Weekend To-Do List
9/8 - 9/10
1. Sixth Grade Field Trip to Mount Everest? It’s Possible in Virtual Reality School
READ/LISTEN: Emma Green wrote for The New Yorker about Optima Academy Online, an all-virtual K-9 school rooted in classical education, and the rise in varied schooling options due to Florida’s school-choice landscape. Activist Erika Donalds founded the school, which uses virtual reality headsets to educate its 170 students remotely, in 2022. While some parents say the model has benefited children with social anxiety, school leaders also acknowledged that navigating technology can hinder student learning. Take Green’s experience on one of Optima’s virtual reality field trips:
In the next activity, we attempted to scale the Khumbu Icefall, which in real life is a deadly stretch on one route up Everest. The format was a cross between a quiz show and a video game. Using the teleport function on our handheld controllers, we moved along a line of chairs set up along the icefall, occasionally passing a floating notecard with a review question. But there was also a physical rule put in place: no one could move the controller in their left hand. Otherwise, they’d fall from the mountain and force the whole group back to base camp, where we’d have to start all over again.
Read more here. Rikki and I also discussed Green’s reporting on Lost Debate this week. Listen here.
2. Prioritize Strong Teaching Over Gifted Education Debate
READ: Jay Mathews weighed in on the recommendation from the National Working Group on Advanced Education to replace “gifted education” with “advanced learning opportunities.” Rather than focus on terminology, Mathews suggests we prioritize empowering strong teachers who hold the bar high for all students:
The pandemic hurt efforts at advancement in many places, but accelerating even average children both as groups and individuals is making headway because word is spreading about what our best schools in low-income and average neighborhoods are doing. The most important gifts our kids are getting these days are not intellectual, but motivational. Pushy teachers are showing children, as well as parents and other teachers, how much more students can learn if they get used to doing more challenging work.
Read more in The Washington Post here.
3. Education Next’s Ira Stoll Looks Forward
READ: Education Next’s outgoing managing editor, Ira Stoll, took to the pages of his now-former publication to reflect on his tenure and argue that there are many reasons to remain optimistic about the future of education, including developments such as ESA expansions and recent Supreme Court rulings that have opened the door for the exercise of religion in schools. Stoll says we may eventually celebrate the oft-lamented culture wars as the impetus for increased parental involvement:
Finally, the culture wars at school boards and state boards of education may not be so entirely the dead-end distraction that the Acela Corridor education-policy sages imagine. Which is better—that the substance of what happens in schools is left entirely to technocrats and the teachers-union-dominated political structure? Or that parents pay attention to what is happening in school, and make their voices heard?
Read more here.
4. Atlanta Denies Charter School Application for Students With Special Needs
READ: The Atlanta Board of Education voted unanimously this week to turn down Tapestry Public Charter School’s application to open a charter school for students with special needs. Tapestry’s mission is to offer an inclusive, individualized learning environment that is academically engaging for both neurotypical students and students on the autism spectrum. The organization has operated a charter school in DeKalb County since 2013 and was recognized earlier this summer as the Georgia Charter School of the Year. Tapestry shared a statement after the vote:
“We are disappointed by the decision of the Board but also saddened that Atlanta families have been denied the opportunity to experience the small inclusive, individualized, and innovative program that Tapestry has to offer,” the school said in a statement after the vote. “The Tapestry Board is committed to replicate Tapestry and we will take some time to determine our next steps.”
While 650 parents signed a petition in favor of the application, Atlanta Public Schools has not approved a new charter school in over a decade. Read more from Martha Dalton at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution here.
5. Despite Pushback, Could Houston ISD’s Reforms Advance Student Learning?
READ: Evie Blad at Education Week reported on the changes within the Houston Independent School District since the state replaced the district’s leadership this spring. New superintendent Mike Miles has already announced several new initiatives, including district-supplied lesson plans, converting school libraries to “team centers,” and requiring teachers and principals to reapply for their jobs. While many of the moves have been met with criticism from parents and activists, Blad spoke with several education experts who said a more centralized student curriculum could lead to improved student outcomes:
Evidence suggests strengthening classroom materials can lead to improved student outcomes. In a 2016 study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, for example, researchers found that giving middle school math teachers access to inquiry-based lesson plans and online support significantly improved student achievement—and benefited weaker teachers the most.
But teachers may resist if the provided lesson plans don’t properly differentiate and address the needs of students who are far behind grade-level expectations, Steiner said, or if they don’t receive professional development on how to use the new resources.
Read more here.
6. Heat-Related Death in California PE Class
READ: A 12-year-old boy died in California this week after collapsing during his physical education class. Summer Lin at the Los Angeles Times reported on the tragedy and spoke to a family member who said the child had been told to run after not being dressed for gym class:
“He was reaching out to the teacher, saying he needed some water. He said he couldn’t breathe. He was telling the kids this,” Plummer told the station.
More schools have prioritized extreme heat policies in recent years. The National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research reported last month that heat stroke is the third-most common cause of sudden death among high school athletes. Read more here.
7. Federal Judge Blocks Arkansas Law Curbing Kids’ Social Media Access
READ: Rebecca Kern at Politico wrote about Federal Judge Timothy Brooks’ decision to block an Arkansas law that requires parental consent for minors to access social media. Tech lobbying group NetChoice, comprised of companies including Meta, Google, and TikTok, had sued this summer after alleging that the law violated the First Amendment. Brooks agreed and added that the law was unconstitutionally vague:
While the state’s goal of ensuring internet safety for kids is “admirable,” Brooks said it doesn’t justify suppressing speech addressed to adults. He also said the law isn’t narrowly tailored to address the state’s claims of alleged online harms towards children.
Read more here.
8. California Professors Sue Over DEI Mandates
READ: Six California community college professors have partnered with attorneys from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) to sue California over its new diversity, equity, and inclusion mandates. Kayla Gaskins at CBS Austin spoke with one of the plaintiffs, a chemistry professor at Reedley College, who said the mandates had no place in a classroom focused on science:
“Where is the ideology in the periodic table? Where is it appropriate to discuss the DEI principles of endemic racism when we’re talking about gas laws? I don’t know how to even do that. I don't know what that would look like," said [Bill] Blanken.
Read more here.
9. Aristocratic Sports: Affirmative Action for the Rich
READ: The Wall Street Journal’s Douglas Belkin took a deep dive into the world of “aristocratic sports” to better understand how affluent families continue to build new pipelines to elite institutions. What he found was that sports have only accelerated the opportunity gap in the U.S.:
Parents spend about $19 billion a year on youth sports programs, travel teams and specialized coaches, [sports sociologist Rick Eckstein] said. The investment creates a steep hierarchy with a disproportionate number of players from wealthy families at the top.
“Sports has this aura that it’s the antidote to inequality, that it’s a level playing field, it’s just about talent, it’s just about skill and you get judged by how good you are,” Eckstein said. “That’s not the case. Some people don’t have the ability to even get to the place where they’re judged. They can’t get through the door.”
90% of this year’s U.S.-educated Ivy League squash players attended private high schools where tuition starts at $30,000. Read more here.