honor was especially meaningful coming from an organization like the Council of the Great City Schools, which focuses its lens on 76 of the nation’s largest urban school districts.

“I believe in the mission of urban public education,” he said. “It’s one of the hardest things to do in this business.”

As part of the award, Hinojosa will receive a $10,000 college scholarship to present to a Dallas ISD student.

Hinojosa, a Sunset High School graduate, started working in education in Dallas in 1979, hired as a teacher at Stockard Middle School. In his second stint as Dallas' superintendent, Hinojosa has shepherded the district through a stretch of rapid improvement, as DISD cut its number of underperforming campuses from 43 to the single digits. He also helped steer passage of its $1.6 billion bond in 2015, as well as getting approval from voters on a tax-ratification election.

BERNARD HARRIS SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

2021 CGCS-Bernard Harris Math and Science Scholarship Program

The Council of the Great City Schools and The Harris Institute are awarding four scholarships, with a value of $5,000 each, to two African American and two Hispanic students currently completing their senior year of high school in a member district of the Council of the Great City Schools. Applicants must be accepted for full-time enrollment at a four-year college or university in the next academic year, and pursuing a degree in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM).

The deadline to apply is April 9, 2021.

Apply Online at: https://www.cgcs.org/Scholarships 2021 CGCS-Bernard Harris Math and Science Scholarship Program

Application Guidelines Scholarships awarded in May 2021

For questions, please visit: https://www.cgcs.org/Scholarships or email [email protected]

Deadline to apply is April 9, 2021 CGCS-Bernard Harris Math and Science Scholarships 2021 Application Guidelines

COUNCIL OF THE PROGRAM DESCRIPTION GREAT CITY SCHOOLS Member School Districts Albuquerque Anchorage Arlington, Texas The Council of the Great City Schools and Dr. Bernard Harris strongly believe that Atlanta education is key to progress, development and economic growth in our country. Aurora Austin Together, they have developed a partnership to increase awareness about the need for Baltimore more math and science graduates, especially among underrepresented populations. Birmingham Boston This scholarship is part of their efforts to support students of color who plan to Bridegeport pursue math- and science- related degrees. Broward County Buffalo Charleston Charlotte-Mecklenburg Four scholarships for two boys and two girls, with a value of $5,000 each, will be Chicago awarded in May 2021 to two Black and two Hispanic students currently completing Cincinnati Clark County their senior year of high school in a member district of the Council of the Great City Cleveland Schools (see list of member districts on left). Applicants must be accepted for full- Columbus Dallas time enrollment at a four-year college or university in the next academic year and Dayton pursuing a degree in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM). Denver Des Moines Detroit District of Columbia The scholarships, named in recognition of Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr., serve Duval County underrepresented students pursuing careers in the fields of Science, Technology, El Paso Fort Worth Engineering and Mathematics. As a former astronaut, physician and businessman, Fresno Dr. Harris is an outstanding role model dedicated to serving as a mentor to the Guilford County Hawaii scholarship recipients. Hillsborough County Houston Indianapolis Applications will be reviewed by a committee appointed by the Council of the Great Jackson Jefferson County, Kentucky City Schools. Recipients will be selected by Dr. Harris and notified in May. The Kansas City scholarship will be paid to the university of the recipient’s choice and can be applied Long Beach Los Angeles to tuition and related expenses during the 2021-2022 academic school year. Manchester School District Metropolitan Nashville Miami-Dade County Milwaukee Minneapolis New Orleans New York City PROGRAM GUIDELINES Newark Norfolk Oakland Oklahoma City To apply for the 2021 scholarship, this application must be submitted online by Omaha Orange County, Florida April 9, 2021. Click here to apply or go to: https://tinyurl.com/ycd6z8dr. Palm Beach County Philadelphia Pinellas County, Florida Applications should include evidence of the applicant’s academic achievement Pittsburgh in high school, leadership skills or community service in the area of Science, Portland, Oregon Providence Technology, Engineering or Mathematics and the applicant’s commitment to pursue Puerto Rico Richmond a career in a STEM field. To be eligible for the scholarship, the applicant must have Rochester a minimum 3.0 unweighted grade point average and have been accepted as a full- Sacramento San Antonio time student at a four-year institution of higher education. San Diego San Francisco Santa Ana No person may receive more than one award administered by the Council of the Seattle Great City Schools in the same academic year. Employees or immediate family Shelby County (Memphis) St. Louis members of The Harris Foundation or the Council of the Great City Schools are not St. Paul Stockton eligible to apply for these scholarships. Toledo Tulsa Washoe County *All applicants must attend a public school in a Council of the Great City Schools Wichita district. Go to: www.cgcs.org/domain/57 to find the list of CGCS districts. (Students in Toronto are not eligible). CGCS-Bernard Harris Math and Science Scholarships 2021 Partners

