Is Money an Issue?
As a candidate for president in 2020, Kamala Harris introduced a plan to raise teacher salaries by $13,500.
Why that specific dollar amount? Harris was thinking along economic lines, and she sold the policy as one that would erase the teacher wage gap, as documented over the years by the Economic Policy Institute. As of the most recent report, with data through 2022, the institute estimated that educators earn 26% less in weekly wages than other workers with similar academic credentials.
It’s more than social economic status
Data suggests socioeconomic factors play an important role in explaining the gaps in knowledge and skills that emerge between different racial groups as early as kindergarten—but that class doesn’t explain everything. That’s according to new research from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative Washington think tank.
The report, released Aug. 21, builds on extended research from two decades ago that analyzed the achievement gap between Black and Hispanic students and their white peers, which suggested that a family’s socioeconomic status accounts for a large swath of the achievement gap. But it also isn’t the whole story.
Positive implications from Dual Language
Students in schools without such programs, that don’t offer meetings with English learner families, and that are overcrowded were associated with worse performance.
In the decade between 2010 and 2020, the English learner population grew by half a million, from 4.5 to about 5 million students, according to the report. While most English learners are born in the U.S., there has also since been an influx of refugee and asylum-seeking families.
Meanwhile, dual language immersion programs — found to significantly raise student achievement in core subjects for English learners — continue to grow in popularity nationwide.
Improving Attendance is a Must
Reedley High School relies on a network of teams to monitor attendance, engage students and plan individualized interventions.
As principal of the 1,800-student Reedley High School in California, John Ahlin knows he can’t be in all places all the time, so he relies on a network of teams that monitor attendance, along with learning, teaching, school management, school culture and more.
Ahlin credits this team approach for Reedley High’s low chronic absenteeism rate of 5.6%. Nationally, chronic absenteeism — measured as when students miss 10% of the school year, or about 18 days — was 29.7% in 2022, which is the last year for which nonprofit group Attendance Works has national data.
Pandemic Babies academic progress
Principals report developmental challenges for younger students post-pandemic. Upcoming NAEP results will yield results on academic performance.
“I don’t know what the results look like, but we shall see if they align” with other indicators for this group, such as their reported decline in socioemotional and behavioral development, said Carr during the National Assessment Governing Board’s quarterly meeting on Thursday. NAGB sets policy for the Nation’s Report Card, while NCES administers the assessment and analyzes the results.
In 2021, only 40% of 3- to 4-year-olds and 79% of 5-year-olds were enrolled in school, compared to 49% and 86%, respectively, in 2019. For 2022, data shows those percentages at 47% and 84% respectively, according to NCES.
Protecting students from online platforms
One of the bills, the Kids Online Safety Act, is stirring concerns over censorship and schools’ ability to use ed tech.
Senate passage of the two bills follows a recent Biden administration report calling for legislation to protect children and teens online. The administration also sought a ban on advertising targeted at young people and the collection of their personal data.
Students are still lagging behind
Eighth graders remain a full school year behind pre-pandemic levels in math and reading, according to new test results that offer a bleak view on the reach of federal recovery efforts more than fours years after COVID hit.
Released Tuesday, the data from over 7.7 million students who took the widely used MAP Growth tests from NWEA doesn’t bode well for teens entering high school this fall. Finishing 4th grade when the pandemic hit, many students not only lost at least a year of in-person learning, but also transitioned to middle school during a chaotic period of teacher vacancies and rising absenteeism.
Throwing out Report Cards
A movement to throw out traditional A-F grades in favor of tracking high school students as they gain mastery of academic and life skills is gaining momentum, with five states and powerful players joining forces to advance it.
The hope of the “Skills for the Future” collaboration is to make it easy for schools to treat so-called “durable” skills such as critical thinking, teamwork and perseverance the same as traditional subjects like math and English. That includes giving students new tests and a new report card that shows how well they have mastered those other skills as they apply to colleges or jobs.
Digging deeper into Chronic Absenses
Nearly 15 million children were chronically absent in the 2021-22 school year, doubling pre-pandemic numbers, and millions have lived through at least one traumatic experience, such as parent death or abuse.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2024 Kids Count Data Book examines the causes driving the “astonishing” rates, resulting in bleak educational outcomes and disproportionately impacting Native, Black and Latino children.
The national report, which explores social, health and economic factors across all 50 states while also highlighting programs that work, paints a stark portrait of the state of child well-being. From a decline in the number of 3 and 4 year olds in school to an increase in the rate of child deaths, it warns the United States “stands on the precipice of losing our economic standing.”
Through the eyes of new teachers
The series, called “America’s Future Teachers,” comes at a time when the teaching profession is in turmoil. Many current teachers report high levels of stress and dissatisfaction in their roles. Some have left the field. School districts are often not able to fill every open position, or not able to fill them with qualified candidates. And the rate of individuals enrolling in teacher preparation programs has dropped precipitously in the last couple of decades, resulting in too few incoming teachers to serve the student population. The U.S. Education Department even started airing TV ads to encourage people to enter the profession.
