Weekend To-Do List

8/10 - 8/11

and

Aug 10, 2024

1. Bloomberg Donates $600M to Historically Black Medical Schools

READ: Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a $600 million gift to the country’s four historically Black medical schools earlier this week. Howard University College of Medicine, Meharry Medical College, Morehouse School of Medicine, and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine & Science graduate roughly half of the Black doctors in the country, and school leaders said the funding will contribute towards a future where every person has access to quality health care from providers they can rely on:

“It really comes down to trust,” said James E.K. Hildreth, Meharry’s president. “Health care only works when the provider is trusted” by the patient. “That was a big deal during the pandemic, when the four Black medical schools were called upon to engage minority communities, because trust was a huge factor in accepting the vaccine.”

Read more from Susan Svrluga in The Washington Post here.

2. The Irony of the School Choice Vote

READ: Paul E. Peterson took to the pages of Education Next to argue that school choice proponents aligned with the Republican party’s education platform could risk losing ground on their policy goals if Donald Trump is elected this November, given that gubernatorial and midterm elections have a greater influence on school choice policies than presidential elections:

Two things routinely happen in the midterms. A lower percentage of the population turns out to vote, and the party in the White House loses seats to the opposition. The winning presidential candidate, who tends to carry fellow partisans into office on his or her coattails in the general election, is not on the midterm ballot, leaving those candidates on their own. Also, voters may prefer to vote for the opposition to counterbalance the awesome power of the presidency.

3. Colleges Gradually Adjust to Rapid Change

READ/LISTEN: Milla Surjadi at The Wall Street Journal reported on the growing number of colleges revamping their courses to meet the demand for AI education, and the challenges that come with incorporating a rapidly growing technology into their curriculum:

Educators say their main concern is being able to keep up with the technology’s breakneck growth. At most schools, it can take years for committees to approve new academic programs.

“Take a two-week vacation and you might be behind,” said Kavita Bala, dean of Cornell’s College of Computing and Information Science.

Read more here, and listen to Kate and Chris discuss the importance of workforce training in K-12 during last week’s episode of The Citizen Stewart Show here.

4. BMI Report Cards: F

READ: Amanda Salazar took a closer look at the impact of BMI screenings in schools, a practice introduced in the early 2000s as part of a national effort to combat childhood obesity. While 16 states currently mandate BMI screening or a similar policy, research shows that the screenings have no significant impact on student health and cause harm in the form of increased weight-based bullying and body-image dissatisfaction:

“To focus efforts on just measuring the increasing waistline of America is a Band-Aid,” says Kristine Madsen, a pediatrician and a public-health nutrition researcher at UC Berkeley, who conducted one of the largest studies of school BMI screenings to date. “It doesn’t even touch the underlying problem, and it’s ineffective.”

5. New Study Finds Charter Schools Boost Academic Success

READ: The National Bureau of Economic Research studied students in 15 urban and nine non-urban charter schools in Massachusetts and found that they were significantly more likely to enroll in and graduate from a four-year college compared to their non-charter peers:

After two years enrolled in an urban charter school, student test scores increased by almost half a standard deviation in math and 30 percent of a standard deviation in English. For nonurban charter students, their scores actually decreased modestly, declining around 10 percent of a standard deviation in math and English.
However, this didn't seem to hurt their college attendance and graduation rates. Students in nonurban charter schools were 10 percentage points more likely to attain a four-year degree than their counterparts in traditional public schools. Urban charter students saw a 4.1-point jump in attainment.

Read more from Emma Camp in Reason here.

6. How Bad Is Texas’s Learning Slide? It’s Unclear

READ: A recent study by Curriculum Associates Research confirmed that younger students continue to show concerning academic growth trends compared to pre-pandemic data, a trend connected to disruptions in early childhood experiences, difficulties with virtual learning, and lower attendance and enrollment in early grades. Asad Jung at The Texas Tribune spoke with Texan educators and advocates who say the state’s lack of data makes it difficult to pinpoint the impact — and the fix:

[Miguel] Solis said the state needs to start collecting literacy data for early grades to identify students who are not on track and intervene. He’s hopeful because some lawmakers in both the Texas House and Senate have already expressed interest in taking a close look at how young students learn foundational skills, he said.
“We can’t wait until the third grade STAAR to see how younger students are progressing,” he said.

7. Superintendent Forced Out After Too Much Success

READ: Kavitha Cardoza at The Hechinger Report investigated the rise and fall of Russellville, Alabama Superintendent Heath Grimes, who won state and national recognition for his work with English learners in the district before being informed that the school board would not renew his contract when it ended in June 2024. Cardoza spoke with educators, families, and community members who say Cardoza was forced out by a conservative town with an antipathy toward immigrants:

“Heath Grimes put students first. And this ultimately may have hurt him,” said Jason Barnett, superintendent of the Guntersville City Board of Education in northern Alabama and one of dozens of district leaders in the state who worked closely with Grimes. Approximately 18 educators and community leaders in Russellville, many of them with knowledge of the events, told me that Grimes’ support for the growing English learner population was key to his loss of support among top city leadership. Many asked not to be quoted for fear of retaliation or straining relationships in this small community. One school administrator, who did not want to be identified for fear of losing their job, said of Grimes: “Many folks said the increase in the undocumented population was because he made Russellville schools a welcoming place that immigrants wanted to live in. People didn’t like that.”