Chalkbeat

To engage students in math, educators try connecting it to their culture

2024-05-13T10:04:00+00:00

This story about ethnomathematics was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

Before she got to the math in her lesson on linear equations last fall, Sydney Kealanahela asked her class of eighth graders on Oahu why kalo, or taro root, is so important in Hawaii. What do you know about kalo, she asked them. Have you ever picked it?

A boy who had never spoken in class, and never seemed even slightly interested in math, raised his hand.

“He said, ‘I pick kalo with my grandma. She has a farm,’” Kealanahela recalled. “He was excited to tell us about that.”

Class discussion got animated. Everybody knew about poi, the creamy staple Hawaiian food made from mashed taro. Others had even noticed that there were fewer taro farms on Oahu.

That’s when Kealanahela guided the conversation to the whiteboard, plotting data on pounds of taro produced over time on a graph, which created a perfect descending line. The class talked about why there is less taro production, which led to a discussion about the shortage of farm labor.

Kealanahela had taught eighth-grade math for six years at a campus of the Kamehameha Schools, but this was the first time she had started a lesson with a conversation about farming. The idea came from professional development she’d just completed, in ethnomathematics, an approach that connects math to culture by embedding math in a story about something relevant to students’ lives.

Ethnomathematics isn’t new, but until recently it was limited to a niche area of educational and anthropological research on how different cultures use math. Over the past couple of decades, it has evolved into one of several efforts to create more engaging and inclusive math classrooms, particularly for Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous students, who tend to score lower on federal tests than their Asian American and white peers. Ethnomathematics advocates say that persistent achievement gaps are in part a result of overly abstract math instruction that’s disconnected from student experience, and that there’s an urgent need for new approaches that recognize mathematical knowledge as it’s practiced outside of textbooks.

Many Black and brown students don’t feel comfortable in math classes, said Shelly Jones, professor of math education at Central Connecticut State University. She said those classes tend to be “competitive” and that teachers “hone in on what Black and brown students don’t know as opposed to honoring what they do know.” She added: “We are trying to pull in students who have not traditionally felt they belonged in math spaces.”

That said, research on the impact of ethnomathematics is limited, and its practice is largely confined to individual classrooms — like Kealanehela’s — where the teacher has sought out the approach. And teachers who incorporate ethnomathematics without the right support and instructional tools risk stumbling into a cultural minefield, experts say. Most teachers in U.S. classrooms are white. If one of those white teachers decides their Hispanic students should learn base-20 Mayan numbers, and their students ask why, the teacher will have to come up with an answer, said Ron Eglash, a professor in the University of Michigan’s School of Information.

“Telling kids, ‘Because it’s your heritage,’ sounds really awkward from a white teacher,” Eglash said.

But experts say that high-quality ethnomathematics lessons boost student confidence and engagement when used by teachers (of any race) who have been trained and who allow students the time to explore the material on their own and through discussion.

Math isn’t just ‘something the Greeks created’

Ethnomathematics falls under the same umbrella as culturally responsive math instruction. Experts say that teaching math this way requires teachers to get to know their students and create a learning environment where students can connect to math concepts. It involves developing lessons that reveal the math in everyday activities, like skateboarding, braiding, and weaving. It can also include exploring the math involved in cultural practices, like beading.

“A lot of this work is about removing barriers or perceptions from a marginalized population that math is something the Greeks created and is imposed on me,” said Mark Ellis, a professor of education at California State University, Fullerton. He said that culturally responsive instruction takes other measures into account, besides academic outcomes, when determining impact. These include students’ attitude about math, sense of belonging in math classes, and engagement in math discourses.

Traditional math instruction, Ellis said, is treated as if math were acultural, even though, as we know it in the U.S., math descended from the computational traditions of many places, including Mesopotamia (360-degree circles), ancient Greece (geometry and trigonometry), India (decimal notation, the concept of zero) and China (negative numbers). If these mathematical traditions are taught, Ellis and others ask, then why not Hawaiian calculations for slope, sub-Saharan fractal geometry, and Mayan counting systems?

Related: Eliminating advanced math ‘tracks’ often prompts outrage. Some districts buck the trend

Eglash argues that ethnomathematics lessons aren’t just for students from the culture that the lessons draw from. It’s important that students explore math concepts from all cultures, including their own, he said.

Ethnomathematics, a term coined in the 1970s by Brazilian mathematician Ubiratan D’Ambrosio, first appeared in the U.S. about 25 years ago. That’s when Eglash and his wife, University of Michigan design professor Audrey Bennett, developed a suite of teaching modules by which students learn the history or context of a practice — braiding hair into cornrows, for example — and then use algebra, geometry, and trigonometry to create their own cornrow designs with software.

Eglash and Bennett designed the teaching tools with the idea that students can use a module to create their work, which can mean mixing cultures. A Puerto Rican student used Eglash’s module about Native American beading to create a Puerto Rican flag simulation.

In 2009, Richmond City Public Schools asked Eglash and Bennett to teach a module called Cornrow Curves to a class of Black 10th graders. Eglash asked the class where cornrows came from. Their answer: “Brooklyn!” That led to discussion about the African origins of cornrows — where they indicated marriage status, religious affiliation, and other social markers — and on through cornrows’ history during the Middle Passage, Civil Rights, hip-hop, and Afrofuturism.

Only then did the students begin doing math, designing their own cornrows, noticing how the plaits get closer together or further apart depending on the values students enter in a simulation. One student created a design for straight-line cornrows by visually estimating how far to space them apart. In her presentation to class, Eglash recalled, she said that “there are 12 spaces between the braids on one side, which covers 90 degrees, so the braids are positioned every 7.5 degrees because 90/12 = 7.5.”

The Cornrow Curves module and other lessons like it have now been adopted by districts in 25 states. The Los Angeles Unified School District, for example, began offering a culturally responsive computer science curriculum in 2008 that incorporates ethnomathematics lessons that Eglash and Bennett developed. Some evidence indicates that this course helped boost student participation in computer science: An external evaluation found that enrollment in the classes rose by nearly 800 percent from 2009 to 2014.

This screen capture of a Cornrow Curves programming module shows how mathematical concepts can be used to describe plaits of hair.

In 2012, Chicago Public Schools adopted the same curriculum for an introduction to computer science course and invested in significant professional development for teachers. In 2016, the intro to computer science course became a graduation requirement for all Chicago high school students, and 250 teachers are trained each year on the curriculum.

An outside analysis of the Chicago program showed that students who took the course before taking AP computer science were 3.5 times more likely to pass the AP computer science exam than those who only took the AP course. A separate study in Chicago and Wisconsin showed that where the course was offered racial and gender achievement divides disappeared and that students were more likely to take another computer science class.

Culturally responsive lessons help students feel like they belong

Keily Hernandez, 15, a first-year student at Chicago’s George Westinghouse College Prep High School, was happy to see the computer science course on her schedule this year, because she plans to major in computer science in college. At first, she found the cornrows module challenging — getting the designs to look the way she wanted them to look was difficult — but it was also fun, she said.

The class is collaborative, she said, and students often turn to each other or to the internet for ideas and help. Hernandez said that taking the class has relieved her doubts that she can be a computer scientist.

“The class made me reassured,” she said. “Math isn’t something that you just know, the same way that computer science isn’t something that you just know. You get better at it the more you do it.”

It’s students like Hernandez that Linda Furuto wanted to attract when she took the job as head of the math and science subdivision at the University of Hawaii West Oahu in 2007. At the time, student enrollment was so low that the school offered just two math courses. Furuto, who had grown up on Oahu and received her doctorate. in math education from the University of California, Los Angeles, recalled thinking, “This isn’t working. We need to implement ethnomathematics here.”

Related: Data science under fire: What math do high schoolers really need?

Over the next six years, she began to integrate ethnomathematics into coursework, and student interest grew. By 2013, the university offered more than 20 math classes.

“Students would say things like, ‘I hated math. I felt no connection to it. But now I see that math is my culture and because of that I want to be a secondary math teacher,’” Furuto said. “Just knowing that the life of a student has in some way, shape or form been transformed speaks volumes.”

In 2018, Furuto established the world’s first ethnomathematics graduate certificate and master’s degree program. So far, about 300 teachers have participated in the online program; about half are from Hawaii.

While teachers in Chicago get ongoing professional development in cohorts both before and while they teach the district’s ethnomathematics-based computer science course, educators who complete the University of Hawaii program are highly likely to be the only teacher at their school with this niche training.

Janel Marr teaches in the University of Hawaii’s ethnomathematics graduate program.

Kealanahela, the teacher on Oahu, said that as inspired as she was by the ethnomathematics program, she doesn’t have time to teach using the method more than twice every three months.

“To create a really good lesson that feels authentic to me, and not just thrown together,” she said, “it takes time to do the research.”

For a teacher who doesn’t have colleagues in their school using the same approach, it can be hard to fit in something new like ethnomathematics, said Janel Marr, a math resource teacher in Oahu’s Windward School District.

Marr was one of the first teachers to participate in the ethnomathematics graduate program, as an eighth-grade math teacher. Today she teaches in the graduate program.“When you go back to the classroom, there are so many other things from all sides, from administration and curriculum to state tests,” she said. “It starts to get overwhelming. It’s not being implemented as much as we in the program would want it to be.”

Math content should relate to the real world

Ideally, said Eglash, ethnomathematics content should be related to real-world situations, even if that involves exploring painful periods of history. Where possible, content should connect with art, history, sports, and math to provide multiple ways for students to interact. This is critical, he said, to address power dynamics and “identity barriers” in the classroom, like the race of the teacher. When teachers let students explore content individually and through group discussion, students gain control over their own learning.

“The teacher finds a way to use the tool that is authentic — which is something the kids pick up on and respect, even for white folks,” he said. “It’s when you are trying to be something you are not that teaching becomes awkward.”

Doing ethnomathematics right can also engage teachers, Marr said. She had been teaching eighth-grade math at Kailua Intermediate School for 13 years when she hit a wall. Her students would ask why they had to learn math, she said, and she didn’t have an answer. She was looking for inspiration when she heard about the University of Hawaii’s ethnomathematics program.

“My students would learn to work with the numbers and everything, but it wasn’t like they were making a connection of why there is slope,” Marr said.

Related: How one district diversified its advanced math classes — without the controversy

After earning her master’s, Marr had the idea to approach linear equations in a new way. She showed her students a photo of a mountain with a long, bare line down its lush, forested side and asked if anyone knew what they were looking at. Most students didn’t.

She wrote a word on the whiteboard: holua. The path, students learned from research they did in class, was made of gravel pounded into lava rocks, and it ran down the side of the Hualālai Volcano on the east side of Hawaii. Elite members of ancient Hawaiian communities sledded down mountainside paths like this one as part of the extreme sport known as holua.

“We talked about those pictures and talked about, well what would the slope be? How fast might they be going? Because slope is really related to the rate of speed,” she said. “Math isn’t just theoretical. It’s having an experience of being part of the place.”

Not just oppression: Lessons from one state on how schools can get Asian American history right

2024-05-09T11:01:00+00:00

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A former California park ranger traced his fingers over the Chinese characters carved onto a wall. It was as if ghosts were there, sharing their stories, he said.

The ranger was standing in the immigration station on Angel Island, the lesser-known West Coast counterpart to Ellis Island. Tens of thousands of immigrants, mostly from China and Japan, were detained there in the early 1900s. Many left behind poems or messages.

Poems written in Chinese can be seen etched into the walls at the Angel Island Immigration Station in California.

Dozens of Illinois teachers watched the ranger in a recorded video. They had gathered over Zoom to learn about how they could incorporate Angel Island and other key elements of Asian American history into their lessons. It was part of a university-led training meant to help Illinois teachers comply with a three-year-old, first-in-the-nation law that requires schools statewide to teach at least one unit of Asian American history.

Laura Ouk, one of the trainers that April evening, pulled up two poems from Angel Island and asked the teachers to read them aloud. Then she offered some sample questions the teachers could use with their students to examine tone and themes, as well as how they might connect the poetry to the works of poets like Langston Hughes and Joy Harjo.

“They really appreciate being able to see it in action,” Ouk said, “rather than just being like: ‘Here’s a resource, now good luck!’”

Across the country, advocates are pushing for American history to include more perspectives and stories. Eleven states now require public schools to teach Asian American history in some capacity, and several others are considering similar proposals. But as states and school districts adopt new curriculum requirements, educators can struggle with their own lack of knowledge, where to find quality resources — and how to fit it all into an already crowded syllabus.

Laura Ouk demonstrates how teachers can use poems from Angel Island in their lessons as part of an April 2024 training about teaching Asian American history.

The work happening in Illinois offers insight into what can help. It’s common for teachers to feel overwhelmed and think: “I need to teach this, I don’t even fully know this yet,” said Ouk, the visiting inclusive education director at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s College of Education and Illinois State Board of Education.

To address that, teacher trainers say they’re modeling lessons, showing teachers where Asian American voices and experiences naturally fit within existing curriculum, and sharing strategies that are useful for teaching the history of many marginalized groups.

“We don’t want teachers to blow up their curriculums,” Ouk said.

Why states are requiring Asian American history lessons

When Illinois’ governor signed the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History Act in 2021, it became the first state with a standalone law requiring public schools to teach Asian American history. Since then, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Florida have enacted similar laws.

Half a dozen other states — California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon and Utah — require schools to teach Asian American history as part of a broader curriculum, according to a 2023 report by the Committee of 100, a nonprofit tracking these efforts.

Proponents of these laws say they’re necessary because students typically don’t learn much Asian American history at school.

Eighteen states are silent on what students should learn in their history classes, according to research conducted by Sohyun An, a professor of social studies education at Kennesaw State University.

Other states focus on just a handful of events in Asian American history, An found, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Often, that instruction presents Asian Americans as powerless victims, An said, without showing acts of resistance, such as how Chinese immigrants who built the railroad protested their working conditions and pay. And it tends to be simplistic, glossing over, for instance, how U.S. and European imperialism created economic hardships that forced many Chinese to leave their home country.

“When we teach about power and oppression, we need to highlight people’s agency, resistance, and solidarity,” An said. “That’s, I think, what good history education is about.”

Collaboration is key to Asian American history training

As happens in many states, Illinois did not offer additional funding to help schools fulfill the new Asian American history requirement. So nonprofits, universities, and foundations have stepped in to offer training and support.

Ouk is part of the University of Illinois’ efforts to offer teachers both live and go-at-your-own-pace sessions. Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Chicago, a nonprofit that works on racial equity issues, launched a free training for teachers in 2022 and put together written examples of how teachers can include Asian American experiences in their reading and social studies lessons.

The organization also maintains a giant database of lesson ideas.

“We’re trying to sift through all the garbage,” said Esther Hurh, an education consultant who helped develop the training and now leads sessions for educators. “Teachers want to do this, they just need people to support them.”

Together, the university and the nonprofit trained 1,700 teachers across Illinois last school year, the first year the new requirement was in effect. It’s a good start, advocates say, but a lot more teachers still need training. Without a better understanding of the Asian American experience, experts say, it’s harder for teachers to try out sample lessons, even if they’re good ones.

During the training that Hurh leads, teachers read reflections from Asian American teachers about how it felt not to see themselves in their own schools’ curriculum. Many felt ashamed or excluded.

Esther Hurh helped develop a teacher training for Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Chicago.

In one essay, a Japanese American teacher recalls that as her high school history class approached its unit on Japanese American incarceration, she readied herself to share what happened to her own family.

But the teacher sped through the lesson, and there was no time for sharing.

“When you’re negated in curriculum, that plays a huge role in how you feel and understand your connection to schooling,” Hurh said. “For a lot of teachers, that’s a very compelling argument for them to do this work. Because, in the end, they’re doing it for their students.”

The training breaks down the many nationalities and ethnic groups that fit within the Asian American umbrella. Teachers also learn about two major Asian American stereotypes — the racist “yellow peril” and the “model minority” — and how those ideas repeat throughout history.

With that groundwork laid, teachers watch several model lessons, including how they can include the story of Mamie Tape, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, in lessons about efforts to desegregate U.S. schools; how Larry Itliong, a Filipino American, contributed to the famous Delano grape strike; and how the children’s book “A Different Pond” can support teaching about the resettlement of Vietnamese refugees.

Trainers want to show teachers how they can choose literature and primary sources that not only center the voices of Asian Americans, but diversify the voices they include. Stories about Pacific Islanders and South and Southeast Asians tend to be even less represented than those from East Asia, Hurh noted.

How teachers have put their training into action

Tom McManamen, who heads the social studies department at Neuqua Valley High School in west suburban Chicago, walked away from his session with 24 pages of typed notes that he still consults.

He now looks for additional visuals as he teaches about what it means to be American. For example, he plays a video in his human geography class about a Sikh farmer in California. When his students see a man in cowboy boots wearing a turban, they often exclaim: “Oh, wow!”

High school teachers across McManamen’s school district and county are getting trained, too. One colleague used what he learned to incorporate the murder of Vincent Chin into lessons about immigration and the auto industry. Another used political cartoons to teach about Asian American stereotypes. The training helped teachers know what to look for as they searched for resources that weren’t shown during the training, too.

“What I love is when I hear them brainstorming over it,” McManamen said, “What used to be a difficult conversation, like: ‘How do we do this?’ It’s now: ‘Oh, you could do this, we could do this! I ran across this when I was watching TV that was totally a great example!’”

Still, even with this kind of training, experts in the field admit it can be difficult for teachers to cover as much ground as they might like, especially if their state also has requirements around teaching Black, Latino, and Indigenous histories.

An, of Kennesaw State University, noted that teaching students skills so they can conduct historical inquiries on their own helps them keep learning. That could include showing students how to find stories that challenge the dominant narrative, read between the lines of primary sources, or look for examples of resistance whenever there is oppression.

“We don’t have to teach every single topic,” An said. “One lesson can do so many things actually, if it’s well-done.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

What to know about the upcoming state tests for grades 3-8

2023-03-23T21:50:12+00:00

It’s testing season in New York once again.

Schools across the state will administer standardized reading and math exams for grades 3-8 in April and May, as well as science exams for eighth graders in June.

With the intense attention on the pandemic’s effect on students, some schools might be ramping up their focus on the state tests. Some districts have signed up their schools for computer-based programs for math and reading, according to Nathaniel Styer, a spokesperson for the city education department. It’s part of a learning “acceleration” initiative launched earlier this year by the education department, Gothamist reported.

There might be more attention on this year’s state tests, following the spotlight on last year’s dip in national test scores, which also showed drops in fourth grade math scores in New York City.

But there’s a big caveat with the state tests: This year, the exams are based on new learning standards and can’t be compared to results from the last school year, when nearly half of students passed reading exams and 38% passed math.

Many educators and families argue that testing takes away classroom time and doesn’t tell the full story of how a student is doing — a viewpoint schools Chancellor David Banks has previously echoed. Others believe it is a useful tool.

State officials said the tests are just “one tool” that helps teachers understand their students’ academic needs.

Here are some things you should know about the upcoming exams:

When are the tests and how will they be administered at schools?

Schools will give the state English test over a consecutive, two-day period between April 19-21. If students are absent those days, they can make up the tests between April 24-28.

Two weeks later, students will take math tests from May 2-4 with make-up dates scheduled for May 5-11.

Eighth graders will take a science laboratory exam between May 23 and June 2 and a written exam on June 3. Make-up tests for the lab exam must happen sometime within that testing window, while make-up dates for the written exam take place between June 6-9. There will be no fourth grade science test as the state prepares to transition to a science test for fifth graders, beginning next spring.

Most New York City schools will give the exams on paper. So far, 130 schools plan to use computer-based testing, Styer said — which has sometimes come with technical issues across the state. For computer-based tests, the window for English exams will be April 19-26 and for math will be May 2-9.

While computer-based testing is currently optional, mandated computer-based state testing will begin next spring for grades 5 and 8. All schools will be required to give the exam on computers in the spring of 2026 for all grades.

How will the tests be different this year?

For the first time, this year’s state tests will be based on the “Next Generation Learning Standards,” a set of grade-level learning standards established in 2017 that were revised from the controversial Common Core standards.

The Next Gen standards, as they’re often called, were meant to clarify previously vague language from the Common Core. For example, whereas Common Core geometry standards simply stated that students must be able to “prove theorems about triangles,” Next Gen’s revisions detailed the specific theorems.

When the state’s Board of Regents adopted the new standards, some groups lauded them for not straying too far from Common Core, while other education organizations said the standards were too rigorous for early grades.

What do the new tests mean for scoring them?

New tests also mean that the state will determine new benchmarks of what makes a student proficient in reading, math, and science. This summer, teachers will participate in a process where they will decide what students need to know in order to demonstrate that they’re meeting grade-level standards – otherwise known as being proficient – on state exams. That process will impact scoring for this spring’s tests.

“It’s a matter of judgment to decide, ‘OK, we think a student who’s proficient should be able to answer this question correctly, say, two-thirds of the time,’” said Aaron Pallas, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College, giving an example.

Can we compare scores to last year?

No. Because the tests are new, the results can’t be compared to last year’s scores. Studying scores from year to year is helpful for understanding progress students have made — especially amid the pandemic.

But because state officials have warned against comparing results to previous years whenever the test changes, it’s been impossible to consider trends over the better part of a decade.

In 2016, New York allowed students to have unlimited testing time and cut the number of questions. In 2018 the state went from three testing days to two. The exams were canceled due to the pandemic in 2020, and the following school year, a fraction of students took shortened exams with just a quarter in New York City — far less than 2019.

They advised against comparisons with last year’s scores because looking at a student’s performance in 2022 versus 2019 would “ignore the enormous and, in many cases, grievous impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students, families, teachers, and entire school communities,” a spokesperson for the state education department said in a statement.

That may be frustrating to some educators, families, and researchers because it makes it impossible to see long-term trends of student performance and growth. These exams, however, are just one indicator of how well students are doing in New York, said Pallas, and should be viewed along with other metrics, such as graduation rates and college acceptance rates.

“The state testing system is just one piece of evidence that has to be put into relation to all the other things that are available,” Pallas said.

How are my child’s scores used?

Schools are federally required to administer these exams, and districts are required to assess 95% of their students.

In New York City, the exams are used to see where students are meeting grade-level expectations “as well as students that need academic intervention in literacy and math,” Styer said.

State officials have said that these scores are just one measure of how a student is doing in school. However, the scores don’t come back until the fall – meaning teachers can’t see them the year that children take the exams.

In New York City, high schools and middle schools that screen students for admission can no longer take state test scores into account.

Can I opt my child out?

Yes. While federal officials require schools to administer these tests, parents can pull their children out. New York City’s education department has previously advised parents to speak with their child’s principal if they’re interested in opting out.

Last year, 10% of students opted out of exams compared with 4% in 2019.

Federal law requires states to give assessments to at least 95% of students. If fewer students participate at a school, it could contribute to the school being labeled as struggling – which state officials define as needing “targeted” or “comprehensive” support. But generally, low test participation may only affect a school’s accountability status if it’s combined with bad results on other measures, such as chronic absenteeism, according to state education officials.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

This Brooklyn high school psychology teacher wants her students to channel pessimism into action

2024-04-30T22:47:37+00:00

It might seem odd that a high school psychology teacher would be selected for a National Geographic teacher fellowship in the Arctic, but for Caitlyn Homol, last summer’s “paradigm-shifting experience” inspired her to develop a new interdisciplinary unit.

As the International Baccalaureate, or IB, Teaching and Learning Coordinator and IB Psychology teacher at Brooklyn Prospect High School, Homol is teaming up with her school’s Environmental Systems and Societies course to explore “the relationship between motivation, action, and climate attitudes that culminates in a beach cleanup and reflection.”

While on the 17-day expedition, Homol saw polar bears on land since there wasn’t enough sheet ice for their traditional hunting patterns. She saw marine debris on the shores of islands hundreds of miles north of inhabited towns. She and others started to feel pessimistic “about our collective chances of being able to preserve the sights we were seeing for future generations.”

That led Homol to get involved with visiting scientists from the Rozalia Project as they collected data on microplastics in the waters. She ended up filling in at the last minute for one of Rozalia’s Maine expeditions right as school was starting, helping them meet their 20,000-pound cleanup goal for summer 2023. That experience, she said, “brought me so much hope and energy for what we can do when we work together to do hard things.”

Homol, who has spent four of her nine-year teaching career at Brooklyn Prospect, recently won a national teaching award from the American Psychological Association.

Teaching psychology, Homol believes, gives students a strong background in social science research, and she encourages her students to seek out research opportunities when they go to college.

“I also think this course has so many natural connections with students’ own experiences,” she said. “There’s a unique chance for them to develop new self-knowledge while also expanding their perspectives of other people’s experiences.”

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How and when did you decide to become a teacher?

I attended Ohio State University as a first-generation student who had also been very transient in middle and high school, bouncing between schools up and down the East Coast and the South. I’d been a successful student but missed more than a couple of foundational courses I needed to be successful in my initial declared major, which was biomedical engineering. I was confused and humiliated by the struggles I faced in my chemistry and calculus classes, and after ending up on academic probation my first quarter, I lied to most people about how school was going because I was terrified of letting them down.

As a condition of exiting probation, I chose to take an education psychology course about study strategies at the Dennis Learning Center. It was transformative and helped reduce the fear I felt that I did not belong in college. I ended up working there for three years of undergrad as a learning specialist, where I facilitated workshops and met 1:1 with other students at OSU to interpret research to find meaningful study strategies.

That’s what led me to consider teaching, and Teach for America was an alternative certification program I was familiar with.

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

I deeply appreciate my colleague, Khanh Le, who adapted an exercise she came across in her developmental psych program for our students. It asks students to take a fictional family of seven of different genders and ages and arrange them into hypothetical homes with room counts ranging from 1-7, in arrangements that are both ideal and least ideal.

Our students, who have a variety of cultural backgrounds, are often surprised to find that they have nearly unanimous agreement with each other in their room arrangements. We discuss the findings of the original study, which suggest that some values driving those arrangements are unique to the West and others are universal — and the consensus we have in our own answers is a proof of acculturation, or assimilation to U.S./New York culture. I love this lesson because it ties together research, relatability, and strikes a balance between appreciating difference and finding commonality with others around the world.

Are there particular things that students are seeing or experiencing in their lives related to the course that come up in the classroom?

The first thing that has positively shifted the tone of conversations we have in class is the decreasing stigma of mental health concerns.

At our school, we teach the “Abnormal Psychology” option offered in the IB Psychology course, and students are tremendously open and excited to share their experiences with each other. I would have been so embarrassed to talk about my mental health at that age, but kids are supportive and continue the conversation with questions or their own contributions.

The second development I’ve seen is less positive: I’ve noticed that students carry more pessimism these days. More students feel that nothing matters, and that there is nothing that can be done to improve the circumstances of themselves or their communities. This is a comprehensible reaction to climate developments, the inertia of systems and institutions to change, and an eroding pretense that a college education is a ticket to financial stability. I also think social media algorithms proliferate a lot of cynical (if not outright incorrect) interpretations of psychological and sociological knowledge.

I think as educators of young people, part of our role is to inspire students and to teach pathways to change. Of course, we have a duty to portray the world realistically in our classrooms. Many things are actually dire. But I think we also must take care to invite students to construct generative interpretations and applications of knowledge and research. Otherwise, we are left with the status quo and that pessimistic vision does become our fate.

We also have to let them feel the impact of taking action with others, *doing* things rather than just talking about them. This is tricky for adults too, but my summer experiences underscored how meaningful optimism comes from collective work and creation.

Tell us about your own experience with school and how it affects your work today.

I was incredibly blessed to have consistently caring, effective, and diverse teachers for all 13 years of my public schooling. I especially credit the many Black women who taught me at Arlington Elementary School in Jacksonville, Fla., who saw my potential and imparted to me a sense of duty to make the most of my education.

It has been easy to draw from the example they and my other amazing educators set as I show up for students today. But the thing that has most shaped my overall career trajectory has been the challenges I faced as a student who wanted access to specialized programming.

I happened to find out about the International Baccalaureate program in my district through idle conversation with my school librarian, rather than through my school counselor or district-wide advertisement. I had to submit an application, attend an interview or take a test, and take a bus an hour each way to get to school. Years later, I found myself in rural Alabama: I navigated several hurdles to take online AP classes that were made available upon request through Alabama’s ACCESS plan for distance learning. There were so many hurdles to being able to participate in both programs, and because of it, I have chosen to work at schools that give a broader range of students access to the IB program by default.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received, and how have you put it into practice?

A mentor once told me, “Let someone else tell you no,” when I was debating sending in an application for a job opportunity years ago. For scholarships, school program ideas, jobs, or awards, spending less time being my own gatekeeper has opened up fantastic experiences.

Most recently, I pitched an ambitious idea to the Rozalia Project, which included setting aside spots on a July expedition on their sailboat for a teacher and a recent high school graduate — she said yes! Making this initial ask has also let us start envisioning a recurring beach cleanup program and a full Prospect Schools expedition a couple years out from now. We have other details to work out, but if I had let my own ‘no’ get in the way, I would have never fathomed how excited they would be to develop this partnership.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

New Jersey school librarians want to partner with teachers to improve literacy rates

2024-04-30T15:50:58+00:00

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Improving literacy doesn’t just happen inside the classroom. School librarians across New Jersey say they play an important role in fostering a love of reading and turning students into lifelong learners.

But their role in promoting and teaching literacy in schools is misunderstood and often not acknowledged, they say.

Librarians work with students and teachers in every grade and every subject, which allows them to follow students’ academic growth and develop relationships with them. They provide students with personalized book recommendations, help teachers collect resources for class projects, and teach students necessary research skills and digital literacy.

A recent report from the Center for American Progress found a link between school libraries and student achievement, including in reading. Decades of research shows that students with access to well-resourced school libraries with certified librarians consistently perform better. According to the report, these findings are still true when controlling for socioeconomic status.

“School libraries should always be considered essential in schools but especially when we’re trying to reverse the trend of low reading scores,” said report author Tania Otero Martinez.

Librarians said they see themselves as partners with classroom teachers in the effort to improve student literacy rates, with their work serving as a necessary complement to instructional strategies. NJ Spotlight News, in its ongoing multimedia Change Project series, recently focused on best practices for how to teach reading.

Beth Raff, president of the New Jersey Association of School Librarians, said school librarians should be included in discussions about literacy, curriculum and selecting materials for classroom libraries.

“There needs to be more awareness and a seat at the table more often,” she said.

Number of school librarians declining statewide

Many people don’t understand the role of school librarians, sometimes called school library media specialists, even within a school, Raff said. She said their wide-reaching role is a worthy investment for a school district to make.

Mary Moyer Stubbs, legislative consultant for the New Jersey Association of School Librarians, said while classroom teachers focus on building foundational reading skills, school library media specialists bring a level of enthusiasm that will help reading become a lifelong practice.

The Center for American Progress report found that while school libraries benefit all students, vulnerable students see the greatest gains from access to libraries. These students have historically passed statewide reading assessments at lower rates than their peers. Students from high-poverty and racially diverse areas are less likely to have access to libraries, according to the report.

New Jersey has seen a decline in the number of school librarians since 2010, according to a project from Antioch University Seattle called SLIDE: The School Librarian Investigation – Decline or Evolution? In the 2015-16 school year, the state had one school librarian for every 996 students. By 2021-22, there was one librarian for every 1,138 students. New Jersey is ranked 27th out of 50 for its ratio of students to librarians, according to SLIDE. The project also found more than two dozen districts without full-time librarians, especially in South Jersey and along the Jersey Shore.

School libraries fulfill a need

Tania Otero Martinez, K-12 education policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, said increasing the number of school libraries with certified librarians is essential for all students to develop a love of reading, especially those who might not have access to books at home and are unable to visit their local public library.

“The school library can be the first place they come into consistent contact with books, the first place they can develop their love of reading,” she said.

Tricina Strong-Beebe, a K-8 school library media specialist in Hainesport, said it’s critical for students to have free choice over what books they read. In her library, this means students also have a say in what books are added to the library’s collection.

Students who are struggling to read are given opportunities to read with older students about subjects they are interested in, she said. This might mean pairing a book the student can read confidently with a more advanced book on the same topic that includes visual elements.

Faith Brody, a school library media specialist in Oaklyn and Collingswood, said librarians are trained in finding books for anyone, even readers who are struggling or uninterested. This might involve asking the student if they want to read a story or a facts book. If they say facts, she might follow up with topic suggestions and point out different sections in the nonfiction area of the library.

Brody said in addition to teaching students reading skills, it’s important to get students engaged and interested in reading so they want to continue reading. “If you can combine the two then you can be really successful,” she said.

Teachers, librarians ‘instructional partners’

Brody spent five years teaching reading as a classroom teacher before becoming a librarian. She said it’s important for teachers and librarians to work together to support students, such as through collaborating on research projects by compiling materials and library books. Everyone in the district should understand each other’s roles, including teachers, librarians, and administrators, she said.

“I would love for more librarians to be recognized and seen as instructional partners. We’re not just standing behind a desk, checking things out. We’re really thinking and trying to find tools and resources that will help,” Brody said.

Evelyn Mamman, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction in the South Brunswick School District, said empowering librarians and promoting collaboration is central to her work. She said there is a librarian in every school in the district who is treated as an expert and instructional partner.

“I wanted to change the narrative that librarians are just there to check out books. All of this is intentional,” Mamman said.

Prioritizing librarians in school budgets

Librarians in the district work with students who are conducting research and co-teach lessons with teachers on information literacy, which is the ability to recognize what information is needed, find it, and use it effectively. Librarians also provide professional development and give input on curriculum, Mamman said.

“We will be doing our students a disservice if we do not have reading and librarians and informational literacy at the forefront. That shows based on the way we schedule, based on the way we collaborate, how we’re talking about books,” Mamman said.

She said the South Brunswick School District is facing significant budget cuts but is not considering cutting librarians because of how important they are to the district.

The New Jersey Association of School Librarians is fighting to prevent further cuts to school librarians and promote their importance. The association supports legislation that would require public schools with 300 to 1,499 students to have at least one full-time school library media specialist. Smaller schools would be required to have a part-time librarian.

The association is also calling for the administrative code related to school library media services to be rewritten to strengthen the requirement that library services are provided by a certified specialist.

“Being a reader is something you carry with you your whole life. It’s especially important that our elementary schools, and others, have access to a certified school library media specialist,” said Raff, the association’s president.

Hannah Gross covers education and child welfare for NJ Spotlight News via a partnership with Report for America. She covers the full spectrum of education and children’s services in New Jersey and looks especially through the lens of equity and opportunity. This story was first published on NJ Spotlight News, a content partner of Chalkbeat Newark.

Most NYC high schools lack newspapers. A new journalism curriculum could help change that.

2024-04-18T13:00:00+00:00

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Katelynn Seetaram, a junior at Pace High School in Manhattan, never had much interest in journalism.

But when she was placed in a journalism class her freshman year, she was stunned at just how much the course could teach her. She learned to question narratives that spread on social media. She developed a stronger sense of media literacy. And she became more skeptical and curious about the stories unfolding around her.

Now, it’s a potential career path that Seetaram hopes to pursue after graduation.

“That one class really led me to what I want to do with the rest of my life,” she said.

Seetaram is just one of the many students, journalists, and educators pushing for others to have the same opportunity. On Thursday, the New York City Youth Journalism Coalition will hold a day of action at City Hall, urging City Council members and other city officials to support more journalism programs across the city’s schools. It’s part of their launch of a “Journalism for All” initiative that includes a newly developed high school journalism curriculum that will roll out in the 2025-26 school year.

The day of action — a collaboration with the Council’s Black, Latino & Asian Caucus — will underscore that many students across the city lack access to high school journalism programs, particularly for students who are Black and Latino. And in the afternoon, Council Member Rita Joseph, who chairs the Education Committee, will introduce a resolution supporting the initiative.

Roughly 73% of the city’s high schools do not have school newspapers or student-run websites, according to a 2022 study by Geanne Belton, a journalism professor and director of the high school journalism program at the City University of New York’s Baruch College.

While more than three-quarters of the schools with the highest concentrations of white and Asian American students had student publications, the same was true for just 8% of schools with high concentrations of Black students and 16% of those with large shares of Latino students, according to the study. Schools with higher rates of poverty were also far less likely to have a student publication.

The inequities mirror trends in the broader industry. A 2018 survey found that journalists of color made up just 22% of the workforce.

“This isn’t only a journalism challenge — this really goes to the heart of civics and democracy,” said Jere Hester, the director of editorial projects and partnerships and acting director of the Local Accountability Reporting program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. “What we really want to do is institutionalize journalism instruction in New York City.”

With funding from the Charles H. Revson Foundation, the school has been able to develop a new high school journalism curriculum. The class will teach students the basics of reporting, writing, and producing stories, as well as tackling issues around civics, ethics, misinformation, and more, Hester said. It will also offer opportunities for students to experiment with different reporting mediums, including audio, video, and data journalism. (Revson is supporting a CUNY journalism student summer intern at Chalkbeat.)

Hester hopes students who take the class will be inspired to develop student publications at their high schools — or to participate in ones at schools where they already exist.

“I would love to see all these students become journalists someday,” he said. “Realistically, that’s not going to happen. But we do know that the skills and the inspiration that they get through doing this kind of work at the high school level is going to help them in all kinds of careers.

“Beyond all that, this is a way to help empower students,” he added. “To show them from this age the value of getting involved.”

In the months leading up to the day of action at City Hall, student organizers have been busy reaching out to Council members and raising awareness of the city’s youth journalism gap, said Derry Oliver, a senior at Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill High School.

The hope, she said, is to garner support from Council members and government officials, helping to spread journalism programs to districts and schools across the city. It’s a topic close to home for Oliver, who, despite taking an early interest in journalism, has not had access to a school newspaper.

“One of the things that will make me really happy is to see that other students behind me don’t have to suffer like I have,” Oliver said.

For those without access to journalism classes or publications at their school, the experience can be frustrating.

Fredlove Deshommes, a junior at Brooklyn’s Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice, tried to start a publication at her school, but said her efforts repeatedly stalled due to lack of resources.

Camila Sosa, a junior at Uncommon Collegiate Charter High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, said the absence of a student publication at her school has limited her opportunities to explore her interests in journalism and writing — and for students to amplify their voices more broadly.

“It’s insane to me that a lot of kids don’t have the opportunity to use publications as a way to express themselves,” Sosa said. “I hope that what we’re doing here actually makes a change.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

A civics roadmap for teens: New online clearinghouse created ‘by youth, for youth’ aims to help

2024-04-12T22:17:31+00:00

Looking to run a voter registration drive at your school? Want to learn how to earn a high school diploma with a “seal of civic readiness,” demonstrating civic skills and knowledge? Trying to find out more about the NYC Mayor’s Office internship program?

Or maybe you want to get a head start on registering for the upcoming election, whether you’re 18 or not. (Those who are 16-17 can now pre-register so they are automatically registered when they turn 18.)

This information and more can be found on the “Youth Civic Hub,” an online portal launched on Friday, designed “by youth, for youth,” to increase youth civic engagement and electoral participation.

Led by the NYC Youth Agenda and Civic Coalition, this one-stop clearinghouse includes a wealth of information, ranging from internships and volunteer opportunities to voter registration tools and an elections portal with scorecards rating candidates on young people’s issues. It will soon have a “power map” explaining the different roles of elected officials, a glossary outlining the language commonly used in civic spaces, and a directory of various local organizations for young people to connect with.

The young people behind the portal are hoping to get it in the hands of New York City teachers, so they can share it with their students and expose them to “high-quality” civic opportunities across the five boroughs.

Creating the hub has been a yearslong project spearheaded by YVote, a teen-focused civic engagement nonprofit that is helping lead the larger NYC Civic Coalition.

“We’re not just helping voters, we’re trying to make the connections — who oversees what,” said Mia Payne, a 2022 graduate of Manhattan’s Talent Unlimited High School, alumnus of YVote, and a youth co-chair on the education transition team for Mayor Eric Adams.

