Your Weekend To-Do List

April 21-23

Apr 21, 2023

The Worst Funded Schools in America

READ: ProPublica and the Idaho Statesman are out with a depressing account of what they dub "the worst-funded schools in the nation.” No state spends less per student than Idaho, and the article paints a scary and infuriating picture of what happens when you shortchange kids:

The walls were cracked. The pipes were disintegrating. The ceilings were water-stained. The electrical system was maxed out and the insulation was nearly nonexistent. Classrooms froze in the winter and baked in the summer. The roof, part of which had already collapsed once, was nearing the end of its lifespan. Outside, potholes pocked the parking lot and deep splits formed in warped sidewalks. The kindergarten playground, weathered from decades of brutal winters, had turned hazardous; at times, sharp screws protruded from some of the equipment, and kids routinely got splinters from the wooden crossbeams.
Most worrisome to Bayer and her staff: Kindergarten students had to cross a street multiple times a day just to navigate the sprawling six-building campus, a piecemeal attempt to add much-needed classroom space.

I’m all for fiscal responsibility, but I hope we can all agree the kids of Idaho deserve better. Read more here.

College Tuition Down

READ: Noah Smith over at Noahpinion points out that college tuition is, for the first time in a while, dropping.

The largest drop comes from the most expensive schools: private four-year colleges. Read more here.

Stubborn Pandemic Losses

READ: We’re still living with significant pandemic learning loss, according to a study led by Emily Oster and the National Bureau of Economic Research.

They found that while pass rates in English and math tests have improved since spring 2022, it might take about four years for English and two years for math to get back to pre-pandemic levels. Recovery varies a lot between districts and states, with factors like demographics and funding not making much of a difference. Instead, state-level pedagogical decisions, like adopting phonics-based reading policies early on, could explain the variations in bounce-back rates:

For example, school districts in New Hampshire just north of the border with Massachusetts typically saw English pass rates recover by 10% in 2022, whereas those south of the border, in Massachusetts, saw pass rates fall by more than they had between 2019 and 2021.
The results suggest that state-level decisions might be the reason for the different degrees of recovery. Mississippi and South Carolina, two states where pass rates in English bounced back to pre-covid levels, were early adopters of policies or legislation focused on teaching reading by phonics (which encourages children to learn to read by sounding out words syllable by syllable). But states that introduced such policies later on have not seen the same improvements. On the question of how to recover from lost schooling, policymakers still have a lot to learn.

A Populist Phonics Movement?

READ: Speaking of phonics, the New York Times chronicled the growing chorus of parents demanding curriculum aligned with the “science of reading.” The movement is diverse geographically, racially, and politically:

The movement has drawn support across economic, racial and political lines. Its champions include parents of children with dyslexia; civil rights activists with the N.A.A.C.P.; lawmakers from both sides of the aisle; and everyday teachers and principals.
Together, they are getting results. Ohio, California and Georgia are the latest states to push for reform, adding to almost 20 states that have made moves in the last two years. Under pressure, school districts are scrapping their old reading programs. Even holdouts like New York City, where hundreds of elementary schools were loyal to a popular but heavily criticized reading curriculum, are making changes.

The movement is a response to so-called “balanced literacy,” which had little basis in science but a lot of support from literacy gurus and publishers. Read more here.

80% of Districts in Financial Distress

READ: Philip Vaccaro and his team analyzed the financial health of K-12 districts across the country and found that only around 20% of them are in a stable financial position.

They used four main factors to figure out the level of risk, such as enrollment growth, emergency pandemic funding, growth in home values, and initiatives to increase teacher pay. Bigger districts and those serving more low-income students were more likely to be at risk. Some states, like Virginia, Mississippi, Kentucky, South Carolina, New Mexico, Illinois, Connecticut, and Oklahoma, had more than half of their districts facing financial challenges. Read more here.

The Million Dollar Classroom?

TWEET: Marc Porter Magee predicts NYC will soon spend $1 million per classroom per year:

Equity v. Personalization?

READ: Ari Blaff at the National Review wrote about how a form of personalized learning called “streaming” was abandoned in Ontario, Canada in response to critics who claimed the program wasn’t equitable:

The Ford government de-streamed ninth grade in 2022, citing the alleged threat that a tailored educational approach poses to racial minorities. Education Minister Stephen Lecce specifically denounced the practice as "systemic, racist, [and] discriminatory.”
Critics of streaming claim that the system disadvantages racial minorities by placing a disproportionate number of non-white students in less rigorous tracks. They point out that Ontario has historically begun streaming earlier than any other provinces, pigeonholing indigenous and black Canadians at a young age. However, white Toronto students and racial minorities were virtually equally represented across the three prevailing streams for grades nine and ten.

Is Biden Ducking the Discipline Debate?

READ: Mark Keierleber at The 74 wrote about frustration from activists and civil rights leaders over the slow pace of the Biden Administration’s efforts to update guidance on racial disparities in student discipline:

In a letter sent to the Education Department Wednesday and shared exclusively with The 74, advocates with the Federal School Discipline and Climate Coalition demanded the department "immediately release a revised and updated version" of the guidance and accused officials of failing "to provide adequate accountability, oversight and enforcement of civil rights laws.”
In an interview with The 74, a senior Education Department official declined to say whether updated guidance is in the works or to provide a timeline. But the department’s Office for Civil Rights, the official said, is currently investigating 343 cases related to racial discrimination in student discipline. The 2014 guidance outlined the department’s interpretation of federal civil rights rules and urged districts to adopt restorative justice and other discipline reforms, but the senior department official said the civil rights office has no difficulty enforcing federal discrimination rules aside from the challenges that come with taking on an "enormous caseload.”