The Harris Institute is a 501 (c) (3), non-profit organization founded by former NASA Astronaut Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr., to serve socially and economically disadvantaged communities locally and across the nation striving to reach the most underserved populations in the areas of Education, Health, and Wealth. The institute supports programs that empower individuals, in particular minorities and economically and/ or socially disadvantaged, to recognize their potential and pursue their dreams. The education mission of The Harris Institute is to enable youth to develop and achieve their full potential through the support of social, recreational and educational programs. The Harris Institute believes students can be prepared now for the careers of the future through a structured education program and the use of positive role models. More than 50,000 students have participated and benefited fromTHI programs. www.theharrisinstitute.org

The Council of the Great City Schools is the only national organization exclusively representing the needs of urban public schools, and is based in Washington, D.C. Composed of 76 large city districts, its mission is to promote the cause of urban schools and to advocate for the inner-city students through legislation, research and media relations.The organization also provides a network for school districts sharing common problems to exchange information, and to collectively address new challenges as they emerge in order to deliver the best possible education for urban youth. www.cgcs.org

CGCS-Bernard Harris Math and Science Scholarship Recipients

This scholarship means a great deal to me and it significantly helps my family and me towards my college expenses. Eliska Peacock is a graduate of the District of Columbia Public Schools and received a CGCS-Bernard Harris Math and Science Scholarship in 2020. She is studying computer science at Stanford University in California.

This scholarship helped me tremendously and I am very grateful to have received it. Ruben Marroquin is a graduate of the Houston Independent School District and received a CGCS-Bernard Harris Math and Science Scholarship in 2019. He is studying electrical and computer engineering at Rice University in Texas.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social Media Report Tracking The Council's Social Presence

Annual Report Analysis of 2020 Twitter Goals The Council’s Twitter monthly goals for the 2020 calen- dar year were created after analyzing data from the end of 2019 and reviewing what the organization wanted and needed from social media. Five goals were set as both ambitious and attainable parameters. The monthly goals were based on:

• Impressions; earn 45,000 impressions (measures the total number of views of tweets) • Engagement; average 2 link clicks per day • 40 Retweets • 100 likes • Followers; gain 40 new followers a month

The following is a month-to-month summary that includes data, statistics, and a short description of notable information for that month. Twitter Results January • 18 posts • 33,200 impressions • 48 link clicks/averaged 2 per day • 41 retweets • 7 new followers • 95 Likes/averaged 3 likes per day Announcement of CGCS-Bernard Harris Scholarship and Legislative/Policy Conference. February • 8 posts • 25,200 impressions • 34 link clicks/averaged 1 per day • 17 retweets • 13 new followers • 45 likes/averaged 2 per day We trained the Communications Intern on how to manage the Council’s social media. March • 20 posts • 32,000 impressions • 95 link clicks/averaged 3 per day • 35 retweets • 29 new followers • 44 likes/averaged 1 per day Transitioned to remote work due to COVID-19. Letter to Congress and Senate did well. Twitter Results April • 14 posts • 64,100 impressions • 299 link clicks/averaged 10 per day • 61 retweets • 75 likes/averaged 3 likes per day • 114 new followers Highlighted statistics from the letter to Congress press release. May • 13 posts • 37,00 impressions • 99 link clicks/averaged 3 per day • 19 retweets • 39 likes/averaged 1 like per day • 50 new followers BIRE meeting rescheduled due to COVID-19, but May edition of the Urban Educator did well! June • 19 posts • 33,400 impressions • 205 link clicks/averaged 7 per day • 47 retweets • 110 likes/averaged 4 per day • 30 new followers CGCS-Bernard Harris Scholarship winners announced and statement on George Floyd killing released. Twitter Results July • 13 posts • 22,100 impressions • 203 link clicks/averaged 7 per day • 17 retweets • 68 likes/averaged 2 per day • 45 new followers Highlighted stories of outstanding graduates and Coun- cil files Amicus Brief against Department of Education. August • 10 posts • 17,100 impressions • 38 link clicks/averaged 1 per day • 11 retweets • 40 likes/averaged 1 like per day • 26 new followers Announcement of Annual Fall Conference going virtual and the release of the ELL report “Returning to School.” September • 12 posts • 25,500 impressions • 76 link clicks/averaged 3 per day • 35 retweets • 193 likes/averaged 6 per day • 61 new followers Green-Garner award finalists announced. Twitter Results October • 23 posts • 60,700 impressions • 42 link clicks/averaged 1 per day • 45 retweets/ averaged 2 per day • 403 likes • 88 new followers #CGCS20 (Fall Conference) boosted Twitter engagement, and a conference social media toolkit was created. November • 10 posts • 23,300 impressions • 58 link clicks/averaged 2 per day • 9 retweets • 36 likes/averaged 1 per day • 60 new followers BIRE meeting and Council offers recommendations for the President-Elect Biden Education transition team. December • 3 posts • 12,800 impressions • 13 link clicks/averaged 0 per day • 6 retweets • 18 likes/averaged 1 per day • 18 new followers Holiday season affected stats for this month. Other Social Media Though used at a lesser consistency than Twitter, the Council does publish content through other social media outlets. These include Facebook, LinkedIn, Vimeo, and YouTube. In 2021, goals and data analysis will be conducted for the Council’s Facebook page on a consistent basis. The Council also plans to increase the output of video content and look into creating another social media channel (Instagram). 2020 Highlights Here are only a few of the many amazing tweets and mentions of 2020! 2020 Highlights 2020 Highlights 2020 Highlights Social Media Report Tracking The Council's Social Presence