“We just want to connect the dots of the roles and responsibilities [of government officials],” she said. Though young people often “just see whoever’s on the TV,” which is often the mayor or governor, it might make more sense to reach out to their city council member for school community issues, she said.

When Payne joined YVote in her sophomore year of high school, she asked why it was so hard to find out who represents you and what they do and believe. It turned out the organization was already working on solving this problem by building the hub. She believes the work they’re doing can serve as a blueprint for other states.

The portal comes at a pivotal moment, just months before November’s presidential election. In the 2022 midterm elections, just 7.6% of eligible Bronx voters ages 18-29 cast ballots and 15.3% of Queens young people voted, according to CIRCLE, an independent youth civic engagement research organization based at Tufts University. About 18% of Brooklyn voters in this age group cast ballots along with 18.8% in Manhattan and 23.4% in Staten Island. The statewide average, 19.8%, was lower than the national average of 23%.

The nation’s political polarization can turn young people off from wanting to be civically involved, Payne said, but she also believes that the hub can help provide different points of access for young people to feel more empowered.

“There’s a lot of mistrust and misinformation. We want to make this as cross-partisan as possible and straight facts,” Payne said. “The goal of the hub: You may not agree or be proud of your elected officials, but at the end of the day, the power is in the people’s hand. You have the ability to hold them accountable and elect someone else.”

Written in “teen-friendly” language the hub aims to reach young people, especially those in “civic deserts,” where there’s less broadband access and less exposure to election-related news and information.

Through the portal, young people can learn about various opportunities to get involved with communities: You can find out how to volunteer at a farm in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood, apply for an internship at a design museum in Manhattan, or try and land a civics-focused fellowship centered on such issues as criminal justice, voting rights, and media literacy.

“Many youth don’t know of any opportunities besides the ones in their schools, and the hub aims to change that,” said Afsana Rahman, a member of the hub youth working group and senior at the Queens High School for the Sciences at York College. (She became involved in the hub through her work in CUNY’s Intergenerational Change Initiative.)

The hub will be officially unveiled on Monday at the NYC Youth Agenda Policy Party, where young people will also share their policy recommendations for how to make the city more equitable for youth, based on thousands of surveys of teens across the city.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Should kids learn about LGBTQ issues at school? Many teachers and teens say no, new surveys find.

2024-02-23T21:21:25+00:00

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Should elementary schoolers learn that people of the same gender can love each other? Do teens want to learn about how slavery’s legacy matters today? Should parents be able to opt their kids out of lessons they disagree with?

As Republican-dominated state legislatures limit how teachers talk about race and restrict transgender children’s access to bathrooms and sports, and as school board elections turn on book bans and parents’ rights, three new national studies from the Pew Research Center, the research corporation RAND, and the University of Southern California’s Center for Applied Research in Education shed light on how teachers, parents, and students themselves think about these questions.

For all the attention LGBTQ issues receive in national politics, teachers said topics related to gender identity and sexual orientation rarely come up. And many said they don’t believe these topics should be taught in school.

In fact, large swaths of the public also don’t think gender and sexuality should be discussed in school, the studies found. However, there were wide partisan divides, as well as differences along racial and ethnic lines.

Adults and teens felt more comfortable with teachers teaching about racism than LGBTQ issues. They were also more comfortable with teachers talking about past injustices than present-day inequality, and more comfortable with gay rights than trans rights. And they were more comfortable with any of these topics coming up at the high school level — though many teens reported their own discomfort.

So it is perhaps unsurprising that two-thirds of teachers in one study said they decided on their own to limit how they talked about potentially contentious issues. One reason: They feared confrontations with upset parents.

“The topics of race and LGBTQ issues are often lumped together in discussions about these so-called ‘culture wars’ and how that’s playing out in K-12 education,” said Luona Lin, a research associate at Pew. But teachers and students actually “feel very different about these two topics.”

Here are some of the major takeaways of the three new reports:

Many teachers are censoring themselves

More than a third of American teachers work in states with laws restricting how teachers talk about issues that are considered divisive or controversial. But a study released this month by the research organization RAND found local restrictions and teachers’ own fears are having an effect as well.

In a survey of 1,500 teachers taken last year, two-thirds reported deciding on their own to limit how they talked about social and political issues in the classroom. Meanwhile, about half of teachers told RAND they were subject to either a state or local restriction. These limits could be formal, such as a school board policy, or informal, such as a principal’s comments.

More than 80% of those who were subject to a local restriction said they had made changes to their teaching, regardless of state law. That should not be surprising, said Ashley Woo, an assistant policy researcher at RAND.

“If your principal is telling you to do something, that is the person who is there with you at the school and can see what is happening in your classroom,” she said.

At the same time, more than half of teachers who were not subject to any restrictions said they had limited how they talked about certain topics, with self-censoring more common in conservative communities but still widespread in liberal ones.

A major reason teachers cited for limiting instruction, especially in communities with local restrictions, was a fear of confrontation with upset parents and that their administration would not support them if they faced a challenge.

LGBTQ issues raised less often than racism in classrooms

Though LGBTQ issues are prominent in local and national politics, a report released this week reveals a striking finding: Most teachers say gender identity and sexual orientation hardly get discussed in class — and many teachers say they shouldn’t be.

According to a nationally representative survey conducted last fall by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, more than two-thirds of K-12 public school teachers said topics related to sexual orientation and gender identity rarely or never came up in their classroom last school year. Around 3 in 10 said the topics came up sometimes or often.

Half of teachers, meanwhile, said they thought students shouldn’t learn about gender identity at school, with an even higher share of elementary school teachers agreeing with that view.

The findings come as anti-trans legislation creates a more hostile environment for gender non-conforming youth in many states.

In contrast, more than half of teachers said they discussed topics related to racism or racial inequality at least sometimes. Around 4 in 10 teachers said the issues rarely or never came up.

Nearly two-thirds of teachers said students should learn about slavery and how it affects the lives of Black Americans today, while just under a quarter said slavery should be taught only as a component of history — without any bearing on the present.

Lin, the Pew report’s lead author, says it’s likely that school board policies, local politics, and state laws are influencing what teachers discuss, though the survey doesn’t measure those factors.

What should young kids learn about gender and sexuality?

In Searching for Common Ground, a study released this week by a team at the University of Southern California, researchers surveyed a representative sample of 3,900 adults, about half of them parents of school-aged children, and asked them about dozens of scenarios related to race, sexuality, and gender.

Democrats were more comfortable than Republicans with almost every scenario, with independents and others roughly in the middle. But even Democrats were less supportive of discussing gender identity or asking students’ pronouns in elementary school than discussing racism or different family structures.

Nearly half of all respondents thought it was appropriate for an elementary teacher to have a picture of their same-sex spouse on their desk. And almost as many were OK with elementary students reading a book about two male penguins adopting a baby penguin.

But just 30% of respondents and only half of Democrats thought it was appropriate for an elementary classroom to display LGBTQ-friendly decorations, such as a Pride flag.

Democrats were far more likely to want gay or trans children to see themselves reflected at school, while Republicans were far more likely to fear discussing these topics would change children, leading to them thinking they are gay or trans.

“The largest partisan examples seem to have to do with LGBTQ and family issues in elementary school,” said Morgan Polikoff, a USC education professor and one of the study’s lead authors. “Democrats think that kids can handle that and Republicans do not.”

The rollout of Advanced Placement African American Studies reflects widespread interest among some students and teachers in learning more diverse history, but some conservatives have targeted the course.

More students feel comfortable discussing racism than LGBTQ issues

Students in grades 8-12 also tend to feel less comfortable discussing LGBTQ issues than issues of race and racism at school, and are more likely to say they shouldn’t be learning about them, the Pew report found.

In a nationally representative survey of 13- to 17-year-olds conducted last fall, around 4 in 10 teens said they felt comfortable when topics related to racism or racial inequality came up in class.

But only around 3 in 10 said the same about topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity. And just under half of teens said they shouldn’t learn about gender identity at school. That rate was somewhat higher for teens who identified as Republicans than Democrats.

Only 11% of teens, meanwhile, said they shouldn’t learn about slavery. Around half said they should learn about slavery and how it affects the lives of Black Americans today, while 40% said they should learn about slavery only in a historical context.

Black teens and teens who identify as Democrats were much more likely than white, Hispanic, or Republican teens to say they want to learn about how the legacy of slavery affects Black people today — a finding echoed among Black parents and Black teachers in other surveys.

Bridging these divides is tricky

The University of Southern California study found strong support for public education across the political spectrum.

But there’s a gap of nearly 39 percentage points between Democrats and Republicans on whether public schools should teach children to embrace differences. Nearly three-quarters of Democrats said yes, compared with just over a third of Republicans.

This underlying belief was a strong predictor of responses to specific scenarios. Those who said kids shouldn’t be taught to embrace differences also expressed more discomfort with race, gender, and sexuality being discussed in the classroom.

“Democrats on average think schools are exactly the place to do this — it’s one of the last places where everyone comes together regardless of their differences,” Polikoff said. “And Republicans don’t think that is an appropriate role for schools. And they think that because they perceive, in part correctly, that schools are a liberalizing force.”

There was broad support for parents having the right to opt their child out of certain lessons, but when researchers prompted respondents to consider downsides, such as their child missing out on the opportunity to learn critical thinking skills, support fell.

Understanding the values that drive differences and building on common ground, such as agreement that children should read books by authors of color and learn about historic injustices, could lead to a healthier conversation than what’s happening now.

“We need to have this conversation,” he said. “Instead we have Ron DeSantis saying we’ll ban everything, and Democrats sticking their fingers in their ears and saying you’re all bigots.”

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

As eclipse arrives, NYC students and families share in once-in-a-generation learning experience

2024-04-08T22:24:41+00:00

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New York families flocked outside Monday afternoon, eager for their kids to take part in a once-in-a-generation learning experience.

Across the state and other parts of the country, a total solar eclipse darkened the sky, offering a momentary opportunity to engage directly in the science behind the cosmic event.

Though the city was not in the direct path of totality, New York City families could still see the unique phenomenon unfold as the moon passed over the sun. The next total eclipse in the state will not occur until 2079, according to state officials.

On a grassy field behind the New York Hall of Science in Queens, hundreds gathered to view the eclipse. Kids enjoyed museum activities like “astronaut training,” which had them completing tasks while wearing thick gloves that mimic real-life astronauts’ gear. Others played on the lawns, tossing Frisbees or slotting in pieces on giant Connect Four boards while upbeat music blared from a DJ station.

Kamilah Jemmott, left, and her 9-year-old son, Kori, traveled from Suffolk County to view the eclipse on Mon., April 8, 2024 at the New York Hall of Science in Queens, New York.

By the late afternoon, the festive spirit gave way to quieter observation as families put on their protective glasses and turned their gaze toward the sun. The eclipse, which began just after 2 p.m., reached its peak by roughly 3:30 p.m. and faded by the evening.

Tanya Keitt, a Brooklyn mom, said she rushed from Flatbush to her 8-year-old daughter’s school in Williamsburg, whisking her away right as classes let out.

As huge astronomy buffs, Keitt said they’ve tried their hand at engaging with space before. Recently, she got a telescope from her local library to watch a meteor shower with Mahalia, her daughter, on their roof. But to their disappointment, it was blocked by light pollution.

“We’re so excited to see something today,” Keitt said. “Me and my dad were really into the stars. I shared stars with him, and he shared them with me, so I’m really excited to do this with my daughter. It’s just really special.”

Kamilah Jemmott brought her two kids to Queens from Suffolk County to experience the eclipse.

An avid science fan, 9-year-old Kori had been planning the trip for more than a year, Jemmott said.

“First, I heard that the sun can go dark,” Kori said, explaining his excitement. “Then I found out shadows can grow sharper.”

He purchased his eclipse glasses in 2023 and brought them to Queens on Monday, and he wore a homemade eclipse shirt.

“It’s super cool,” he said. “I’m literally going to tell everyone when it’s full.”

As the eclipse neared its peak, parents sang along to Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and families watched the phenomenon unfold.

From left, Joseph, Elijah, and Melissa Matias pose for a photograph while viewing the eclipse on Mon., April 8, 2024 at the New York Hall of Science in Queens, New York.

Elijah Matias, a fourth grader at P.S. 108 in Queens, said “his favorite thing is science.” Though he had an idea of what the eclipse would look like from online clips and video games, he was thrilled to see it firsthand, bouncing with excitement as he talked about what he was seeing.

Joseph Matias, his father, said he pulled Elijah out of school early to make sure he got to witness the eclipse.

“It’s once or maybe twice in a lifetime,” he said. “And it’s a good family experience to share.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

LISTEN: A New York chapter on banned books

2024-04-03T09:00:00+00:00

This episode of P.S. Weekly takes a look at how a national wave of book bans has been coming ashore in surprising ways in New York City.

EVENT: Register for our virtual event to meet the students behind the new podcast

Between 2021 and 2023, there were nearly 6,000 instances of books being banned across the country, according to PEN America, a group that defends writers and protects free expression. Nearly 60% of these books were young adult books written for school-age kids.

New York City schools have not banned books, but recently got a taste of this controversy when books that touched on themes of Black history, immigration, and transgender identity were discovered in the trash near a Staten Island school, sparking an investigation, according to Gothamist. But educators here had already been embroiled or engaging in the national conversation around book bans in other ways.

This episode’s first segment features a school librarian who in 2022, after using social media to promote LGBTQ books during Pride month, faced an onslaught of vitriol and harassment online.

Librarian Lindsay Klemas poses for a portrait.

Lindsay Klemas, who was the librarian at Forest Hills High School in Queens at the time, said the incident took a toll on her mental health. She worries about the broader implications such attacks could have on educators and public schools.

“A parent has the right to say for their own kid what they can read. It does get murkier as you become a teenager,” said Klemas, who is now the coordinator for all Queens public school libraries. “But I also think that these groups are trying to erode the trust of educators in general, and so I think by placing doubt in people’s minds about what a teacher is exposing kids to is really just trying to attack the public school system.”

The show’s second segment looks at a Queens high school that has created a sophomore English class devoted entirely to books that have been banned elsewhere.

Amy Weidner-LaSala, who teaches the course at the Academy of American Studies, said the books they’re reading can help show students “how we open our minds and accept new things through literature.”

P.S. Weekly is available on major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Be sure to drop a review in your app or shoot an email to PSWeekly@chalkbeat.org. Tell us what you learned today or what you’re still wondering. We just might read your comment on a future episode.

P.S. Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell. Listen for new episodes Wednesdays this spring.

Read the full episode transcript below

Sabrina: Hey listeners, save the date! We’ll be having a virtual Zoom event on April 17 from 5-6 p.m.

It’s called Inside P.S Weekly: Meet the students and adults behind the new podcast

Join us on Zoom and learn how the podcast is made, how it can be used as a teaching tool, and how you could potentially have your voice, heard, on the show.

Check out the link in our show notes! Keep listening to hear the rest of this episode!

Tanvir: Welcome to P.S. Weekly… the sound of the New York City school system. PS Weekly is a collaboration between Chalkbeat New York and The Bell.

Tanvir: I’m your host this week, Tanvir Kaur. I’m a senior at Academy of American Studies in Queens.On today’s episode: how the national wave of book bans is showing up in New York City in surprising ways.

But first! A Chalkbeat news bulletin…

NEWSBRIEF

Alex: I’m Alex Zimmerman, a reporter with Chalkbeat. Here’s a quick recap of the past week’s biggest education stories:

City officials are replacing metal detectors at nearly 80 campuses with new ones designed to let students keep their backpacks on instead of sending them through a separate x-ray machine. But the city will still make students take off their backpacks — raising questions about the $3.9 million upgrade.

Roughly 139,000 families applied to Summer Rising, the city’s free summer school program — that’s far more than the number of available seats. The program remains popular, even as Mayor Eric Adams has cut back middle school hours to save money.

And on Monday, April 8, a total solar eclipse is coming to parts of New York State. Several schools are hosting watch parties, as is the New York Hall of Science in Queens.

To stay up to date on local education news throughout the week, go to chalkbeat.org/newsletters and sign up for the New York Daily Roundup.

Tanvir: Last year, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill banning books that contain violent, sexual, or sensitive content. Similar bills in other states have affected even more children’s schools and libraries.

Tanvir: Between 2021 and 2023, there were close to six thousand recorded book bans across America. Of these banned books, nearly 60% were young adult genres. Meaning, books written for school-age kids are being targeted.

Tanvir: I had heard about this trend, and it troubled me. I thought–At least, this isn’t happening here… But then…

NEWS CLIP

Reporter 1: An investigation underway this afternoon after some books were thrown out into the trash at a school on Staten Island.

Reporter 2: Now the books are about Black history and the LGBTQ community, and all were found with notes attached to them, critical of both. Eyewitnesses…

Tanvir: The Department of Education is currently investigating the incident in Staten Island — which appears to be an isolated case — but it’s a reminder that NYC is not immune to the national attempts to censor what students read and learn in school.

Today, we speak to a school librarian who used social media to promote LGBTQ+ books during pride month... and then experienced wrath online from parents across the country.

Then: how one Queens school is flipping the narrative on its head… embracing the books that some districts have deemed too dangerous to read through a course entirely devoted to them.

Our PS Weekly producer Salma Baksh has our first story…

Salma: I’m here with my school’s former librarian, Lindsay Klemas. We call her Ms. K. Let me tell you: the students at Forest Hills High School were devastated last year when she left. But we were also happy for her. She’s now the Coordinator for all Queens public school libraries.

Salma: I met Ms. K in my sophomore year. She quickly became my go-to person for basically anything – decision-making, emotional support, and book recs (obviously). Students knew her as empathetic and kind, making the library a true safe space.

Lindsay: I became a librarian in 2010. I started my career at a high school for students with emotional disabilities in the Bronx, and I worked there for about six years. And then I was at Forest Hills High School for a little over seven years.

Salma: What made you want to become a librarian?

Lindsay: I decided to become a librarian because librarians are pathological helpers and we like to give people information, make people feel welcome, and make sure that people can sort of have a third space they can go to.

Salma: What is your definition of librarianship?

Lindsay: A librarian, to me is someone who is able to allow others to see themselves on the shelves. So I think a good librarian is able to have books and resources that all of their patrons want to access, but it’s a place where people can be themselves and also find information or stories that speak to them.

Salma: Have there been any instances, any negatives that have arisen out of the way that you fulfill your definition of what it means to be a librarian?

Lindsay: Yes. In the fall of 2022, I actually became a victim of some online harassment. Um, It happened because our school library Instagram page was discovered by a group of people who didn’t like the books that I featured in a reel that we had made for Pride Month. And so people started to say that the book should be put in the woodchipper, that I should be fired. I was a pedophile. this was in reference to the book that’s called “This book is Gay,” which has received numerous starred reviews from professional reviewers and is considered an important book for teenagers, but is also a very banned and challenged book nationwide.

Salma: So receiving that kind of hate from people that don’t even know you must have been very heavy on you and your mental health. How did you react?

Lindsay: It was definitely heavy on my mental health. I feel like I’m still sort of processing slash. I’ll think to myself, “Did that even happen?” Or there might be conversations about book banning and people say, “Oh, that doesn’t happen in New York City schools.” And you’re like, “Wait, it happened to me.” And then you’re sort of in this situation where you’re deciding, “Do I bring it up and tell what happened? Or is that centering myself in the story when really the story is that kids deserve access to materials?” So I was sort of like, what stories do I turn to or what can I learn from this and how do I move forward? And I felt like there wasn’t really a road map for that. And so it was difficult for sure.

Salma: Have you heard of other incidents of librarians getting this kind of response?

Lindsay: I haven’t heard of any school librarians receiving as much vitriol as I did in my situation, but I know that there are New York City school educators who either feel like they can’t be their true selves at work because of their gender identity or their sexual orientation. There are teachers who have had parents question what they’re teaching, or there may be librarians who or, you know, E.L.A. teachers who sort of self-censor. That would look like saying, well, I don’t want to make waves or become a potential victim to people who are trolling. So I’m going to not teach that book or I’m going to not purchase that book for our school library collection. And so that’s a way that the censorship wars can impact people, subconsciously.

Salma: In this conversation of deciding if a book is appropriate, what role do you think parents play?

Lindsay: I think a parent has the right to say for their own kid what they can read. I think it does get murkier as you become a teenager. But I also think that these groups are trying to erode the trust of educators in general and so by placing doubt in people’s mind about what a teacher is exposing kids to, is really just trying to attack the public school system. And, I think we need to show parents that they can trust the education specialists to decide what is appropriate for their own child.

Salma: Ms. K believes that schools, by giving access to these challenged books, help students figure out who they are.

Lindsay: There are kids right now who might be in a really great school and they might hold it together during the school day. But then at home, they might have to hide their gender identity or their sexual orientation from their families, and they don’t have a safe space at home. And I think it’s just so important for kids to be able to be who they are and to have a space to figure out everything about who they are. And libraries can be that space.

Salma: This is Salma Baksh reporting for PS Weekly.

Tanvir: We’ll be back after a short break…

Sabrina: Hey listeners! We hope you’re enjoying this episode of PS Weekly.

We’ve got an assignment for you– follow us on Instagram @bell.voices. And, we want to hear from you! Reach out to P.S. Weekly at the email address: psweekly@chalkbeat.org with comments, questions, and suggestions.

Tanvir: And we’re back…

Tanvir: While some school districts around the country are banning books they think are inappropriate for students–one class at my school is putting those books on its mandatory reading list. I helped our reporter Shoaa Khan report the story….

Shoaa: Picture this: a stack of books that contain themes of race, LGBTQ identity, and sexual content… that have been banned elsewhere. But in this classroom, 10th graders are cracking them open.

SCENE TAPE of Banned Books Class:

OK folks if we can put our phones and your numbers–if you need your number let me know…

Shoaa: This is sophomore English at the Academy of American Studies. The class centers on banned or challenged books. I had to know more.

Shoaa: Our host Tanvir spoke with Amy Weidner-Lasala who teaches the class.

Shoaa: Ms. Weidner-Lasala’s classroom feels lively, as students stroll into class after the bell. They come in, greeting each other, engaging in small talk, shuffling in their clustered desks until it’s time for Ms. Weidner-Lasala’s instructions.

SCENE TAPE of Banned Books Class :

Ok folks, we’re going to spend today and tomorrow working on an argumentative essay for the regents…

Shoaa: She says It all started with a conversation with the school’s principal Mr. William Bassell

Amy: I think with the current events within the last couple of years, Mr. Bassell thought it would be a really interesting class to offer, and I think at first we were just going to offer it as an elective. But then he decided to sort of open that net a little wider to reach the whole 10th grade.

Amy: There’s a variety of books that we can teach, but I teach Night. I teach the Joy Luck Club. I teach Animal Farm, even though 1984 was also an option, which, you know, more explicit. Again, it’s an older book, but it still deals with that like censorship and banned books-ness, and control. So Orwell, it’s very popular.

Shoaa: If students feel upset about a particular book, they can choose to read a different one. But Ms. Weidner-Lasala says it takes away from the class experience and from participating in interesting group discussions and perspectives.

Amy: I think it opens their minds and lets them see that maybe like even what we think now is like not a big deal can be seen as a big deal to some people. And like how viewpoints and, change historically and how we open our minds and accept new things through literature.

Shoaa: A few years ago, the New York City Department of Education launched a new initiative called “Mosaic” to help expose students to diverse topics, including Black studies, Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies, and LGBTQ experiences.

The DOE sent more than FOUR MILLION books to diversify library shelves at schools across the city. The books found in the trash of the Staten Island school that we heard about earlier were part of Mosaic.

Amy: It’s supposed to show a mosaic of experiences, I guess. So a lot of the books have main characters or authors who are people of color, who are African-American, who are LGBT, you know that fit into sort of like a non-straight white man lens. So it allows students to see different perspectives and read different books that maybe wouldn’t fit in the traditional curriculum.

Shoaa: We asked Ms. Weidner-Lasala why she thinks some adults want to censor what students read.

Amy: I think a lot of times it comes out of fear and the fear of schools taking over values that maybe parents and the community don’t necessarily share, and that wanting to protect kids. I think it comes from a good place a lot of the time. But I think it’s often mis-done.

Shoaa: And how do students feel about the curriculum? Are they enjoying the class?

Drew: I’m Drew Mercado. I’m a sophomore and I currently take Banned Books 10. And I think this class is very interesting because it actually embraces what the government wants to be censored, and I think it’s a very unique experience and it’s a unique way of learning and honestly, I myself and I think the teacher also find the material really fun to learn. Honestly, this is probably one of the classes I look forward to the most. Not only because my friends are here, it’s because, yeah, what I’m going to learn next.

Shoaa: Tanvir also spoke to Tabassum Akter, a sophomore in the Banned Book class.

Tabassum: We read The Lord of the Flies, I think it was really interesting to learn about human nature because it’s something we discuss a lot in the class. It’s reflected in most of the texts that we’ve read, and we’ve done a lot of argumentative essays as well on the subject of morals. So I think something I’ve taken from my classes to always be a good person regardless of the situation.

Tanvir: Has there been anything special about this class compared to other English classes or other classes in general that you have taken?

Tabassum: It makes you think about the world more. Like you have to understand and connect to the world through the books you read. And I think Banned Books helps you do that because these books were books that you weren’t allowed to read at one point, and now we’re allowed to read it. And it’s important to know why they were banned and why they should be read.

Shoaa: So, should books be banned?

Tabassum: No, of course not, because any form of literature should be allowed to be read. Whether it’s bad literature or intense literature, we should be able to analyze it because it was created for a reason.

Shoaa: Books are incredibly important for sharing ideas and perspectives. Learning should include all kinds of viewpoints and stories, not just what people like or dislike. And this course puts these issues front and center, giving students the chance to decide for themselves what to take from these books. The class, according to the course description, “lends itself to complex and thought-provoking conversations about power, freedom, and social and cultural values.”

To me, this course provides something all students deserve: the freedom to explore and express ourselves fully.

Tanvir: Once again, that was Shoaa Khan for a piece we reported together at my high school, the Academy of American Studies.

Tanvir: That’s all for today, but before you go, here’s your extra credit assignment.

We want to hear from you. What’s your favorite book you read in school? It could be a banned book or not — just tell us the title, author, and what it taught you. Email your answers to psweekly@chalkbeat.org. We might give you a shout-out in a future episode.

And P.S. We’re back next Wednesday with an episode about special education, that you don’t want to miss.

Preview clip

Kaiya: I know it’s special education, but they look down on us, like there’s something wrong with us, or like we’re… disgusting.

Tanvir: Until then… class dismissed!

CREDITS:

Tanvir: PS Weekly is a collaboration between The Bell and Chalkbeat, made possible by generous support from The Pinkerton Foundation, The Summerfield Foundation, FJC, and Hindenburg Systems.

This episode was hosted by me, Tanvir Kaur.

Producers for this episode were: Salma Baksh, Shoaa Khan, and Me Tanvir Kaur, with reporting help from Chalkbeat reporters Alex Zimmerman and Mike Elsen Rooney.

Engineering support was provided by Christian Rojas-Linares

Our marketing lead this week was Marcellino Melika

Our executive producer for the show is JoAnn DeLuna

Executive editors include Amy Zimmer AND Taylor McGraw

Additional production and reporting support was provided by Sabrina DuQuesnay, Mira Gordon, and our friends at Chalkbeat.

Special thanks to our interns Miriam Galicia and Makenna Turner and all of our wonderful volunteer mentors.

Music from Blue Dot Sessions and the jingle you heard at the beginning of this episode was created by the one and only: Erica Huang

Thanks for tuning in! See you next time!

Banned books make up the sophomore English curriculum at this NYC high school

2024-04-03T09:30:00+00:00

This story is part of the P.S. Weekly podcast, a collaboration between Chalkbeat and The Bell. Listen for new episodes Wednesdays this spring.

Amid a nationwide surge in attempted book bans, one Queens school is taking the opposite approach.

At the Academy of American Studies in Queens, 10th grade students take a Regents-level English class devoted to the study of books that have historically faced challenges or bans — with students reading works like Elie Wiesel’s “Night” and Amy Tan’s “The Joy Luck Club.”

“All the teachers who teach it really try to tie in when and how these books were challenged historically,” said Amy Weidner-LaSala, an English teacher at the school. The course can help show students “how we open our minds and accept new things through literature,” she added.

It’s the second year that the class has been offered, said Weidner-LaSala.

The course comes at a time when efforts to restrict student access to books that deal with topics of race, gender, and sexuality are on the rise. During the first half of the 2022-23 school year, PEN America reported more than 1,450 cases where students saw access to individual books restricted or diminished in school libraries or classrooms nationwide — a 28% jump from the six months before.

Though a handful of districts in a few states saw a large share of book bans, the organization reported cases in 66 school districts across 21 states, including New York.

While historically book bans have come from both sides of the political spectrum, recent years have seen a surge in attempts from conservative movements and actors, said Shannon Oltmann, a University of Kentucky professor who has studied censorship and book banning. Those efforts have heavily targeted books that feature LGBTQ characters, as well as characters who are Black, Indigenous, or other people of color.

Yet for many students, those stories can be hugely important, especially in a city like New York, with a school system that’s home to more than 80% students of color.

“Having access to stories that look like their lives, that reflect the experiences they’ve had, help them feel seen, help them feel empowered, and help them to be more confident and resilient throughout life,” Oltmann said. “A lack of these resources, then, does exactly what you might think: It creates spaces where kids feel unsure, unwelcome, unsafe.”

Oltmann believes classes that focus on banned books can offer a unique learning opportunity.

“It has the potential to be really powerful, to teach kids about whose voice matters and doesn’t matter, whose voices are challenged or seen as intimidating or threatening,” she said. “It can also teach them about political power and the ways that it can be wielded.”

Tabassum Akter, a 10th grader at the Academy of American Studies, said her class on banned books has delved deeper into intense topics than previous English classes she’s taken. So far, her class has read William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” and Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner.”

“It makes you think about the world more,” Akter said. “These books were books that you weren’t allowed to read at one point.

“It’s important to know why they were banned and why they should be read,” she added.

Still, Akter hopes that the class will go further as it continues to develop, incorporating more contemporary works into the syllabus.

“Most of the books that we read are very old,” she said. “I wish we got to read more modern books and things that can apply to our current society.”

Courses designed around frequently challenged books have also cropped up at colleges and universities around the country.

To Ansley Erickson, a professor of education history at Columbia University’s Teachers College, the rise of banned books courses follows a tradition in American education. When schools and other institutions have historically denied education to young people on topics like sex education or Black history, communities have formed their own spaces to share knowledge, Erickson said.

“It’s not just ironic to respond to book bans by having this class — it’s actually, truly part of the tradition of American education,” she said. “People will find ways to learn what they need to know, and book banning efforts really can’t stop that.”

Tanvir Kaur is a high school senior at the Academy of American Studies in Queens and an intern at The Bell.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

My first year teaching was demoralizing. It led me to my dream job.

2022-12-22T17:45:00+00:00

In March 2018, two months before graduating from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, I was recruited and hired to teach in a small city outside of Charlotte. I was beyond psyched that my dream of becoming a middle school teacher was finally within reach. I had plans for engaging my students in meaningful and developmentally responsive lessons. I imagined learning and sharing among supportive colleagues.

But by October, two months into my first year as a sixth grade ELA and social studies teacher, my excitement had morphed into disappointment. I was not included in planning meetings, beginning teacher conferences, or any other professional development opportunities. I should familiarize myself with the materials they gave me, school leaders told me.

Eric Gaestel

The expectation was that I reverse-engineer my lessons from the piles of worksheets and graphic organizers left on my desk each week. Many first-year teachers struggle with classroom management, and I was no exception. Teaching on the fly, which isn’t at all my style, made things worse. I felt anxious walking into the building each day.

After speaking with administrators to no avail, I decided to ride out the year as best I could, building meaningful relationships with my students, some of whom struggled daily with behavior at school. I listened as they told me about challenging situations at home. I wanted them to know that I cared and would advocate for them.

Through it all, I never doubted that I wanted to teach; I just knew that I needed to find a school that was a better fit. So in January, I quietly began looking for a teaching position for the following fall.

I realized then, as I do now, that while my first-year experience was disappointing, it was not a total loss. I started to think of it as a “Beginning Teacher Playbook” of sorts. I was now armed with interview questions about teacher mentorship, professional learning community expectations, and how I would be expected to contribute to my new teaching team. I understood what I needed from my next school and what I desperately had to avoid.

In June of that year, I attended a jobs fair in the Charlotte Mecklenburg district, where I met a McClintock Middle School principal. He told me about his expectations and listened. I expressed what I needed to be a successful teacher — all without speaking ill of my first school. A new partnership was forged that day, and I was offered a job teaching eighth grade ELA on the spot.

I felt anxious walking into the building each day.

On my first day there, I was assigned a mentor teacher, Mr. Jenkins, who observed my classes and provided specific and meaningful feedback. He helped shape my classroom management, teaching me to be fair, firm, and consistent. I still have a Google Drive folder named “Mentorship” filled with complete lessons, assessments, and other materials that I use to this day.

Now in my fourth year at McClintock, I am the chair of our school’s Faculty Advisory Committee and serve on multiple other committees, too. This year, one of our administrators approached me about being a teacher mentor. It truly warmed my heart — now I can offer up the support I so badly needed back in 2018. My mentee and I meet daily, so she can talk through her day and ask me any questions that she has. In the new year, we will be observing each other’s classes.

During my first meeting with my mentee this fall, I shared that “Mentorship” folder, happily passing along what my own mentor shared with me more than three years ago.

At McClintock, I have found the school I dreamed of during college, and I worried I’d never find that first year in the classroom. I can’t imagine ever leaving.

Eric J. Gaestel is an English Language Arts teacher at McClintock Middle School in Charlotte, North Carolina.

How teachers can harness ChatGPT for good

2023-01-06T19:15:00+00:00

They say that it will kill the college essay. Some people think it’s a threat to education itself.

I don’t. I’m excited.

This potential school-slayer is ChatGPT, a new Artificial Intelligence interface that displays remarkable prowess. It can write novel poetry, compare literary characters, and evaluate arguments. Google has a similar program, not public yet, that’s apparently even better.

AI has arrived, and I’m watching educators wrestle with the ramifications of this revolution.

It has me thinking back to my childhood. Whenever I got fidgety, my mom would give me a calculator to play with. No rules, no directions — just me, a handful of buttons, and the chance to explore. It was heaven.

Ben Talsma

Back then, elementary teachers were in agreement: calculators were cheating. Kids needed to know their math facts, for goodness’ sake, and if they just asked the calculator all the time, they’d never learn.

But I did learn them and learned them well. I looked for patterns, made predictions, and constructed my own understanding. When I learned math in class, I had deep prior knowledge. I was always the best mathematician in my class, won statewide math competitions, and use math voraciously in my work and life today.

It all started with a piece of technology — the same tool that millions of teachers felt was cheating.

That feeling was perfectly normal. Every time a transformative technology comes along, we’re skeptical. Socrates worried that widespread literacy would make our species degenerate and forgetful. Spell check was considered cheating for years because people “ought” to know how to spell without assistance.

It’s human nature: When technology renders previously important skills obsolete, we feel offended.

ChatGPT inspires a similar fear in many educators, I know. So many students lack foundational writing skills, and teachers spend their time trying to fill those gaps — and to make writing joyful, too. I see how this program could seem to undermine those objectives, offering students a way around assignments meant to help them develop as writers and thinkers.

And yet.

I’m convinced that if we let our concerns — however legitimate — overtake our thinking on this topic, we ignore the history of technology and the possibilities offered by AI. Humanity benefits when we allow people to use whatever we can to learn. And students benefit from experimenting with technology in school settings and being able to discuss its use with their teachers. Banning something just increases the likelihood that students will use it in ways that don’t help them learn.

As a learning specialist, my job involves working with teachers and technology, so I’ve already seen many put ChatGPT to use, from kindergarten through high school. AI can help teachers model the concepts they want students to understand. This works for all sorts of things, from comparing and contrasting different characters to telling the difference between complete and incomplete sentences. Teachers can, in a matter of minutes, create dozens of examples for students to rate, rank, sort, or comment on.

This is a wonderful, inquiry-oriented way to explore ideas. As humans, we learn so much from observing and interacting with examples, and now teachers have an almost infinite supply of them readily available.

We must also prepare students for the world they’ll inherit. In the next few years, it will become increasingly important for humans to edit AI-generated work. Right now, I’m seeing teachers provide students with samples of AI-generated work, then working with them to improve it. This is an engaging way to open up deep conversations about writing.

ChatGPT often makes factual errors; having students fact-check ChatGPT’s writing is a wonderful way to improve information literacy. A fifth-grade teacher I’m working with recently provided small groups of students with AI-generated content and reported that they loved working to try to prove the articles wrong.

I’ve also seen teachers using ChatGPT to provide a first round of feedback on students’ work. Teachers can simply ask students to input their work into ChatGPT and ask it to provide feedback for improvement — the results are surprisingly good. Don’t believe me? Check out its analysis of this article. When teachers let AI provide preliminary feedback, it takes something off their plates and allows them to engage in higher-level conversations later in the process.

There is still value in having students learn to compose their own five-paragraph essays — just as there is value in teaching students their multiplication facts, even when they will always have access to a calculator.

But AI can allow students to do things that they previously couldn’t. Making use of AI might feel scary or strange; useful innovations always do. By understanding the power and possibility of AI, however, we can help students use their powers for good.

Oh, one last thing: ChatGPT can draft lesson plans. That alone ought to pique your curiosity.

Ben Talsma is a Learning Solution Specialist for Van Andel Institute for Education, a Michigan-based education nonprofit dedicated to creating classrooms where curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking thrive.

I was once a struggling math student. Now I teach the subject that terrified me.

2023-03-14T12:00:00+00:00

It’s Friday, and I slide into my seat. I look up and feel the nervousness trickling in. I hear our fifth grade teacher tell the class we are about to take our weekly math test. She says not to worry about it. If we practiced our problems at home, we should be fine.

“Yeah, right,” I thought. “I’m sure this will be easy.”

Braxton Hall

All I can think about are the literal tears that covered my homework paper from the nights before. I take some deep breaths and tell myself, “It’s only 10 questions. How hard can it be?” Then I hear the teacher passing out the papers. Each time a paper flutters and lands on a desk near me, it sounds to me like glass shattering. When a blank test arrives on my desk, panic overwhelms me. Everything seems like a blur as I rush to finish.

But as I hand my paper to the teacher, I feel surprisingly good — maybe it’s because the test is over, and maybe (just maybe) it’s because I got a grade I could be proud of. Before the end of the day, though, she hands back the tests. “I thought you would have tried harder after last time,” she tells me. I look down. Another C.

Growing up, math was a struggle and filled me with anxiety. Only thanks to a dedicated teacher who worked with me the summer between elementary and middle school did I gain the foundational knowledge I needed to move forward. From then on, math felt more or less tolerable. Never thrilling. By the end of high school, I vowed never to take another math class if I could help it.

So you might be surprised to hear that I am now an elementary school math specialist who, with the help of encouraging college professors, learned to love math and went on to earn a graduate degree in math education.

Today, I spend my days helping children embrace the subject that long filled me with dread. It’s meaningful and even joyful. Because who better to demystify this often-feared subject than someone who knows first-hand what math anxiety feels like — and also what it feels like to be on the other side of it? That’s me.

I emphasize flexibility by slowing down and backing up, as needed, and by giving students multiple ways to show me they have mastered a concept.

I often think about why so many students find math scary, and I think it has something to do with how we teach students to “plug and chug” numbers without developing the critical thinking skills needed for math reasoning. That’s why my goal is to teach math as a way of thinking, not a system of algorithms.

Two simple ideas guide my lessons: “make the content attainable for students” and “teach students to look at math as something they will always work on” — rather than something they will learn and move on from.

Attainability means I emphasize flexibility by slowing down and backing up, as needed, and by giving students multiple ways to show me they have mastered a concept. It means not grading solely on a right or wrong answer but taking process into account. It means determining where each student is in their math journey and developing a plan for where they need to go. This can be done through vetted assessments, reviewing the results, and working with students to set attainable goals.

