1. A Hesitant Power Move
READ: Shawn McCreesh was in the East Room of the White House on Thursday, where President Donald Trump consulted young children in school uniforms before signing an executive order to instruct the Education Department to dismantle itself. Though the move has electrified his base, McCreesh described a Trump that was less fired up than usual:
He often describes people who make up the federal work force as being part of a shadowy cabal that he is all too happy to pulverize. Not so in this case. “They’re good people,” he said of the Education Department’s 4,200-person work force, many of whom he was effectively firing.
“I want to just make one little personal statement,” Mr. Trump said at one point. Teachers, he said, are among the most important people in the country and everyone ought to “cherish” them. At another point, he promised that money for the federal Pell Grant was not going to vanish. “Supposed to be a very good program,” he said.
Read more in The New York Times here. For further reporting on this topic, check out Oyin Adedoyin and Dalvin Brown’s piece in The Wall Street Journal about how the move may impact student loans and Greg Toppo’s reporting in The 74 regarding the future of NAEP.
2. Oklahoma Mandates Election Doubts
READ: Oklahoma’s education board has approved new social studies standards that would require high school students to examine contested claims about the 2020 election. The standards include references to ballot-counting pauses, mail-in voting security, and bellwether county trends, echoing debunked conspiracy theories promoted by President Trump. The revised language was not included in earlier public drafts and was added without discussion before the board’s final vote. State Superintendent Ryan Walters defended the move:
“The purpose of the standard is simple: we want students to think for themselves, not be spoon-fed left wing propaganda,” Walters’s statement reads. “Students deserve to examine every aspect of our elections, including the legitimate concerns raised by millions of Americans in 2020.”
Read more from Frances Vinall in The Washington Post here.
3. Tackling Absenteeism: Touchdown in Ohio
READ: Rick Hess sat down with Cleveland Browns team owner Dee Haslam to understand the team’s role in tackling chronic absenteeism in Ohio schools. With support from the NFL, state agencies, and Harvard researchers, the team’s Stay in the Game! Attendance Network initiative equips schools with data-driven tools, campaign materials, and athlete ambassadors to boost attendance, and partner districts have seen more substantial declines in chronic absenteeism than the state average. Haslam stressed the importance of celebrating progress in the quest to reduce chronic absenteeism:
Teachers ought to support improvement, not perfection, in attendance and show an interest in learning why students are absent. Students indicate that when a trusted adult cares about their well-being, they are more likely to want to be at school. Teachers can also highlight just how important attendance is to students and their parents. We don’t expect teachers to do it all alone, but even adding phrases like “Can’t wait to see you tomorrow!” and talking about what students have to look forward to can be a really strong and exciting message for students.
Read more in Education Week here.
4. Tutoring Over Tradition
READ: Michael Thomas Duffy took to the pages of Education Next to advocate that school districts respond to the latest NAEP scores by adopting zero-based budgeting to make room for high-dosage tutoring. Duffy argued that those who are resistant to prioritize proven interventions aren’t worried about funding as much as they are about disrupting the status quo:
Simple inertia makes next year’s school budget essentially the same as last year’s. Every line represents an entrenched interest that is going to fight tooth and nail to protect its turf and maintain the status quo. There is a Newtonian law of motion at work here: A school budget and the priorities it represents will remain constant unless acted upon by an unbalanced external force. Perhaps the pandemic provided that external force we needed to shut down the Henry Ford–inspired assembly line that has been dominant in public schooling for the last 100 years and we can start a Steven Jobs–style Genius Bar model where every student gets the exact help they need to thrive. We’ve got the money. Do we have the will?
Read more here.
5. Caregivers in the Classroom
READ: At Charles Drew High School in Riverdale, Georgia, a new program called Young, Gifted and Caregiving supports teen students who juggle school with caring for sick or aging family members. Founded by nurse Michelle Bolden, the initiative teaches coping strategies, health skills, and self-care to build community and reduce stress among youth caregivers, a largely overlooked population at higher risk for anxiety, depression, and school dropouts. Despite limited national research on teen caregiving, Bolden’s in-person sessions have created an immediate bond among students:
Hodge lives with her sister and helps feed and bathe her sister’s children, all under age 6. When the stress of adjusting to a new country, a new high school, and a new set of family responsibilities becomes overwhelming, Hodge said she can forget to eat.
She said she has few options to vent about her problems with anyone in-person.
“It’s very difficult,” she said.
That’s one of the reasons she said she’s found the Young, Gifted and Caregiving class helpful. At the end of that fourth session, in response to Bolden asking the student caregivers to share one thing that stood out about the class, Hodge focused on the shared community the program had created.
“I don’t have nobody to talk to about this,” Hodge told everyone in the auditorium.
Read more from Allen Siegler in Chalkbeat here.
6. Online Learning With an Offline Price Tag
READ: Online college degrees now often cost as much, or even more, than in-person programs, despite assumptions that digital learning would be cheaper. Universities say costs stem from tech, support staff, and marketing, but many also use online program profits to subsidize other operations. Research shows online students typically graduate at lower rates and face weaker job prospects, yet enrollment continues to rise. Critics argue schools are prioritizing revenue over access and affordability:
“Online education is another revenue stream from a different market,” said Duha Altindag, an associate professor of economics at Auburn University who has studied online programs.
Universities “are not trying to use technology to become more efficient. They’re just layering it on top of the existing model,” said New America’s Carey, who has been a critic of some online education models.
“Public officials are not stopping them,” he said. “They’re not coming and saying, ‘Hey, we’re seeing this new opportunity to save money. These online courses could be cheaper. Make them cheaper.’ This is just a continuation of the status quo.”
Read more from Jon Marcus at The Hechinger Report here.
7. Night School, Bright Futures
READ: Linda Jacobson reflected on the five-year anniversary of COVID by taking a closer look at KIPP Newark’s COVID-era Evening Learning Program, an evening kindergarten program that was created to support working families and prevent young students from missing a critical year of learning. Running from 5:30 to 8 p.m., the program offered smaller classes, personalized support, and a sense of stability amid chaos:
Nateesha St. Claire had just had her third child and couldn’t juggle an infant daughter and online school for Omari, her kindergartner.
“At night, there were really no distractions,” she said. The baby was asleep. But it was still a struggle to keep Omari focused on his teacher. If St. Claire didn’t sit close, he’d walk away from the screen. He frequently asked why he couldn’t go to school.
Now in fourth grade, Omari is “thriving” in math, growing in reading and getting help in speech class to pronounce words more clearly, his mother said.
Read more in The 74 here.
Heads up! Imbroglio will take a short break next week and return on Sunday, April 6.