Weekend To-Do List

10/19 - 10/20

and

Oct 19, 2024

1. Candidates Sidestep K-12

READ: Education has been largely absent from the 2024 presidential election, with both candidates avoiding detailed plans for K-12 schools. Libby Stanford spoke with experts who say this lack of focus signals a continuing trend of leaving education to state and local officials, where more power over public education policy is held:

“They are going to rely on the states, maybe the school districts, to figure it out, but that’s not really a solution,” [Bettina] Love said. “The history of this country is that if we’re going to have innovative, bold solutions that really address inequality, it has to come from the federal government.”

2. Politics Enter the Classroom

READ: Chalkbeat visited classrooms across the country to learn more about how students are engaging with the 2024 election. In Philadelphia, teachers encouraged debates on the right to vote, while in Memphis, an election simulation helped students understand the mechanics of democracy. At other schools, lessons on political ideologies and U.S. history have sparked deep discussions about current political issues:

When asked what stuck with them from Tuesday’s lesson, students said they were offered different perspectives, which in turn changed the way they think about the election and the role different people play in it.
“I never realized how much the background of a region affects the way society is now,” said Vivaldo. “Like certain social norms and ideas have passed down throughout the generations.”
Thinking about these regional identities made some students reflect on how they have come to their own political beliefs.
“I feel like I wasn’t too big on political stuff, but I feel like knowing more of the background helped me understand and have my own opinion,” said Emma Alvarado, 16, “and not just listen to what everybody else thinks around me.”

3. Michigan’s Costly DEI Experiment

READ: Nicholas Confessore spoke with more than 60 students, staff, alumni, and administrators at the University of Michigan to understand how the school’s nearly $250 million investment in DEI programs had impacted key goals like increasing Black student enrollment and improving campus climate. Not only have these goals not been met, but Confessore’s investigation found that the university’s efforts have also led to rising complaints and conflicts over race, gender, and national origin, and that the university mishandled a significant number of discrimination complaints:

Amna Khalid, a historian at Carleton College in Minnesota, argues that modern D.E.I. is not, as some on the right hold, a triumph of critical theory or postcolonialism but of the corporatization of higher education, in which universities have tried to turn moral and political ideals into a system of formulas and dashboards. “They want a managerial approach to difference,” Khalid said. “They want no friction. But diversity inherently means friction.”

Read more in The New York Times here.

4. Harvard Donations Plunge 15%

READ: Amid backlash of its handling of antisemitism on campus, Harvard saw a 15% drop in donations this year. Endowment gifts dropped 34%, though the endowment itself grew by 9.6%. Despite the decline, short-term donations rose by 8.6%, marking the second-highest amount in the university’s history:

Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin has said he paused donations to Harvard over his alma mater’s handling of antisemitism on campus. The family foundation of investor Len Blavatnik had stopped donations late last year.
Two Harvard task forces said in June that it found that Jewish, Muslim and Arab students were harassed, bullied and discriminated against on campus.
Harvard said in its financial report Thursday that the task forces are working on “rebuilding not only a sense of belonging but also genuine acceptance among members of our community.”

Read more from Joseph Pisani in The Wall Street Journal here.

5. Tutoring Demand Skyrockets

READ: Holly Korbey took to the pages of Education Next to shed insight into the rapid growth of private tutoring for K-12 students, especially in high-income areas. While many assume the increased interest in additional academic help stems from COVID-era learning loss, Korbey found demand for services has been on the rise since the early 2000’s, just as trust in schools has continued to decline:

Amir Nathoo, the founder of Outschool, an online tutoring provider that launched in 2015 but saw enormous growth during the pandemic while students were at home, said he’s observed fracturing trust in schools for some time—a fact of life, in his view, that has gone unnoticed and underreported. “Parent trust in traditional schooling methods has been decreasing for a long time. You can see it in the Gallup polls,” Nathoo said. “It’s also true that post-pandemic we saw the English and math scores come down—but what’s missing in all the details is wider trends with mass disillusionment with traditional education.”

6. English Learners’ Uneven Recovery

READ: After The Center on Reinventing Public Education released its 2024 State of the American Student report, Leslie Villejas wanted to know why English learners, who represent over 10% of the country’s K-12 students, were struggling so drastically. The report highlighted continued struggles with academic performance, mental health, and disengagement, in addition to chronic absenteeism and a shortage of specialized teachers. Villejas, a senior policy analyst at New America, implored advocates to look beyond the academic data to understand the full scope of challenges these students face — and how to support them:

By looking beyond the average student and collecting nuanced data on English learners, state and local leaders can begin to fill in their incomplete and overly broad understanding. The work of pandemic recovery begins by unraveling this subgroup to shine a light on the diversity within it. Doing so is imperative for the long-term academic and personal growth success of English learners in America’s K-12 schools.