Fostering a growth mindset is important no matter the subject. But it’s especially important among students who have internalized the message that math is not something they are good at or even capable of doing. I remind them that math is a skill you never stop learning and perfecting. There will always be something you haven’t yet mastered, and that’s OK. It’s also OK to struggle along the way. We, math teachers, must show our students that it’s not the end of the world if a problem needs to be corrected; it’s an opportunity to learn and grow.

I think it helps that I talk openly about my own math journey. I tell them when we are working on content that used to be a huge struggle for me and recall my past mistakes. They know that I was once where they are now, and now I am teaching them the very subject that once filled me with self-doubt. I model math perseverance.

Braxton Hall has been an elementary school special education teacher for the past six years. As an educator and coach in Kentucky, he works to instill a growth mindset in all of his students — teaching them to face challenges head-on and develop a love for learning new skills.

A solar eclipse is coming. Here’s how NYC teachers, students can make the most of it.

2024-03-26T19:40:56+00:00

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New York City families and educators: Mark your calendars — a once-in-a-lifetime learning experience is just around the corner.

On April 8, a total solar eclipse will occur across parts of the state, with the phenomenon expected to be partially visible in the city. It’s an exceedingly rare event, and state officials note the next total eclipse in the state will not take place until 2079.

New York is one of 11 states in the direct path of the upcoming eclipse, and state officials expect thousands to travel to northern parts of the state to experience the unique spectacle.

“The epicenter that the world will be watching will be in the great state of New York,” said Gov. Kathy Hochul at a recent press briefing. “This is New York’s chance to be in the sun and the limelight.”

For students and schools, the eclipse offers an unrivaled opportunity to engage directly with the science behind the cosmos.

Across the city, some schools are making plans for their communities. Central Park East II in Manhattan, for example, will hold an eclipse event in collaboration with community-based organizations. And P.S./I.S. 48 in Staten Island will host a viewing with safety glasses, moon pies, an inflatable planetarium, and more, according to the city’s Education Department.

Here’s how teachers, students, and families can take advantage of the looming solar eclipse.

When is the solar eclipse?

The solar eclipse will begin on the afternoon of Monday, April 8 around 2 p.m., reaching its peak by about 3:25 p.m. It will end by the early evening.

Though the eclipse will not pass directly over New York City, it will still be partially visible across the five boroughs. In parts of upstate New York, like Syracuse and Rochester, the eclipse is expected to pass directly overhead, temporarily eclipsing the sun in totality.

How can teachers and students safely view the eclipse?

Experts warn against directly looking at the sun during a solar eclipse, noting that it can cause permanent damage to your eyes.

Instead, to safely view the eclipse, you should wear protective glasses designed for a solar eclipse or use an indirect method, like a pinhole projector, which focuses light through a pinhole to project an image that is safe to look at.

But the need for safety equipment doesn’t make the eclipse inaccessible, said Georgette Williams, director of education programs at the New York Hall of Science in Queens.

“Educators have the opportunity to create different things that they can use out of very simple household items like cereal boxes or toilet paper,” she said. “It’s not something that limits access based on economic status. … Everyone can view this eclipse. We’re very good at science on the cheap.”

For educators or families who are interested in creating their own pinhole projectors, NASA has an online guide that uses card stock and aluminum foil, as one example.

Individuals in Staten Island can also attend one of three upcoming events at Huguenot Park Library, where pinhole viewers will be crafted.

The New York Hall of Science will also host a watch party on the day of the eclipse, handing out certified eclipse glasses to those who attend.

What lessons can enhance the experience?

Williams suggests educators preempt the eclipse with lessons on the science behind it, noting that at the museum, they work with younger kids to do hands-on modeling activities. One student will model the sun, while another models the moon, allowing them to teach students about the passing of shadows.

“With older students, you can talk about the ways that scientists use an eclipse to be able to study the sun,” she added. “During totality — because the light is lessened — it actually gives us an opportunity to study aspects of the sun that we wouldn’t see when it’s emitting its full radiation.”

The state’s Education Department has also compiled resources for educators and schools, including ways instruction on the eclipse can be connected to New York’s learning standards.

Families can also learn about the upcoming eclipse at one of two upcoming events at public libraries in Manhattan, hosted by Columbia University’s astronomy department. (Solar eclipse glasses will be provided at the event, according to the New York Public Library.)

For more, Williams recommends educators and students look to the National Informal STEM Education Network, which posts information, activities, and other school resources online.

What if clouds or bad weather block the eclipse?

If poor weather conditions block visibility, teachers and students can still tune into a NASA livestream of the eclipse.

Though Williams calls it “a consolation prize,” she added it can still enhance the learning happening in schools.

“If you’re engaging in the activities and you’re seeing the phenomena happening, I think that’s more powerful than a standalone activity,” she said. “So even if you’re not seeing it in the sky, watching it on a livestream is still pretty cool.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Computer science at an arts school: This Bronx teacher combines coding and dance

2024-03-19T20:46:00+00:00

About two years after Maha Hasen started teaching math at a Bronx arts high school, a few students urged her to create a computer science track. So she took it upon herself to learn the subject.

She did a fellowship with Upperline Code, which trains educators committed to expanding access to computer science, and was able to re-introduce AP Computer Science principles at Fordham High School for the Arts. Hasen also launched a coding club where students learned to create websites using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Now in her eighth year at the school where she started her teaching career, Hasen became an assistant principal while still teaching a few courses. Her school now has a four-year computer science track that includes work-based learning experiences through the Education Department’s FutureReadyNYC program.

And Hasen strives to increase the number of girls pursuing computer science, even collaborating with a dance teacher to combine step and coding. Girls make up more than 70% of students at her arts-focused school.

“My students are dedicated, vocal, and innovative changemakers that hope to use their skills in computer science to dismantle the belief that women do not belong in computer science and to truly change their communities for the better using their skills from the class,” said Hasen, who has won several accolades, including a 2023 Big Apple Teaching Award and Cognizant Innovation in Computer Science Award in 2022.

Besides being part of the second wave of schools in the FutureReadyNYC program, Hasen’s school was selected this year to join the city’s Career Readiness & Modern Youth Apprenticeship program. Through that, students can get paid apprenticeships with technology companies and take coursework at New York University in pursuit of an associate degree.

These programs, Hasen said, help “ensure that we go beyond a traditional high school experience.”

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How and when did you decide to become a teacher?

The short answer: I didn’t! As an applied mathematics and philosophy major, I had originally intended to become a Professor of Philosophy.

However, I had volunteered and worked at a number of schools in Washington, D.C., as a tutor, Ethics Bowl coach, site associate, and teacher, and I interned at the Center for Education Reform, so when my advisor recommended that I look into Teach for America, it made a lot of sense!

I was thrilled to join Teach for America and to be placed in the Bronx, as I was born and raised in the Bronx.

However, what is even more important than why I decided to become a teacher is why I decided to stay a teacher.

Of course, the cliché (and true!) answer is that the students are why I stayed, but after years of reflection, I have found that the most important factor to me staying in the profession has been that I have an incredible principal, Michael Johnson Jr., who has truly embodied the meaning of transformational leadership. Only through his leadership have I been able to take the intellectual risks and develop into the educator that I am now.

I believe an often overlooked factor in teacher development is who is actually supporting the development of teachers — and for me, I am fortunate to have a mentor/principal who consistently gives effective feedback and coaching to support my development.

Why did you decide to take the leap and become an assistant principal?

I wanted to take on a more formal role with the science and math department at my school. I love working with teachers and giving them feedback, and through my role as Master Teacher, I was able to work closely with many teachers and support them in their development.

However, I consistently found myself interested in taking on more administrative projects, and my principal had pushed me to pursue the role of assistant principal.

It was very important to me in the transition to continue to teach. As such, I still teach two sections of AP Computer Science Principles, and once a week, I teach an Algebra II Prep class. I believe that being able to teach these classes allows me to leverage my room as a lab classroom and to really practice what I preach to teachers. Overall, I’ve loved the transition!

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

I love facilitating student learning as they complete their final app in AP Computer Science Principles.

While this culminating project leads to a lot of frustration from students, it is incredible to see how students create apps that tie in their identity and serve the purpose of helping their peers.

Additionally, it is incredible to watch as students work their way out of their comfort zones and navigate through the challenges and frustrations of coding to develop their apps by collaborating and using each other as resources.

Last year, students created a song recommendation app, an app to help learn [American Sign Language], and one that helps you learn about African American inventors and scientists.

I saw that you collaborated with a dance teacher on a freshman coding and dance course aimed at girls. Can you tell me more about that class and why you decided to do that?

The whole premise of our STEM From Dance class was to train an AI to recognize dance poses and then use these dance poses to trigger animations that we can code! Students in this class leveraged the use of Google’s Teachable Machines and Scratch to code.

As a performing arts high school, it is important that we continue to look for ways to integrate the arts into the core academic classes. This was an incredible opportunity because it wasn’t just a unit activity — it was an entire class co-taught with our dance teacher that allowed students to explore computer science through dance.

Tell us about your own experience with school and how it affects your work today.

I always loved school, specifically my math classes. In college, I majored in applied mathematics and philosophy, and I think that shaped my teaching career significantly. As a philosophy major, I spent a lot of time asking questions and always focusing on learning more, sharing perspectives, and thinking outside the box.

I’ve aimed to translate that to my classroom and school by challenging the notions of traditional education. Some examples include the flipped classroom that I helped to pilot in the math classrooms in 2017 — where students watch ‘how-to’ videos at home and take assessments and do small group work in class — and the intentionality behind creating a computer science track and partnership with FutureReady.

Of course, as a math major, I am excited by math so it made sense that I started my teaching career as a math teacher! I hope that I have been able to instill that same love of mathematics and share the joy of the discipline with my students.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received, and how have you put it into practice?

Choose to be happy! While working in education is a very challenging job, it is so much easier if you consistently make the choice to be happy.

For me, that means continuing to teach what I am passionate about, assuming the best intentions of others, and prioritizing my health to ensure I am filled with energy each day!

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Drama at NYC performing arts school over loss of its celebrated theater program

2024-03-13T22:17:29+00:00

The curtain is expected to close next month on a long-running acting program at a Manhattan performing arts school serving grades 6-12, due to a funding shortfall, the program’s education and artistic director told parents this week.

But students from the Professional Performing Arts School in Hell’s Kitchen want the show to go on and launched a GoFundMe campaign that raised more than $20,000 in less than 24 hours.

They’re hoping they can tap famous alumni, who include Alicia Keys, Britney Spears, Claire Danes, and Jesse Eisenberg. Already, Jeremy Allen White from “The Bear” shared the GoFundMe on his Instagram account (after texting a teacher there to make sure it was legitimate, a parent said).

For 13 years, the Waterwell drama program has worked with the Professional Performing Arts School, often called PPAS, offering conservatory-style acting classes led by professional actors: High school students take drama for two hours a day, five days a week; for middle school, musical theater classes run 1½ hours each day. (Waterwell’s co-founder is Arian Moayed, from “Successsion.”)

Earlier this week, Waterwell’s education and artistic director, Heather Lanza, emailed PPAS parents and students, letting them know the program would wrap up April 12 and urged families to advocate on the program’s behalf.

She blamed the program’s early departure on citywide budget cuts, but the Education Department disputed that, saying that Waterwell was charging more from the get-go than the school could afford.

“We love the students dearly, and this has been unbelievably painful,” Lanza told Chalkbeat. “We deeply believe in this training model.”

Some of the students stay in the program for seven years and have gone on to Broadway or other professional roles. Whether the students want to be professional actors or not, learning through theater helps them develop into “empathetic human beings” and helps them tap into “the power of storytelling,” Lanza said.

Lanza told Chalkbeat that the organization’s budget was short by $102,000. Based on what the school told her in a meeting last week, she said, the funding shortfall was a product of the overall cuts in the city and were tied to a midyear adjustment to the school’s budget for the current school year. The principal told families this week that the school needed about $80,000 to save the program, parents said.

Education Department officials disputed the claim that budget cuts were to blame for the program’s gap, saying that the program’s work order was above what the school could afford, and this was communicated to Waterwell in December.

The school did lose money because of an enrollment dip. But that cut only amounted to about $20,000, according to a teachers union database. The school’s current roster is about 520 students, according to public data, down about 20 students from the year before.

“A rigorous theater arts program continues to be a priority for PPAS,” Education Department spokeswoman Jenna Lyle said in a statement. “The school will host end of year performances, and dedicated staff will continue to support students in their drama education through the end of standard academic year program, which ends on April 30, while the school sources a new partner for the next academic year.”

The school is committed to ensuring the theater program will remain strong even if Waterwell leaves next month. Teachers are willing to do “double time” and “step in and fill the gap if we can’t raise the money that Waterwell needs,” said Shawn Dell, the school’s PTA president.

“PPAS is one of a kind. It’s a unicorn. There’s nothing like it,” Dell said. “LaGuardia has DOE teachers that are seeking tenure. Our teachers are seeking Broadway. That’s why we love it.”

Students crushed by news, but elated Jeremy Allen White took notice

“This program brings so much joy to a lot of people,” Tennyson Artigliere, the seventh grader who launched the GoFundMe campaign, said on her way to dance class after the school day ended. “It really brings us so much joy to be able to do what we love to do.”

Tennyson launched the campaign after texting with friends in her group chat about how to take action.

They also immediately changed the group chat name from “PPAS peeps” to “S peeps,” saying that the removal of the theater program “took the ‘PPA’ out of PPAS.” Now it was just “the school,” the students joked.

Before the school day had started, she had tagged White, the “Bear” star, on Instagram, and when she got her phone back at the end of the day, she was ecstatic to see that he had shared the GoFundMe link in his Instagram story.

White wrote: “This is where I went to high school. It’s an incredible program with some incredible teachers. Please help IF YOU ARE ABLE. I have donated.”

His support felt meaningful. “These are the people that are going to be the future of entertainment,” Tennyson said of her classmates, “the next celebrities.”

Marcus Artigliere, Tennyson’s dad, felt frustrated that parents learned about the cuts only from the theater program and not the principal, who is in her first year at the school. But he beamed about his daughter’s drive to launch the fundraising campaign.

“As a parent, I’m really proud of her collective action,” said Artigliere, an education professor at Hunter College. “It’s a public school. We shouldn’t have to fundraise … but there is a lot of beauty in being scrappy and seeing how the kids are taking off.”

Current and prospective PPAS families worry about school’s future

David Glick’s daughter travels about 1½ hours from Staten Island to PPAS for this program, he said.

“I don’t have my daughter do a crazy commute to just do academics. She could go 10 minutes away for that,” he said of his seventh grader. “She’s got this amazing voice and is talented. She was thrilled when she got in, but she also has anxiety and ADHD, and it’s been really nice for her to have these small classes.”

The news about the program has also reached prospective PPAS families.

Sarah Muir, a parent of an eighth grader at Louis Armstrong Middle School in Queens, was delighted to learn last week that her son was accepted into PPAS, and the family is weighing it against an offer at the famed LaGuardia performing arts high school.

“It is distressing and concerning to have gone through the lengthy and arduous application process now to find that the school he will be attending may be radically different from the one he applied to,” Muir said. “The school’s core mission and identity as a performing arts school depends on this training.”

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Hidden Voices: NYC launches Global African Diaspora curriculum

2024-02-29T22:37:06+00:00

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Schools Chancellor David Banks on Thursday announced the launch of a curriculum meant to uplift the stories of Black people and their contributions to American and global history.

The new resources are part of the city’s Hidden Voices initiative, a multi-year effort that began through a partnership with the Museum of the City of New York and intends to teach New York City students about individuals from diverse backgrounds who often aren’t part of history books and whose stories risk being overlooked.

Called “Hidden Voices: Stories of the Global African Diaspora,” the instructional material “delves into the perspectives, experiences, and impact that peoples of African descent have had — and continue to have — on United States and world history,” according to the city’s Education Department. The first of two volumes launched Thursday.

“We have thousands of years of history and contributions that we have made — not simply to New York, not simply to this nation, but in fact to the world,” Banks said during the announcement at St. Paul Community Baptist Church in Brooklyn. “Everybody needs to know about the contributions that Black people have made in this nation and to the world.”

The Hidden Voices curriculum is one of several efforts across the city to broaden the scope of how Black history is taught in schools.

The city has rolled out a prekindergarten-12 Black studies curriculum across roughly 10 districts as part of a pilot program in recent years. That curriculum was developed through work by the Education Equity Action Plan Coalition — a group of educators, nonprofits, and government leaders. Meanwhile, an Advanced Placement course in African American studies is being taught in nearly 60 schools this year as part of a national College Board pilot — with a broader rollout planned for the fall.

The lessons in the new curriculum were developed in partnership with academic institutions, scholars, and community leaders, according to Deputy Chancellor Carolyne Quintana. It’s intended to be incorporated into the city’s social studies curriculum, which is used in more than 90% of schools.

“In a city this diverse, it’s critical that our students see themselves reflected in the lessons that we teach in our schools,” Quintana said. “Black history should not be limited to February, nor should it be limited to the Black community.”

Emphasizing the importance of teaching Black history in the city’s schools, Banks pointed to a conservative backlash that has arisen in other states in response to efforts to teach the material. In Florida, for example, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has blocked student access to the AP African American studies course. In recent years, communities across the country have seen efforts to limit teaching about race and racism in the classroom.

“We’re here to tell the truth and to teach the truth,” he said. “Black history is American history. Period. Full stop.”

Sonya Douglass, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College who helped develop the city’s Black Studies curriculum, praised the release of the Hidden Voices curriculum.

“The Chancellor’s leadership and commitment to teaching the truth through his support of Black history and Black studies curricula is bold and historic given the forces that want to censor what is being taught in schools,” she said.

Other Hidden Voices curriculums have featured stories from Asian American and Pacific Islander history and expanded narratives of individuals who broke norms or expectations of gender and sexuality.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

How an AP African American studies class is helping Brooklyn students see themselves in history

2024-02-20T22:08:01+00:00

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Until her junior year, Brooklyn high school student Afag Sidahmed never enjoyed history classes.

“I was so sick of learning about Europeans,” she said. Her courses rarely focused on Black history, with the exception of Martin Luther King Jr.

But this year, a new course offered at her school, the Urban Assembly Institute of Math and Science for Young Women, has changed her feelings about the subject.

“When I heard about AP African American Studies — and the word African was in there — I was like, ‘Wow, I am taking this class,’” she said.

In 2022, the College Board rolled out its first Advanced Placement course in African American studies through a pilot program at 60 schools across the country. This year, the program expanded to nearly 700 high schools nationwide, with 59 of the city’s schools offering the course locally.

Next year, the course will officially launch, allowing any high schools to offer it. Nearly 160 additional high schools in New York City have already expressed interest in the course, though that number will likely shift as schools develop their plans for the next school year, officials said.

The materials covered in the class have spurred controversy in some states. Last year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state’s schools wouldn’t teach the class and alleged it violated a state law that restricts how race and racism are taught. And when the College Board later released a revised curriculum that had removed much of the criticized content, others protested the organization had buckled under political pressure and watered down the course.

Still, despite being enmeshed in a national political dispute, educators in the city and across the country have emphasized the vital role the class can play in schools and the value it can bring to students.

At the Institute of Math and Science, 32 students across two classes are taking the course, both taught by teachers Kelly Preston and Martine Mercier. Inside their fifth-floor classroom, the walls are decorated with a timeline of Black history that spans thousands of years, and the flags of nations in Africa and the Caribbean. A class constitution encourages students to ask questions, value each other’s opinions, and express any disagreements respectfully.

For Preston and Mercier, the focus of the class has been on student-led discussions and engagement. Typical lessons rely almost entirely on students analyzing primary sources in small groups, instead of more-traditional lectures.

“Kids should be active agents of learning,” Preston said. “They’re not passive absorbers taking in what we tell them. They can create that understanding for themselves, and we want them to feel that agency, and feel empowered in their educational experience.”

Students look to primary sources

In one February class, Preston and Mercier used a hypothetical scenario to segue into a lesson on the Great Migration, a period in the 20th century when millions of Black people moved from the rural South to urban areas in other parts of the country.

Students considered what conditions would prompt them to leave their school for another — whether they’d do so based solely on negative treatment, or if a viable alternative school would be needed to pursue a new environment.

Afterwards, students turned to historical documents, discussing in groups of three or four. Preston and Mercier walked between tables, listening in, posing additional questions, and urging students to explain the reasons for their answers.

Mercier said she and Preston are prioritizing “having the students not always look to us to affirm whether they’re correct or not, but look to each other and look to other sources to affirm what they’re thinking.”

Alizett Tavarez, an 11th grader at the school, explained how she inferred the meaning of the Great Migration through clues from paintings by Jacob Lawrence, a 20th century American painter whose work documented aspects of the Black experience.

“The first thing that caught my eye was how in each of the paintings they have signs that show Chicago, New York, and St. Louis,” she said. “The next picture said tickets, tickets, tickets. It made me assume they were traveling north.”

During the discussion, students often turned to other figures and moments in Black history, drawing connections to Harriet Tubman, Black Wall Street, the Harlem Renaissance, and more.

When Preston and Mercier asked students to consider why so many individuals chose to migrate north, one student spoke up.

“For real freedom,” said Esha Azam, a 10th grader. “Because after slavery ended, the South created the Black Codes, literacy tests, and Jim Crow laws,” she added, referring to various laws that states adopted to restrict the rights of Black Americans to vote or own property, for example, and to enforce racial segregation.

More powerful than just an exam

The AP course pilot is one of several ways New York City educators are working to broaden the scope of how Black history is taught in schools.

Sonya Douglass, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College and director of the Black Education Research Collective, helped develop a pre-K-12 Black studies curriculum that has been offered recently across roughly 10 districts as part of a pilot program. Douglass and others worked to develop the curriculum with the Education Equity Action Plan Coalition, a group of educators, nonprofits, and government leaders.

“So far, we have seen a lot of enthusiasm among educators, community members, and students — the older ones of which say, ‘This is long overdue,’” she said. “What we’re really excited about at the K-12 level is basically generations of young people who will have access to this information.”

The AP African American studies course has prompted further discussion and excitement among local communities, Douglass said. For educators who are tackling the material for the first time next year, it’s critical to approach it with “cultural humility,” she noted.

“No matter your background, even if you are of African descent, many of us don’t know this history,” she said. “Just taking that learner’s stance is so important.”

Preston and Mercier have also shared advice for educators in recent months, speaking about their experience leading the class on a local panel with other Brooklyn schools, and at the national College Board Forum in November.

The two educators suggest teachers who are new to the course embrace the work and trust their students.

“It’s not easy to roll out a brand new course — especially one that centers stories and narratives that haven’t always been highlighted,” Preston said. “It’s a lot of learning and unlearning you’ll need to do. … But really, trust the kids. The kids can do this. They can interrogate sources. They can create understanding for themselves. They can have meaningful, effective conversations.

“You just have to figure out how to support them in doing it,” she added.

Kiri Soares, principal of the Institute of Math and Science, praised Preston and Mercier for developing a successful model for the course in its first year at the school. But Soares noted she’s worried fewer students will be able to take the course if it isn’t able to count as a U.S. history credit toward a student’s graduation requirements. (The city’s Education Department said the class is credited as a humanities elective.)

Soares’ hopes for the class hinge less on the results of the AP exam in May — which will be offered for the first time this year — and more on what students can gain from the content covered within it.

“My goal in this course in particular is to have them see themselves written into history,” she said. “That is a disruptor to the history that their families have had, and it’s pretty amazing and more powerful” than a top score on an exam.

For some students at the school, the class has accomplished just that.

“It always ties back somehow to your roots,” Alizett said. “You always learn more than you expect.”

“You definitely learn about your ethnicity in the classroom,” added Amna Sobahi, an 11th grader. “Like I don’t even need a DNA test anymore — I have Ms. Kelly.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Can you take algebra in eighth grade? In many cases, the answer is no, national survey finds

2024-02-07T19:00:00+00:00

If you’re an eighth grader who wants to take algebra, can you even take the class?

The answer to that question, it turns out, depends a lot on two things: how your school identifies students for advanced math, and where you live.

According to a new nationally representative survey released Tuesday, 65% of U.S. principals said their elementary or middle school offered algebra in eighth grade, but only to certain students. Meanwhile, just 20% of principals said their school offered the class in eighth grade and that any student could take it.

But that picture differed by state. In California, nearly half of principals said their school offered algebra only to certain eighth graders. But in Florida, more than 80% of principals said the class was restricted. In both states, 18% of principals said any eighth grader could take the class, similar to the national rate.

The findings, based on surveys conducted last spring by the RAND Corporation, shed light on the uneven access students have to advanced math classes in middle school, which can have lasting effects on their higher education and job prospects.

Algebra is often considered a gateway class. Eighth graders who take the course can more easily reach calculus by 12th grade — which can set students up for challenging math classes in college and career paths in science and engineering fields.

“The kids that aren’t in algebra by eighth grade, they can do that still,” said Julia Kaufman, a senior policy researcher at RAND, and the lead author of the report, “but they would have to do something special to get there,” such as doubling up on math or taking a summer class.

The report also details the extent to which students are separated based on their perceived math abilities, starting as young as elementary school.

More than 40% of elementary school principals told RAND researchers that their school grouped kids based on their math levels, mostly within the classroom. But by middle school, nearly 70% of principals said they grouped students in math. Most commonly, students were put into separate math classes on honors or career prep tracks, the report found.

“The amount of achievement-level grouping — that it does start within classrooms in K-5 schools and that by middle school, students are typically grouped by achievement level more often than they’re not in their math classes — that’s something new,” Kaufman said.

The findings come as parents and school leaders across the country engage in fierce debates over whether students should be able to take algebra before high school, and if so, what support students need to do well in the class.

Notably, San Francisco Unified schools, which attracted national attention for a policy that prevented students from taking algebra until ninth grade, are poised to bring algebra back to middle schools following parent pushback. School officials there put the policy in place 10 years ago to help prepare more Black and Latino students and students from low-income families to pass algebra and access higher-level math classes — a goal that hasn’t panned out.

The new survey data doesn’t look at whether tracking helps or hurts students’ math outcomes.

And there are other factors that could affect whether students can access higher-level math classes, the report notes, such as differing teacher certification rules, school funding levels, and state policies. California’s state math guidelines encourage students to take algebra in ninth grade, for example, while New York schools are supposed to offer high school math to eighth graders who want to take it.

But Kaufman says the report does suggest that schools should be looking at the criteria they use to group students in math, and whether it could be fueling racial or socioeconomic disparities.

“We’re not giving a recommendation that nobody should be tracked,” Kaufman said. “But if you are grouping students, I think this report calls for you to consider whether the way students are grouped, and how, is biased. Are a lot of students of color, for example, in the lower track? What’s happening there?”

Schools try various methods to expand algebra access

Nationally, white and Asian American students are more likely than their Black and Hispanic classmates to enroll in and pass algebra in eighth grade, the latest federal data shows. Historically, students from low-income families have had less access to algebra in eighth grade, too.

In Philadelphia, many students are blocked from the city’s most selective high school because their middle schools don’t offer algebra. Making algebra more accessible is part of the superintendent’s curriculum overhaul.

School districts like Chicago have taken steps to expand access to algebra in eighth grade, such as offering the class online and covering costs for educators to get algebra teaching credentials. Historically, fewer students in the city’s predominantly Black and low-income neighborhoods have been able to take the class before high school.

The RAND survey found that principals of more-affluent schools were much more likely than leaders of higher-poverty schools to say they considered parent or guardian requests to place students into advanced math classes. That could shortchange kids who don’t have a parent who can step in and do that kind of advocacy, Kaufman noted.

The report urges schools to look at multiple data points to place students into higher-level math classes, and to consider experimenting with the cutoff scores used to identify which students can handle the harder math coursework.

In Oklahoma, Union Public Schools is trying that, The Hechinger Report recently reported. The district, which serves parts of Tulsa and the city’s southeast suburbs, used to offer a pre-algebra placement test in fifth grade, just one time.

But after school officials realized that was mostly funneling kids from elementary schools in whiter and wealthier neighborhoods into the advanced middle and high school math classes, they made changes. The district now allows students to take the fifth-grade placement test multiple times, and teachers can recommend promising students regardless of their score. That’s helped diversify advanced math classes, particularly for Hispanic students.

Union Public Schools also added math tutoring starting in third grade — the kind of support that the RAND report says can be crucial for student success, but that many struggling students aren’t getting.

More than three-quarters of middle school principals told the RAND researchers that less than half of their struggling students participated in math support options offered by their school, such as tutoring, double-dose math classes, or a summer math program for rising middle schoolers.

That could point to the need for schools to universally screen kids for extra math help, or do more to make sure students and parents know about what help is offered. Schools may also need to change how the help is offered, such as moving after-school tutoring to during the school day or providing transportation so more kids can attend.

Those are crucial steps, Kaufman said, at a time when many kids are struggling to close math gaps that cropped up when school was remote or disrupted in other ways by the pandemic.

“I know tutoring is happening in a lot of places, it’s one of the priorities of the White House right now,” she said. But if tutoring is mostly offered to kids and parents who volunteer, “then the tutoring is not going to reach the kids who need it the most.”

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

The Illinois State Board of Education finalized a literacy plan. What’s next?

2024-02-07T23:16:33+00:00

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Two years after Illinois literacy advocates started pushing the state to adopt research-backed reading curriculum, the Illinois State Board of Education finalized a comprehensive literacy plan last month. Now, advocates are pushing for more funding to schools and support for educators to implement the plan.

The literacy plan grew out of an effort by Illinois advocates, who pushed lawmakers in 2022 to pass The Right to Read Act. The bill would have required schools to use evidence-based reading strategies, such as phonics, rather than the now-debunked “balanced literacy” approach, which is based on the idea that reading is a natural process. But that bill hit a wall during negotiations as advocates worked to address concerns about the needs of English language learners.

In the 2023 legislative session, advocates presented a new set of bills called the “Literacy and Justice for All Act.” After months of negotiations between advocates and lawmakers, Senate Bill 2243 passed. The law required the state board to create a literacy plan by the end of January 2024, a curriculum rubric for schools, and professional development opportunities for teachers.

Here is what is included in the state’s comprehensive literacy plan and what literacy advocates say is still needed:

What does the literacy plan mean for schools?

The almost 200-page plan is a hybrid between guidance and a workbook, designed to help pre-K-12 educators teach reading using evidence-based and developmentally appropriate practices. The plan’s three main goals are to provide research-backed literacy instruction, professional development and other support for current teachers in the classroom, and guidance to help school leaders create supportive learning environments.

“At its core, this plan is a resource that we hope will serve as a springboard to bring about local school, district, region, and statewide movement to elevate literacy instruction and ensure every learner, no matter where they reside, is provided with equitable opportunities to gain the literacy skills necessary for lifetime success,” said Erica Thieman, director of standards and instruction at the state board.

The plan is not a mandate for schools to follow and doesn’t require schools to buy new curriculum or instruction materials for educators. Since Illinois is a local control state, the plan only urges districts to use guidance in the plan.

Will this plan change how reading is taught to students with dyslexia?

Parents of children with dyslexia have struggled to get support from their child’s schools. Often waiting a long time — even years — before their child was able to get screened and receive an Individualized Education Program, or IEP.

The literacy plan stresses the need to identify students with dyslexia early, noting that universal screening can be used in schools “to identify students who are thriving, those at risk, or those in need of accelerated support. It also serves as a vital signal for potential systematic instructional improvements.”

The state board updated its dyslexia guide in early January. The guide provides more information about how to use screeners and assessments to identify and provide evidence-based interventions for students.

“I’m proud that we have it and I’m proud that we took steps, but I don’t think it’ll really make a difference until it gets implemented,” said Meredith Paige, co-founder of the CPS Family Dyslexia Collaborative. She is also still concerned about the lack of training for teachers to detect dyslexia.

Does the literacy plan include English language learners?

For Chicago and surrounding suburbs, supporting English learners will be a major area of focus since schools are enrolling a large number of migrant students.

Rebecca Vonderlack-Navarro and Erika Méndez of the Latino Policy Forum, who advocated for the needs of English learners during negotiations for the literacy bill, had been concerned that reading advocates looked at English learners as a monolith, instead of a group of students with complex needs. They are happy to see that the state board has included different types of English learners and highlighted support for students.

For instance, one section addresses dual language programming in schools. “These programs, which integrate instruction in both English and the students’ native languages, not only enhance language proficiency in both languages but also foster academic excellence,” the plan says.

“The report looks at the different emergent bilinguals, like newcomers,” said Mendez. “There are different versions of English learners that have different needs. The report sets up how each of those different student populations, even within English learners, are going to get supported in different ways.”

What is next for schools, teachers?

The Illinois State Board of Education has to create a rubric for school districts to evaluate literacy curriculum by July 1. Next year, the state board is required to create training opportunities for current educators that align with the comprehensive literacy plan by Jan. 1, 2025.

Beginning July 1, 2026, student teachers who plan to teach first through sixth grade will be tested on their knowledge of literacy on a content-area exam before they can receive a license and start teaching.

What do literacy advocates still want to see?

Advocates are pushing lawmakers to increase the state’s education budget and an increase of $550 million for the state’s evidence-based funding formula that supports public schools. Literacy advocates hope that the state board will set aside money to implement the literacy plan.

The state board has recommended $3 million for fiscal year 2025 to implement the literacy plan, but advocates hope for $45 million.

Jessica Handy, executive director of Stand for Children Illinois, said she will be working on a new bill to strengthen the literacy plan.

“There is a lot more work to be done on literacy instruction in Illinois,” Mea Anderson, a spokesperson for Stand for Children Illinois said. “The plan is a great starting point, and we find it promising that ISBE leadership seems highly motivated to continue that work.”

Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education, and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

White students need more information about race and racism, not less

2023-04-10T20:30:36+00:00

As an assistant professor of education at Howard University, I have watched over the past two years as state lawmakers and governors have made it harder to teach public school students about American racial history.

These “anti-CRT” and “divisive concept” laws make teachers afraid to talk openly about the history of race and racism in this country, which will leave gaps to fill in years to come. As many have pointed out, a lack of accurate history harms all students. I want to offer my perspective as a white woman who, like many other white people, grew up without exposure to accurate information about race and American history until later in life. I use it to underscore why white children, in particular, need more information about race and American history, not less.

I went to high school in a blue-collar, midwestern city where the automobile industry fed the local economy. I attended a mostly white high school and had no idea that just a few miles away, the schools were mostly Black. In fact, we lived in one of the most segregated cities in the nation during the 1980s.

In high school, we read Maya Angelou and Mildred Taylor, and learned about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. But we did not learn how racial segregation laws had shaped the schools we attended, nor how redlining and racial covenants had shaped the surrounding neighborhoods.

We did not learn why it was that our school had so few Black students or so few Black teachers. Each day, the ebb and flow of mostly white students and teachers went unquestioned, leading me, and likely other white students, to assume it was perfectly normal. At home, we did not talk about race, history, or politics. Maybe it was because, like other working-class families, we went to work and did not ask questions. Or maybe it was because, like many white families, talking about race explicitly is taboo.

It wasn’t until graduate school at a predominantly white university at the age of 25 that I began to learn about the history of race in America. And, importantly, it wasn’t by choice. I was not a “race and ethnicity” or “ethnic studies” or “Black studies” major. I was an education major. Making the difference were my professors, who integrated information about race, racism, and the histories and contributions of Asian Americans, Black Americans, Indigenous peoples, and Mexican Americans into the class curriculum.

As a result, my entire understanding of this country changed. And in fact, it improved. I understood more about laws and civics and social movements, and the history of the United States and the colonies. I gained significant respect and reverence for communities of color and a new understanding of my own history as a white person. It opened my worldview and expanded my perspectives and relationships. It made me more committed to our democratic ideals and to building community.

Learning about race and American history fundamentally changed my entire trajectory, and for the better. It shaped each personal and professional decision that I made thereafter.

It wasn’t until graduate school that I began to learn about the history of race in America.

But what if, instead of learning this in my late 20s, I had learned this history as a child? It was only by accident, to some extent, as a first-generation college student, that I attended the graduate program that I did. And it was only through the work of my professors, many of them faculty of color, that I was exposed to anything different. Think of all the other white students in my high school who have proceeded through life, casting votes and making decisions that impact the lives of other people, without an understanding of this nation’s past.

Many white people that I talk to from my own generation, even now, do not know much about America’s racial history. Just this past year, I’ve talked with white people about the ways white lawmakers segregated schools and universities, how Klan members held public offices in the 1920s and 30s, and how Massive Resistance unfolded during desegregation. And it is new to them. When they hear this, it’s like a light bulb goes off. Suddenly, anti-racism and diversity efforts make more sense.

Opponents of addressing this history are afraid that it will make white children feel bad. And yes, I did learn of the brutality and violence of white people. I know that we have the potential to act with malice and disregard for the lives of people of color. But did this make me feel bad? No. It made me feel a healthy sense of responsibility to those different from myself. Teaching our children about the harms white people have perpetrated will not make them feel bad; it will keep them from doing the same thing in the future. And importantly, we must teach them how white people can contribute responsibly and with reverence to the work of racial justice.

White children notice race and internalize prejudice and superiority early on. If we do not inoculate our children from these ideas, we leave them vulnerable to the rising tide of prejudice and race-related hate. Today we are seeing the political impact of my generation, who went through school without enough information about race, racism, and American history to make better decisions in the interest of democracy. We will continue to pay a collective price as a nation if we censor this information in schools.

As white people, we have a lot to learn about the history of race and racism in America. As adults, we have our own gaps, and those of our children, to fill. We need to learn the accurate history of white people, the bad and the good. We need it to better understand ourselves and the world and human dignity. We need it to be better members of our community and to make informed policy decisions and to inoculate our children against racial extremism and xenophobia.

Learning about race, racism, and American history has fundamentally changed my life, and for the better. What I needed as a young white student — what so many of us need still today — was more information about race, racism, and American history, not less.

Kathryn Wiley is an assistant professor on educational policy and leadership at Howard University.

These Chicago middle schoolers have big ideas for improving their neighborhood

2024-02-01T21:35:08+00:00

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Standing next to a 3D model of the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood spread across a conference room table, eighth grader Rondell Sims gave a call to action to a room of city officials and classmates.

“As development comes to our community, you all will be advocates alongside in creation of a plan that is for us, by us,” Rondell said during a presentation on Wednesday inside the Altgeld Gardens Chicago Public Library Branch.

Rondell and his fellow middle schoolers at Aldridge Elementary were laying out a vision for the future of Altgeld Gardens that would include a grocery store, a new recreation center, public art by a planned new public transit stop, and a museum to honor Hazel Johnson, the “mother of the environmental justice movement” who lived in the neighborhood and fought against air pollution and toxic conditions in the community.

“You can’t really speak on something that you don’t live,” Rondell said after the formal presentation ended. “I feel like by us adding these things to the community and making more things that will be better for the people that’s in the community is just amazing. It will give a better name for our community.”

The project — that allowed middle schoolers to play the role of city planner and propose changes to their community — is the culmination of more than two years of collaboration between Aldridge teachers and the Field Museum.

“The work that we do in schools can’t just be isolated to grades,” said Principal Afua Agyeman-Badu. ”I wanted them to see the power that exists within them to make decisions and create a plan about what it is that they want for this place.”

Built in 1945 by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to house Black veterans returning from World War II, Altgeld Gardens is a planned community made up of mostly three-story townhomes operated by the Chicago Housing Authority.

The neighborhood — near the site of the old steel mills and the Pullman factory — sits 19 miles from Chicago’s Loop at 130th Street and has no access to the city’s public transit system, which ends at 95th Street. City officials have been talking about extending the Red Line for decades, but the project now appears on the cusp of becoming a reality.

Agyeman-Badu said the Red Line extension project is a learning opportunity for Aldridge students.

“I want them to be able to one day see when the ribbon is cut for them to see their ideas as a part of that plan for the Red Line extension,” Agyeman-Badu said.