Monthly Update January 2021 Twitter Goals Stats • 20,000 Impressions • 33,200 Impressions • 2 Link Clicks Per Day • 2 Link Clicks Per Day • 20 Retweets • 41 Retweets • 45 Likes • 94 Likes • 20 New Followers • 0 New Followers Analysis We started the year 2021 on a good note. A lot of content that we usually have for the month of January was pushed back because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, our press statements, MLK Jr. tribute, and the COVID-19 resources provided by the ELL department received good engagement.

Top 1-5

Analysis Top 6-10 Highlights Highlights Social Media Report Tracking The Council's Social Presence

Monthly Update February 2021 Twitter Goals Stats • 20,000 Impressions • 24,900 Impressions • 2 Link Clicks Per Day • 2 Link Click Per Day • 20 Retweets • 27 Retweets • 45 Likes • 46 Likes • 20 New Followers • 39 New Followers Analysis

The announcement of the CGCS- Bernard Harris Scholarship program was very well received. The tweet garnered more than 10,000 impressions. Many followers retweeted, liked, and tagged us in a lot of their posts regarding the scholarship. Other tweets that did well this month was our Urban Educator newsletter and news articles that featured the Council. Top 1-5

Analysis Top 6-10 Highlights Highlights

THE URBAN EDUCATOR

The Nation's Voice for Urban Education January/February 2021 • Vol. 30, No. 1 www.cgcs.org

Shots in Arms, and Plans for Reopening

In Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Ky., all staff wanting to receive COVID-19 vaccines got shots in arms by mid-February, and the district geared up to possibly reopen schools. One big change under consideration: a plan to have a nurse in every building.

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San Diego Superintendent Cindy Marten Nominated for Deputy Secretary of Education

Cindy Marten was an elementary school principal when the San Diego Board of Education tapped her to be superintendent of the district in 2013. In a span of four months, Marten went from overseeing a school with 1,000 students and a $5 million budget to overseeing California’s second largest school system with 132,489 students and a $1.1 billion operating budget.

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Journalist Bob Woodward to Speak at March Conference

Award-winning journalist Bob Woodward will address urban education leaders at the Council of the Great City Schools’ virtual Annual Legislative/Policy Conference, March 20-22.

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Philadelphia School Board Approves Goals & Guardrails Initiative to Improve Student Achievement

The School District of Philadelphia Board of Education has charted a new course for overseeing the district, one that promises big changes in how the board views its role and does its business.

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Urban School Districts Address Capitol Riots and Offer Help to Students

On Jan. 6, 2021, rioters stormed and desecrated the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., in what will forever be a dark day in the history of the United States. The nation’s schoolchildren were among the many Americans who witnessed the chaos and shocking events that took place that day.

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Council Creates Reopening Schools Tracker

As the COVID-19 pandemic approaches the one-year mark, the Council of the Great City Schools recently partnered with Education Week to track how students in the nation’s 75 largest urban public- school districts are learning.

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Legislative Column

Biden’s American Rescue Plan Proposes $130 Billion Investment to Reopen Schools

The new 117th Congress is moving quickly to consider President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. The Plan includes individual $1,400 rebate checks; additional funding for vaccines, testing, and tracing; expanded unemployment insurance; and numerous other components.

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Read more stories here

Duval Chief Diana Greene Named 2021 Florida Superintendent of the Year, Dayton Leader Contract Extended | Two Urban Teachers are Finalists for the 2021 Teacher of the Year | Jackson Reopening Schools App Created by Alumni | Former Oakland Unified School District Superintendent Remembered | Nominees Sought for Presidential Awards in Math and Science Upcoming Events

2021 Legislative/Policy Virtual Conference

When: March 20 - March 22, 2021

Register Link

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Executive Director Editor Staff Writer Michael Casserly Tonya Harris Joanne Coley [email protected] [email protected]

Chair Chair-elect Secretary-Treasurer Michael O'Neill Barbara Jenkins Ashley Paz Board Member, Boston Superintendent, Orange County Board Member, Fort Worth (Orlando)

A newsletter published by the Council of the Great City Schools, representing 77 of the nation’s largest urban public school districts. Click here to learn more. All news items should be submitted to Tonya Harris ([email protected]).