Weekend To-Do List

12/9 - 12/10

and

Dec 09, 2023

1. Learning Loss Goes Global

READ/LISTEN: Test scores now confirm that pandemic-driven learning loss impacted young people in economically developed nations worldwide. Matt Barnum reported on the Program for International Student Assessment’s recent findings:

“Learning loss due to the pandemic was a global phenomenon,” said Martin West, the academic dean at Harvard Graduate School of Education. “We’ve never seen, in an international assessment, consistent declines across a large number of school systems in the way we see here.”

The U.S. ranked sixth in reading, 12th in science, and 28th in math. Read more in The Wall Street Journal here, and listen to my interview with journalist Bethany McLean on this week’s Lost Debate podcast to learn why McLean calls school closures the most upsetting part of her investigation into how a lack of leadership left us unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic.

2. Could Testing Debates Encourage Bipartisanship?

READ: States across the U.S. are revisiting school testing requirements as concerns about learning loss and equity mount post-pandemic. The movement has created what former GOP staff director of the Senate’s education committee David Cleary calls a “bizarre coalition,” with progressives like Representative Jamaal Bowman praising Republican colleagues for their stance on the topic. But should elected officials roll back the requirements? Former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush says no:

Abandoning the state’s English and math testing requirements “further reduces expectations and hampers Florida’s workforce development efforts,” Bush wrote in a recent Orlando Sentinel op-ed. “Removing this requirement may aid Florida’s graduation rates, but it will reduce the diploma to nothing more than a participation certificate.”

Read more from Katelyn Cordero and Juan Perez Jr. in Politico here, and then read the piece I wrote for The Branch last year that explains why standardized tests are progressive.

3. The Law School Rankings Revolt: One Year Later

READ: Yale Law School’s decision to withdraw its cooperation from the U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings made front-page news in 2022, with 62 other law schools following suit in the weeks and months after. But did the “revolt” catalyze any lasting change? Jack Stripling looked into public records and spoke with law school deans to answer this question, and what he found was a growing sense of accountability from school leaders like Sean Scott, president and dean of California Western School of Law:

“We have to be accountable for the misuse of U.S. News,” Scott said. “We have misused it in letting it guide our decisions about the faculty that we hired. We have misused it in using it as a measure for the success of a dean. We have misused it as a way of leveraging money from our donors. That’s on us. That’s not a U.S. News problem. That’s a legal academy problem.”

U.S. News released its latest rankings earlier this year, and Yale Law was still #1. Read more in The Washington Post here, and then read the piece I wrote for The Branch about why an imperfect rating system is better than no system here.

4. New Stanford Study Confirms Science-of-Reading Works

READ/LISTEN: Howard Blume wrote for the Los Angeles Times about a new Stanford study that found implementing a science-of-reading instruction approach in 66 of California’s lowest-performing schools substantially improved test scores compared to similar schools. The study was funded as part of a court settlement after students and teachers sued the state for violating California’s constitutional education mandate due to inadequate literacy levels. While the news has been celebrated by many, researchers cautioned that simply deciding to implement science-of-reading practices isn’t enough:

“This is about giving schools the support that they need to actually get better, not just telling them: ‘Hey, get better,’” [researcher Sarah] Novicoff said. “So that means giving money, It means giving training. It means giving oversight. And this program did all of those things, not just curricular change.”

Read more here. Chris Stewart interviewed journalist and Sold a Story podcast host Emily Hanford for the Citizen Stewart Show this summer. Listen to their discussion about why we spent so many years teaching kids the wrong way to read here.

5. Mandated Web Filters Pose Censorship Threat to School Communities

READ: Todd Feathers and Dhruv Mehrotra investigated the dangerous levels of censorship automatic web filters can pose to students and school staff in their latest piece for WIRED. One New Mexico school district’s web filters blocked school members from accessing critical mental health resources, like suicide hotlines, and doing a web search that included the word “latina.” The filters stem from the Children’s Internet Protection Act, which requires every school to use a web filter to block child pornography and other “obscene” content. But findings from the Center for Democracy and Technology’s nationwide survey suggest the tool has gone too far:

More than half of the teachers who responded to CDT’s survey (57 percent) agreed that their school’s web filters made completing assignments harder. Thirty-seven percent of teachers believed their school’s web filters were more likely to block content associated with LGBTQ+ students, and 32 percent believed the filters were more likely to block content associated with students of color.

6. LAUSD Launches New Support Center for Parents

READ: Charles Hastings at The 74 covered LAUSD’s new parent center initiative, part of the district’s increased effort to provide resources to parents to support their children through school. Centers will offer access to laptops, provide financial and career workshops, and help parents learn how to use AI tools and adjust to new technologies. Engagement Officer Atonio Plascenia Jr says the district’s investment in parents is critical to student success:

“Every research study that we have seen from over 50 years shows that when we engage and empower our students and our families we accelerate outcomes,” said Plascencia.

7. Michigan Considers New Homeschooling Bill

READ/LISTEN: Michigan officials have renewed their calls for tighter home-schooling regulation amid new reports of abuse against home-schooled children in the state, but home-schooling advocates say they will fight tooth and nail to protect the status quo. Considered one of the least regulated states in the nation for home-schooling families, Michigan residents are not currently required to notify anyone if they choose a home-school option for their child, educators do not have to be certified teachers, and there is no requirement to demonstrate whether children are meeting statewide academic standards. State Rep. Kimberly Edwards was quick to clarify that pro-regulation advocates want to prevent abuse, not end home-schooling altogether:

“We’re not saying you don’t have the freedom to home-school. If home school works best for your family, so be it,” she said. “Just let the community know that that’s what you’re going to do.”

Read more from Peter Jamison at The Washington Post here, and then listen to a recent conversation Rikki and I had on Lost Debate about the rise of homeschooling here.

8. School Districts Add “Landlord” To Resume

READ: As schools seek new solutions to address an estimated 36,500 teaching vacancies nationwide, more districts have turned to housing as a key tool to help recruit and retain excellent educators. A California school district recently opened a 122-unit housing development for current staff, the Aspen School District plans to purchase and build tiny homes in order to guarantee below-market housing for all 271 employees within the next 15 years, and a school district in Vail, Colorado crowdsourced rental units from the county’s homeowners, eventually matching teachers with 30-40 new homes. All three efforts have already led to increased retention rates. Still, Aspen Superintendent Dave Baugh cautions that workforce housing can blur the lines between personal and professional:

“You wind up knowing more about some of your staff than you want to know,” Baugh said. “I wind up knowing when a tenant, one of our staff members, has too many dogs. ... [I] wind up knowing when someone isn’t a good roommate.”

Read more from Madeline Will at Education Week here.