Raven Mayo, Aldridge’s middle school science teacher, said the students have been working on this project since sixth grade and it’s evolved over time. The news of the Red Line extension prompted engaging discussions in class when students questioned why the community doesn’t have access to public transit and is isolated from the rest of Chicago.

“This created an opportunity for them to share their gripes in a productive way,” Mayo said. “Like this is what we deserve, just like the rest of the city.”

“The kids are speaking, they have a voice, their voice matters, their desires matter, they’re the future.” Mayo said. “In the next five years, they’ll be working adults, and they need to have access to get it downtown and to be a part of the workforce in Chicago.”

Bill Mooney, chief infrastructure officer for the Chicago Transit Authority, and other city officials attended the presentation on Wednesday to give feedback and take notes.

“This is one of the coolest things I’ve been able to participate in my 26 years at CTA.” Mooney said. “We are in a unique moment. Not often does what’s right, and what’s possible align.”

He urged the students to keep fighting to bring their ideas to fruition. The Red Line extension project cleared a hurdle last fall in the process to secure nearly $2 billion in federal funding, but the final award won’t be determined until late 2024. It’s not expected to be completed until 2029.

Jasmine Gunn, a city planner for the Far South Region with Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development, said often community meetings draw an older demographic, so it was refreshing to see the youth perspective.

“They’re gonna be living in this community longer than any of us,” Gunn said. “To start any development, we need the vision and seeing their vision is really great. I’m actually trying to set up a field trip for our staff to come look at the presentation.”

Eleanor Sweeney, an educator with The Field Museum who works with the Aldridge students, said students are more likely to be engaged with learning when there’s a connection to their own lives. They also have so many good ideas.

“If anyone is making decisions about the future of their neighborhood, consult your local middle schoolers,” Sweeney said with a smile.

Terrence Perry, an eighth grader who worked on the public art piece of the project, said he’s hopeful that city officials will pick up some of their ideas.

“Once everybody sees it? They’re gonna be like, “Oh, I get what they’re trying to do,’” Terrence said. “A lot of people are gonna want to move out here.”

He stood near the 3D model on the conference room table and pointed to a tiny display near his home. It read: “Power and peace starts within me.”

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

How Michigan schools are creating safe spaces for students to talk about the Israel-Hamas war

2024-01-24T22:18:41+00:00

Daniel Crowley, a middle school teacher in Ann Arbor, had been teaching about refugees this fall when the Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel catapulted the region into chaos.

In the days and weeks afterward — as Hamas militants’ bloody attack in Israel gave way to devastating death counts in Gaza — Crowley said he felt himself playing it safe in his classroom. When students asked about Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza, he told them they needed to ask their parents, because he didn’t know what the district policies were around the topic.

He regrets that now.

“In order for all my students to feel seen and safe in that community, I can’t just be doing test prep on Emily Dickinson,” Crowley said of his responsibility as an educator. “I have to include their identities, make space for their experiences, and build their voice and agency, and understand their sort of history, their narrative.”

Last week, Ann Arbor Public Schools made national and international headlines when its board passed a resolution calling for a “bilateral ceasefire in Gaza and Israel.” But it was another part of the board’s resolution that is impacting day-to-day learning in classrooms. Rather than steer clear of a difficult subject, the board urged teachers to encourage more classroom discussion.

The resolution calls for more professional development and resources for teachers to help them encourage “respectful, nuanced and age-appropriate dialogue around culturally sensitive real-world conflicts.”

Crowley said the resolution was necessary and liberating for teachers.

“I feel hopeful, after this resolution passing, that teachers themselves will be moved to take more risks. And teachers that I’ve talked to specifically who have played it safe, some of them for decades, are now starting to say … this is too important,” Crowley said. “And it impacts our students and our community too greatly for us to be silent.”

Educators navigate a tense environment in schools and on campuses

In the past week, Bridge Michigan and BridgeDetroit interviewed educators and students across several Michigan districts to learn how schools are, or are not, addressing the Israeli-Hamas war.

The stakes are high. Students, and their parents, are paying attention. Teachers say they are acutely aware that some students have loved ones in the Middle East. Ann Arbor, for instance, has significant Arab and Jewish populations. Dearborn and Dearborn Heights schools have many families from the Middle East. Tensions are immense.

“So I think what is also important is we’ve created a safe space for our students to feel and work and grapple with the things that they are feeling and navigating,” said Mercedes Harvey-Flowers, a social studies teacher and department chair in Dearborn Heights.

“What I don’t want to see happen is, through this, they begin to hate a group of people.”

That is already happening, and students have noticed. In late October, an Illinois man was charged with murder and hate crimes, accused of stabbing a 6-year-old Muslim boy for his religion. And there’s been a staggering rise in reports of antisemitism and Islamophobia since early October, raising tensions at U.S. college campuses in addition to K-12 schools.

Some U.S. students who have spoken publicly on either side of the Hamas-Israeli war have faced death threats, doxxing, or career consequences from keyboard warriors or potential employers. Several people approached for interviews declined to talk, citing concern about having their names publicly attached to the topic.

Crowley said the Ann Arbor resolution provides some insulation for teachers, but acknowledged that talking about the conflict still carries risk and questions about how the resolution will work in practice. For example, he noted that while many Ann Arbor parents felt comfortable signing petitions for or against the cease-fire resolution, only a handful of teachers felt comfortable speaking at last week’s board meeting.

Teachers share strategies for classroom discussion

Into this maelstrom, Michigan teachers are being asked to explain competing narratives about Israeli and Palestinian claims to disputed land and to help students separate fact from fiction in a conflict that’s been uniquely difficult to document.

Jennifer Lewis, a professor of teacher education at Wayne State University, said the success of schools’ efforts will depend in part on how well teachers are prepared to accurately address student questions. In Ann Arbor, for instance, Lewis said the board’s resolution could leave teachers in a tough position.

“To train people to do that takes significant work,” she said. “And we don’t know, from the resolution or from anywhere else, where those funds will come from, how they will be facilitated, who will be tasked with this, whether it will actually happen.”

Teachers across several districts shared classroom discussion strategies that have common themes: They try to share facts from reputable sources. They strive for thoughtful class discussion. And they acknowledge that students may have family or friends in the Middle East directly affected by the violence.

Harvey-Flowers said it’s important to help students find reliable information and analyze the credibility of the people sharing information.

“They can see a very inflammatory video on TikTok, and take that as gospel truth,” she said.

Wading into heated topics is risky for teachers

Teachers’ reluctance to lean into controversial topics is understandable. In recent years, educators in Florida, Missouri and other states have faced pushback, including threats to their jobs, for classroom discussions related to racism, gender identity, or other topics deemed divisive. Closer to home, local school board meetings have sometimes turned volatile over the selection of school library books.

“Doing this work can be very risky because the discussions can get heated, parents can complain,” said Judith Pace, a professor of teacher education at the University of San Francisco who writes about how to teach difficult topics. Sometimes, she said, nervous school administrators “don’t support doing this work. Especially in these times that are so contentious and polarized, I think it’s really important for teachers to be thoughtful and informed.”

Pace said teachers must cultivate a supportive classroom environment, which involves getting to know their students and students getting to know one another. And she stressed the importance of slowly easing into the topic to give students time to feel comfortable.

“Instead of having a debate or even a deliberation where students are deciding on what to do about something, you really need to find out what they know and surface their feelings and their thoughts,” Pace said.

“All of these things have to be taken into consideration.”

In some communities, faraway conflict is ‘real life’

Discussions can depend on the community.

Katelyn Walsh, a high school English language arts teacher in Dearborn Public Schools, where more than half the population is from the Middle East or North Africa, said there is an unspoken understanding that the majority of students and their families support the Palestinian position on the conflict. She said that if she were in a different district with a different student population, she would likely provide more information about the conflict itself. But what may be seen as an abstract discussion on faraway events in some schools, “is real life to some students of ours.”

In Dearborn Heights, Harvey-Flowers said students organized “a peaceful walkout in support of Gaza” on Oct. 20. She said she was pleased to see students share their voices on a subject they feel strongly about. But students “were being called vile things on the internet” after news organizations reported on the walkout. She said the district upped security afterward to ensure their safety. That experience, too, carried lessons.

“So I spent a lot of time in October more specifically talking about the consequences of activism, and how what may feel like a consequence is actually like a good thing, like how ‘you used your voice, and you shook it up and now people are nervous. And that’s a good thing,’” Harvey-Flowers said.

Bayan Founas is a high school English teacher at The School at Marygrove, a public school in Detroit. She conducted several activities with students last fall on the Israeli-Hamas War.

Another teacher, Bayan Founas, took an active role in facilitating activities and pro-Palestinian protests for students.

Founas, a high school English teacher at the School at Marygrove in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, said she helped students plan a walkout. Founas said she and her students wanted to show Palestinians that people around the world are supporting them.

“I obviously don’t know what they’re going through or what’s happening in (Palestinians’) minds, but I think it can go a long way for them to see that the world is not silent, that we are standing up for them and we’re not okay with what’s happening,” she said.

During the fall, Founas also organized school activities for her students, looking for ways to explain the complex relationship between Israel and the Palestinian people in ways teens can understand. One activity involved analyzing political cartoons that addressed segregation in the United States and South African apartheid and compared those to the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza.

Students are hungry for information

Ishai Sussman-Yitzchaki, a junior at a high school in Ann Arbor, and Indigo Umlor, a senior at a high school in Byron Center, a small town in Kent County, are not enrolled in history or current affairs classes, but said they are clued in on what’s happening in the war from other sources.

Sussman-Yitzchaki, who is Jewish, said the topic comes up with friends, especially friends he knows from summer camp. He also hears things from his family, including his mom who is a “much more active news consumer than I am” and has studied the conflict for several years.

Umlor checks news organizations, journalists on the ground, and government sources to find information about the conflict, and is particularly interested in examples in which government sources disagree on specific points.

“Without doing some digging, it can be hard to find solid information that shows you the whole picture,” Umlor said.

So Umlor started an Instagram account that provides information on events in support of the Palestinian people and resources about what is happening in the Middle East.

“The Israel-Palestine conflict is one of those issues that’s complicated, but also very simple at the same time,” Umlor said, arguing that the killing of thousands of people in Gaza should prompt “more and more people around the world” to be outraged by the loss of life.

“I feel like that’s something I wish a lot more people would take away from this is that however you feel about Palestine and Israel as a whole, that you can morally oppose killing 30,000 people in the span of just over 100 days… . And I wish I saw my community caring more about this.”

(The Gaza Health Ministry reported this week that more than 25,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the Israeli military offensive began, the majority women and children. Its numbers do not separate civilian and combatant deaths. The Israeli government has reported between 1,100 and 1,200 deaths in the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas militants, mainly involving civilians.)

Teachers see a ‘responsibility’ to tackle tough topics

Sussman-Yitzchaki said the conflict has not come up in his classes, but he’s had a few teachers ask if he has relatives or friends in Israel and make sure he is OK. He said he believes teachers can handle having difficult conversations about Israel and Gaza, in part, because he has already witnessed teachers tackle tough topics like racism.

But he acknowledged the Israel-Hamas conflict brings nuances and debate that can be more difficult to navigate than typical classroom discussions on racism.

Sussman-Yitzchaki’s mother, Mira Sussman, told Bridge she believes it’s “a lot to ask of teachers” to instruct students about the Israeli-Palestine conflict.

But multiple teachers interviewed said they feel up to the task.

Tasneem Madani, a student teacher at Ann Arbor Public Schools, said students want to learn about what is happening in the Middle East. She also believes there has been a rise in anti-Palestinian and antisemitic sentiment because of a lack of education.

“I don’t see this as a burden,” said Tasneem Madani, a student-teacher in the Ann Arbor schools who is currently a student at the University of Michigan. “And I know other teachers don’t see it as a burden.

“We see it as our responsibility, as an opportunity. Because I think we feel like we’re doing the good work, right? Like, it is really difficult. It is hard. But it’s also what we want to be doing.”

Madani called the school board’s resolution encouraging classroom discussion a “first step in affirming our ability to do our jobs,” and there are several organizations and groups willing to share their expertise on these topics.

It’s important, she said, to communicate to students that certain topics aren’t off limits, while seeking to affirm “every single student’s humanity.”

Isabel Lohman is a reporter for Bridge Michigan. You can reach her at ilohman@bridgemi.com. Micah Walker is a reporter for BridgeDetroit. You can reach her at mwalker@bridgedetroit.com.

A math problem with no easy solution: Regents scores plummeted during pandemic

2024-01-23T17:58:15+00:00

New York City high-schoolers’ scores on math Regents exams plummeted during the pandemic and have yet to bounce back, according to recently released state data.

Performance on the Regents tests, which serve as graduation requirements in New York, fell in every subject with the exception of U.S. History between 2019, the last year before the pandemic, and 2023, the data shows.

But the decline was steepest for city students in higher-level math courses. In Algebra II, proficiency rates for city students fell from 69% in 2019 to just 44% last year. In Geometry, 56% of city students passed the Regents test in 2019, but just 38% passed last school year.

The sharp decline is a stark indicator of the ongoing challenges the city faces in helping students recover from the academic impacts of the pandemic. Those challenges are particularly acute in math, where one course builds directly on the last and interrupted instruction can have ripple effects.

City officials are betting big on a new curriculum overhaul, where high schools for the first time are required to use a shared math curriculum for Algebra I.

“Math Regents scores have been unacceptably low for the last several years, even before the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein. “We launched our rollout of the Algebra 1 Illustrative Math curriculum to address dropping test scores.”

The curriculum mandate is currently in place only for Algebra I, but city officials have raised the possibility of standardizing curriculum for higher-level math courses as well. Illustrative Math, the mandated Algebra I curriculum, has drawn mixed responses from educators.

The Algebra I Regents exam is also undergoing a change this year to align with a new set of standards, and similar changes are on the way for the Algebra II and Geometry exams.

Brownstein said the Algebra I curriculum mandate is “just the first stage” of the Education Department’s work to improve high school math instruction and that “we are confident we will see rising Regents scores as a result.”

Pandemic Regents waivers help explain drops

There are likely several factors that drove the unusually steep decline in higher-level math scores.

In general, math scores fell more dramatically than reading scores across grade levels and districts. That pattern held true for New York City on the state’s third-to-eighth-grade state tests and the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which tests fourth and eighth graders.

Bobson Wong, a veteran high school math teacher in Queens, said basic academic skills like knowing how to study, remember things, and ask for help – skills that are particularly important in memorization-heavy subjects like math – all took a hit during the pandemic.

But educators also pointed to specific features of New York’s high school Regents tests and the state’s pandemic policies that may help explain the size of the drops.

High school math, to a greater degree than other subjects, is cumulative – meaning it’s extremely difficult to perform well in Algebra II without having mastered Algebra I, said Wong.

Prior to the pandemic, many schools didn’t enroll students in Algebra II or Geometry courses unless they’d passed the Algebra I Regents exam. But during the pandemic school years of 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, when schools were partially or fully remote, Regents tests were mostly canceled and students could earn waivers by passing the course linked to the test.

As a result, when in-person instruction returned, educators said they noticed an unusual number of students enrolled in higher-level math courses who’d never really mastered Algebra I.

“I saw a lot of students in my Algebra II class waived through Algebra I and they didn’t know any algebra,” said Wong. “We didn’t really do anything to prepare them for a course like Algebra II. It requires so much knowledge of algebra and so much prior skill.”

During the pandemic, there were few good options to fairly assess students. State officials concluded that trying to hold Regents exams during the height of the pandemic, with schools offering varying levels of in-person instruction and students often struggling to engage in remote learning, would exacerbate inequality and unfairly block some students from graduating. Students in New York typically need to score a 65 or higher on five Regents exams to earn a diploma, and can receive an “advanced” diploma by passing more of the exams.

More than 80% of New York City’s high school graduates in 2020, and nearly three-quarters of graduates in 2021, had at least one Regents exam exemption counted towards graduation requirements, a 2022 analysis from Education Trust-New York found.

But while many educators supported the additional flexibility during the pandemic, some have expressed concerns that students granted Regents exemptions or who passed courses because of added pandemic grading flexibility didn’t get the support they needed to catch up, and were instead moved into higher-level courses for which they were unprepared.

“We had to make some really important and responsive decisions,” said Tracy Fray-Oliver, the vice president at Bank Street Education Center and a former math official in the city Education Department. “But without ensuring the mastery in these courses that came before, you’re going to see these kinds of results.”

Passing the Algebra II and Geometry Regents tests isn’t a requirement for graduation because students can satisfy the math Regents requirement by passing only Algebra I. But the tests are required for an advanced diploma, and passing them can be an indicator of whether students are on track to take and pass pre-calculus and calculus.

Gaps between racial groups grew

Across the state, the Regents exam declines were also largest on the Algebra II and Geometry tests, although the drops in New York City were larger in both cases.

The gaps between racial groups also grew. The share of Latino students in New York City scoring proficient on the Algebra II exam, for example, was more than cut in half, from 58% in 2019 to 28% last year. Just 26% of Black students passed the Algebra II test last year, down from 55% in 2019.

The proportion of Asian American students passing the exam fell from 87% in 2019 to 74% this year, while the share of white students scoring proficient fell from 82% to 63%.

Fray-Oliver said she applauded the city’s efforts to overhaul high school math curriculum, but added that many of the skills students need to succeed in higher-level high school math courses are first taught as early as elementary.

Critics have long argued that the Regents exams aren’t effective ways of assessing what kids know and encourage rote learning at the expense of deeper understanding. That’s part of why a Blue Ribbon Commission recently recommended to the state’s Board of Regents that New York offer more pathways outside of the exams for students to earn graduation credit.

Wong said he expects the scores on the higher-level Regents tests to slowly bounce back on their own as the effects of the pandemic fade.

“I wouldn’t push the panic button and say we have to do all these interventions,” he said. “If the drop-off continues, that could be more of an issue.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

This Queens teacher went from being an accountant to teaching entrepreneurship

2024-01-17T21:38:18+00:00

Lorena Izzo was working as an accountant about 20 years ago when she was assigned to oversee a college intern and realized her true calling: to become a teacher.

She returned to her alma mater, Hofstra University, to get a master’s in math education (on top of her MBA). She landed a job at the Academy of Finance and Enterprise in Long Island City, Queens, and she has remained there for nearly 17 years, teaching entrepreneurship, financial services, and accounting.

“My students create business plans from scratch,” Izzo said, “starting with the research phase and finishing with viable business ideas that are ready to be presented at national competitions in front of potential investors.”

Some teens have even won seed money for their ideas, with one such student marketing a homemade hand cream to local nail salons and another selling napkins and towels that she personalized with embroidery.

In raising the question, “What is the purpose of school?” New York City schools Chancellor David Banks often talks about the importance of ensuring students have real-world workforce experience and are financially literate. Banks visited Izzo’s class on entrepreneurship last year to see her in action and hear from her students about how they’re preparing for their futures, Izzo recounted.

Izzo began teaching entrepreneurship by chance. Soon after she started working at Finance and Enterprise, her principal asked her to join a class for educators held by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, or NFTE, a nonprofit focused on empowering students to build their own businesses. That experience changed her path — as well as that of many of her students.

The organization provides Izzo with a curriculum and professional development. It offers mentors and coaches to her students, who often go on job-shadowing trips and take career readiness workshops.

Several of Izzo’s students have participated in the organization’s National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge. Two students recently made regionals for their subscription company for culturally diverse treats, inspired by their own challenges finding authentic Vietnamese and Algerian desserts. Another student who always longed for more help with styling her curly hair created an app that recommends styling products and tips.

“It’s very inspiring to see how they take something they see as a problem, and they come up with their own solution,” Izzo said.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Tell us about your own experience with school and how it affects your work today.

I went into teaching because every day is different. That’s what made me want to come out of accounting. Every day was the same.

I’ve been teaching the entrepreneurship class for over a decade now, but it is different every year because the students are always different. Technology is constantly changing along with styles and trends.

I remember 10 years ago, a student told me they were going to send their product to someone on YouTube. I didn’t see how that was a business plan and gave her a zero. Then I saw that person [from YouTube] on television, and the student explained what an influencer was. She was like, “Did you change my grade?” Yes, I did.

Why did you decide to focus on entrepreneurship education?

I loved the class that first year of teaching it. It’s very different from teaching finance and accounting. When teaching entrepreneurship, you get to really know your students through the businesses they want to start. You get to know what drives them, and you’re part of the whole process of making that happen.

My entrepreneurship class is not just about memorizing facts and dates but applying those skills students are learning in class. They can apply them to anything, even if they’re not going to start a business. Maybe students are going into the medical field and want to become doctors. Regardless of the career choices my students make beyond this class, when they face a problem, they will already be thinking about all the opportunities to come up with a solution. And this will open many doors for them.

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

One of the lessons I absolutely love to teach in my Entrepreneurship 1 class is our LEGO activity because it also touches upon accounting.

It’s a very hands-on activity where the students get to play with LEGOs and create a toy. But they also have to tell us a few things: They need to identify the target market for the toy they created, the cost of the materials, and the labor that will be needed. So it helps them figure out what to do for their own projects while practicing on LEGOs.

I mean who doesn’t like to play with LEGOs? The students have so much fun with this one.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your classroom or your school?

My classroom did see an increase in English-language learners, and with that came the need to adapt our curriculum to several languages including Spanish and French. Google Translate has been a major tool to overcome language barriers. I speak Spanish but not French, for example, so when I can’t translate for students personally, I rely on Google Translate.

But at the end of the day, the lessons of the curriculum are so universal and applicable to everyday things that, even if it takes them a little bit more time, they always learn and have fun in my classroom.

I have a student who is an English learner, and his business is a [bilingual English-Spanish] tutoring company that caters to both languages. So if there’s a language barrier, they will have a tutor who can teach you math and science in that language.

In your more than a decade in the classroom, what changes have you seen in terms of the skills your students need now?

I think that the dynamics of extracurricular activities outside the classroom have changed in the past couple of years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We used to do a lot of trips where we would visit companies and give students the opportunity to shadow people in the industry, but this has become more challenging as companies aren’t all back in the office.

Our students absolutely love to be able to go out, go to companies, and talk to professionals to see what jobs and careers are out there for them. It’s also the little things that give them quite an impression, like, “Wow, look at their desk.” There was one trip last year where the students got free snacks, and they were like, “You give these out for free?”

It’s these experiences outside the classroom that broaden their horizons on what kind of workplaces to strive for and how to get there. And they can only get that from the people who work there.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received, and how have you put it into practice?

This goes for all teachers, especially those who are still starting out: Always have a plan B for the unexpected.

It’s not just about trying to make things work while they’re working. I faced this issue during my first year of teaching where I had a lesson plan, tested it all out, and the next day the website my entire lesson plan was focused on was taken down. And another teacher told me, “You just didn’t have a plan B.”

Always have a plan B, whatever it may be. The last thing you need is chaos in the classroom.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

To teach about Israel and Palestine, this geography teacher sets ground rules for tough conversations

2023-12-13T15:30:00+00:00

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As a kid, Morgan Patel was good at math and science in school. But she never liked how problems in those classes often had just one answer.

It was the intense, but meaningful, discussions that social studies provoked that drew her in.

“You’re talking with humans about humans and how they interact,” she said. “I just love talking about humans and how they’re imperfect.”

So it’s fitting that Patel, now in her 11th year teaching high school in Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools, does that on a daily basis in her Advanced Placement Human Geography class.

It’s a course that delves into where humans live in the world and why, with units examining how that’s shaped everything from culture and religion, to language and politics.

The class can be heavy. Even before this year, Patel taught about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as The Troubles in Northern Ireland, the violent partition of India and Pakistan, the decades of fighting that led to the formation of South Sudan, and the ensuing civil war. The class includes other topics that can be difficult to discuss, too, such as human trafficking, gender-based violence, and food insecurity, including in the U.S.

Patel, who holds a prestigious National Board Certification teaching credential, says it’s her goal to help students wade through polarizing topics — by bringing in historical context, and not leaping to conclusions — so they can do the same when they consume media about these subjects on their own.

“Even though it’s tough to teach this,” she said, “I feel lucky to teach it.”

Patel spoke with Chalkbeat a few days after the most recent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended about how she approaches complicated subjects like the Israel-Hamas war, the ground rules she sets for respectful class discussions, and why she asks her students to document their slang each year.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Your class teaches about the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Before this year, how would students interact with that history?

I teach in a very diverse school. It absolutely has kids with family in one of those places sometimes, or they might be Muslim, Arab, Jewish, or Israeli. I’ve even had both [Muslim and Jewish students] in the same class before.

Even before this year, they would see things on the news or they’d hear from adults that this is a really bad conflict, but they wouldn’t understand why. So I always spend a lot of time on the why.

I use a lot of videos and maps. I show a picture of Jerusalem and I show how it’s divided into quarters. And I show a picture of the mosque, the Western Wall, and the major Christian church, and how they are all literally on top of each other. And then I use maps of the land over time — the Palestinian lands and Israeli land changing, depending on political or cultural events.

History doesn’t always have this visual component. It makes it much easier to grasp what’s going on.

We use a lot of geographic data, like looking at life expectancy or the unemployment rate in Palestine versus Israel. There is also a great video from a series on YouTube called “Middle Ground.” The kids can see both sides and see that there are biases on both sides, but that there are also people who are willing and trying to make this conflict better. Which I think is important for them to see.

AP Human Geography teacher, Morgan Patel, presents during class.

When students better understand this conflict, how does that help inform what you do later in the curriculum?

Once they learn how to read a map, and the data on that map, they understand that the key is picking up on spatial patterns. You look at data of Jerusalem, and who lives there, and you immediately see how diverse it is and that that can cause issues between groups of people who all say that’s their land. And are all not wrong. This conflict is not different from many other ones in that same pattern.

How do you handle discussions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in class?

More than others, the students who have an opinion [about this conflict] are very set in that opinion. So it’s not like other topics where we might have a discussion or a debate and there is an attempt to convert people to the other side.

We set ground rules, as I always do for a tough conversation. It’s always: Be an active listener. Try not to generalize your experience. You are an ‘I,’ you’re not a ‘we.’ Ask questions when you don’t understand. Make sure you are trying to understand the other side, instead of talking over them or assuming what you know is right.

You don’t have to agree with someone, but you have to respect them. If you can’t be in here, or you can’t be doing this, take a walk, or tell me. I can usually pick up on when it’s getting a little intense for someone.

You don’t have to participate at all. Sitting there and listening is participating. I never force them to talk. This would not be the kind of thing where you should do random calling.

You’re about to teach the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in your class this year. Is there anything you’re going to focus on more than in the past?

Something new this year that I’ve never focused on as much is how to consume media. [Students] need to realize that sometimes, for your own mental health, it’s OK to step away from social media. But then, if you are going to be in it, know what you’re getting into and know how to consume it properly so you’re not overwhelmed.

I am more nervous than in past years to talk about this conflict. I usually leave open time for questions, which I will probably do, but I don’t want it to turn into a really contentious discussion. I just feel like it could end badly if I allow an open forum. So maybe we’ll switch to some kind of individual processing [such as writing or drawing]. I think a moment of breathing and thinking through on your own might be great.

[In past years], I always explain to them: I am severely summarizing something way more complicated, and I’m not telling you all the players. But because they’ve now seen the actions taken by Hamas and [the Israel Defense Forces], I think I am going to go more into that, defining who those groups are. I’m going to talk more about the actual current conflict — the attack starting it and the retaliation after that, and then the [temporary] ceasefire. I don’t know yet if I, or they, can handle showing videos.

You said you’re feeling a little bit more nervous to teach this than in the past. As you’re getting ready to teach this unit, how are you thinking about that?

In the past when I taught this, by this point, they would know my thoughts on religion and my own religion. They would know that I am not on either side of this conflict. I am a very unbiased third party is usually what I’d call myself.

But my issue this year, as I’m gearing up to teach this, I’m finding it more and more difficult to stand there and be unbiased. I am not going to shy away from showing the injustices that are happening, especially in Gaza. I’ll just try to go about it as unbiased as I can, but ignoring it is also not unbiased.

I think what might be important, which another teacher showed me, is adjusting the way you think about this. We’re very much taught to be like: OK, this is right, or that is right. When really there is gray area here, and it’s OK to see why both sides are wrong and both sides are right in different ways. We’re not looking to choose sides here. We’re showing injustices that are happening on both sides.

The conflicts you teach often aren’t taught in other classes, so this might be the only time kids are learning about it.

Right, they’ll briefly have it mentioned to them, but it’s never explained. I love that I get to teach a course like that, but it’s also a lot. These are civil wars and genocides. You have to go about it with an open heart and open mind. I know my students very well, but I sometimes have no idea they have a connection to a certain place I’m talking about.

Do you have a favorite lesson that you teach each year?

The culture unit, in general, is my favorite. Within culture, we talk about language, and origins of language, why different languages are where they are. As part of that, we talk about dialects. We talk about code-switching and how most of us change how we speak based on age, race, etc.

I have my students make a teenage slang dictionary as their dialect. I’m putting it together right now. It gives them a chance to be their true selves. I’ve saved it over the years; it’s kind of like a time capsule into how language, and how slang, changes.

Do you show them the old versions?

I was just doing it [a few] days ago. They were like: We don’t say that anymore!

What’s really cool is sometimes it’s the same word, but it’s just changed over time, and they have to redefine it in the 2023 version. It’s very realistic, and they enjoy that.

Kalyn Belsha is a senior national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

Gov. Phil Murphy to focus on phonics instruction in schools to improve reading levels among children

2024-01-09T23:33:56+00:00

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Gov. Phil Murphy renewed his commitment to expanding universal pre-K in New Jersey and promised new plans to improve literacy rates among children across the state, according to education priorities he outlined during his annual State of State address.

In the Tuesday speech, Murphy hailed New Jersey as having “the best public education system in the United States,” a reputation he says he needs to maintain “by listening to our students, our educators, our parents, and putting their feedback into practice.”

More than 14,000 new preschool seats have been added across New Jersey, Murphy said, as he promised new initiatives that will focus on phonics instruction for younger students and the fundamentals of reading, such as sounding out letters and combining them into words.

“Increasing literacy rates makes New Jersey better,” Murphy said. “Because reading books is always better than banning books.”

After state test scores showed dismal drops in English language arts performance, local leaders and advocates called on state officials to create a plan to ensure children can read.

“It is simple. An emphasis on phonics and reading instruction is essential to the lifelong success of our children,” Murphy said.

His focus on literacy serves “as a desperately needed ray of sunshine for the many children across the state who need to learn how to read and write,” said Paula White, executive director of education advocacy group JerseyCAN.

Last year, JerseyCAN launched the New Jersey Legacy of Literacy (NJLL) Coalition, a statewide group that urged Murphy, the legislature, and the state’s department of education to adopt a plan that addresses literacy in every public school.

“No community in the Garden State is immune to our literacy problem, most especially our most vulnerable communities,” White added.

New Jersey students need help with the basics of reading

Last year’s state test results showed small gains for most students in English language arts as post-pandemic academic recovery efforts continue.

Across the state, New Jersey’s third graders didn’t see improvement in reading last spring showing a pressing need to help young readers. Third graders’ reading proficiency statewide remained at 42% in 2023, the same as in 2022 — and 8 percentage points lower than the 50% rate in 2019.

Among all grade levels, 51.3% of students reached proficiency levels on the state’s English language arts test last spring, a 2.4% increase in reading proficiency over 2022. But scores continued to trail behind pre-pandemic levels, which reached 57.6% in 2019.

Spring 2023 test scores are the latest results from the state Student Learning Assessments, the second round of standardized tests given since the pandemic disrupted learning nearly four years ago. The data shows students are making progress in reading but also highlights the efforts school leaders must take to help students get back on grade level.

In Newark, the state’s largest school district, third graders trailed behind statewide averages. Only 19% of Newark third graders passed the English language arts tests for the second time in a row since 2022, underscoring the need to help some of the state’s most vulnerable students recover academically.

Local efforts to raise literacy levels ongoing

In Newark, reading and literacy have remained a point of concern for local leaders. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka declared an “urgent” literacy crisis throughout the city and launched a 10-point Youth Literacy Action plan that calls on local schools, parents, community partners, and programs to get young children reading and writing.

Last summer, more than 10,000 public school students were required to attend summer school – double the number from 2022 – with many requiring help with the basic ability to recognize letters and their sounds, handwriting, and reading comprehension.

The city’s public school leaders are also following the state’s lead in implementing phonics instruction to boost student achievement in reading.

This school year, Newark Public Schools created a plan to tackle difficulties in writing and English language arts that focuses on phonics instruction and explicit writing strategies and supports teachers’ knowledge of an evidence-based reading approach known as the science of reading as part of their English language arts curriculum this year.

The district said officials will monitor the effectiveness of the new curriculums and approaches mainly through students’ academic progress in reading, but also using state test scores and periodic assessments such as the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) MAP growth assessment.

“There is a great deal of work to be done, and there will be no quick fix,” said White, the JerseyCAN executive director. “The solutions outlined today energize a discourse to provide our children and our teachers with support to address this battle, and we pledge to work side by side with him to ensure we address this issue with the urgency it deserves.”

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

‘I’m terrified’: As new laws take effect, LGBTQ students and allies fear the consequences

2022-07-08T11:00:00+00:00

Cindy Nobles, a mother of four in Jacksonville, Florida, watched with mounting dread this spring as the local school board rewrote a guide meant to support LGBTQ students. She feared that every stricken passage left vulnerable children a little less safe.

The Duval County school district had reissued the guide on the heels of an alarming 2019 survey, which showed that more than 60% of the district’s lesbian, gay, and bisexual high schoolers felt sad or hopeless. Nearly 1 in 3 of those students said they had attempted suicide — twice the rate of their straight peers.

But after Republican state lawmakers passed a bill this March restricting lessons about gender identity and sexuality, Duval County gutted its LGBTQ guide. Officials released a draft in May that condensed the 37-page document into eight pages of an employee manual, and removed most references to transgender students.

“It was butchered,” said Nobles, who is president of Jacksonville’s PFLAG chapter. Now, as more school districts rush to comply with the new law, Nobles is convinced that student safeguards are in jeopardy.

“I’m terrified at the moment,” she said.

Cindy and Cody Nobles

For LGBTQ kids, just stepping out into the world as your authentic self can be treacherous. Family members could shun you, classmates bully you, and bigots harass you or worse. Youth of color and transgender kids face added resistance. At the school Nobles’ youngest child attends, a trans boy was barred from the boys locker room and a trans girl was assaulted on campus.

Yet, instead of shielding such students, conservative lawmakers across the U.S. are trying to prohibit practices meant to make LGBTQ youth feel safe and supported at school.

Just this year, legislators have introduced more than 300 bills targeting LGBTQ Americans, with many seeking to limit transgender kids’ access to medical care, school bathrooms, and sports teams, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Other proposals would ban books that “normalize” LGBTQ “lifestyles,” restrict what students can learn about sexuality and racism, or require parental permission for kids to choose their pronouns or join LGBTQ clubs. Republicans say the restrictions restore parents’ authority and defend students from indoctrination.

On July 1, anti-LGBTQ laws affecting young people took effect in six states, including Florida.

“We’re just kind of preparing for a fight,” said Nobles’ child Cody, a rising 12th grader who identifies as bigender and gay.

The full reach of the new laws won’t be known until schools begin enforcing them this fall. But already the targeted legal campaign and intensifying rhetoric have left many LGBTQ students feeling under siege.

“What they’re learning,” said Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, executive director of GLSEN, which advocates for inclusive schools, “is that some people don’t think they should exist.”

Unsafe at school

Even before the recent onslaught of legislation, school was not a safe space for many LGBTQ kids.

For Alex Rambow, a teenager in South Dakota who identifies as transgender, simply being himself at school is a struggle. Yes, most teachers use his correct pronouns. But others are less accepting and some students are openly hostile.

“I just hate being there,” said Alex, a soon-to-be 12th grader. “Not for my education, but just because of the environment.”

Last year, a student followed Alex to his car shouting slurs. Another time, a group of students threatened to beat him up if he used the boys bathroom. So instead, Alex uses an employee restroom or waits until he’s home.

This April, a teacher at Alex’s school gave some students letters challenging their gender identities and urging them to accept “the biological truth.” The superintendent quickly condemned discrimination based on sexuality or gender and said the district was investigating the teacher. But discouraging abuse is hardly the same as making everyone feel welcome.

“They don’t say anything about LGBTQ students,” Alex said. “We just get forgotten and swept under the rug.”

Silence starts at the very top. While every state has some form of anti-bullying law, half do not explicitly prohibit bullying based on race, gender, or other characteristics.

The lack of specificity comes despite research showing state laws that explicitly forbid bullying based on sexual orientation are associated with fewer suicide attempts, and LGBTQ students in schools with such policies face less victimization.

When state policies protect and embrace LGBTQ students, it empowers district and school leaders to follow suit — even if some parents or politicians object.

“It gives them the mandate to do this work,” said Elizabeth Meyer, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder who has studied inclusive education policies. “They can say: This is the law and this is what I’m going to be doing.”

South Dakota’s anti-bullying law not only lacks a list of protected student groups, it also bars school districts from creating such lists. Alex’s district has no formal policies related to LGBTQ students, the superintendent confirmed in an email, though he said schools try to work with families to accommodate trans students.

The absence of inclusive policies leaves supportive parents to fill in the gaps.

Amy and Alex Rambow

Alex’s mother Amy formed a nonprofit, Watertown Love, that hosts annual Pride celebrations and monthly meetups where LGBTQ youth can go bowling or get pizza together. The district allowed her group to offer a workshop on inclusive practices during a staff training, but it was voluntary and Amy said only a handful of people attended. Meanwhile, Amy is trying to reckon with the possibility that her son will skip senior prom because he doesn’t feel safe.

“It hurts my heart,” she said.

Alex’s experience is disturbingly common. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual high school students are nearly twice as likely as their straight peers to feel unsafe at school and face bullying, according to a 2019 CDC survey. Some of those students endure additional abuse based on their race, religion, or other aspects of their identities.

Stigma and shunning, whether at school or home, can take a steep toll. Two-thirds of lesbian, gay, and bisexual high schoolers felt persistently sad or hopeless during the past year, and nearly half seriously considered suicide, according to the 2019 survey. The rates are even higher for transgender and nonbinary youth, a different survey found.

Those mental health risks reflect the discrimination that LGBTQ people face, said Preston Mitchum, director of advocacy and government affairs for the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention group.

“It’s not inherent to who we are,” he said. “It’s because of society and how society treats people.”

In recent years, as South Dakota legislators pushed more than 30 bills restricting LGBTQ rights, advocates fought back. Trans youth lobbied lawmakers and testified at hearings.

In February, Amy and Alex traveled to the state capitol, where they invited Gov. Kristi Noem to meet with trans youth and allies. She declined. A few days later, Noem signed a law barring trans girls from girls sports teams. It took effect July 1.

Whether or not such laws pass, the rhetoric promoting them can do harm. A staggering 85% of trans and nonbinary youth said the debate over laws targeting trans people negatively impacted their mental health, according to a Trevor Project poll last fall.

Campaigns seeking to regulate trans lives send young people a clear message, LGBTQ advocates say: They are a problem to be fixed.

“I’ve already got enough self-hatred as it is,” Alex said, “and that’s just piling more on top.”

Support under attack

It isn’t just LGBTQ students who feel increasingly targeted, but also the educators who support them.

Brandy Vance

Brandy Vance, a physical education teacher in Tallahassee, Florida, wears outfits featuring rainbows and unicorns that signal her acceptance of all students. Occasionally students confide to her that they are LGBTQ, including one child who came out as trans. Her class became a refuge for the student, who hid their identity at home.

Under Florida’s new law, schools must notify parents of changes in students’ mental or emotional condition. The state has offered little clarity about the vaguely worded rule, but Vance worries it will force her to inform parents any time a student discusses their identity.

“Do I potentially out this kid to their parents?” she said. “Or do I potentially lose the job that I know I’m meant to do?”

The law has put LGBTQ-affirming educators on the defensive. Conservative critics accuse teachers of usurping parents’ authority and imposing liberal beliefs about gender and sexuality on students — what Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis calls “woke gender ideology.”

“We will make sure that parents can send their kids to school to get an education, not an indoctrination,” he said when signing the Parental Rights in Education law.

The law, which critics call “Don’t Say Gay or Trans,” says schools must respect “the fundamental right of parents to make decisions regarding the upbringing and control of their children.” It allows parents to report and potentially sue school districts if they believe a teacher has discussed sexual orientation or gender identity with students in grades K-3 or with older students in a way that’s not “age appropriate.”

The restrictions seek to rein in districts that critics say went too far in affirming LGBTQ students. Republicans point to Leon County, the district where Vance teaches, as Exhibit A.

Last year, a conservative group sued the district on behalf of parents who said a Leon County school helped their child adopt a different gender without their consent. The lawsuit referred to a district guide, which warned that outing LGBTQ students to their parents “can be very dangerous” if families are not accepting. Republican state lawmakers began drafting the parents’ rights law after learning about the lawsuit and several districts’ LGBTQ guides, Politico reported.

After the law passed, schools scrambled to bring their practices into compliance.

Leon County convened a 14-member committee to rewrite its guide for supporting LGBTQ students. Like Duval County, the district condensed the guide and added new parent notification requirements. Most controversially, Leon County’s new manual says parents will be alerted if a transgender student in their children’s physical education class requests to use the locker room matching their gender identity.

During some three hours of public comment at a school board meeting last week, the revised guide came under fire from all sides. Some speakers said schools should only allow students to use facilities that match their biological sex, and argued that accommodating transgender students amounts to endorsing their identities.

“The school system is not a place to promote radical ideologies,” one parent said.

But other speakers said notifying families about transgender students’ locker room use would violate their privacy and expose them to hostility.

“LGBTQ students already are in a lot of danger,” said a high school student who warned the notifications could lead to bullying.

For her part, Vance said she’ll continue to accept students just as they are — even as she fears that expressing her support could now invite scrutiny or sanctions.

“If I have to go down that way,” she told Chalkbeat, “then that’s what’s going to happen.”

Beyond Leon County, other districts are also scrambling to revamp policies that could run afoul of the new law. They are doing so largely on their own, as the law gives the state education department until July 2023 to issue updated guidelines.

Meanwhile, Florida educators are trying to make sense of the changes.

A few days before the restrictions went into effect, the LGBTQ-advocacy group Safe Schools South Florida hosted a workshop for teachers. They asked union representatives whether they can still inquire about students’ preferred pronouns, post rainbow flags, or display photos of their same-sex partners.

Such activities are not expressly prohibited, the representatives said, but grade K-3 teachers should beware of actions that parents could interpret as “instruction” about gender or sexuality.

“We encourage you to be self aware, to be cognizant of the very real consequences that this law creates,” said Vincent Halloran, an attorney with United Teachers of Dade, the Miami-area union.

Florida officials have accused activists and teachers unions of trying to “sow confusion” about the new law. In a recent motion asking a judge to dismiss a challenge to the law, the state’s attorney general said teachers would still be free to display family photos or mention their partners during class.

The chaos in Florida could spread beyond its borders. Lawmakers in at least 14 states have introduced bills to restrict classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity, according to an analysis by the Movement Advance Project. Alabama’s bill passed, and the law took effect this month.

Even just the prospect of such restrictions is making some teachers second guess what is safe to say in the classroom, said Andrew Kirk, a high school teacher in Texas, where state officials plan to introduce a bill similar to Florida’s.

“This chilling effect is already happening,” he said.

Patrick Wall is a senior reporter covering national education issues. Contact him at pwall@chalkbeat.org.

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Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that a high school teacher in South Dakota gave letters to several students, including Alex Rambow, challenging their gender identities. Alex did not receive one of the letters.

Programas bilingües de Denver enfrentan problemas por muy pocos estudiantes y amenaza de cierres

2022-07-12T11:55:00+00:00

Read in English.

El primer día de la escuela de verano en Denver, seis niños que empezarán el primer grado tomaron un examen de deletreo. Usando lápices con gomas de borrar nuevas, deletrearon palabras como noche, jugo, pequeño y vecino.

“Número tres es la palabra — es un poco larga — ‘pequeño,’” dijo la maestra.

Una niña con espejuelos y un lazo grande color rosa miró el papel que tenía en frente y trató de hacer los sonidos.

“P–p-p-pequeño,” susurró en voz baja mientras escribía una “p” al lado del número 3.

Estos niños de 6 y 7 años están matriculados en el programa de educación bilingüe de las Escuelas Públicas de Denver, y por eso aprenden deletreo, lectura y matemáticas en español. Mientras van adquiriendo más destrezas académicas básicas, también aprenden inglés, y con el tiempo hacen la transición a una enseñanza que se da cada vez menos en español.

Los padres y educadores de Denver lucharon por este tipo de programa bilingüe — conocido como enseñanza de transición en el idioma nativo, o TNLI (transitional native language instruction) — y una orden de un tribunal federal requiere que el distrito lo ofrezca en cada escuela que tenga un mínimo de 60 estudiantes que hablan español y están aprendiendo inglés.

Sin embargo, los programas bilingües de Denver están enfrentando una gran amenaza: cada vez hay más escuelas con muy pocos estudiantes.

Los altos costos de vivienda y reducciones en las tasas de natalidad están reduciendo la matrícula en las escuelas públicas, y en especial en las comunidades históricamente latinas de Denver. Ha sido difícil llenar los salones de clase bilingües en las escuelas primarias, y los métodos alternativos, como combinar dos grados en un salón, no sirven bien los alumnos. El distrito ya había decidido cerrar cuatro programas pequeños TNLI — pronunciado “tin-li” — a principios de este año, pero después cambió de parecer.

El distrito también está considerando cerrar algunas escuelas completamente. Más de la mitad de las escuelas que cumplen los criterios recomendados para un posible cierre tienen programas TNLI. Esas 15 escuelas representan casi una cuarta parte de las 65 escuelas del distrito que tienen salones de clase bilingües.

Consolidar escuelas podría permitir programas más robustos, pero eso conlleva su propio costo.

“Esta escuela es parta de nuestra comunidad,” dijo Yuridia Rebolledo-Durán, madre de dos estudiantes de la Escuela Primaria Colfax, en una manifestación frente a la escuela el pasado mes de abril. “Es muy importante para nosotros como padres que nuestros hijos puedan hablar dos idiomas.”

Padres y maestros pelearon por educación bilingüe

Las investigaciones apoyan generalmente la eficacia de una educación bilingüe. En Denver, los estudiantes que aprenden inglés y adquieren dominio de ese idioma históricamente han tenido buenas puntuaciones en los exámenes estandarizados del estado. Los administradores de alto rango de las escuelas de Denver también apoyan esa idea.

“Nos entristece mucho el hecho de que la reducción en matrícula esté impactando nuestras escuelas bilingües,” dijo Nadia Madan Morrow, antigua maestra bilingüe que dirigió el programa de educación multilingüe del distrito hasta que fue recientemente promovida a Jefe de Asuntos Académicos, (CAO). “Estamos esforzándonos para determinar cómo ofrecer enseñanza en idioma nativo en las escuelas que están continuamente volviéndose más pequeñas.”

Las madres de los estudiantes de la Colfax Elementary School en Denver en la manifestación en abril en contra del cierre de Colfax por las Escuelas Públicas de Denver a causa de la reducción en matrícula.

No obstante, ese no siempre ha sido el caso.

Algunos educadores castigaban a los estudiantes que hablaban español en clase, una práctica que terminó en feroces protestas. En 1980, un grupo local llamado Congress of Hispanic Educators demandó al distrito por violar los derechos de los estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés.

La determinación del juez federal en ese caso fue en contra del distrito. En 1984, Denver entabló su primer decreto de consentimiento, un acuerdo legal de brindar educación bilingüe. Ese decreto se ha modificado dos veces.

La versión más reciente, en vigencia desde 2013, dice que el distrito tiene que ofrecer programas TNLI en las escuelas que tengan más de 60 estudiantes de habla hispana que estén aprendiendo inglés, emplear maestros bilingües calificados, y usar currículos y exámenes de alta calidad en español.

“Nuestros padres bilingües quieren que sus hijos sean bilingües,” dijo Kathy Escamilla, miembro del Congress of Hispanic Educators y profesora jubilada de la Universidad de Colorado de bilingüismo y alfabetización bilingüe, lo cual significa poder hablar, leer y escribir en dos idiomas. “Ellos quieren la oportunidad para que su cultura y su historia estén representadas.”

El decreto de consentimiento se aplica únicamente a los estudiantes que hablan español, y que representan la porción más grande de estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés en Denver. Los demás estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés reciben enseñanza totalmente en inglés, a veces con la ayuda de maestros o tutores que hablan su idioma. El árabe y el vietnamita son el segundo y el tercer idioma nativo más común.

La cantidad de estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés en Denver ha subido y bajado durante una década, y lo mismo ha ocurrido con la cantidad de estudiantes inscritos en programas TNLI y el número de escuelas que los ofrecen.

En el pasado, el distrito revocaba el programa TNLI de cualquier escuela que tuviera menos de 60 estudiantes de habla hispana que estuvieran aprendiendo inglés, dijo Madan Morrow. Pero cuando el distrito trató de hacer esto el invierno pasado en cuatro escuelas primarias — Colfax, Cheltenham, Traylor y Schmitt — los miembros del Congress of Hispanic Educators pusieron resistencia.

Se acercan posibles cierres de escuelas

Tres de las cuatro escuelas han perdido tantos estudiantes, que están en riesgo de ser cerradas en el futuro cercano. Esto aumentó la preocupación de la comunidad de perder el TNLI.

Hace un año, la junta escolar electa en Denver aprobó una resolución que dice que los padres, maestros y otras personas deben ayudar a desarrollar un plan para consolidar las escuelas pequeñas. Las escuelas de Denver reciben fondos por cada estudiante, y las escuelas pequeñas batallan para poder pagar cosas como clases electivas y personal de salud mental.

El distrito hizo una lista de 19 escuelas que participarían en el proceso. La meta era que las comunidades en esas escuelas sugirieran ideas de cómo consolidar las escuelas.

Pero la lista causó pánico, y el Superintendente Alex Marrero la eliminó.

Cambiando la estrategia, el distrito este año seleccionó un comité asesor de la reducción en matrícula y le asignó definir los criterios para cerrar una escuela con poca matrícula.

El comité reveló los criterios propuestos el mes pasado: Se deben considerar para consolidación las escuelas primarias e intermedias con menos de 215 estudiantes el próximo año, así como las escuelas con menos de 275 estudiantes que anticipen perder entre un 8% y 10% de los estudiantes en los próximos años; de igual manera se deben considerar las escuelas chárter independientes que estén teniendo dificultades financieras.

Veintisiete escuelas operadas por el distrito tuvieron menos de 275 estudiantes este pasado año. Como las 19 escuelas en la lista original, la mayoría de las 27 escuelas atienden a poblaciones estudiantiles con más de 90% estudiantes de minorías raciales, y más de un 90% provenientes de hogares de pocos ingresos.

Quince de las 27 escuelas tienen programas TNLI, incluida la Colfax Elementary, donde los padres y defensores tuvieron en abril una manifestación en contra del cierre de la escuela. Varias madres dijeron que viven cerca y caminan con sus hijos a la escuela porque no pueden manejar.

“Me preocupa, porque ¿cómo voy a llevar a mis hijos a otras escuelas?” Esto nos dijo Cecilia Sánchez Pérez, madre de dos estudiantes de Colfax.

Escamilla, del Congress of Hispanic Educators, también asistió a la manifestación.

La Escuela Primaria Colfax es una de cuatro escuelas de Denver que casi perdió su designación para ofrecer “instrucción transicional en idioma nativo” en este pasado año escolar debido a la reducción en matrícula.

“Entendemos que DPS está enfrentando decisiones difíciles con respecto a presupuesto y a la reducción en matrícula,” dijo. Sin embargo, agregó: “con demasiada frecuencia estos cambios afectan de manera desproporcionada a las comunidades de raza negra, latina y pobres.”

Si el distrito les quita la designación TNLI a la Colfax y las otras tres escuelas, los defensores temen que los estudiantes se van a quedar sin programas bilingües. Aún con autobuses gratis a una escuela TNLI cercana, las familias van a dudar en dejar las escuelas que conocen y aman.

El Congress of Hispanic Educators también cuestiona las proyecciones de matrícula del distrito y le preocupa que los padres no han sido consultados, dijo Escamilla.

Debido a la resistencia de los padres, Denver acordó mantener la designación TNLI en Colfax, Cheltenham, Traylor y Schmitt. Pero Madan Morrow dijo que la reducción en estudiantes de habla hispana significa que los programas podrían no ser tan robustos.

Menos estudiantes significa cambios en el salón de clase

Muchas de las escuelas TNLI de Denver todavía tienen una matrícula saludable. Pero en las escuelas que no tienen suficientes estudiantes que hablan español en cada grado, el TNLI se ve diferente.

A menudo, dijeron los educadores, las escuelas mezclan dos grados en el mismo salón, algo que no es académicamente ideal ni popular con los padres. O las escuelas combinan estudiantes que hablan español nativo con estudiantes que hablan inglés nativo, una asignación difícil hasta para los maestros de más experiencia.

Kim Ursetta, que enseña preescolar bilingüe en la Traylor, tuvo este pasado año una combinación de estudiantes de inglés nativo y de español nativo por segunda vez en sus 28 años de carrera.

“Es difícil,” dijo ella. “Uno está constantemente saltando de un idioma a otro, y no importa lo que hagas, solamente les podrás enseñar la mitad del tiempo que normalmente tendrías.”

Si combinar estudiantes no es posible, a veces las escuelas ponen estudiantes que hablan español en salones que solo enseñan en inglés y envía a otro salón para aprender ciertas materias en español. Eso puede hacer que los estudiantes se sientan marginados o que se pierdan algunas actividades electivas divertidas.

Esto es algo que Carrie Olson, miembro de la junta escolar que fue maestra bilingüe en Denver por 33 años antes de su elección, vio con sus propios ojos. A Olson le preocupa cómo la reducción en matrícula está afectando los programas TNLI y le ha pedido repetidamente a la junta que hablen del tema.

Madan Morrow dijo que los directores y el personal del distrito están trabajando en planes para el próximo año escolar.

“Sabemos que cualquier cantidad de enseñanza en el idioma nativo es mejor que nada,” dijo ella. “Lo que estamos tratando de determinar en estas cuatro escuelas es, ‘¿qué cantidad es perfecta? ¿Cuánto les podemos dar para que sea beneficioso sin que tengan que estar en un sistema así todo el día?’”

Melanie Asmar es reportera senior de Chalkbeat Colorado y cubre las Escuelas Públicas de Denver. Para comunicarte con Melanie, escríbele a masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado hizo cambios a la ley de la educación sexual. Aquí, lo que debes saber al respeto.

2019-05-29T00:20:46+00:00

La ley de Colorado pronto va a requerir que los estudiantes que están recibiendo educación sexual aprendan sobre el consentimiento en la escuela.

El camino a que esta propuesta se hiciera ley fue complicado. La legislación final cambió mucho en los últimos dos días de la sesión legislativa y aún necesita la firma del gobernador.

En respuesta a preguntas de varios padres, Chalkbeat preparó la guía presente para explicar cómo funciona la educación sexual en las escuelas públicas de Colorado, y cómo cambiará la ley con la legislación nueva.

Primero, Colorado no requiere educación sexual en las escuelas

Colorado es uno de pocos estados que no requiere que los estudiantes aprendan sobre la educación sexual ni el VIH.

Los distritos escolares pueden escoger si enseñar sobre la educación sexual o no, y el estado no mantiene registro de cuales escogen hacerlo.

Las leyes de control local en Colorado, también permiten que los distritos escojan su propio currículo si es que deciden dar educación sexual. La ley estatal pone algunos requisitos básicos, principalmente que la educación sea exhaustiva, y correcta desde un punto de vista médico. Los estándares que creó el Departamento de Educación del estado sirven como guía para lo que deben ir aprendiendo los estudiantes a cada edad. Puedes leer esos aquí.

Los padres pueden optar por sacar a sus hijos de las clases

En Colorado, si los distritos deciden dar educación sexual, primero tienen que informarle a los padres y darles la oportunidad de revisar qué es lo que va a cubrir la clase para que los padres puedan dar aviso si quieren que sus hijos no participen. Además, los padres pueden sacar a sus hijos de todo el curso de educación sexual, o pueden sacarlos solo de algunas clases.

La ley propuesta este año no cambia eso

La legislación 1032 deja intacto la habilidad de que un distrito decida dar educación sexual o no, y la opción de que los padres opten por sacar a sus hijos de esas clases.¿Entonces, qué va a cambiar?

El cambio más significativo a la ley de educación sexual es que si los distritos eligen dar esas clases, tienen que incluir el tema de consentimiento.

Bajo la versión final de la ley, el consentimiento fue definido como “el afirmativo, inequívoco, voluntario, continuo acuerdo con conocimiento, entro todos los participantes en cada acto físico dentro de un encuentro sexual o dentro de una relación interpersonal.”

Para promover relaciones saludables, la nueva ley dice que las escuelas con cursos de educación sexual deben enseñarle a los estudiantes cómo comunicar ese consentimiento, como reconocer si alguien dio consentimiento, o si fue retirado el consentimiento, y como la edad afecta la capacidad de dar consentimiento bajo la ley.

El tema de consentimiento es algo que varios estados están tratando de incluir en sus requisitos sobre la educación sexual, en respuesta a muchas discusiones sobre el acoso sexual. Escuelas individuales también están considerando el tema, incluso una escuela católica en Portland, Oregon. Lee sobre esa escuela aquí.

Los estándares de Colorado que sirven come una guía ya sugieren que el tema de relaciones saludables se presente en el grado 6.

¿Qué cambió sobre la educación de estudiantes LGBTQ?

No mucho. Una ley estatal que pasó en el 2013 ya incluía un requisito que si las escuelas van a dar educación sexual, deben tomar en cuenta las necesidades de todos sus estudiantes.

La ley que ya existe dice que la educación sexual debe ser “significativa para las experiencias y necesidades de la comunidad de color, comunidades inmigrantes; comunidades de lesbianas, gays, bisexuales y transgéneros; personas con discapacidades físicas o intelectuales; personas que han sido víctimas sexuales; y otros cuyos experiencias tradicionalmente no han sido parte de la educación sexual, programas y políticas.”

Al principio, la ley intentaba añadir que los estudiantes aprendieran sobre diferentes “modelos de relaciones,” que incluyeran de “lesbianas, gays, bisexuales, y transgéneros.” Esa parte fue borrada antes de que se aprobara la ley.

Los legisladores y los que apoyaron la ley dijeron que la única razón por la cual querían incluir el lenguaje sobre las necesidades de estos estudiantes — aunque ya existe en la ley — es para reafirmar su importancia. Dicen que han escuchado que varios estudiantes LGBTQ han recibido cursos de educación sexual que no incluyen información importante para ellos.

¿Los niños de kinder van a recibir educación sexual?

La ley aprobada este año no aplica para estudiantes entre kinder a tercer grado.

La ley que ya existe en Colorado requiere que cualquier educación sexual sea apropiada para cada edad. Como un ejemplo, los estándares del estado que intentan ayudar en esta área, dicen que los estudiantes de quinto deben aprender sobre la anatomía humana y sobre la pubertad, mientras que en la preparatoria es cuando los estudiantes deben aprender sobre las infecciones transmitidas por actividades sexuales y sobre cómo evitar un embarazo que no es deseado.

La ley de este año si intenta hacer más para prohibir la educación basada solo en abstinencia

La ley de Colorado ya prohibía la educación que solo se enfoca en abstinencia, pero algunos distritos aún daban esta educación al contratar con organizaciones que pudieran ofrecer los cursos. La ley aprobada este año lo hace más claro que las escuelas no deben “contratar los servicios de instrucción” de tales grupos.

Esto no quiere decir que las escuelas no pueden hablar sobre la abstinencia. Más bien, el requisito de que la educación sexual sea exhaustiva requiere que la instrucción incluya información precisa desde un punto médico, sobre los métodos de prevenir un embarazo no deseado y las enfermedades transmitidas por actividad sexual, incluso la abstinencia, contracepción, condones y otros métodos. Además, al discutir estos métodos, los maestros no deben avergonzar a ningún estudiante ni deben mostrar sus propios prejuicios.

La educación sexual exhaustiva tampoco tiene que incluir información sobre los resultados de un embarazo

Si las escuelas o distritos deciden dar educación sexual, hay algunas piezas que tienen que incluir, por ejemplo el cómo prevenir un embarazo, pero hablar de lo que pasa después de un embarazo es opcional.

Ahora, si los distritos o escuelas deciden que van a hablar sobre los resultados del embarazo, entonces tienen que hablar de todas las opciones incluso adopciones, aborto, y la crianza de un bebé.

En esta área la nueva ley añade que los estudiantes ahora tienen que aprender también sobre la ley de Colorado conocida como “refugio seguro.” Esta ley le permite a cualquier padre o madre que entregue a un bebé de menos de 72 horas de nacido a un empleado en una estación de bomberos o en un hospital, sin tener que dar ninguna información.

¿Y qué con las escuelas charter?

Las escuelas charter, que reciben fondos públicos y a veces son aprobadas por distritos escolares, pero son administradas independientemente, pueden escoger renunciar a varias leyes estatales. Al igual que otras escuelas públicas, las escuelas charter no tienen ningún requisito para dar educación sexual, pero si la ofrecen, la ley dice que igual que las otras escuelas públicas, tienen que hacerlo de forma exhaustiva.

La propuesta este año comenzó tratando de prohibir que el estado le de permiso a las escuelas charter de renunciar a la ley de educación sexual, pero la versión final mantiene esa opción para las escuelas charter.

Este año, hay cinco escuelas charter que tienen permisos para renunciar estos requisitos (incluso Victory Prep Academy en Commerce City). Esto significa que pueden ofrecer educación sexual pero en una forma que no cumple con el requisito de que la educación sea exhaustiva.

Cuando las escuelas charter aplican para renunciar a esta o cualquier otra ley estatal, tienen que explicar porque no quieren seguir la ley y tienen que explicar qué harían en vez de seguir esa ley. La mesa directiva de educación del estado tiene que votar para dar el permiso final.

La ley aprobada este año aparta dinero para regalar fondos

La ley que paso en el 2013 ya había creado un programa para darle dinero a las escuelas o distritos que dicen que les falta dinero para poder ofrecer educación sexual exhaustiva, pero nunca se apartó dinero para este programa entonces en realidad nunca comenzó. Este año, la ley aparta $1 millón para ofrecerle a las escuelas o distritos.

Como parte del programa, un comité que tiene que incluir a un representante que sea un padre familiar, un representante que sea un joven, y alguien que represente a los estudiantes de color, entre varios otros, serán los que considerarán las aplicaciones para regalar los fondos. El grupo se tiene que establecer para el 1 de Julio.

¿Qué sigue?

Si tu escuela o distrito ya ofrece educación sexual, es probable que no haya muchos cambios. Dos distritos del área metropolitana de Denver que respondieron recientemente, los de Jeffco y Westminster, dijeron que están en el proceso de revisar sus currículos para estar seguros que cumplen con la nueva ley.

School funding, mayoral control, class sizes: Education issues to watch in Albany’s new session

2023-12-22T18:52:09+00:00

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With New York state’s legislative session set to begin in January, lawmakers are preparing to tackle a slate of contentious issues that could hold serious ramifications for New York City students.

The fate of the city’s school governance structure will once again be up for renewal, pushing Mayor Eric Adams to make his case in Albany for continuing mayoral control.

School funding may also play a major role in lawmakers’ discussions, as some education officials have called to overhaul the state’s school funding formula — and as New York City and other districts grapple with a looming fiscal cliff, with federal COVID relief funds expiring in the fall.

School safety initiatives, updates to the state’s learning standards, and other legislation likely appearing during the next session may also impact New York City students.

Here’s a look at some of the biggest education issues lawmakers could tackle:

Mayoral control in the hot seat again

After a two-year extension, mayoral control is set to expire on June 30, and legislators will need to decide whether and how New York City’s school governance structure should change.

Mayoral control — which consolidates power over the city’s school system in the hands of its mayor — has been regularly extended over the past two decades, but has faced some tweaks along the way. Under it, the mayor has the power to choose the schools chancellor and appoint a majority of people to the city’s Panel on Educational Policy, or PEP, a city board that votes on major policy proposals and contracts.

A forthcoming state Education Department analysis of mayoral control, which solicited public comments as part of its review process, will be key to discussions of how the city should move forward, said state Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who chairs the senate’s New York City education committee.

Whether lawmakers seek to continue mayoral control or adopt a new school governance structure, Liu said the city needs a more permanent system, noting that reevaluating it at two- or four-year intervals is “destabilizing for the school system.”

“There needs to be more certainty in the eyes of educators as well as families,” he said. Another critical consideration, he added: “Mayoral control should transcend whoever the mayor happens to be.”

Though public hearings have featured fierce criticism of the current system, some observers aren’t expecting sweeping changes.

David Bloomfield, a professor of education, law, and public policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, expects mayoral control to largely continue, with possible changes to lessen the mayor’s degree of control, like potentially granting additional oversight or power to City Council members or the city’s elected parent councils.

“It’s hard to imagine at this point what a radical change would look like,” Bloomfield said.

Other large cities have also grappled with their school governance structures in recent years. In Chicago, where mayoral control of schools was established in 1995, the city will transition to a fully elected school board by 2027.

Debate continues over school funding formula

Several years ago, in a major victory for state education officials and advocates, lawmakers committed to fully funding Foundation Aid, the formula that sends extra money to high-needs districts such as New York City. Since then, the conversation has shifted toward how to update the formula itself.

While the state already sends more money for schools with high-need students, the Board of Regents recently called for more than $250 million to revise the formula, proposing to update how students in poverty are counted, among other changes. The Regents have also called for $1 million to conduct a longer term study on how the formula can be improved.

State Sen. Shelley Mayer, a Democrat who chairs the senate’s general education committee, said she supports a cautious approach. She is in favor of funding further study, but hopes to better understand what potential changes would mean for school districts across the state before taking more definitive action.

“We have to know both how much it would cost the state, and also who would get less money than they currently get,” she said.

Expiring federal relief funds will dominate discussions

Both Liu and Mayer expect the looming fiscal cliff to play a major role in budget discussions during the next legislative session.

In recent years, about $7.7 billion in one-time federal pandemic aid has padded the city Education Department’s budget, helping to maintain critical initiatives like expanded preschool and summer enrichment programs. The funds have also helped schools hire social workers, psychologists, bilingual educators, and shelter coordinators, who have helped newly arrived migrants navigate the city’s school system.

But that money will expire in September, leaving many of those initiatives in jeopardy.

(Separately, Adams has directed the city’s Education Department to cut nearly $550 million from its budget, with further budget cuts still expected.).

Advocating for additional education funding as the state develops its budget will be her organization’s top priority, said Randi Levine, policy director at Advocates for Children, a group that supports the city’s most vulnerable students.

“We need the state to step up and help to save some of these important programs,” she said. “All options need to be on the table.”

Liu said, “It may not be possible for the state alone to make up the entire altitude of that cliff. But maybe we can make it a more gradual downhill, instead of a sudden drop.”

Class size law remains a sticking point

The state law to reduce class sizes at schools across the five boroughs, which will phase in smaller class sizes each year up to 2027, garnered praise from teachers and education advocates. But Adams and other local officials have expressed concern over the city’s ability to meet the requirements.

At a recent town hall in Brooklyn, First Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg said the city would comply with the law, but warned that it would “require very painful tradeoffs.”

When asked whether lawmakers will consider amendments to the law if petitioned by city officials during the next legislative session, Liu said, “We will continue to watch this closely.

“It’s lamentable that they continue to hem and haw about this,” he said, adding it was “absolutely essential” for the city to meet the class size mandate.

Other legislative priorities:

An effort by some lawmakers last spring to reduce the number of school lockdown drills mandated under state law is expected to resurface. Parents have argued the drills harm student mental health without clearly proven safety benefits.
As the state’s Education Department seeks to further update learning standards, Mayer hopes to tackle how to educate students about the history behind modern-day conflicts. She’s alarmed that many students have learned about the Israel-Hamas war largely through social media and is deeply troubled by reports of rising antisemitism and Islamophobia. She believes schools need more support to robustly address these and other instances of discriminatory behavior. “We cannot have students afraid to go to school because they wear a yarmulke or they wear a headscarf,” she said. “I don’t have the answers, but we’re going to have to have answers.”
Other efforts — like a universal free after-school pilot program, potential shifts to literacy instruction, the state’s ongoing transition to zero-emission buses, and more — are also expected to arise in the next session.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NYC teachers union sues Eric Adams to halt school budget cuts

2023-12-21T19:07:46+00:00

New York City’s teachers union is suing Mayor Eric Adams in an attempt to halt nearly $550 million in school budget cuts, according to legal documents filed Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Adams is violating a state law barring the city from decreasing its contribution to schools when the city’s overall revenue doesn’t go down, the United Federation of Teachers’ lawsuit argues. Revenues went up by $5 billion last year, the union claims.

The “draconian” cuts, the suit further claims, will infringe on students’ constitutional rights to a “sound basic education.” Three teachers and a speech therapist joined the suit as plaintiffs, outlining how they lack resources and supplies for their students, especially those with high needs.

The suit asks a judge to order the city to restore its funding of schools to last year’s levels.

It is the second legal challenge from a municipal union in the last two weeks seeking to stop the cuts. DC 37, the city’s largest public union, sued over the cuts last week.

“The administration can’t go around touting the tourism recovery and the return of the city’s pre-pandemic jobs, and then create a fiscal crisis and cut education because of its own mismanagement of the asylum seeker problem,” said union president Michael Mulgrew. “Our schools and our families deserve better.”

The city’s law department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Adams sought to downplay the conflict when asked about the lawsuit during an unrelated press conference Thursday morning.

“The UFT, they have to represent their members,” Adams said. “From time to time, friends disagree. Sometimes … it ends up in a courtroom.”

Lawsuit ramps up pressure on Adams

Adams has argued for months that the city is facing a fiscal crisis due to unanticipated spending on the influx of more than 150,000 migrants and asylum-seekers since last summer.

But critics of the cuts, including Mulgrew, have countered that the city is overstating how much the city will spend on the new arrivals. The administration’s claim that the city’s response to the increase in migrants will cost about $11 billion over the next two years is an “unverified estimate,” the lawsuit claims. The Independent Budget Office and the city’s comptroller’s office have projected lower costs.

The city routinely projects budget deficits that are ultimately erased plugged by higher-than-anticipated revenue, Mulgrew argued in a recent op-ed. That’s what happened last fiscal year when the city collected $8.3 billion more than projected in tax revenue, he said.

The move to file a legal challenge represents a significant escalation in the union’s efforts to reverse the cuts, which were originally announced in September and formally rolled out late last month.

Adams ordered all city agencies to find savings of 5% in the November cuts. Additional rounds of 5% cuts are expected in January and next spring, bringing the potential total losses to the Education Department north of $2 billion.

The November cuts, which totaled $547 million, slashed the city’s universal pre-K and 3-K programs, its free summer school program, and its community schools initiative.

Chalkbeat recently learned that the city was quietly targeting cuts in District 75 programs for students with complex disabilities. Staffers said they are facing budget cuts far greater than the $3 million reduction outlined in the November plan. People familiar with the discussions said the planned cuts in District 75 total about $97 million and could jeopardize extracurricular programs, supplies budgets, and the jobs of paraprofessionals.

Those cuts “threaten these schools and the 26,000 students, many of whom have complex disabilities” and “will exacerbate significant staffing and resource shortages,” the suit alleges.

An Education Department spokesperson previously said the agency was doing everything possible to shield schools from the impact of the cuts, and that District 75 schools were undergoing a normal process of reconciling actual enrollment with projections.

Suit hinges on claims of funding misuse

That higher-than-anticipated revenue is at the center of one of the legal claims in the union’s lawsuit.

The suit cites a section of the state education law that “prohibits the City from reducing spending in its schools from the level provided in the preceding year unless overall City revenues decline,” according to legal documents.

The city allocated $14.5 billion to schools in last year’s budget, and $14.1 billion in this year’s, according to the suit. That amount will fall to $13.9 billion if all the cuts go through, the union claims.

Union lawyers also allege that the city is misusing a historic influx in state aid, which has increased by about $1.3 billion in recent years after the state’s fully funded the Foundation Aid formula.

Because of the city’s budget cuts, the Education Department will have to tap state funds to support programs. But state law requires the city to use any increases in state aid to “supplement” what the city is spending on education, rather than “supplant” it, the lawsuit argues — meaning that the Adams administration would be violating this provision.

Three teachers and a speech therapist also joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs, sharing their experiences to illustrate how the cuts could be in violation of a “sound basic education.”

Miriam Sicherman, a third grade teacher at Manhattan’s Children’s Workshop School, has six Spanish-speaking migrant students, four of whom are not literate even in Spanish.

Without any additional resources from the Education Department, the lawsuit claims, she is “essentially running three classes within her third-grade class to accommodate and teach the migrant children with severe educational needs alongside her other third-grade students.”

Rebecca Lopez, a teacher at P.S./M.S. 279 in the Bronx, “cannot afford basic equipment for her high-needs and disabled students or curricular materials for her class,” according to the suit.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Literacy, vouchers, and IPS: Indiana education issues we’re watching in 2024

2023-12-21T12:00:00+00:00

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It may be a new year on the calendar, but January marks the halfway point of the school year and the start of the legislative session in Indiana. And there’s no shortage of education news and issues to watch.

Here’s five topics we’re watching in 2024:

How students learn to read

No surprise here, but reading will likely get a lot of attention, just like in 2023.

Lawmakers passed a new state law in 2023 that requires school districts to adopt a curriculum that’s aligned with the science of reading. The law also specifies that districts are no longer allowed to use literacy curriculum that rely mostly on the three-cueing model, in which students use context clues and pictures.

The new law grew out of concerns held by lawmakers and education officials about students’ reading ability, and our story about what it means for students, teachers and schools was our most-read story of 2023.

When discussing next year’s legislative session, lawmakers said they want to continue to address literacy by looking into Indiana’s third grade retention laws for students who don’t pass the state reading exam, the IREAD-3.

2024 elections feature gubernatorial, IPS school board races

The new year means that it’s a big election year — and not just because there’s a race for the White House.

Here in Indiana, there’s an election for governor with no incumbent, since term limits prohibit Gov. Eric Holcomb from running again. There are multiple candidates on the Republican side and former Indiana Superintendent of Education Jennifer McCormick on the Democratic side.

At the local level, four of the seven seats on the IPS Board of Commissioners are up for election in November, plus there will be school board elections across the state.

Rebuilding Stronger becomes reality for IPS

Approved by the Indianapolis Public Schools board in fall of 2022, Rebuilding Stronger is the district’s sweeping overhaul that aims to address pressing challenges of declining enrollment and educational inequities for students of color.

The Rebuilding Stronger rollout started this school year with the closure of several schools. But the bigger piece begins in the 2024-25 school year, when grade reconfigurations at the elementary and middle schools start, along with expanded academic programs and enrollment zones.

The district is working hard to make sure families know their options for the coming year with an invitation for families to “Choose your IPS.”

The enrollment period is underway, and IPS reported in early December that applications were up from the same time last year by about 470 families.

The future of old IPS school buildings

Per state law, school districts must offer closed school buildings to charter schools to buy or lease for $1. But the law comes with exemptions, including one added this year for districts that share funds from voter-approved property tax increases for operating or safety expenses with an “applicable charter school.”

What that new exemption means is the focus of a legal dispute between IPS and the state that will likely continue into the new year. The outcome will determine whether the district can sell the buildings or must essentially give them to charter schools that could enroll former IPS students.

IPS filed a lawsuit in August against Attorney General Todd Rokita and state board of education officials, arguing that the school district is exempt from the state law. A Marion County judge sided with the district, and Rokita appealed the ruling. In the meantime, the IPS has paused the sale of closed buildings, but the district plans to lease one of the facilities (which it previously voted to sell to a nonprofit) while the court battle plays out.

More students using vouchers

Earlier this year, lawmakers expanded the state’s voucher program to make nearly all students eligible to receive public money to attend private school. Indiana was one of several Republican-led states to do so recently.

Roughly 97% of students now qualify, and state projections show that participation could increase by nearly 42,000 students within two years. And in November, we had our first glimpse into what the participation looks like.

More than 69,000 Choice Scholarship applications were approved during the first round of the program for the 2023-24 school year, per the Indiana Department of Education. That’s a record number. And it’s likely to rise after the second application period, which closes in January.

Chalkbeat Indiana reporters Amelia Pak-Harvey and Aleksandra Appleton contributed to this article.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. She also covers access to higher education and Warren Township Schools. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

School calendar check for 2024: Midwinter recess origins, a holiday-heavy April, and more

2023-12-20T01:01:31+00:00

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As New York City schools gear up for the weeklong winter break starting on Monday, some parents are already thinking ahead to days off later this year — and even next winter.

Typically, the new calendar isn’t out until the spring, but after a few years of delayed calendars and loud complaints, the Education Department released its calendars for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years early.

So, if you haven’t already marked it: the last day of school this year is Wednesday, June 26, 2024. The first day for the next school year is Thursday, Sept. 5.

Families were pleased to have the calendars for the upcoming years since many start their summer child care searches in January, and knowing the start of the school year is “part of the puzzle,” said Queens mom Tami M. Forman, who ran a nonprofit helping stay-at-home mothers return to work.

“For some families it helps to know for vacation planning,” said Forman, whose daughter is a junior at the Academy of American Studies and whose son attends a special education school with a different calendar. “But for the vast majority of NYC families, it’s really about planning care for the many weeks and days that kids aren’t in school but parents do need to work.”

As we head into the new year, here are some things to note about school breaks in 2024:

Midwinter recess, first spurred by 1970s oil crisis, carries on

As usual, New York City schools will close for the weeklong midwinter recess in February, starting with Presidents Day on Monday, Feb. 19. And as usual, this break can be stressful for families struggling with child care.

Midwinter recess dates back to 1978, when the Board of Education decided to do it as an experiment to save energy, according to a New York Times article from that time (though at least one Brooklyn district defied the order and remained open). To make up for the lost instructional time, schools added some days to the start and end of the academic year.

The February break became codified in 1991 as part of a cost-cutting deal between the city’s Board of Education and the teachers union. The deal deferred paying wages to teachers as a way to avoid thousands of midyear layoffs, according to reports.

From its start, midwinter recess has been a thorn in the side of many families who have to make child care arrangements. Grumbling over the week off was especially loud during the 1993-94 school year, when classes started late because of an asbestos crisis and then remained open during a snow emergency.

April could be lean month for instruction

Don’t expect a lot of instructional time this April. There will nearly be as many days off (10, including Easter weekend) as days in school (13).

Under a new contract between the city and the teachers union, Easter Monday was added to make a four-day weekend, starting Friday, March 29. Spring break was stretched from five days off to seven to correspond to Passover, starting April 22. In between those two breaks, schools will be closed on Wednesday, April 10, for the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr.

But that’s not all: Much of the month for the city’s students in grades 3-8 will be filled with testing and most likely, test prep.

For those taking the state English language arts tests on paper, it will be administered right after Eid, on April 11-12. For those taking computer-based tests — which includes all fifth and eighth graders — the exams are being given April 9-24. (Paper-based tests for math will be May 7-8, and computer-based tests will be administered May 7-17.)

Next December’s calendar has a one-day school week ahead of break

While classrooms this Friday will likely be filled with sugar, movies, and perhaps a fair number of empty seats, the day before next year’s winter break could see even sparser attendance than usual.

Families planning ahead for next year’s holiday will be faced with a conundrum: what to do about Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. Schools will be open that day before closing the rest of the week, from Tuesday, Dec. 24 through Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (And fun fact: The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah will overlap precisely with the period from Christmas through New Year’s.)

The past two times in recent years that Dec. 23 fell on a Monday — in 2013 and in 2019 — schools were closed for the entire week, but things have gotten tight as the city has added other holidays to the school calendar (like Diwali, which will be on Friday, Nov. 1) and still needs to meet the required 180-day minimum of instructional time.

For teachers who are looking for alternatives to showing movies just before the break, there’s an array of project-based learning suggestions, such as making video games or a podcast, that John Spencer, an education professor at Portland’s George Fox University and a former middle school teacher, shared on his website.

“This is a chance to make something meaningful — something that your students will remember forever,” he wrote.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

How 4 NYC high school students say AI-powered tools are changing their education

2023-12-14T12:45:05+00:00

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Kangxi Yang, a junior at Staten Island Technical High School, was surprised last year when her Advanced Placement Computer Science teacher encouraged her to use ChatGPT — an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot that some educators fear offers students a powerful agent for cheating and plagiarism.

Her school had warned students against relying on ChatGPT and other AI tools to complete their writing assignments, but Yang’s teacher showed them how to use the chatbot to debug their code, allowing them to quickly diagnose and correct their errors.

“You can ask the AI tool to explain what is wrong with your code, so that you’re also learning from it,” she said. “It was a really good tool for that class.”

New York City school officials have grappled this year with how to respond to the new technology, and ensure that it does less harm than good.

In January, New York City schools blocked ChatGPT on school devices and networks, citing “negative impacts on student learning, and concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of content.” But a few months later, the city reversed course, with schools Chancellor David Banks proclaiming the city’s schools were “determined to embrace its potential.”

Today, just over a year after the tech group OpenAI introduced ChatGPT to the public, some students at New York City high schools report widespread use of AI-powered chatbots among their peers. The same patterns appear elsewhere, too: In one national survey from July, 44% of teenagers said they were likely to use AI-powered tools to complete their schoolwork for them, even though a majority considered it cheating.

While some in the city have used the tools as tutors to help break down difficult concepts and work through challenging assignments, others have looked to them as a shortcut for easy answers. And though some tutoring companies have seized on the opportunities afforded by AI, experts warn the virtual tools can at times provide incorrect information or perpetuate societal biases.

Here’s how four high school students say AI-powered tools have changed the way students engage with their schoolwork:

An added resource at home

At Staten Island Tech, Yang hasn’t encountered many teachers who are strictly against using AI-powered tools.

Earlier this year, when her English class read “The Scarlet Letter,” a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, students were assigned a group project analyzing the book. Part of the assignment included designing a letter “A,” which the main character of the novel is forced to wear on her clothes.

Kangxi Yang, a junior at Staten Island Technical High School.

For groups who weren’t confident in their artistic abilities, Yang’s teacher noted students could use images generated by AI based on their prompts.

Yang hasn’t personally seen many students at her school use AI tools to cheat on assignments, though one of her peers did submit an AI-generated application to her underwater-robotics team.

At home, Yang has used Bard, an AI-powered chatbot developed by Google specifically as a learning tool for teenagers, to gain new insights into her coursework. It includes safety features aimed at preventing access to unsafe content for younger users.

“For A.P. U.S. History, I have to do daily textbook readings, and a lot of the concepts I’m not sure about,” Yang said. “I search up certain terms to help me understand what they mean, or just to help me understand the materials better.”

AI tools have been a useful resource at home, Yang said, but they shouldn’t become more prevalent in the classroom.

“There’s a reason why a teacher is right in front of you,” she said.

AI spotlights anxieties about grades

Emily Munoz, a senior at Truman High School in the Bronx, said that at her school, fear hangs over the discussion of AI-powered tools. (Munoz is currently a Student Voices fellow at Chalkbeat).

“People are scared to talk about it,” she said. “Even teachers, they’ll get AI checkers to see if you’re using it in your essays.”

Those checkers are “not always accurate,” she said.

Emily Munoz, a senior at Truman High School in the Bronx.

Munoz said she understands why her teachers are concerned. Some students at her school have looked at ChatGPT and other tools as an easy way to get their essays written quickly — a use that diminishes originality and harms their ability to learn, Munoz said.

At the same time, she worries some students have been falsely accused of using AI tools.

The problem stems not from the ease of access to the tools, but from the extreme focus on grades and academic success, Munoz said. If her peers didn’t feel so much pressure to score well on assignments and instead emphasized simply learning, they might be less likely to turn to tools like ChatGPT, she added.

“Even before AI, people would sometimes take other people’s essays,” Munoz said. “Or people would just search online, and they’d find something there and take it.

“AI is just bringing these issues to the table,” she said.

Ease of AI shows need for curriculum change

Benjamin Weiss, a junior at Midwood High School in Brooklyn.

Benjamin Weiss, a junior at Midwood High School in Brooklyn, said that he’s “very annoyed” with the way students are taught, and that student use of AI shows what’s wrong with the curriculum.

The emphasis on standardized testing at his school has meant a lot of assignments are geared toward exam preparation — work that Weiss said can be easily solved by AI-powered chatbots.

“All of it is kind of like: We read the textbook, we memorize the textbook, we answer test questions,” he said.

Some history assignments, for example, have asked him to regurgitate facts without calling for his own interpretation and analysis, he added. While many of his peers have welcomed the use of the tools, Weiss believes they spotlight inherent flaws in the educational system.

If more of his schoolwork involved project-based learning and assignments that helped foster critical thinking, Weiss said, students would be less inclined to use AI.

“For the most part, it’s really a convenience thing,” he said. “It’s just so easy to use these tools.”

Peers have gloated that using ChatGPT on homework means they “can work smarter, not harder,” according to Weiss.

Some teachers have been open to students using AI-powered tools in a limited capacity, but others have adopted a zero-tolerance policy toward them, Weiss said. From speaking to administrators, he knows his school is considering how the tools can be further incorporated into classrooms, and how it can better adapt to the new technology.

Weiss hopes AI will spur an open dialogue at schools across the city.

“This is just a great time to revisit the conversation about how we want to teach students,” he said. “What’s the optimal solution for students and also for teachers who don’t want to punish students and who want to teach with more creativity?”

AI poses ethical questions in class

Enkhdari Gereltogtokh, a junior at United Nations International School in Manhattan.

At United Nations International School, a private school in Manhattan, 11th grader Enkhdari Gereltogtokh has had to contend with the ethics of artificial intelligence in several ways.

In her English class this year, Gereltogtokh read “Klara and the Sun,” a novel by Kazuo Ishiguro that is narrated by a robot developed to serve as an “artificial friend” to a teenage girl.

“It’s very interesting in how it thinks about the juxtapositions of artificial versus natural,” she said of the book.

That theme has persisted in her own interactions with AI-powered tools. When her English teacher encouraged students to see how ChatGPT’s literary analysis compared with their own, Gereltogtokh noticed clear distinctions between how humans and AI understand writing.

She asked it to analyze a passage from the book that described the narrator processing overwhelming emotions.

“ChatGPT said, ‘Since she’s curled into a ball, this represents her wallowing in grief,’” she said. “It’s very surface level. It’s not the level of depth I would get from asking a person.”

Meanwhile, in her Theory of Knowledge class — a part of the International Baccalaureate program — students debated what constituted true artificial intelligence, considering how human influences could program biases and stereotypes into the tools.

Despite the flaws of tools like ChatGPT, Gereltogtokh said many students “use it all the time,” sometimes plugging in essay prompts and memorizing arguments ahead of in-class writing assignments, or even searching for answers to questions as their teachers are posing them in class.

Last year, she added, a group of 11th graders were caught using AI-powered tools to generate essays on “The Great Gatsby,” a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, after each of them wrote about “Alfonso.”

“There’s no character named Alfonso in ‘The Great Gatsby,’” Gereltogtokh said.

Though she sees the value of using AI-powered tools as personalized tutors, she fears those who rely on them too heavily risk losing their own critical thinking skills.

“When you use it too much, I can’t really tell what are your genuine thoughts and feelings, and what you just took from a chatbot,” she said.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

This Bronx teacher launched a filmmaking program. His students just helped produce a feature film.

2023-12-04T10:00:00+00:00

Benjamin Ducoff’s students often come into his filmmaking class thinking only about the actors in front of the camera and the director calling the shots. They haven’t necessarily considered who is operating the cameras, who is holding the boom microphones, and who is transforming an empty space into a believable set.

By the time the class wraps, though, they’ve learned about everyone and everything involved in filmmaking. That’s because Ducoff’s lessons aren’t just theoretical; he and his students are making actual movies.

“I have a rule for my students: If they write a script that’s five pages or less, I’ll produce it,” said Ducoff, who teaches at Health, Education and Research Occupations High School, better known as HERO, in the Bronx. “That’s the source of most of our content.”

Recently, the teens in his classes were involved with an even more ambitious project. They worked on a feature film set. The finished product, “Yaniv,” premiered at the Cleveland Jewish Film Festival in October, with additional screenings scheduled around the country in the coming months.

Ducoff stars in the comedy-thriller hybrid about a high school teacher who needs to raise $10,000 to produce the school’s spring musical. To make some quick cash, he and a colleague join a secret gaming ring run by a group of Hasidic Jews in Queens. Their card game of choice is called Yaniv, and the two teachers hatch a plan to stack the odds in their favor.

Ducoff’s students worked on the set, earning money as they operated equipment, assisted talent, and even acted in minor roles.

“Yaniv” marks Ducoff’s first feature film, which he wrote and produced with his film director friend Amnon Carmi.

Ducoff said he knew the experience of working on a film set would be life-changing for his students.

But “I never would have guessed how obsessed they became with the project’s success,” said Ducoff, who spoke recently to Chalkbeat about how he got HERO’s filmmaking program off the ground, the technical and life lessons teens learned while making “Yaniv,” and the power of asking for what you want — even if it sounds a little ridiculous.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How did you decide to become a teacher?

I was a struggling artist in New York City, landing writing and acting gigs here and there but mainly working in restaurants. One day, I saw an ad for a part-time tutoring position at a Huntington Learning Center and was hired on the spot. I hated the job, but I instantly connected with the students, who were hilarious and insanely creative. From there, I became a New York City Teaching Fellow, and I’m still teaching at the same school I started at.

Why did you start teaching high school students about filmmaking — and what’s involved?

Filmmaking, and production in general, is the ultimate educational tool. It requires collaboration, a strong vision, sweat equity, and commitment. And at the end of the process, there is a tangible product worth celebrating. My greatest memories as a teenager come from my experiences doing theater, where my peers and I put all of ourselves into the productions of plays and musicals.

In 2021, when I was working as a history teacher, I pitched the idea of a filmmaking program to my principal, who enthusiastically facilitated its creation and helped me partner with the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development to get students paid for their work and training on set. Over the course of two and a half years, I guided my students through the production of a movie, from a half-baked idea to a final cut.

My biggest challenge lies in finding the right place on set for each student, based on their interests and skill sets. Most come in with the notion that filmmaking is simply acting and directing, and are surprised to discover all of the different jobs and skills that are necessary for a project to get off the ground. Then, we have to find a workflow that can keep us on schedule and under budget. As a producer, I do everything to get film projects completed, and I know that I have passed this obsessive nature onto my students, for better or worse.

HERO high school student and assistant director Zack Robles, left, with teacher Ben Ducoff on the set of another student film, "BurgerFake."

Tell me about the premise of “Yaniv,” and about what role your students played in bringing it to life.

“Yaniv” is the story of a high school teacher in the Bronx who, after learning that the budget for his spring musical has been slashed, resolves to earn the money by infiltrating an underground card game run by Orthodox Jews. I wrote the script with my best friend and creative partner, Amnon Carmi, who is an accomplished director and has taught production to my students at HERO.

As we began pre-production of the film, we knew that we wanted to involve our students. What better experience is there than working on the set of a feature film?

Spread out across the art, camera, and sound departments, these students were instrumental in bringing “Yaniv” to life. We had students operating the boom mic, assisting our camera operators, dressing sets, and helping talent get where they needed to go. They helped our production designer decorate the school building we were filming in. It was the middle of summer, so when we arrived most walls were bare, and the building looked like more of a storage facility than a public high school. Our students immediately got to work, creating posters, ads, graffiti, and homework assignments. They even littered trash in all the right places.

When we needed to shoot scenes in crowded spaces, they recruited their friends to come play background [characters], and a few of them were even cast as students in the film. In fact, four of our students are now Screen Actors Guild, or SAG, eligible.

What life and work skills did your students learn while making “Yaniv”?

They learned so much! Alongside the hard skills of audio mixing, camera setup and operation, and production design, students also became proficient in the areas of teamwork, organization, creative problem-solving, and conflict resolution. I will say the biggest difference between my students and students who don’t take film is that my students know how to use spreadsheets to communicate and track progress.

What surprised you about working alongside your students to create this film?

The biggest surprise for me was students’ enthusiasm. There were so many instances where I had to remove students from the set because it was getting too late, and they were working too many hours! They were having so much fun and showed a level of professionalism that I never would have expected from a high school student. By the time we wrapped production, I was not surprised when a few of our graduating students were offered jobs on other shoots.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your classroom?

This is actually the basis for a course, an after-school offering, and a summer internship program that I currently teach at HERO, called Filmmaking for Social Justice. Students examine issues that face the community and then we pick up the camera and document how it affects life at school. Some topics that are currently being developed include smartphones in schools, bullying, dollar stores, community assets, and public housing.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received, and how have you put it into practice?

The best advice I ever received came from my great-grandmother: “No one ever died from asking.” All these projects were pipe dreams until I asked for help. If you have a crazy idea, ask around. Somebody will be down to help you. Honestly, that’s really the theme of “Yaniv.”

Gabrielle Birkner is the features editor and fellowship director at Chalkbeat. You can reach her at gbirkner@chalkbeat.org.

Hoping to boost math scores, Colorado invests in second year of Zearn online learning program

2023-12-01T01:32:21+00:00

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As camera shutters clicked and politicians and policymakers huddled in the back of a Denver classroom Thursday, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis walked between the desks of sixth graders whose eyes and ears were glued to their computer screens, multiplying fractions.

The program the students were using, Zearn Math, is a key part of Polis’ plan to boost math scores in Colorado and help students recover from the pandemic. Just 1 in 3 students scored at grade-level in math on state tests last spring.

Polis was at Marie L. Greenwood Early-8 in far northeast Denver to hype Zearn in the hopes that more school districts will adopt the program, which the state is offering to schools for free this year. About 65% of Colorado districts are already using it, Polis said.

“We want to really take this opportunity to get the message out across the state: We would love that other 35% of schools to also take advantage of what the state is supporting,” he said.

And districts will have another year to do so. Polis announced Thursday that the state is investing an additional $3 million in federal COVID relief, on top of the $6 million in COVID aid it already set aside, to extend to the 2024-25 school year the offer to pay for Zearn licenses. The state has also been paying to train teachers to use the digital platform.

“We know this will lead to major improvements in math achievement,” Polis said, “which is so important for success in today’s world. Whether you go to college or not, no matter what field you enter, basic math skills — numeracy — is so incredibly important.”

Noire Lin, the teacher whose classroom Polis visited, said in an interview that Zearn has helped students “take more charge of how they’re learning.” Lin’s students — and all students at Greenwood — use Zearn for 30 minutes a day, three times per week.

“It’s aligned to what I teach in class,” Lin said. “But sometimes they’ll go home and be like, ‘I really don’t know if the teacher was teaching it correctly to me.’ So they go home [and] they do Zearn. They get to watch a video. They get to have step-by-step breaking down the problems.”

Colorado Department of Education officials said the state doesn’t yet have data showing whether Zearn is making a difference since schools started using it this fall. The governor’s team chose Zearn without running a competitive bidding process, based on studies provided by the company that showed students who used Zearn regularly made more progress than those who didn’t.

After Polis left, several of the 11-year-olds in Lin’s class gave Zearn mostly positive reviews.

Kevin Villalba said he likes “the sprint,” which is when Zearn gives students a limited amount of time to answer as many math questions as they can. Mia Villa likes the practice questions, and how, if she gets an answer wrong, Zearn explains why and shows her the right steps.

“I sometimes have trouble with math,” Villa said. “Before I had a D or a C, and now I have a B or an A in math.” Zearn, she added, “helps a lot of kids get better in their math.”

But across the table, Valeria Sierra said she’s “not that big of a fan.”

“It could be stressful,” Sierra said, especially a Zearn feature called “the tower of power.”

“If you do a mistake, it removes all your progress,” Sierra said. “And at the same time, it’s kind of hard because it’s a little bit different [from] how our teachers teach us math. And it’s sometimes difficult because the videos they show us doesn’t explain that much.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Not every Chicago school offers algebra in middle school. CPS is working to change that.

2023-11-30T19:15:00+00:00

Every school day at 10:30 a.m., two dozen middle schoolers shuffle into a classroom at Warren Elementary on Chicago’s far south side. One by one, they boot up a Chromebook at their desks.

Fourteen miles north, another nine students log in from their classroom at STEM Magnet Academy just west of downtown.

They are all taking the same course: Middle School Algebra with Raluca Borbath, who teaches virtually.

On a recent November morning, Borbath shared her screen to begin Lesson 13: Introduction to Two-Variable Inequalities. The students, who log in through Google Meet, dove into a problem about making bracelets with two different kinds of beads — one kind cost $1 and the other cost $2.

The class spent the next hour solving and graphing: 2x+y ≥ 10.

Classes like Borbath’s, in which middle school students learn algebra partly online, have been critical to Chicago Public Schools’ efforts to reduce long-standing inequities in access to the course, which is seen as a gateway to better high schools, better colleges, and ultimately, better careers.

Put simply: Mastering algebra in middle school can give kids an advantage for the rest of their educational trajectory. But in Chicago, access to the course before high school has long been inequitable.

Schools without algebra in the middle grades have been largely located in predominantly Black and lower income neighborhoods on the south and west sides. For students who do take algebra in eighth grade, state data shows white and Asian American students in Chicago Public Schools are more than twice as likely to pass than Black and Latino students.

But the district says it is trying to address the inequity and has found some success.

In addition to the Virtual Academy, which was created during the COVID-19 pandemic and has offered middle school algebra for the past two years, the district also partners with three local universities to get more middle school teachers certified to teach the course.

Data obtained by Chalkbeat shows:

Over the last decade, the number of CPS elementary and middle schools offering algebra grew from 209 to 366.
The number of middle grade teachers with algebra credentials increased in the past two years from 428 to 489.
A decade ago, roughly 10% of the city’s eighth graders took the district’s Algebra Exit Exam. Last May, nearly 25% did.
There are still 85 district-run schools and 35 charters where no students took the Algebra Exit Exam last year.

Other cities have tried expanding middle school algebra with varying success. In New York City, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio promised in 2015 to get algebra in every middle school and saw rates of students taking and passing the course go up. But that district’s focus has shifted back to improving freshmen algebra. Similarly, the state of California recently considered recommending all eighth graders take algebra, but decided to leave the decision to local school districts.

Corey Morrison, director of mathematics at Chicago Public Schools, said the district is focused on equity, not a one-size-fits-all approach.

“It’s algebra choice for all,” Morrison said. “We want to get to a place where every eighth grader has a choice and can choose – as much as an eighth grader can without their parents making them.”

Algebra skills ‘build from the bottom up’

Algebra has long been a core requirement for high school freshmen in Chicago and the rest of the country. But for decades, it’s also been offered to advanced middle school students. Those who took it early would be on a fast track to taking calculus senior year, giving them a leg up on college applications and a strong foundation once enrolled in university.

“If you’re spending three years on your mandatory classes, you only have one more year to look for AP classes, or dual credit classes, or anything else that you want to do,” said Borbath, the teacher of the hybrid class. By taking algebra early, students are able to free up their high school schedules.

But in Chicago, data shows stark disparities in who has historically had access to algebra in middle school. Chalkbeat Chicago obtained and analyzed the number of students who took and passed the district’s Algebra Exit Exam. The two-hour test, taken at the end of each school year, consists of 34 multiple choice questions and six short answer problems. Students who pass can move on to geometry.

Ten years ago, roughly 200 of the district’s 500-plus schools serving middle schoolers had students who took the exam. Now, more than 350 do.

At Warren, no students took the district’s Algebra Exit Exam in 2018, data shows.

The small school sits in the heart of Chicago’s Pill Hill neighborhood, a South Side enclave once home to many doctors and pharmacists who lived in the spacious homes down the street from the nearby hospital. It serves 271 students; 99% are Black and 80% come from low-income families.

STEM Magnet Academy, which shares a section of Borbath’s algebra class with Warren, is in the city’s more affluent West Loop and serves 403 students; 38% are Black, 34% are Asian American, 18% are Latino, and 6% are white. About 43% come from low-income families. In 2018, 14 students at STEM Magnet took the Algebra Exit Exam and 7 passed. But no students have taken it since then.

Borbath also teaches a morning section of algebra to middle school students at three other predominantly Black south and west side schools — Daley, Sumner, and Brown — all of which had no students taking the Algebra Exit Exam as recently as 2019, according to data obtained by Chalkbeat.

Morrison said the pandemic was terrible in a lot of ways, but the way the district is using the Virtual Academy to close gaps in access to algebra is a “silver lining.”

Students at Brentano Elementary in Logan Square work on graphing equations during an algebra class.

At Brentano Elementary in Logan Square, no students were taking the Algebra Exit Exam in 2018, district data show. Seth Lavin became principal nine years ago and said adding the course took time and planning.

“The wrong way to do this is just to change your eighth grade course and say, ‘Now we do algebra,’” Lavin said. “The right way to do it is to build from the bottom up so that the kids can be ready for it.”

Lavin said Brentano teachers led the effort to rework how math was taught in order to offer the course.

“This required, for us, changing what sixth graders were doing, and then changing what seventh graders were doing before, eventually, we could change what eighth graders were doing,” Lavin said.

Now, all eighth graders take algebra in school, Lavin said. And starting last year, Brentano started offering a before-school algebra course to any interested seventh grader.

Lavin said he’s able to pay one of Brentano’s teachers to teach the early morning algebra using federal COVID recovery money. Once that money runs out, the offering could be at risk.

Staffing middle school algebra can be a complicated equation

There are logistical and budget hurdles to overcome in order to offer algebra to middle schoolers, Lavin said.

“A teacher in your building has to have an algebra certification, or a high school math endorsement,” he said. “That requires some groundwork.”

Teacher Martin Lenthe teaches algebra to seventh grade students at Brentano Elementary before the regular school day begins.

Chicago Public Schools launched an effort 20 years ago, known as the Chicago Algebra Initiative, to boost the number of middle school students taking algebra. In partnership with three local universities, the school board pays tuition for up to 90 middle school teachers to earn a credential to teach algebra each year.

Morrison, with the district, said the goal is to eventually have at least one certified teacher in every school, but the math hasn’t always worked out.

“How do you pull a handful of kids out to give them a robust algebra course when there’s only one eighth grade teacher?” Morrison said.

For the past couple of years, the Virtual Academy has been able to step in to serve those schools.

Last school year, 777 middle schoolers across 120 schools took the virtual course and this school year, the number climbed to 1,140 middle school students across 142 schools, according to the district. Roughly 300 take the class during the school day and 800 take it before or after school.

Morrison said the virtual courses are also showing teachers and administrators that offering in-person algebra is possible.

“It changes the mindset of teachers and administrators,” he said. “There are enough students in your school, in your community, where we can work towards putting an in-person course in your building, because that’s the ultimate goal.”

District data obtained by Chalkbeat shows that 489 teachers working at 287 schools have an active credential to teach algebra to middle school students. That’s up slightly from 2020 when 428 teachers at 248 schools had them. A district spokesperson said data on algebra credentials was not available prior to 2020.

Warren is hoping to offer in-person algebra next school year. Veteran teacher Tracey Kidd is working toward getting credentialed through the University of Chicago as part of the Chicago Algebra Initiative. Last school year, she was the teacher in the room where middle schoolers logged into virtual algebra.

“It’s kind of hard to do (algebra) virtually sometimes, because kids, they wander off a little,” she said. “But if you’re in the room with them, then they’re gonna focus more, and they get that one on one attention from you.”

Kidd currently teaches intermediate math and knows many students are ready to handle the rigor of algebra.

Younger students get a jump start in algebra

In Sandra Shorter’s classroom at Warren, a group of sixth grade students are starting pre-algebra with the goal of taking algebra next school year as seventh graders.

“We’re doing ratios, unit rates, and then we’re gonna graph them and write them as equations,” Shorter explained.

A classroom wall at Warren Elementary helps middle schoolers at all levels prepare for success in algebra.

Morrison, with the district, said algebra is not just for certain students who want to be scientists or engineers. It teaches important skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking.

“Math is for everybody. But do you need to get on the accelerated track in eighth grade? Not necessarily,” Morrison said. “Do you still need to learn algebra? Yes.”

Algebra is a graduation requirement in CPS, but the stakes for taking it before high school can feel high.

Last week, 13- and 14-year-olds across Chicago found out their scores on the district’s High School Admissions Test — a one-hour exam that partly determines whether they can go to the city’s top high schools. Though the content of the test is not public, many parents and students say taking algebra in middle school gives students a leg up.

“It will help us with a test to get into high school,” said Brentano student Liam Dolik. “That is something that’s so huge in eighth graders’ life, especially in Chicago. It’s not the best but we have to do it so we might as well prepare for it.”

Teacher Martin Lenthe helps a seventh grade student with algebra at Brentano Elementary before the regular school day begins.

Dolik is one of nearly 30 seventh graders who come to school at 7:45 a.m. every weekday to take algebra. They spread out across nine tables as the morning sun streams through the towering windows in classroom 306.

Lavin said all seventh graders were offered the option to take algebra before school, and about half of them decided to do it. But Lavin wrestles with whether the morning section for seventh graders is creating a new inequity.

“Sometimes there’s this temptation to go ahead instead of going deeper,” Lavin said. “At the same time, our kids are in the CPS reality where everybody’s trying to figure out how to get as high a score as they can in the high school admissions test.”

At the end of the day, Brentano is still a neighborhood public school in a diverse neighborhood, offering advanced math to everybody, Lavin said. “That’s increasing equity in the district.”

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

How is NYC’s literacy curriculum mandate going? Teachers feel unprepared.

2023-11-27T10:00:00+00:00

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For nearly all of her decadelong teaching career, Abby Loomis used one of the most popular reading programs in New York City, a curriculum that aimed to foster a love of literature by giving students plenty of time to independently read books of their choosing.

She found the program, developed by Teachers College professor Lucy Calkins, engaging — particularly for students who were easily absorbed by books. Still, she noticed many other children struggled to read independently, and Loomis cobbled together other resources to help them.

So, the fourth grade teacher felt open minded when the city announced in May a sweeping overhaul of elementary literacy instruction, forcing schools to abandon programs like Calkins’ in favor of those that city officials say line up with an established body of research about how children learn to read, often called the “science of reading.”

But a couple months into the city’s curriculum overhaul, Loomis and several other teachers said they haven’t yet received the training they need to make it work.

“The general sentiment at my school is we’re being asked to start something without really knowing what it should look like,” said Loomis, who asked that her Brooklyn school not be named. “I feel like I’m improvising — and not based on the science of reading.”

In nearly half of the city’s local districts this fall, elementary school teachers were required to adopt one of three curriculums alongside separate phonics lessons that explicitly teach students the relationships between sounds and letters. The remaining elementary schools will be required to use the materials next school year.

Literacy experts have largely praised the new mandate. By moving from a hodgepodge of different curriculums that varied school by school, it’s easier to train teachers at a larger scale. The city has added a pacing calendar that tells educators how quickly they should move through the materials, meaning children may face less disruption if they switch schools.

But observers also warned that getting teachers up to speed quickly with new materials would prove challenging — and that success would hinge on whether teachers felt adequately supported. The city did not give schools much lead time, announcing the overhaul less than two months before the summer break. Teachers were expected to roll out new materials when they returned in September.

Top Education Department officials have said there was little time to waste. About half the city’s students are proficient in reading on state tests — figures that fall to about 40% among Black and Latino children.

“In the best of all worlds, we would have studied this for the next three or four years,” schools Chancellor David Banks said in an interview with Chalkbeat. “We are building the plane as we are flying it because kids’ lives are actually hanging in the balance.”

Training efforts are underway

Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein said the city offered training for all teachers who are using new reading curriculums.

Teachers received between two and three days of training, though teachers said the introductory sessions offered by curriculum companies were mostly broad overviews including how to access digital materials rather than deep dives on instruction.

Educators: How are you preparing for NYC's reading curriculum mandate? Take our quick survey.

After disbanding its in-house literacy coaching program, Education Department officials contracted with several outside companies to provide individualized coaching to educators. All teachers in the first phase should have participated in at least one coaching session so far, Brownstein said, and will receive at least eight sessions overall. The city’s teachers union also hosted two-week seminars over the summer and has over 200 coaches helping teachers with the new materials, a union spokesperson said.

“Educators are receiving ongoing supports, including 1-on-1 coaching, throughout the school year to ensure that they are comfortable with the material and able to teach it with fidelity,” Brownstein said.

Most teachers are using a program called Into Reading from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the curriculum required by 13 of the 15 district superintendents who are part of the mandate’s first phase.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt made its sprawling set of digital materials free for city educators during the pandemic, and boasts a Spanish language version, likely contributing to its popularity. About 53% of schools in the first phase were already using Into Reading before this fall, Brownstein said.

But even as many educators weren’t starting from scratch, several teachers including Loomis — whose school began incorporating Into Reading during the pandemic — said they’ve still struggled with the densely packed lessons.

A classroom board at with an Into Reading lesson at Democracy Prep Endurance Elementary School on June 15, 2023 in the Bronx. Charters aren't subject to the city's curriculum mandate.

Teachers crave more hands-on help

One Brooklyn elementary school teacher said the rollout has been frustrating, noting that some teacher guides arrived late. And while she has concerns about the Into Reading curriculum, including criticism about its cultural responsiveness and emphasis on short text excerpts rather than whole books, she said the coaching has been a bright spot.

During twice-a-month meetings that last two periods, the school’s teachers are encouraged to bring their lesson plans for the next week so they can trouble-shoot with their coach, who was provided by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. “I am learning a lot,” said the teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “I wish it was longer.”

Other teachers said their interaction with coaches has been limited, and crave more guidance on how to transition away from Calkins’ approach. Some schools that previously used Calkins’ materials paid for regular coaching that was popular with many teachers.

Into Reading involves longer periods of teacher-led instruction, and typically asks students to read more difficult texts at their grade level. Instead of encouraging children to read books of their choosing, they spend more time collectively reading excerpts from a textbook.

Some educators said they’re looking for help making the lessons more captivating, finding that students may not be able to sit still for 30 minutes or more of teacher-led instruction compared with the tighter 10- to 15-minute lessons in Calkins’ curriculum. Others said the program’s texts are more difficult and are looking for strategies to make them accessible, especially for English learners or students with disabilities. The curriculum is packed with resources, from vocabulary and spelling materials to writing activities, with little time to get to them all, teachers said.

Meanwhile, multiple educators said they’ve been directed to reconfigure their classroom libraries so that they’re no longer organized by reading level, a hallmark of Calkins’ approach. But it’s a time-consuming task that has frustrated some teachers who contend they received little explanation about what the goal of the reorganization is.

One veteran teacher misses elements of Calkins’ curriculum, which involved modeling a skill and then sending students off to practice on their own. She feels like the scripted lessons from Into Reading lack creativity.

“I feel like I’m not really sure how much they’re loving reading,” said the teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

She’s also struggled with moments when the Into Reading curriculum assumes students have skills that haven’t been explicitly introduced yet, such as a recent writing exercise that involved apostrophes. The teacher quickly pivoted to a mini grammar lesson on the fly.

“I didn’t do it very well because I was trying to cover so many different skills in the little time I had,” she said.

A coach observed one of her lessons, but there wasn’t time for feedback. The teacher said she’s turned to Facebook groups when she has questions. Though she’s been in the classroom since the 1980s, pivoting to a new curriculum has left her feeling like a novice, spending Friday evenings poring over lesson plans for the next week.

Supporters say curriculum overhauls take time

Third grade teacher Marnie Geltman.

Teachers have struggled with other elements of the reading overhaul, including a push to more consistently deploy phonics lessons.

Marnie Geltman, a third grade teacher at P.S. 150 in Queens, said she typically teaches older children where phonics lessons aren’t the norm. Geltman said that neither she nor her co-teacher have received much training on how to deliver the highly regimented lessons.

Education department officials said the city continuously provides phonics training, though Geltman said they’ve filled up quickly and she hasn’t participated yet.

“I just think it’s been too fast,” she said. “We should have been trained first.”

Others involved in the city’s literacy efforts said it is unsurprising that teachers feel overwhelmed in the initial phases of the transition.

Lynette Guastaferro, the CEO of Teaching Matters, an organization that has contracted with the city to help train teachers in three local districts, said the first year of a curriculum change is typically a big learning curve.

She stressed that changing curriculum strategies is a long-term project.

“We’re two months in,” she said. “This is about the next five years of change.”

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Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Philly’s premier high school requires 8th grade algebra for admission. Many kids can’t take it.

2023-11-13T17:14:31+00:00

Every year, hundreds of students in some of Philadelphia’s poorest neighborhoods can’t apply to the city’s most prestigious high school for a simple reason: They can’t take eighth grade algebra at their local public school.

The advanced math course is only offered in 50 of 195 K-8 and middle schools in the district that have eighth grades. A review by Chalkbeat of the schools where algebra is offered, and the schools that recently began offering it, shows a pattern:

In general, the lower the median household income in the school’s surrounding neighborhood, the less likely that algebra is available to eighth graders.

Students who attend schools where algebra is not offered are automatically shut out of applying to Masterman in high school, the district’s most selective school, because the course is a prerequisite for admission. The requirement has been in place for at least 20 years, according to district spokesperson Marissa Orbanek.

The fact that algebra is a barrier to entry at one of Philadelphia’s premier schools highlights challenges with the district’s efforts to revamp admissions in the name of equity and to overhaul its math curriculum.

Philadelphia’s approach to the course underscores a national debate about the importance of eighth grade algebra. Some say that early algebra can set students on a path to completing calculus in high school, often a prerequisite for those seeking to be STEM majors in college. But others say such an approach can exacerbate inequality without giving most students an understanding of practical math they need to succeed in life.

In 2014, San Francisco prohibited eighth grade algebra because different student groups had vastly different outcomes. But now there’s a movement afoot in the city to change that. Cambridge, Massachusetts schools recently stopped offering eighth grade algebra. The debate has also raged in New York City where a mandate to expand and standardize the way algebra is taught has received polarizing feedback from teachers.

Janine Remillard, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education who is an expert on math curriculum, said research shows that the outcomes for students who take algebra in eighth instead of ninth grade are a “mixed bag.” That aside, she said, the eighth grade requirement means that admission “is really about what school you went to” before Masterman.

“It’s enormously problematic that Masterman is using eighth grade algebra as criterion in a district where equity issues are so much at play,” Remillard said.

Current decisions about where to offer algebra in eighth grade are based on analysis of sixth and seventh grade student math performance, Orbanek said, as well as input from principals and central office staff.

“Equity of access, even surrounding Algebra I, still needs to be worked on,” said Jeannine Payne, who has been principal of Masterman since 2021.

Payne, who formerly led two North Philadelphia elementary schools that rarely sent students to Masterman, said when taking the job that she wanted to create more opportunities at the magnet school.

Making eighth grade algebra more widely available is part of Superintendent Tony Watlington’s plans for a $70 million curriculum overhaul that began this school year with math. But the lack of access to algebra illustrates that a huge investment in new materials alone does not necessarily address serious concerns about inequity, and that current practices can deny students opportunities that extend beyond just admission to Masterman, said Remillard.

Orbanek said a team is reviewing how and where the district currently offers the course. The district did not make anyone on that team available for an interview.

There is a district program in which eighth graders at several schools jointly take the same algebra class. But that effort, which is called Cross School Learning and began last school year, still leaves many students without access to the course in eighth grade. The program started with three schools and now includes 16.

At the October Board of Education meeting, Watlington shared state test score data showing declines in algebra proficiency from 2018-19 to 2022-23 of 6.6 percentage points among district students, and an increase in below basic scores of 8.3 percentage points, even as PSSA scores for grades 3-8 improved between 2021-2 and 2022-3. On this year’s state math exams overall, just 20.4% of students scored proficient or better, an improvement on 2022 but slightly below pre-COVID achievement.

“If kids are not prepared, why offer [8th grade algebra]?,” Remillard said. “That’s a problematic approach as well.”

Which students can get into Masterman?

Getting into Masterman is already very challenging, especially for those seeking to begin in ninth grade rather than in fifth grade, the earliest students can enroll. Historically, no more than roughly 10% of students have been admitted to Masterman just for high school. But that percentage is changing.

For decades, Masterman’s enrollment has seldom reflected that of the district as a whole — it is predominantly white and Asian, while the district is made up of mostly Black and Latino students. That disparity sparked protests in 2020 after the killing of George Floyd.

Two years ago, in an effort to broaden access for two dozen criteria-based schools, the district overhauled its admissions system, including for Masterman. In place of a process that gave most of the power to individual principals to choose from among qualified students, it established a citywide lottery.

The lottery gave automatic admission to students from historically underrepresented ZIP codes, most in North and West Philadelphia, to their top choice school — if they qualified based on their grades, test scores, and other potential factors.

But just five of the 28 schools that have an eighth grade in the targeted ZIP codes — which are mostly in North Philadelphia — offer algebra in eighth grade, according to information from the district.

Two of the schools in the priority ZIP codes that do offer the course in eighth grade, Carver High School of Engineering and Science, which includes grades 7-12, and Conwell Middle Magnet, are not neighborhood schools and have their own admissions requirements. In Carver’s case, most of the eighth graders stay there for high school.

“Until you put algebra in all those schools, having it as a requirement for entry to any high school is inequitable,” said one district official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Even if your plan is to put algebra everywhere in eighth grade, we don’t have it yet. How is it just, how can you say you’re creating more equity and favoring some ZIP codes, if students are coming from schools located there that t don’t offer it?”

Since the district switched to a lottery to determine final admission to the district’s most selective schools, the percentage of students entering Masterman in ninth grade has increased to about 30% in the current school year because, unlike in the past several years, eligible Masterman eighth graders were no longer automatically offered a spot in ninth grade.

But the district announced it will go back to automatic admission for eighth graders into the ninth grade starting in 2024-25, which could reduce the percentage again.

Expansion of eighth grade algebra uses hybrid classes

Citywide, student success in algebra classes has also varied significantly between the eighth and ninth grade in a way that suggests preparedness for algebra doesn’t necessarily improve as students get older. Last year, nearly 15% of the 8,300 students who took algebra in ninth grade didn’t pass the course, while only seven of the nearly 1,400 students who took it in eighth grade didn’t pass, according to data the district provided to Chalkbeat.

The district is trying at least one approach to increase access. In its Cross School Learning program, selected eighth grade students from several schools take algebra classes jointly.

The hybrid online and in-person program started in the 2022-23 school year at J.S. Jenks, Lingelbach, and Shawmont elementary schools. This year, it expanded to 13 more schools, which are among the 50 that the district lists as making eighth grade algebra available.

There are currently five teachers who give lessons in three schools each. The teachers travel from school to school, providing in-person instruction in one while the other two schools are virtual.

The decision where to expand the Cross Schools Learning program was based on an analysis of sixth and seventh grade student math performance, said Orbanek, the spokesperson, as well as input from principals and teachers. Students in algebra also receive regular eighth grade math instruction so they can be prepared for state math tests.

“Cross Schools Learning has been vital for our school this year,” Jenks Principal Corinne Scioli said in a video promoting Cross School Learning. “So many of our eighth grade students are not having the opportunity to apply and be considered for some of our most competitive high schools in the city.”

Correction: Nov. 17, 2023: Decisions about whether to offer algebra in eighth grade are made with input from principals and central office staff. Due to incorrect information provided by the school district, a previous version of this article said union leaders were involved in the decisionmaking.

Dale Mezzacappa is a senior writer for Chalkbeat Philadelphia, where she covers K-12 schools and early childhood education in Philadelphia. Contact Dale at dmezzacappa@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit board members consider ambitious approach for student literacy growth

2023-11-07T20:40:30+00:00

With $94 million earmarked for the Detroit school district to improve student reading levels in the next three years, district board members are eager to see that money spent toward ambitious ideas to grow literacy awareness across the city.

At a retreat for the Detroit Public Schools Community District school board on Tuesday, members discussed using the funds for staffing, professional development, and community engagement.

“I want us to do something that is life-changing and very innovative,” said board member Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, who suggested the district could create a “citywide campaign to help remove the stigma of illiteracy for adults” or partnerships with maternal health programs and early childhood centers to help educate families about literacy before their children arrive to the district.

“We got one shot at it,” Gay-Dagnogo said. “Impacting the children that get to us at K-3 is not enough.”

Board President Angelique Peterson-Mayberry agreed that the district should adopt an innovative approach, suggesting that some of the funds could go toward training high schoolers to teach basic reading to younger students.

Improving reading skills among Detroit schoolchildren has been a large concern for school officials, families, and community advocates over the past several decades. Reading scores for Detroit students have ranked among the lowest in the nation over the past decade and a half.

In 2016, Detroit students filed a lawsuit against the state of Michigan, claiming they were denied access to a basic reading education while DPSCD was under emergency management between 2009 and 2016. A 2020 settlement in the case called for the creation of two Detroit-based education task forces and reserved $94 million in state money for DPSCD to support evidence-based literacy interventions.

Those dollars must be spent by the fall of 2027, but not before DPSCD officials and the full board hear community input. Tuesday’s retreat was the first time the board discussed this in a public forum and came after six community meetings held by the Detroit Literacy Equity Task Force, one of the two groups created by the settlement.

Those meetings, which took place between August and October, invited families, educators, and community members to give input about the ways DPSCD can improve student literacy levels using the settlement dollars.

As part of its broader literacy instruction plan, DPSCD has already prioritized teaching grade-level assignments and materials regardless of a student’s reading proficiency, small-group instruction, and targeted intervention for students significantly below grade level. The settlement restricts how the money can be spent, but it could go toward hiring support staff, reducing student-to-teacher ratios, and increasing classroom materials, among other strategies.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said he could support new solutions such as a citywide awareness campaign or offering at-home, one-to-one literacy support for students via Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

However, some board members were cautious about investing those dollars without addressing one of the district’s primary challenges: getting kids to school.

“When we talk about a citywide campaign around literacy, it feels like it should be a citywide campaign around attendance, and why it matters,” said board member Sonya Mays, who noted that district data has shown students who regularly attend school perform better on standardized tests.

“I always feel like that’s the elephant in the room when we’re coming up with these strategies,” Mays said. “One of the things that I walk away from that data saying to myself is the things that we’re doing are working if you’re coming to class.”

Detroit has had a decades-long issue with ensuring students come to school consistently. The district’s chronic absenteeism rate, in which students miss 10% or more of the school year, was 66% last school year but was as high as 77% in the 2021-22 school year, and upwards of 50% pre-pandemic.

Vitti said it could be possible to include messaging around student absenteeism in a literacy campaign, but cautioned that the settlement is restrictive about what the district can spend its money on.

“The things that go the longest distance with addressing chronic absenteeism, we couldn’t use this money for,” he said.

Without reinventing the wheel, Vitti added, the district could best use the settlement funds to improve on its current practices, such as hiring more academic interventionists, offering stipends for educators and parents to participate in professional development training and school-based literacy programs, and expanding after-school and online tutoring.

“You don’t always want to go chasing the shiny new thing,” he said. “There is a certain way to teach children how to read and that’s about training. It’s about refinement. It’s about producing the numbers so you can go deeper with the intervention process.”

The district’s current academic intervention strategy prioritizes students in grades three through five, Vitti said, but the settlement funds could help the district target early elementary students in kindergarten through second grade.

With all of its meetings completed, the Detroit Literacy Equity Task Force plans to present its final recommendations to the school board by the last week of November.

According to Vitti, community members largely spoke in favor of early elementary reading interventions, smaller class sizes, culturally responsive library books, tutoring, and parent engagement around literacy.

Following Tuesday’s retreat, DPSCD officials will have more opportunities to gather community input on how to spend the settlement funds through public engagement sessions set to take place later this month and in December.

By next year, board members will begin to discuss recommendations in the academic and finance committees, before final recommendations will be made to the board by the February or March school board meeting, Vitti added.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Mergers, migrants, curriculum mandates: NYC schools chief David Banks on his first 2 years

2023-11-07T11:00:00+00:00

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When David Banks took the reins of New York City’s public schools, he offered a blunt diagnosis. The system is “fundamentally flawed,” he said, and in need of complete transformation.

Nearly two years later, the chancellor’s vision for improving the system is coming into sharper focus. Rather than pursuing aggressive changes in many areas of the system, he has prioritized one problem above all others: Nearly half of students aren’t proficient readers.

In a wide-ranging interview with Chalkbeat, Banks indicated the nation’s largest school system is too unwieldy to change on many fronts at once. And if children graduate without basic reading skills, little else matters, he says.

So far, the literacy overhaul has been swift and bumpy, with some elementary school teachers saying that they haven’t felt prepared enough to deploy new reading curriculums this fall — reports that Banks acknowledged while defending the pace of the rollout.

But even as Banks makes reading instruction his signature issue, the system is still facing many other challenges. Roughly $7 billion in federal relief funding is drying up, and Mayor Eric Adams is ordering significant cuts on top of that. There are a growing number of significantly under-enrolled schools — some of which Banks said will likely need to be consolidated. And the city is also contending with a massive influx of migrant children, many of whom have faced significant trauma and disruptions to their schooling.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You’re coming up on two years running the nation’s largest school system. What surprised you most about the role that you didn’t anticipate?

I think the level of distrust that so many people have about the quote unquote ‘DOE’ [Department of Education]. It’s almost like we can’t trust whatever you say. When I say that, I’m talking about community members, for the most part — parents. There was a heightened state of agitation. And not something that I did. It was just…they were almost ready for battle at every moment.

And I think it was Deputy Chancellor Kenita Lloyd who said to me, ‘There’s been a broken trust.’ And it demonstrated itself in ways like the PEP [Panel for Educational Policy]. You have the PEP meeting that goes all night long.

I said, ‘This doesn’t even make any sense to me.’ People have to stay up ‘till 2, 3 o’clock in the morning for their two minutes. I think the sense was that people didn’t feel like they were being heard. So they’re ready to be really loud to try to be heard.

Once I got in and I got settled I could understand what it was. And I think it’s also my greatest achievement of having been here so far, which is I think we’ve done a lot to help to rebuild a level of trust with communities.

When you were first appointed, you offered a fairly dark assessment of the city’s public school system, saying it was ‘fundamentally flawed.’ You suggested there were too many people working in central jobs away from school. What is your assessment today? Have you done anything to trim the central office other than eliminating the executive superintendent roles?

We have moved, since I’ve been here, over 300 people off of our payroll, number one. Number two, through the local superintendents, we have moved dozens and dozens of people closer to the action into the superintendents’ offices.

What I came to realize is that the narrative of this bloated bureaucracy that’s uncaring — is actually not true. There are a lot of people here, who care deeply about what goes on. I think that’s why the NYC Reads stuff [the reading curriculum overhaul] is so important to me. Because I think we’ve not gotten the results in our schools, which has caused everybody to be turned off. And it’s caused even the people who work here to be deeply frustrated.

Some of your early rhetoric suggested that you were interested in a total transformation of the system. It seems like that kind of rhetoric has given way to a more pragmatic set of initiatives focused on improving the quality of early literacy instruction, and also exposing more students to career options before they graduate. Are there any other big projects on the horizon?

My legacy work will really be around what we’re doing with literacy. And then I think the work we’re doing on career-connected learning and pathways will be right behind it.

But I’m really staking my reputation on reading in particular. Because I do believe that fundamentally, as somebody who’s been in the classroom for years, and has led schools, that it’s the foundation. If you don’t get that right all these other things don’t really matter. It’s the reason why you don’t hear me talking about 20 different things, although we’re doing lots of other things.

I can connect those to other areas that I think are really important and where we’re going to be going as a system. And that would really be around virtual learning, artificial intelligence, the use of technology. I think those kinds of things will fundamentally, whether we like it or not, change not just our system. All systems across America are in for a sea change in that regard. So I’m doing a lot of work behind the scenes to try to figure out how we can get out in front where New York City can lead on that.

But none of that will even matter if kids can’t read.

Your background is mostly in working with middle and high school students. How did you become persuaded to make early literacy your signature thing? Was it a conversation with the mayor?

The mayor focused when we came in on dyslexia, and so we were all in on the dyslexia and the screenings, and really making sure that we’re getting those kids the kinds of interventions or whatnot that they really need to put them on track. But in the midst of that, as I moved all over the system, I was reminded over and over again, beyond the kids with dyslexia, just the average kid who doesn’t have any of those kinds of text-based challenges, they don’t know how to read.

It was over a series of visits and conversations, and talking to teachers who were saying, ‘We are off track. Not only my school, but as a whole system.’ I would hear that over and over again. And people would say, years ago, kids learn through phonics, we learn the phonetic approach to teaching reading.

And then I think, when I listened to the podcast [“Sold a Story”]...that was the first thing that really crystallized these conversations that people were sharing with me, it framed it for me. And then behind that, when I saw the documentary, “The Right to Read,” the combination of those two, fully crystallized these loose conversations that I was having with folks. And I got to the ultimate ‘aha,’ this is where the issue is.

I’ve been spending some time recently talking to teachers who are in the first phase [of the literacy curriculum mandate]. And one of the things I’ve heard from a lot of them is they feel like this happened really fast. Some felt unprepared to teach the new curriculums. What is your message to those teachers?

I’m certainly not surprised by any of that as a response. We are all in a process of trying to catch up because there’s a sense of urgency. In the best of all worlds, we would have studied this for the next three or four years. We would’ve done all kinds of surveys. But when you add the ‘aha moment’ that it is time to move, you have to move, knowing that it’s not going to be perfect. We are building the plane as we are flying it because kids’ lives are actually hanging in the balance.

I do not expect us to have some dramatically different results over the next two to three years. But I do think you will see constant gains over the next several years. And I think you will see dramatic gains over the next five, six years.

One of the biggest challenges for the system right now is financial. About $7 billion of federal relief money is drying up, which has been used to expand summer school, keep school budgets steady despite enrollment drops, hire counselors and fund some of your own initiatives. On top of that, Mayor Eric Adams is ordering pretty significant budget cuts. Can you give us a sense of what criteria you’re using to determine which programs get cut and which don’t?

We’ve not finalized decisions. And these are not all fully just my decisions either. The mayor and the City Council are really going to have to come together and figure out what happens. Everything is on the table to see some level of reduction. I’ve made it clear that I think what we’re doing on the reading, and the [career] pathways as my priority areas. So we’re gonna do everything to fight like heck to protect those. Everything else is subject to it.

Listen, I’m a champion of the arts. I don’t want to see any reduction in the arts. So I’m going to be fighting as well. But we got dozens and dozens and dozens of other initiatives. I think Summer Rising has been a wonderful program. We had 110,000 kids last year, we could easily have 150,000. But it may be reduced because it is the fiscal reality that we are facing.

I’ve heard a lot of City Council folks say, ‘We’re going to fight like heck to make sure there’s no reductions in school budgets.’ That’s great, right? But the funding is going to come from somewhere.

Do you anticipate having to reduce the department’s headcount significantly over the coming years?

The mayor is on record as saying that we’re not going to be letting go of employees. So we’re not going to excess folks. We’re not getting rid of folks, we’re not laying people off.

The challenge is going to be where do we find it programmatically and how much our school budgets [are] ultimately impacted.

New York has seen a large influx of more than 20,000 migrant children. What’s your sense of how that is affecting schools? Can you point to examples of schools that are doing a really effective job?

We can certainly give you a list of schools. All of these schools that I have continued to visit — amazing. These folks lead with their heart. And it goes well beyond even what’s in their particular budgets. You got parent coordinators, who are leading clothing drives and food drives. You got principals who are just organizing their entire school community as a family to wrap their arms around so many of these young people, it is amazing. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, it is New York City at its best, when you see how we are responding.

I haven’t visited one school, Alex, when people are like, ‘We are at our wits end, we cannot help these kids anymore. We don’t know what to do.’ I’ve never been at one school where I’ve heard anybody say that.

The city doesn’t have a great track record of equitably distributing students who enroll after the traditional admissions process. There was some research a few years ago that found that high school students who enrolled midyear were disproportionately clustered at lower-performing schools. Does the city have an overarching enrollment strategy for migrant children? How do you think that students should be distributed in a way that’s equitable?

There’s a wide range of students. For the younger children, we’ve done everything we could to get them into the school that they are kind of zoned for. That’s been dictated by where these shelters have been. We don’t want a child who’s in a shelter in the Bronx and send them to the second grade in Queens.

While we want to get them as close as possible, we cannot overwhelm any individual school. So if that means we’ve got to go to the next neighborhood over with some of those schools who are saying, ‘We would love to have more students,’ many of these schools, you have to remember, are experiencing enrollment decline and low enrollment. We want to make sure that they’re the right kinds of programs and supports in those schools.

One of the other big structural issues that you’re facing is a growing number of really small schools, which are expensive to operate, and also sometimes struggle to offer a full range of programs given that a school’s budget is determined on a per-student basis. I’m wondering if there’s a cut off below which you think at school is just too small to be sustainable?

No specific number, but we had dozens and dozens of really small schools. When I say really small, I’m talking about schools with 125 kids and less. I ran a small school, but my small school had 450 to 500 kids, which was what the initial definition of a small school was. It’s hard to figure out how people can run a full comprehensive high school with 80 kids as your entire school. And we have schools with those numbers.

And should we expect to see that starting this year?

You should probably expect to hear community conversations around that this year. And we will see where it will lead us. But the notion of some level of consolidation is something that I think we would be irresponsible if we were not looking at that, particularly in light of the fiscal challenges that we’re having. So we’re looking at it — nothing definitive yet.

I’m leaving a lot of that to the superintendents themselves who know their school communities best and are already meeting with principals around the city to start those conversations.

The latest round of national test scores indicate that student achievement took a big hit during the pandemic, particularly in math. How worried are you about the lingering effects of the pandemic on student achievement? Is there anything new on the horizon to help schools close those gaps?

I was not surprised at all by the learning loss and the scores and everything else. You know, the immediate shift into virtual learning was a tremendous challenge for everybody. I think the upside is that we got a lot better at it. It’s one reason I’m really excited about some of our virtual schools work that we’re doing, because we see that as a beacon and a blueprint also for the rest of the system. But I do think we’ve got real work to do.

We’re allowing schools to provide a range of supports. Some of them are doing high-dosage tutoring, some of the buddying students up — we leave a lot of that sort of to the schools themselves. We don’t try to mandate everything. What we are mandating is this approach to the science of reading, which I think will ultimately bear fruit in ELA and math, over a period of time.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

How Michigan teacher evaluations would change under proposed reforms

2023-10-30T10:30:00+00:00

Proposed legislation in Michigan that would eliminate student test scores as a factor in teacher evaluations would represent a victory for teachers if it passes, and a turnabout in an education reform effort that began nearly a decade ago.

Current state law requires that student scores on standardized tests count for 40% of a teacher’s performance rating. Under two proposed bills that passed the Senate last week, that requirement would go away, and the districts would be able to use their own criteria for evaluating teachers, such as classroom observations, samples of student work, rubrics, and lesson plans.

The bills would also de-emphasize evaluations as a factor in districts’ decisions to fire or demote teachers or deny them tenure. But they would require districts to take action against teachers who don’t improve after repeated interventions.

The House Education Committee is expected to take up the bills on Tuesday.

Here’s some background on the current law, and highlights of the new proposals:

Michigan law followed a push for more accountability

Michigan’s law on test scores and evaluations grew out of a push for greater accountability in education that began in the 2000s. Some advocacy groups theorized that more rigorous reviews would generate detailed feedback that could be used to improve teachers’ performance.

In 2009, under the Obama administration, the federal government offered money from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act to states that made policy changes, including revamping teacher evaluations to include test scores.

In response, Michigan passed a law in 2015 requiring that teacher evaluations be 25% based on student growth, as measured by changes in test scores from one year to the next. The requirement went up to 40% at the start of the 2018-19 school year.

Skepticism of test-based evaluations has grown

Teachers have long argued that growth in test scores is an unfair way to measure their job performance, because it compares the performance of two different cohorts of students.

And in recent years, many education experts and policy analysts have become more vocal in questioning the changes that were made in the 2010s.

By 2019, nine states had stopped requiring that test scores be considered in teacher evaluations. Many other states have considered making the same change.

Proponents of returning to the old evaluation method say there is no evidence to suggest the current system benefits students, and that tying ratings to test scores contributes to burnout amid persistent teacher shortages.

Critics are concerned that de-emphasizing student test scores could lower standards for teachers while students are still struggling to recover from pandemic learning loss and need high-quality instruction.

How the proposals would change teacher evaluations

The bills proposed in Michigan would be a return to the system that was used before 2015. Districts would have more power to set their own standards to decide how and when teachers are evaluated.

But the proposals would still require districts to set up a common rating system, and they prescribe some consequences for teachers who don’t measure up.

School districts would have to start using teacher and administrator rating systems by July 1, 2024, that include four possible ratings: “highly effective,” “effective,” “minimally effective,” and “ineffective.” After that, districts would have to add “developing” and “needing support” ratings as well.

Teachers rated “needing support” would get individualized development plans from their districts to improve their performance within 180 days.

Districts would not be allowed to fire, deny tenure to, or withhold full certification from teachers rated “ineffective.” But they would be required to terminate teachers or administrators who are rated “needing support” three years in a row. Those who receive that rating could request reviews of their evaluations.

Staff who conduct evaluations would have to take “rater reliability training” from their districts.

A Senate analysis of the proposals said local districts might face some new costs to update teacher and school administrator evaluations and to incorporate collective bargaining agreements as part of that process.

On the other hand, it says, schools could save money by not having to calculate testing data, and by evaluating consistently effective teachers less often.

Hannah Dellinger is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 education. Contact Hannah at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Adams 12’s first newcomer center offers students support and a path to graduation

2023-10-19T19:04:03+00:00

Leer en español.

About 23 students from mixed grades were taking a math quiz on exponents at the newcomer center at Thornton High School one recent Friday afternoon.

The class was buzzing. Students were helping each other.

“If we’re not sure, it’s OK,” teacher Adria Padilla Chavez assured her students. “We go back and relearn.” Then she repeated her instructions in Spanish.

Padilla Chavez and other staffers at the newcomer center work to help students who are new to the country adjust to life in an American high school. As the program grows, students are gaining much more than English lessons. They’re making friends from around the world, engaging in their learning, and getting on a path to graduation. It’s helping them dream of futures they might not have imagined before.

“We like to welcome our students into a community where they feel like they belong,” said Frida Rodriguez, a youth and family advocate at the center. “It’s so important to have a place where you know you belong. They connect with staff that provide them a sense of help and support and love. Truly feeling loved is really important.”

Seventeen-year-old Joan Madrigal Delgado has been a student at the newcomer center for a month, his first experience in a U.S. school. He already feels his life changing.

He’s impressed by how teachers help him, and ask him to think and participate in discussions.

“I really didn’t have any possibilities in my country,” said Madrigal Delgado, who came from Cuba. “It feels good. Now I aspire to everything.”

He’s starting to think about college and considering a career as a veterinarian.

The newcomer center, the first in Adams 12 Five Star Schools, opened in August with 30 students. Now, a couple months into the school year, the center has more than 90 students, with new students enrolling every week and families spreading the word in the community.

The students come from many countries, but one of the main drivers for the development of the center was the influx of refugees arriving from Afghanistan around two years ago. Many live in the Thornton area around the high school.

Adams 12 was one of four school districts to receive a grant from the Rose Community Foundation this year to help support education for newcomers, particularly from Afghanistan.

The foundation worked with the Colorado Refugee Services Program — a unit within the Colorado Department of Human Services — to set up the Refugee Integration Fund, which gave away the grants.

The district used that money, along with some federal COVID relief money, and pulled $868,000 from the general fund to start up the center and pay for staff. The center has its own registrar, who calls families flagged to her by other schools and invites them to attend.

The district is offering transportation. About 45 of the newcomer center students get bused to the high school. And advocates like Rodriguez, who speaks Spanish, and Imran Khan, who speaks Pashai and Dari, also help families find resources in the community.

One unique feature of the center, says director Manissa Featherstone, is that it has its own counselor to help students map their way to graduation. She said many newcomer centers focus on teaching students English, and sometimes that means delaying classes that would earn them the credits required to get on track to graduate.

At the Thornton High program, students take all their core classes within the center, but are integrated into the mainstream high school for elective classes, or when they need a more advanced class. An instructional coach who works for the center helps customize the help for students.

“We’re able to provide those classes,” Featherstone said. “It just depends on the individual student’s needs and what schooling they’ve had.”

Newcomer Center teacher Aria Padilla Chavez, top center, works on a math quiz with her students.

Students also participate in extracurricular activities, clubs, and sports at the high school.

The program can accommodate up to 150 students, Featherstone said. It’s designed so that students spend a year there after they first arrive in the U.S., and then move on to regular high school programming.

Mohammad Ali Dost, 14, arrived from Afghanistan a couple of years ago, and was initially attending a middle school in the district without a dedicated newcomer program. Now at the center, he said he’s happy it’s helped him improve his English.

Dost said he tells other students: “If you want to improve your English quickly, come to the newcomer center.”

Dost also helps students who speak his home language of Pashai, the kind of peer-to-peer learning and interaction that staffers celebrate.

Featherstone said current students often volunteer to give new students tours and to help familiarize them with their new school.

“We see students jumping in and saying. ‘I’ll take them,’” Featherstone said. “They’re really excited when a student arrives.”

The advocates teach students the basics at first, like how to use a locker. Recently students also enjoyed learning about homecoming and spirit week.

“A lot of students had no idea what it was. What was the big deal about the football game?” Rodriguez said. “We showed them videos. They were just excited to have that experience. They kept saying, ‘I get to go to a dance.’”

Some students also say they’re impressed by the security of schools in the U.S., having come from other environments where they didn’t always feel safe.

“They’re very prepared,” Madrigal Delgado said.

Ismael Piscoya, 17, from Peru, said he’s amazed at the amount of technology available. All students in the district, not just the center, get a Chromebook.

It takes no time to look up information, Piscoya said.

Maria Fernanda Guillen, 18, from Mexico, said she feels empowered in her education.

“In Mexico, we didn’t have a voice in school,” Guillen said. Now thinking about a future in biotechnology, she’s excited about the start she’s getting at the center.

“It’s nice to have friends from other countries,” she said.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois is revamping its literacy plan. Parents, advocates say it needs more for students with dyslexia.

2023-10-17T23:14:01+00:00

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Shortly after Aimee Orta’s daughter started kindergarten in Chicago Public Schools in 2019, the 5-year-old would come home upset and complain about headaches and stomach pain.

The complaints seemed to stem from the little girl’s frustrations with school. After realizing that her daughter might be a struggling reader, Orta decided to get an outside evaluation. The results found that the kindergartener was having trouble matching letters to sounds.

But it would take two more years for Orta’s daughter to be formally diagnosed with dyslexia, her mom says, and for her school on the North West side to provide the academic services she needed. By then, she was in second grade.

Orta said she saw how it impacted her daughter’s social-emotional health.

“She just felt like she wasn’t capable of anything, because when you can’t read you can’t consume any of the other curriculum,” said Orta. “So she’s struggling in math. She’s struggling in science. She’s struggling in social studies.”

The fight to get her daughter the services she needs drove Orta to become an advocate with the CPS Family Dyslexia Collaborative. The group is pushing the district and the state to adopt evidence-based reading instruction in the classroom and to improve interventions for struggling readers and those with dyslexia.

The issue of how to improve literacy instruction has taken on new urgency across the country, as districts grapple with students who fell behind during the pandemic. On the Illinois Assessment of Readiness taken in spring 2023, 25.9% of Chicago students from third to eighth grade who took the exam met or exceeded the standard in English language arts. But for students with disabilities, the percentage dropped to 4.2%.

In recent years, many states have started to revamp how reading is taught by getting rid of a now-debunked reading method called “balanced literacy,” a reading philosophy that believes reading is a natural process, and turning to evidence-based reading instruction.

Illinois has also taken steps to change literacy instruction with the passage of a law that requires the Illinois State Board of Education to create a literacy plan by Jan. 31, 2024. In June, the state board released an initial draft of the plan, which says universal screening for literacy skills is essential and aspiring teachers need to be trained in the science of reading.

However, because the draft plan does not mandate districts to change how reading is taught in classrooms, literacy advocates worry that it is not enough to push schools to get rid of balanced literacy.

The state board plans to release a second draft of the literacy plan during the board’s monthly meeting on Oct. 18. The board also said that it will update the state’s dyslexia handbook this fall — a document that helps parents, educators, school administration understand what dyslexia is and how to support students. The handbook was last updated in 2019.

Parents like Orta and advocates like Jessica Handy, executive director of Stand for Children Illinois and a key author of the literacy bill, say the state’s literacy draft plan needs more work to address the needs of struggling readers and those with dyslexia. Having a strong reading curriculum and evidence-based instruction is good for all readers, Handy said, but students with dyslexia need more support in a classroom setting.

“Students with dyslexia deserve early identification and support instead of waiting for them to fail,” Handy said.

Advocate fight to change Illinois’ literacy instruction

In early 2022, the Illinois Early Literacy Coalition — a group of literacy advocates across the state — pushed legislation to mandate evidence-based reading instruction in all Illinois school districts. The so-called “Right to Read” Act required the state board to create literacy grants, change teacher licensure tests for elementary school teachers, and develop professional development opportunities for current teachers. The proposed law came at a time when the state’s 2021 test scores found that young students had lost ground in English language arts and math.

Many education advocates supported the bill, but critics said it did not address the needs of English language learners — a student group that makes up 14% of the state’s student enrollment. Despite negotiations, the bill did not pass.

But a year later, at the start of 2023, parts of the “Right to Read” Act appeared in several pieces of legislation in the state House and Senate. The group of bills — referred to by advocates as the “Literacy and Justice for All” package — would have required the state to create a literacy plan, design a rubric for school districts to score their reading curriculum, create professional development opportunities for current teachers, and require aspiring teachers to take courses in evidence-based literacy instruction in teacher prep programs.

Literacy advocates also fought for a bill that would have required public schools to screen all students in kindergarten through second grade for dyslexia.

Illinois is one of several states that does not require schools to screen children. Some school districts across the nation have implemented universal screeners for young learners. A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools said the i-Ready exam, an assessment for all kindergarten through second grade students, has a dyslexia screener.

But despite the push to mandate better reading instruction, train teachers on evidence-based practices, and screen students for dyslexia early, state lawmakers only passed SB 2243. which required the state to create a literacy plan.

The draft plan, which was released in June before the law was signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, provides a roadmap for educators to teach reading to students from birth to 12th grade using research-based reading strategies. The draft plan also tells educators how to adjust their instruction to meet the needs of students with disabilities and English language learners.

The plan does outline how state leaders, school districts, and educators should work with students with disabilities, which would include students with dyslexia. But the Illinois Early Literacy Coalition, in a letter to the state board in June, said students with dyslexia deserve their own section and more than “a passing reference” to the dyslexia handbook.

“We know that many students who struggle to read do not have dyslexia and we have strongly supported a plan that is comprehensive and inclusive,” the coalition wrote in its letter. “At the same time, a plan that does not include any specific discussion about students with dyslexia is not inclusive.”

Aspiring teachers need training on phonics

Aimee Orta, a mother of two Chicago Public Schools students who have dyslexia.

By the spring of 2021, Orta’s daughter was in the second half of first grade and had an Individualized Education Program, or IEP, that required her to get more reading instruction inside her classroom throughout the day.

But Orta soon realized it was not enough. Her daughter needed time outside of her general education classroom to focus on reading strategies. Orta had to push her daughter’s general education teacher and school administration for more help.

“When teachers tell parents, ‘oh, it’ll eventually click’ or ‘we need to wait and see,’ or ‘it’ll be fine.’ When we hear that, we start to doubt our instincts,” said Orta.

A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools said the district has developed its Skyline English language arts curriculum using evidence-based reading strategies and plans to roll out more curricular support for schools this year. The district announced the curriculum in May 2019 and started rolling it out at schools in 2021. Many, but not all schools have adopted the curriculum.

Requiring evidence-based reading practices is just one part of the solution, advocates and experts say. Better teaching preparation in reading instruction is also needed.

The state board’s draft literacy plan addresses that by suggesting that teacher preparation programs should help aspiring elementary school teachers learn about the science behind reading, understand national and state standards for reading for each grade level, find strategies to help students learn how to read, and use assessments to find where students are struggling to read.

The draft literacy plan also recommends that state leaders work with teacher preparation programs to ensure that curriculum aligns with evidence-based reading practice.

Some evidence shows teacher preparation programs across the nation are still largely teaching future elementary school teachers balanced literacy reading strategies and curriculum, according to a June report from the National Center for Teacher Quality — a nonprofit organization evaluating teacher prep programs.

The report reviewed 16 teacher prep programs in Illinois; of those, eight programs did not spend any course time on helping preservice teachers to teach reading to struggling readers. Nine of Illinois’ teacher prep programs received an F grade. Only two universities, Illinois College and Olivet Nazarene University, received an A+.

However, higher education leaders have criticized the report for grading schools on course material without reaching out to teacher prep programs. The council had to change the grade of at least 24 schools in the nation. Ball State University in Indiana went from a F grade to an A.

Heather Peske, president of NCTQ, said Illinois has too many children who are not reading at grade level and better teacher preparation can change that reality for all students.

“We shouldn’t depend on the families of children who have dyslexia to advocate for their children to be taught aligned to the science and the research,” said Peske. “We need teachers who understand the science of reading, understand the research, and who know how to serve students who have dyslexia.”

Peske noted that Colorado and Mississippi have teacher preparation programs using the science of reading in their curriculum and students have seen a boost in their reading scores.

Literacy advocates look to the future

One year after Orta’s daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia, Orta noticed her catching up to peers. In addition to getting more support at school, she received after-school tutoring and went to a summer school program that focused on reading.

Now, as a fourth grader, the girl is reading just shy of her grade level and enjoys reading for pleasure despite the effort it takes.

Orta has used the lessons learned in her daughter’s journey to help her younger son. She noticed that he struggled to read as well and quickly sought an outside evaluation. He was diagnosed immediately with dyslexia and given an IEP by the end of kindergarten in the spring of 2022.

Orta’s son, now in second grade, has been making progress in reading faster and his social-emotional health is strong.

The state literacy plan recommends, but doesn’t mandate, that schools use universal screeners to help teachers intervene early if a student needs support. Research shows students who receive interventions in first and second grade are twice as likely to make gains in reading than a student who receives support in third grades, according to a report in the Journal of Educational Psychology.

Orta still wants the state to mandate research-based, structured phonics instruction in school. She also wants educators, school clinicians and administrators to learn about the signs of dyslexia to help kids early.

The state’s draft plan is a good start, Orta and other advocates say, but more needs to be done.

Author: Black teachers’ resistance to segregation 60 years ago holds lessons for teachers today

2023-10-16T21:41:34+00:00

As a Birmingham, Alabama, native, Tondra Loder-Jackson was inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. She was especially inspired by the 1,000-plus Black children who walked out of school in Birmingham on May 2, 1963, to protest Jim Crow segregation in what would be known as the Children’s Crusade.

Still, one question lingered for Loder-Jackson. Where, she wondered, were the Black teachers?

Now a professor of educational foundations at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Loder-Jackson sought the answer to that question — and wound up debunking a narrative that Black teachers either shied away from the movement or were hostile to it.

In her 2016 book, “Schoolhouse Activists: African American Educators and the Long Birmingham Civil Rights Movement,” and in a 2023 book she co-edited, “Schooling the Movement: The Activism of Southern Black Educators from Reconstruction Through the Civil Rights Era,” Loder-Jackson details how many Black teachers, at the risk of losing their jobs and, in some cases, their lives, organized quietly and supported the movement through their scholarship and their teaching, and through associations with outside groups.

Loder-Jackson recently talked to Chalkbeat about her work and the lessons teachers in states like Alabama, Tennessee, Florida and others where teaching about race is being restricted, can learn from those 1960s schoolhouse activists on how to resist new state-sanctioned attempts to whitewash Black history.

This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

Why did you want to explore the role of Black educators in the Civil Rights Movement?

This seemed to be a relatively untold story, although some scholars began to unearth some archival data and tell new stories decades ago. But no one that I knew of in Birmingham was focused on educators, and really, on the contrary, I discovered there was a false narrative in Birmingham that Black teachers and principals were categorically tepid about getting involved in the movement. In fact, there’s one narrative about a Black principal who stood in the schoolhouse door to prevent his students from skipping school during the Children’s Crusade in 1963.

Why is it important to correct this narrative — that Black teachers weren’t involved in the movement — at this time?

The false narrative that Black teachers in Birmingham, and in the southern region, were not active in the Civil Rights Movement leaves our teachers today with a lost memory of the kind of activism that teachers were involved in. There was an active network of below-the-radar teachers and administrators who contributed to the Alabama movement in various ways that were typically aligned with their professional practices. They formed Black teachers associations … . There is clear evidence, in national and local archives, that Black Alabama teachers joined ranks with the Alabama State Teachers Association. They were involved with them, they were involved in the NAACP, they were involved in the Alabama Christian Association, they were involved in all the civil rights organizations. It’s important for all educators to know, irrespective of race or ethnicity or nationality, the role that educators played in voting rights and in all aspects of the movement.

What was your most surprising discovery?

I was surprised by this underground railroad of Black educators and how they came together as a collective to fight for civil rights. They were instrumental in putting together reports to document racial discrimination, they fought for voting rights, they sponsored Black history programs, and they were involved in strategizing the Montgomery Bus Boycott. They came together as a collective to fight for civil rights.

It was true that some didn’t feel comfortable protesting, but many blended in with crowds during the mass meetings, which was one of the core activities of the movement. I have interviewed teachers who said they have attended every one of those meetings.

Did you think that in 2023, 60 years after the Children’s Crusade, that states like Tennessee and Florida would adopt laws that make it hard for teachers to teach about that crusade and, by extension, the role that Black teachers played in it?

Everything goes around in circles. We had a backlash against multiculturalism in the 1980s, but then things died down a bit. The backlash today, however, seems especially vitriolic. I have to consider the role that the first Black president elected two times, and a pandemic that opened up classrooms virtually with some students’ parents looking over their shoulders, and the George Floyd protests may have played in this.

What is especially troubling about these laws and their potential consequences?

The attacks on civic education are disconcerting to me. That is the space in public schools where students learn how a democracy should work. One teacher I interviewed told me one important lesson she taught during the movement was to help students understand why they were going out to march in the streets, and she would use her civics lesson to make a connection between their actions and what they were doing. So teachers play an important role in laying the intellectual foundation for any social movement, and teachers, and Black teachers in the South particularly, played that role.

What can educators in states where teaching about race is restricted learn from Black teachers in Birmingham who found ways to resist unjust laws that wouldn’t cause them to lose their jobs or lives?

Today, we definitely don’t want to have situations where we have educational gaps and orders keeping teachers from teaching social studies authentically and with fidelity.

So I would say that the lessons that teachers of today can learn from teachers of the past is to find ways to organize at their schools on a local, state, and even a national and international level. Beyond unions, there are a lot of professional associations and informal coalitions that are emerging.

In Birmingham, I’ve become part of a group called Coalition for True History. It’s an emergent grass roots organization that is made up of educators, civic leaders, and community members. We are advocating rigorous, authentic, and critical approaches to teaching history. We’ve had the NAACP and other groups to help interpret legal leeways (around laws that restrict lessons on race).

So, (teachers) are going to have to work in solidarity. Based on my scholarship and research, that is the model that we have from the past.

Bureau Chief Tonyaa Weathersbee oversees Chalkbeat Tennessee’s education coverage. Reach her at tweathersbee@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit students indulge their curiosity about nature in place-based lesson at Belle Isle

2023-10-16T20:13:23+00:00

As dozens of koi swam around a pond, a group of Detroit elementary and middle school students let out a chorus of oohs and aahs. Up close, the carp were dazzling — some with orange and white patterns, others painted yellow and with black spots.

Peeking over the metal railing along the koi pond, the students peppered their instructor with questions.

“What do they eat?”

“How long do they live for?”

“How do fish get pregnant?”

Kids can get awfully curious in the presence of nature. And that was the point of this exercise on a cloudy October morning, far away from the classroom.

The students were taking part in a weeklong lesson at Detroit’s Belle Isle Aquarium and Nature Center designed to help them investigate the natural wonders at the city park.

Koi swim in a pond at the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory on Detroit’s Belle Isle.

At a time when school leaders are grappling with the academic and emotional repercussions of the pandemic and waning engagement in the classroom, more educators are embracing immersive place-based learning as a way to capture the interests and curiosity of their students.

The case for nature- and place-based learning is growing, with more research arguing that such opportunities can provide students with a host of positive outcomes, such as increased motivation, improved critical thinking, and stronger student-teacher relationships.

In Detroit, former Michigan Teacher of the Year June Teisan has been working with the Detroit Public Schools Community District over the past year to provide students with hearing disabilities the opportunity to visit and explore Belle Isle, a vast island park that many young Detroit residents consider inhospitable or inaccessible.

Every day over the past two weeks, students in grades 1-8 from Detroit’s Bunche Preparatory Academy were bused to Belle Isle for the field trips.

“So many of us just take for granted having access to nature, and the mental and physical health benefits of understanding the outdoors,” said Teisan, a retired teacher and founder of the nonprofit InnovatED (313).

“Not everybody’s going to love bugs like I did, or not everybody’s going to enjoy reading a book here and there,” Teisan said. “But connecting with (students) and understanding more about them and saying, ‘How can I meet the needs, the interests and the passions that you bring with you?’ is important.”

The field trips take inspiration from the Big Lesson, a similar program started by fellow Teacher of the Year Margaret Holtschlag that serves students across mid-Michigan.

InnovatED (313) founder June Teisan (middle) speaks to a group of students at the Belle Isle Aquarium in Detroit as a sign-language interpreter translates her questions.

Outside learning piques student curiosity

That day at Belle Isle, students armed with a magnifying glass, a plastic spoon, and a pipette began to inspect Petri dishes full of water collected from the nearby marina. Almost immediately, they discovered mayflies and dragonflies.

“This is what ducks and fish are digging for. This is what they eat,” said Amy Emmert, director of education at the Belle Isle Conservatory and the instructor for the week’s lessons.

The lesson was exciting for eighth grader Husam Alnsiwi, who hopes to one day become a scientist.

“I know there’s writing involved, but I want to study chemistry and learn about real things and experimenting,” he said.

The students are accompanied by a classroom teacher and a group of sign-language interpreters. Teachers say the weeklong lesson is an important opportunity to expose students to what’s available in their own community and include them in activities that often are not tailored to their needs.

“Our teachers have said that this helps them,” Teisan said. “When kids are this excited, you can more easily say, ‘Now let’s write some of these words together. Let’s compose sentences about what our experience was.’’’

Teisan balanced trips with test prep

Teisan, who describes herself as “the kid who laid on her stomach and on the sidewalk looking at ants and chewing on bubblegum,” turned her early curiosities into a lifelong commitment to increasing youth interest in the sciences.

“I had the best job because I had the most toys,” she said of her 27-year tenure as a science teacher in Harper Woods, a city on the northeast border of Detroit.

In her role as an educator, she bridged the gaps between her students and the surrounding community, whether conducting history lessons inside the Detroit Institute of Arts or accompanying experts from the Audubon Society for bird-watching expeditions.

“Teachers are the ones I think who can build those connections when we’re not so busy doing standardized test prep,” Teisan said. “I caught a lot of flak from some administrators because I was not as into test prep, but what I was into is connecting with students and making learning engaging and tied to more of their interests.”

Detroit elementary and middle school students pose for a picture in between science lessons at Belle Isle Aquarium.

Later that day, students got out their black-and-white journals and began to take notes on the creatures they saw at the aquarium, sitting down in front of the animal of their choice to draw a picture and write down their observations.

With hundreds of species to pick from, Husam chose to write about the clownfish and blue hippo tang, a pair made famous by the lead characters in the Pixar film “Finding Nemo.”

“I imagined I was one of them. I feel like I’m really popular,” he said. “I’m in the movies, so you know who I am.”

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

NYC vowed more school contracts for businesses owned by women, people of color. It hasn’t been easy.

2023-10-12T23:35:35+00:00

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Last spring, New York City’s Education Department unveiled its most aggressive step yet to increase spending on businesses owned by women or people of color.

The new directive required all vendors with new contracts to subcontract out a portion of their business to Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises — a significant commitment for an agency that spends roughly $10 billion a year on contracts.

But the implementation of that promise has proved far more complicated. Late last week, the Education Department began quietly rolling back the requirements for some pending contracts, Chalkbeat has learned.

And the implementation challenges in the new push to increase spending on such businesses — a major priority of Mayor Eric Adams — are even causing problems for companies involved with another top Adams priority — his NYC Reads literacy initiative.

Education Department officials confirmed that certain contracts are now being given the green light to move forward without meeting the new requirements — at least for now. But a spokesperson said the agency still intends to enforce the rules for future contracts.

The subcontracting requirement was introduced in late March, one of a series of changes approved last November as a way to address the department’s abysmal record of doing business with Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises, or MWBEs.

Effective immediately, officials said in a press release, the department would require vendors to subcontract out at least 30% of the value of any new contracts to businesses owned by minorities or women.

Schools Chancellor David Banks heralded the move. “We are providing these businesses and their owners with the opportunity to build generational wealth and create a more fair and equal city,” he said in a statement at the time.

Figuring out how to put that mandate into practice threw the contracting system into disarray, interviews and documents show. It touched off months of uncertainty and disruption for vendors and Education Department staff, as top agency officials deliberated behind the scenes over whether and how to insert the new language in recently approved contracts, according to communications reviewed by Chalkbeat.

The process for finalizing new textbook, curriculum, and professional development contracts — including a deal with Great Minds, the company that publishes Wit & Wisdom, one of the three mandated curriculums for Adams’s signature literacy initiative — was essentially at a standstill, according to multiple vendors and Education Department staffers.

Also held up in the logjam were two multiyear professional development contracts for math and literacy instructional support with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the publisher of the most widely used curriculum in the NYC Reads initiative.

“Until leadership can make a decision on this we do not expect any contracts to be circulated for signatures,” according to a notice earlier this month from an Education Department official to a vendor obtained by Chalkbeat.

Then, in recent days, the department appeared to backpedal, sending some vendors notice of “shifts in our implementation strategy” and alerting them that they would no longer be required to adhere to the subcontracting goals.

Education Department officials said certain contracts approved by the Panel for Educational Policy after June were given a pass on the new rules during this “transition” period, but did not say how many got a reprieve.

Spokesperson Jenna Lyle added that “all future solicitations and contracts will include these [subcontracting] goals moving forward.”

But the rocky implementation with the recent round of contracts has left some vendors wondering whether the agency has laid the necessary groundwork to implement such a sweeping change and how it will manage the process going forward.

“To me, it seems like they just didn’t do their research to begin with,” said one vendor who said their contract was frozen for months as a result of the standstill. The vendor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize relationships with the Education Department, said they recently received a notice that they would no longer have to adhere to the new subcontracting requirements.

Adams zeroes in on MWBE contracting

The Education Department subcontracting goals are one piece of a larger effort to increase city spending on MWBEs, both in the department and across all city agencies.

Adams appointed a citywide Chief Business Diversity Officer, and Banks named Karine Appollon, a former executive at the nonprofit Reading Partners and educational publishing giant Scholastic, to the newly created role of chief diversity officer to oversee the department’s MWBE efforts.

In November, the Panel for Educational Policy approved a suite of changes to the agency’s procurement rules to ease the process for MWBEs to win large contracts with the Education Department. A parallel change that would incentivize individual schools to hire MWBEs for smaller deals is up for a vote before the panel next week.

The efforts are showing some signs of progress: The Education Department increased its spending on MWBEs from $224 million in fiscal year 2021, to $535 million dollars in fiscal year 2022, Banks said recently. That amounts to 5.6% of contract spending on MWBEs, still last among all city agencies, according to a February report from Comptroller Brad Lander.

That figure is a long way off from the city’s overall goal of directing 30% of all vendor spending to MWBEs. That’s where the subcontracting directive came in.

The directive would guarantee that, even if the primary vendor on the contract wasn’t an MWBE itself, 30% of the value of the contract would end up in the hands of MWBEs through subcontracting.

Companies can subcontract out for all sorts of services, including distribution of print products, technology and software infrastructure, and customer service.

But the directive presented significant challenges for both small and large vendors, according to one person familiar with the Education Department’s contracts processes, who spoke anonymously so as not to jeopardize relationships.

Some smaller companies spend the majority of their contracts on their own staff, while many large companies operate mostly in other parts of the country or world, making it difficult to switch over to MWBEs certified by New York City, who are more likely to be located in and around New York.

“You look at some of the bigger publishers out there, they don’t have distribution or transportation housed in New York City, they wouldn’t be profitable,” the person said. “Most of these companies are now struggling to find an entity to support this.”

Vendors can win an exemption from the subcontracting requirements if there are not enough certified MWBE companies to perform the necessary services, or if they have “legitimate business reasons” for not complying, according to a contract obtained by Chalkbeat. But it wasn’t immediately clear how the Education Department would decide on those exemptions.

New contracts grind to a halt

While officials were debating internally about if and how to implement the thorny requirements, the process for finalizing new contracts effectively ground to a halt.

Typically, contracts are approved by the city’s Panel for Educational Policy and then handed over to the DOE’s legal team, where they are finalized and delivered to the city comptroller for registration. But for several months, contracts for textbooks, professional development and other services that cleared the Panel for Educational Policy made it no further, according to communications reviewed by Chalkbeat.

When vendors don’t have finalized contracts, they have no guarantee of payment. Some larger companies may opt to continue offering their product without payment, but for smaller operators, that can be too much of a financial risk.

For one professional development vendor whose contract was held up, the delay has meant less money flowing in and fewer schools getting instructional support they’ve relied on for years.

“Some of these schools have had these services for many years, and it’s grinding to a halt now,” said a representative from the vendor, who spoke anonymously so as not to jeopardize relationships with the Education Department. “Principals are getting very frustrated…[and] it’s a little bit of a worry for our employees.”

Another contract caught up in the standstill was the one for Great Minds, the company that produces Wit & Wisdom.

As a result, the company’s print materials were temporarily unavailable through ShopDOE, the website where schools buy materials from companies that have contracts with the Education Department, a company spokesperson said. If materials aren’t listed on ShopDOE, schools have to go through a more complicated and labor-intensive process to obtain them.

Wit & Wisdom print materials were added back to ShopDOE in early October, but the contract still isn’t finalized, according to CheckbookNYC.

“Once again the Wit & Wisdom curriculum can be ordered through ShopDOE after a brief delay that occurred when the Great Minds textbook contract was being renewed,” said Great Minds spokesperson Nancy Zuckerbrod.

Among the other contracts approved by the Panel for Educational Policy over the summer but not yet finalized or delivered to the city comptroller is a three-year, $10.6 million textbook deal with McGraw Hill, which publishes widely used textbooks.

Two contracts with publishing giant Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to provide literacy and math coaching and professional development that cleared the PEP over the summer also are not yet finalized, according to Checkbook NYC.

Lyle, the Education Department spokesperson, didn’t say exactly how long it would take to get the pending contracts finalized, but said “we are working with vendors currently going through our procurement process on how they can best support this work as we finalize outstanding contracts.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

First day of school for NYC: Smiles, sweat, and fears of a possible bus strike

2023-09-07T21:54:13+00:00

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Bronx student Avery Collazo began the school year on Thursday with an annual tradition: donning a bright blue T-shirt proudly exclaiming, “First Day of Second Grade.”

“He likes to stand out, to be a little different,” said Avery’s dad, Albert Collazo, who also brought a uniform shirt just in case.

The family joined dozens of others dropping off their children in the P.S. 121 schoolyard as the first day of school for New York City’s nearly 900,000 students brought out an array of emotions.

Some caregivers shed tears as they watched their kids walk inside the school building. Some kids smiled confidently; some shyly. There was also some sweat. High temperatures prompted a National Weather Service heat advisory, and the Education Department directed schools to limit outdoor activities after 10 a.m. Some educators and parents reported broken or non-existent air conditioners while some families were also concerned about overheated students on school buses.

Avery is enrolled in P.S. 121’s “gifted and talented” program, which pulls students from different neighborhoods. His mom, Elida, praised the city’s move to expand such programs, calling it “a great opportunity for a lot of other children.”

From left, Elida Collazo, Avery Collazo and Albert Collazo pose for a portrait on the first day of school at P.S. 121 in the Bronx.

Because the family has to travel outside of their zoned school to bring Avery to the program, they rely on a yellow school bus for transportation. Even though school bus drivers vowed to stay behind the wheel this week, families were still on edge about a possible strike, which could affect an estimated 86,000 students, or more than half of the children who ride yellow school buses.

“We’re definitely hoping no strike happens,” Collazo said.

For P.S. 121 mom Phyllis Moore, the new school year represented a fresh chance to get involved in her daughter’s education following her recovery from a stroke last year.

“I’m ready to be here, to get involved, to be on the school board, to do what I need to do,” said Moore. “We’re excited.”

Her daughter Lanyah, a fourth grader, has been in the school since kindergarten. She was excited to return to school with more age and experience, she said, but the 8-year-old was still nervous to find out who her teacher and classmates would be.

Schools Chancellor David Banks joined Mayor Eric Adams at P.S. 121, in the Bronx’s District 11, which is one of the districts in the first wave of the NYC Reads initiative. In a major shift in how the nation’s largest school system teaches its youngest children how to read, elementary schools in 15 of the city’s 32 local districts must switch to one of three literacy programs this year, with the rest following next year. District 11 selected EL Education, a curriculum that some schools in the area had already implemented.

“What I am going to be laser-focused on is ensuring every single child in the school system is on grade level no later than third grade,” Banks said. “The broader issue is, for even kids who don’t have dyslexia, they can’t read. And that’s because we haven’t taught them properly how to read.”

The push to change literacy instruction comes after years of attempts to improve the city’s middling reading scores — and after a widely used curriculum, which focused heavily on independent reading without enough explicit phonics instruction, was largely discredited.

Outside of P.S. 165 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, most parents said they hadn’t heard about the city’s curriculum mandate. The school, along with every elementary campus in District 23, is required to use a curriculum called Into Reading — by far the most common program that superintendents have mandated.

Sherifa Adams said her 6-year-old daughter Kaydence was already picking up reading skills, and Adams has mixed feelings about the change. “It’s first grade, so she’s already used to something,” said Adams, who learned about the curriculum mandate from a reporter. “I hope that this new reading curriculum only makes it better and not worse for her.”

The school plans to hold a curriculum night next week and will share more information about the new reading program with families then, an Education Department spokesperson said.

The literacy mandate may signal a wider effort to come, Education Department officials noted. The city is already pushing such changes for early education and ninth grade algebra. Some high school superintendents have opted to implement literacy instruction mandates on their own accord.

Students and families on the first day of school on Thursday at P.S. 165 Ida Posner in Brooklyn, NY.

Meanwhile, the city also continues to grapple with how it will accommodate the influx of children from asylum-seeking families. Banks announced Thursday that the city is hoping to address the chronic shortage of bilingual teachers by reducing a bureaucratic hurdle. For educators who are already certified in bilingual education but teach other areas, they will no longer lose tenure by switching subjects, Banks said. The move would affect about 500 teachers.

Despite the ongoing challenges, the first day of school also marked the tremendous progress that many of the newcomers have made since arriving last year.

At I.S. 93 in Ridgewood, Queens, one student who arrived in the country six months ago speaking no English made enough progress to enroll in an honors dual-language class this year. He was part of a team that won a classwide engineering competition Thursday, said his teacher Sara Hobler.

“This sort of thing is why I teach,” Hobler said. “It makes you take a step back for a moment and remember why you go through all the difficult parts of the job — for those looks on those kids’ faces when they realize they’re going to thrive.”

Busing woes, even without a strike

It has become all too common for students to have problems with yellow school buses, particularly on the first day of school. This year was no exception, as union officials continue negotiating with the city over a new contract. There were nearly 1,300 bus delays reported on the Office of Pupil Transportation’s website as of 4 p.m.

Brownsville mom Anika Smith said she received limited information about bus service and had yet to receive pick up and drop off times, even though her second grade son is entitled to transportation because of a disability.

Smith accompanied her son on Thursday to greet his teachers. Though the family lives a few blocks away from school, the mom said ongoing disruptions would be a “catastrophe,” forcing her to scramble to find relatives to help with transportation or rearrange her nursing shifts at a local hospital.

“I’m gonna have to take off a couple of days, switch around my hours,” Smith said. “I lose wages. I could get a write up … the hospital’s already short staffed.”

Outside her son’s school, P.S. 165, a staff member told a small group of families gathered in the schoolyard about the city’s contingency plans, including MetroCards or rideshare services for children with disabilities, those in temporary housing, or children in foster care.

Students and families arrive for the first day of school at P.S. 165 in Brownsville, Brooklyn.

Naomi Peña, a mother of four children with dyslexia and co-founder of a Bronx-based literacy program, said her son’s bus arrived at their home just 10 minutes before his school was scheduled to start. By the time he arrived on campus, he was more than two hours late, meaning he missed his entire morning literacy block, she said.

The late bus – along with her daughter’s class having no working air conditioning – led to a disappointing first day of school, Peña said.

“It’s frustrating because I am just one parent that experiences these things, but it’s part of a larger ecosystem of hundreds of thousands of parents,” she said. “It shouldn’t happen. It shouldn’t. Our kids deserve better, especially on their first day.”

Enrollment, mergers, and navigating the system

Over the past five years, K-12 enrollment has fallen by more than 120,000, which can have big consequences for schools since funding is tied to student headcount.

At Brooklyn’s P.S. 165, for instance, enrollment dipped below 200 students last year — one of a growing share of elementary schools in central Brooklyn and across the city below that threshold. Though small schools can be more expensive for the city to run on a per-student basis, several parents said there are benefits, too.

“With a small school environment, she will get the help that she needs,” said Crystal Salgado, referring to her 6-year-old daughter, Cianna. “The teachers actually know the kids.”

For her part, Cianna was so excited to be back at school that she zoomed past her mother into the schoolyard. She said she was most excited for lunch, preferably pizza.

Crystal Salgado and her 6-year-old daughter, Cianna, arrive for the first day of school at P.S. 165 in Brooklyn. Cianna hoped for a pizza lunch.

Some school communities began to see controversial mergers last school year, like one at Lafayette Academy, which joined with West Side Collaborative.

Despite opposition from both of these small Upper West middle schools, the proposal passed. Morana Mesic, a former PTA president at West Side Collaborative who opposed the merger, said her seventh grade son cried last night as the realization hit that he wouldn’t be returning to the small school that had felt like home. Instead, he’ll be attending West End Secondary School, a much larger 6-12 school on the Upper West Side that he transferred to over the summer.

“He’s going into a whole new environment all over again, so he did have a really emotional reaction,” she said. “He was anxious, frustrated, and scared, saying, ‘I don’t know if I’m gonna be accepted.’”

Just over 30 blocks north, on the Upper West Side campus Lafayette shares with two other schools, families fanned into a crowded street, greeted by welcome signs and an energetic traffic conductor shouting, “Good morning! Good morning! Happy first day!”

Some students matched the excitement as they approached the building.

One Manhattan School for Children student said she couldn’t wait for “math, seeing my friends, writing, and anything I learn.”

Nearby, Jeanelle and Zaki Jarrah, stood next to their eighth-grader Finn. The family is new to the city, having just moved from Flagler Beach, Florida, a few weeks ago.

They said they were looking forward to their son developing closer connections in a smaller school environment. But they didn’t have a clear idea why they picked the Manhattan School for Children.

“We have absolutely no idea what we’re doing,” Jeanelle Jarrah said, laughing. “The school system here is so overwhelming.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering New York City. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

The science that’s missing from science of reading laws

2023-08-21T20:29:54+00:00

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In the long-running reading wars, proponents of phonics have won.

States across the country, both liberal and conservative, are passing laws designed to change the way students are taught to read in a way that is more aligned with the science of reading.

States, schools of education, districts, and — ultimately, the hope is — teachers, are placing a greater emphasis on phonics. Meanwhile, the “three-cueing” method, which encourages students to guess words based on context, has been marginalized. It’s been a striking and swift change.

But there has been much less attention paid to another critical component of reading: background knowledge. A significant body of research suggests students are better able to comprehend what they read when they start with some understanding of the topic they’re reading about. This has led some academics, educators, and journalists to call for intentional efforts to build young children’s knowledge in important areas like science and social studies. Some school districts and teachers have begun integrating this into reading instruction.

Yet new state reading laws have almost entirely omitted attention to this issue, according to a recent review. In other words, building background knowledge is an idea supported by science that has not fully caught on to the science of reading movement. That suggests that while new reading laws might have real benefits, they may fall short of their potential to improve how children are taught to read.

“It’s an underutilized component,” said Dan Trujillo, an administrator and former teacher in the San Marcos Unified School District in California. “There’s a lot of research about that: The more a reader brings into a text, the more advanced their comprehension will be.”

However, translating this research into legislation or classroom instruction — at a moment when curricular decisions are increasingly fraught — may not be straightforward.

Reading requires comprehension, not just decoding

Researchers sometimes speak of two major components of reading: decoding words and then comprehending their meaning. (This is known as the “simple view of reading,” although researchers now say it’s a bit oversimplified.)

Decoding means turning the text into cognizable words. Phonics — using letter sounds to determine a word — is a critical part of this process. This has been a key focus of the science of reading movement and the laws that have followed.

But the ability to read doesn’t end there. Readers also need to be able to comprehend the words they have sounded out. It’s not just the dictionary definition that counts either, but the meaning in specific contexts. That’s where background knowledge comes in.

“The main determinant of understanding a text is how much knowledge a reader brings to reading,” noted a 2020 review published in the journal Reading Research Quarterly.

Consider the knowledge required to understand the following seemingly simple sentence, which summarizes a recent Chalkbeat story: “House Republicans seek to cut Title I funding by nearly $15 billion.”

It assumes the reader knows that “House” is a legislative body in the federal government (not a place where someone lives); that “Republicans” make up one of the major U.S. political parties; and, most importantly, that “Title I” is a source of funding for schools. Readers who know all this can easily interpret the sentence; otherwise, it’s all but meaningless. Decoding skills are necessary to read but not sufficient.

That’s because all writing assumes that readers have some level of background knowledge. After all, it would be unwieldy to pause to describe, for example, the U.S. House of Representatives.

“A whole lot is omitted when a person speaks or writes on the assumption of common ground, on the assumption that you and I both have knowledge that we share,” said Daniel Willingham, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Virginia.

Some argue that knowledge is less relevant today with the availability of internet search engines. Why do students need to memorize basic facts if they can just Google them?

But looking up every unknown word or concept is time-consuming and gets in the way of comprehension. Imagine stopping to search for a key term every few sentences of this article — it would be exhausting and difficult to keep all the new information straight. Plus, searching for the right terms or interpreting searching results may also require background knowledge.

In other words, Google can help fill in gaps in knowledge, but it can’t easily fill a chasm.

“Background knowledge is not just an incidental aspect of reading instruction,” one recent review of research concluded. “Instead, explicitly teaching background knowledge should be considered foundational to increasing competency in reading.”

State laws don’t address knowledge — and solutions aren’t easy

In the last few years most states have enacted legislation that seeks to improve students’ reading skills. These laws typically emphasize multiple tenets of effective reading instruction, including phonics and comprehension — but the role of knowledge in reading comprehension has gotten scant attention.

“Building content and background knowledge as a foundation for reading comprehension are almost completely absent from this legislation,” concluded a recent report released by the Shanker Institute, a think tank affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers. (A handful of states mentioned knowledge in their legislation, but only briefly.)

This omission has been noticed already. “Unfortunately, the Science of Reading has often been interpreted far too narrowly as exclusively focused on foundational skills,” the Knowledge Matters Campaign, which focuses on raising awareness about the role of knowledge in reading, noted last year. “Our charge is to bring knowledge into the vibrant and dynamic conversation about the Science of Reading.”

Part of the challenge is that — unlike the lessons from phonics research — it’s not obvious how schools should address the importance of background knowledge. There is, after all, a near infinite amount of knowledge in the world. Schools can’t give students all the knowledge they need to read all the texts they will encounter.

“It’s daunting,” said Willingham. “There’s not a quick fix here.”

Some educators have said the answer is adopting a curriculum that integrates important texts in science, history, and other topics into reading instruction. That way, students will start to build their knowledge on issues that they will likely encounter in what they read. That’s the approach a number of districts have adopted, including San Marcos Unified, a large district north of San Diego.

“They have to read about something,” said Trujillo, the San Marcos administrator. “You might as well read about something in science — sound or how plants grow — or social studies — the area, the people, the Constitution.”

Some have also argued that schools should devote more time during the school day for regular instruction in science and social studies, which get relatively little attention in elementary grades.

But there aren’t clear research-based answers here. Although there is solid evidence that knowledge is an important part of reading, there is less research on how schools should go about building knowledge in a way that translates into improved reading skills.

One recent study provides some encouragement to advocates of knowledge building: Researchers found that students who attended charter schools that taught a knowledge-focused curriculum made large reading gains on state tests. Still, the study could not show whether these improvements came from the curriculum itself or other features of the charter schools.

Separately, there are political and cultural questions about what sort of knowledge — and whose knowledge — is taught. Some have worried that codifying essential knowledge will privilege elites’ conception of what is important, while giving short shrift to the contributions of historically marginalized groups. This issue may be particularly challenging for policymakers to navigate at a moment when classrooms have become a cultural battleground.

Esther Quintero, a senior fellow at the Shanker Institute, rejects this dichotomy. She says that careful attention should be paid when designing a curriculum to include a broad swath of history and culture. Ultimately, she believes a knowledge-focused approach may benefit disadvantaged students the most.

“There’s an equity argument to be made for knowledge-building curricula — it levels the playing field for kids,” she said. “Everybody is exposed to the same content. Otherwise, you leave it up to chance.”

Matt Barnum is interim national editor, overseeing and contributing to Chalkbeat’s coverage of national education issues. Contact him at mbarnum@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago’s first day of school is almost here. Here are five things we’re watching this year.

2023-08-18T20:42:43+00:00

Chicago Public Schools’ estimated 320,000 students will head back to class Monday for a school year that will be marked by old issues — and some new concerns.

The district’s enrollment has been dwindling for at least a decade, raising questions about how to best fund schools still recovering from the effects of the pandemic.

Funding overall has become more complicated as the city’s federal COVID relief dollars dry up. Much of that money has been used for supporting existing and additional staff, many of them providing extra academic support for students.

As the district decides on how, if at all, to continue funding some of those programs, it must also contend with the continued enrollment of incoming immigrant students.

Here are five issues Chalkbeat Chicago will be watching this school year:

A fiscal cliff is approaching

This is the last full school year before Chicago must earmark how to spend what’s left of nearly $3 billion it received in COVID relief aid from the federal government. The deadline is September 2024.

That means the district will soon be staring down a financial hole that has been filled by that influx of federal funds since the pandemic.

The district spent a large share of pandemic relief money on staff salaries and benefits. The district also spent hundreds of millions of dollars on academic recovery efforts, including after-school programs, an in-house tutor corps, and more counselors, social workers, and other support staff.

District officials have projected a budget shortfall of $628 million by the 2025-26 school year, raising questions about how Chicago will sustain any programs and services supported by the federal dollars.

A financial analysis released under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot noted that CPS “will not have a funding source” to keep up these academic recovery and social-emotional learning efforts.

As the district’s financial picture is becoming more precarious, Mayor Brandon Johnson has shared lofty plans for schools, including expanding the Community Schools model — leaving complicated financial decisions ahead.

The district’s state funding could also be in jeopardy if it fails to comply with a state law requiring that at least two staffers at each school are trained on the use of student restraint and timeout. The deadline for that, coincidentally, is the first day of school.

Student academic needs persist

Three years since the onset of the COVID pandemic, there are still signs Chicago students need extra help in the classroom. Students appear to be improving in reading achievement, but they’re gaining less ground in math, according to recent state test scores obtained by Chalkbeat.

As the district’s COVID dollars fade out, questions remain about how district officials will approach academic recovery, and whether there will be efforts to keep any of the extra support CPS has funded with the federal dollars.

Some of those COVID dollars went toward the creation of a $135 million universal curriculum called Skyline, which has received mixed reviews. The district has pressed schools not yet using the curriculum to prove they’re using another high-quality option, so it’s possible more campuses will use Skyline this year.

Additionally, Illinois’ General Assembly passed a new law requiring the State Board of Education to create a literacy plan for schools, which is due by the end of January 2024.

District grapples with continued dipping enrollment

Chicago’s public school enrollment has dipped by 9% since the pandemic began — a trend also seen among other big-city school districts — and is almost one-fifth smaller than it was a decade ago. Last year’s enrollment dip of 9,000 students was enough to push the district’s ranking from the country’s third largest public school system to the number 4 spot.

This year’s enrollment figures won’t be publicly released until later this fall.

As the district’s student body has thinned out, funding has grown — to $9.4 billion for the upcoming school year. Still, as the district has logged fewer students — including those from low-income families — CPS has in recent years received less state funding than it has projected. And with COVID aid running out, officials must grapple with how to fund schools serving a fraction of the kids they used to. (There is a citywide moratorium on school closures until 2025.)

Some advocacy and interest groups, including the teachers union, believe funding should be divorced from enrollment, in part because investing fewer dollars will only encourage more families to leave or to never enroll in public schools. Just over 40% of new budgets for schools this year was determined by student enrollment, with the rest accounting for other factors, such as student demographics.

Still, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez has emphasized that the district can’t factor out enrollment.

“In a large school district where schools serve 40 students, 400 students, and even 4,000 students, enrollment simply has to play a role in our funding formula,” Martinez previously told reporters.

Increase in migrant students poses new challenges

Last year, Texas officials began busing newly arrived migrants to Democratic-led cities, including Chicago. Since then, an estimated 12,000 migrants, many of whom are fleeing economic and political turmoil from South and Central American countries, have arrived in Chicago, While the district won’t say how many such students have enrolled, CPS saw roughly 5,400 new English learners last school year, Chalkbeat found.

Most Chicago schools have previously struggled with providing adequate language instruction for English learners. And with the city expecting more newcomers, educators and immigrant advocates recently told Chalkbeat that schools are not adequately resourced to serve these new students.

Some of these children may arrive without years of formal education and, if they’re learning English as a new language, are legally required to receive extra support.

The district’s number of bilingual teachers has dropped since 2015 even as the English learner population has grown, according to a Chalkbeat analysis. More teachers have earned bilingual education endorsements, which allows them to teach, but it’s unclear whether any of those educators are using those endorsements in the classroom.

District officials will be tasked with how to properly support these students. Officials had previously promised to release a formal plan by the first day of school but have not done so yet.

No district maps yet for the elected school board

As Chicago prepares to begin electing school board members next fall over the next two years, lawmakers have yet to approve maps that would designate which districts each board member would be elected from in the first round of elections. Ten members will be elected in November 2024, while the rest will be elected in November 2026, for a total of 21 members.

Illinois state lawmakers are in charge of approving those maps. In May, they extended their deadline to April 1, 2024, after concerns over whether the maps would match the makeup of the district’s student body or the city’s overall demographics.

Some observers cheered the extension. However, the delay presents new complications. If maps are not approved until April, the campaign season for the first set of districts would last just seven months, making it potentially challenging for candidates to prepare and for voters to have enough information ahead of Election Day.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee teachers group drops one of two lawsuits challenging new state laws

2023-08-11T20:37:24+00:00

Tennessee’s largest teacher organization, which recently challenged two new state laws affecting educators, has quietly dropped its lawsuit about payroll dues deduction, while its other lawsuit over classroom censorship moves ahead in federal court.

The Tennessee Education Association asked a state court to dismiss its case challenging a 2023 law that prohibits local school districts from making payroll deductions for employees’ professional association dues.

A three-judge panel, which had let the payroll ban proceed while the case was being tried, granted TEA’s request for a dismissal on Monday.

Meanwhile, a federal judge has set a Dec. 12 meeting with all parties in TEA’s other lawsuit to discuss how that case will proceed. The teachers group has joined with five public school educators to challenge a 2021 state law restricting teachers from discussing certain concepts about race and gender with their students.

The federal case is being spearheaded by the Free and Fair Litigation Group, a nonprofit firm created by two veteran prosecutors who led the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into Donald Trump’s business dealings. The firm’s focus is on pursuing high-impact cases that bolster democracy.

“TEA’s challenge of the prohibited concepts law is unrelated to the payroll lawsuit. We believe we have a strong case and that federal court will rule in favor of Tennessee teachers,” TEA President Tanya Coats said Thursday.

TEA filed its first lawsuit after Gov. Bill Lee pushed through a new law linking the controversial ban on payroll dues collection to a popular provision aimed at raising teacher pay.

The lawsuit charged that Lee’s strategy violates the state constitution’s single-subject requirement for laws.

A new state court — with judges from Davidson, Fayette, and Hamilton counties — had temporarily blocked the law from taking effect on July 1 while attorneys for TEA and the state made their arguments in the case. But the panel lifted that order on July 28 after deciding the plaintiffs were unlikely to win based on the merits of their arguments. The judges said the bill’s caption of “being relative to wages” was broad enough to address payroll deductions too.

“TEA is still confident in the merits of our case and believes we would have ultimately received a favorable ruling,” Coats said in response. “But TEA decided not to pursue the lawsuit because it is unlikely that the court would rule on the case this school year.”

When the payroll ban passed the legislature in April, the teachers group began converting members to online dues payment. Most members have made the switch, according to Coats.

Whether the payroll changes will lead to a drop in TEA membership is uncertain.

The latest numbers from the National Education Association showed that Tennessee’s organization had 36,218 members in 2020-21, down 4% from the previous year.

But Coats, who is an educator from Knox County, suggested that TEA’s recent advocacy work for public school communities is having the opposite effect. If anything, she said, educator frustration with the new laws has “energized” support for the organization.

“TEA is signing up new members every day and converting the remaining members from payroll deduction,” she said. “The attempt from some state leaders to silence educators has only strengthened educators’ resolve to fight for their students and the profession they love.”

The state’s new dues law also affected Professional Educators of Tennessee, the state’s second largest teacher organization. That group mostly uses its own online system to collect dues, but also had payroll deductions set up with eight school districts.

JC Bowman, the group’s executive director, agreed with TEA that the legislature should have considered the matters of teacher pay and payroll deductions separately. But he worried that TEA’s legal challenge over the payroll issue could have put pay raises at risk.

“That part was concerning to us,” Bowman said Friday. “If that had happened, we would have interceded (in court) on behalf of our members.”

The law’s pay schedule sets Tennessee’s base salary for teachers at $42,000 for this school year; $44,500 for 2024-25; $47,000 for 2025-26; and $50,000 for 2026-27. A raise in the base pay also affects how more experienced teachers are paid.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

As NYC revamps elementary reading curriculum, some high schools follow suit

2023-08-08T22:08:23+00:00

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While New York City’s elementary schools undertake a sweeping shift in their approach to teaching reading, a parallel change is quietly unfolding at many high schools.

High school superintendents across the city are urging, and in some cases mandating, that schools under their supervision adopt standardized English language arts curriculum, according to principals and district officials.

The superintendent-led changes have focused on one curriculum in particular: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Into Literature, the high school extension of the company’s hugely popular elementary Into Reading program.

The secondary school curricular shift, while not as sweeping or coordinated as the changes happening at the elementary school level, could have far-reaching consequences for how literacy and literature are taught across scores of city high schools.

“It’s a huge overhaul,” said one Brooklyn administrator who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The school’s English teachers are “absolutely panicking” at the idea of swapping out books they’ve taught for years and creating lesson plans for a new curriculum in just several weeks’ time, the administrator said.

High schools were not subject to the historic mandate announced last spring that city elementary schools use one of three pre-selected literacy curriculums — an effort to standardize how young students are learning to read and move away from teaching practices that have been increasingly discredited.

An education department spokesperson said there are no plans currently to institute a citywide English curriculum mandate for secondary schools.

Nonetheless, it’s likely that high school superintendents are reacting to the changes unfurling at the elementary level, observers said.

“I think some of them are trying to get ahead of the game,” said one district staffer involved in the curriculum rollout, who spoke anonymously because they’re not authorized to talk to the press. “The writing is on the wall.”

The education department didn’t provide the number of high schools using Into Literature or other packaged curriculum, and a Houghton Mifflin Harcourt spokesperson couldn’t say how many high schools have purchased its product for “competitive reasons.”

But there are signs the shift is widespread.

In the Manhattan High Schools district, Superintendent Gary Beidleman is mandating that schools with high numbers of low-performing freshmen adopt Into Literature for ninth graders this year, according to emails obtained by Chalkbeat. In the Urban Assembly/CUNY high school district, Superintendent Fred Walsh asked schools to choose between Into Literature and two other curriculums, according to principals. Among the 47 high schools in the Brooklyn North district, 20 to 30 are likely to adopt Into Literature this fall, after strong encouragement from Superintendent Janice Ross, according to a source familiar with the district.

Education Department spokesperson Nicole Brownstein said “we are proud of our superintendents for taking proactive steps to address gaps in literacy” and that their efforts are “aligned” with the department’s elementary school initiative.

Experts and educators say there are big potential advantages to standardizing curriculum, including better quality control, a reduced burden on teachers to spend their time creating curriculum, and greater ease for district officials in supporting and monitoring schools.

But curriculum standardization is also fraught with challenges, requiring significant buy in from staff and heavy training both up front and on an ongoing basis.

Multiple educators said the early signs in several districts point to a rocky rollout.

“It’s going be really hard, I’m really worried about that,” said the district staffer involved with the curriculum rollout. “There are all these layers, and it just feels like there’s not a lot of time or resources to support these clear lines of communication that will allow this to be successful.”

NYC has history of curriculum changes

The recent moves under schools Chancellor David Banks toward standardized curriculum are far from the first effort to unify what’s taught across city schools.

Former Chancellor Joel Klein took a famously top-down approach to curriculum, including mandating a remedial literacy curriculum called Ramp Up at hundreds of high schools. Klein’s tenure ushered in the widespread adoption of “balanced literacy” — an approach that Banks is now trying to abandon because it didn’t include enough systematic instruction on the relationship between letters and sounds.

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s chancellors turned up the focus on ensuring classroom materials were relevant to students’ backgrounds and interests, an approach known as culturally responsive education. That culminated in the city’s first-ever plan to create a homegrown universal curriculum, a $200 million initiative called Mosaic that struggled to get off the ground and was finally killed under Mayor Eric Adams.

Veterans of the city education department say the current leadership would be wise to heed the lessons of those past rollouts: chief among them the importance of adequate training before and during curriculum adoption.

When Klein introduced Ramp Up, the remedial literacy curriculum, “there was so much front-loading before it ever played out in the classroom,” recalled Vivian Orlen, the former Manhattan high schools superintendent, who was a high school principal when Ramp Up arrived.

The current curricular shifts at the elementary and high school levels mostly outsource training to the publishers, rather than offering it in-house, a move that’s raised some eyebrows among curriculum experts.

“I’ve worked with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt trainers,” said Vicki Madden, a long-time teacher and instructional coach in the city education department who retired last spring. “The trainers invariably do a sort of stand and deliver [training],” or a type of instruction that’s heavy on lectures from the front of the room, and lighter on interactive and group work. “No teachers learn a curriculum package [like that],” Madden added.

Moreover, several educators told Chalkbeat they haven’t yet received any dedicated training on the new curriculum or even had a chance to review the materials, which arrived at schools over the summer.

Kathleen Kantz-Durand, an English teacher at Climate Justice High School in East Harlem, which is shifting to Into Literature under a mandate from its superintendent, said she was hoping to attend a voluntary vendor-led training organized by the district earlier this summer, but didn’t have child care.

“I think this return to really traditional curriculum and texts could be a good thing,” she said. “But…the precious little communication I’ve had about it, the lack of training, worries me that it’s not going to be implemented in a way that will work.”

Kantz-Durand said she was still hoping to attend another optional session before the start of school.

An education department spokesperson said that there are four coaches in the Manhattan superintendent’s office who will work with the 18 schools adopting “evidence-based” English curriculum this year.

The training challenges are compounded by the fact that the new contract between the city and the United Federation of Teachers cuts the weekly required professional development block from 80 to 60 minutes.

Schools weigh pros and cons of new curriculum

Among the biggest changes schools are bracing for with the adoption of Into Reading is the curriculum’s focus on shorter excerpts of texts rather than full books.

“I feel kind of complicated about [that],” said Kantz-Durand. “As a person who loves literature, I would love to see students read full text. There’s a lot of pride and joy…in reading a full book.”

On the other hand, Kantz-Durand acknowledged, reading full novels can sometimes take months, especially when students don’t reliably have access to quiet spaces outside of school where they can read independently. So swapping in shorter texts is a change she might have eventually made anyway.

Into Literature does include suggestions for full books to replace the excerpts, but educators new to the curriculum may not know about that feature, and swapping in full books can require significantly more work for teachers, said a district staffer who’s worked extensively with the curriculum.

Other educators questioned whether the pre-selected texts would speak to their students’ experiences.

“When you’re writing a textbook for the entire United States it’s going to look a little different than if you’re writing for a school in Harlem,” said one Manhattan principal, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s elementary school curriculum has received criticism for failing to incorporate a diverse selection of authors, a charge the company denies. One Brooklyn principal told Chalkbeat that Into Literature seemed to have a more diverse set of texts than other curriculums they reviewed.

For some schools, Into Reading won’t be entirely new.

The curriculum, previously called Collections, has been a mainstay for years in the city Education Department, and is currently the only high school English program included on the city’s list of “core curriculum.” That distinction means it’s been vetted by the Education Department and schools can use state textbook grants to buy it, rather than dipping into their general budgets.

Educators who have seen curriculum shifts come and go caution that, however promising a new program is, implementing that at scale is delicate work that can fall apart easily with a haphazard rollout.

“There’s an endless cycle in schools,” said Madden. “People are dissatisfied with kids’ achievement, engagement. People say, ‘We need a new curriculum.’ Within one week of implementation, you’ll hear from people saying, “This isn’t right for our kids, this doesn’t work,” then you have teachers veering off. Some of them will be brilliant, some will not. And then you don’t have shared curriculum at all.”

Alex Zimmerman contributed.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit schools seek contract extension with Beyond Basics to improve reading skills

2023-07-28T21:57:22+00:00

Detroit school officials are seeking to extend a contract next year with local tutoring nonprofit Beyond Basics to provide continued help for district students far behind in reading skills.

At a school board finance committee meeting Friday, Detroit Public Schools Community District superintendent Nikolai Vitti introduced a contract extension for Beyond Basics for the 2023-24 school year. The Southfield-based tutoring nonprofit would receive $3.3 million to provide one-on-one or small group literacy instruction to students at eight district schools.

In recent years, DPSCD has used philanthropic dollars, COVID relief funding, and money from a literacy lawsuit settlement to expand Beyond Basics’ tutoring across district high schools and elementary schools.

The Beyond Basics program aims to improve students’ reading level by two grades in an average of six weeks. Its reading instruction partially utilizes Orton-Gillingham, a multi-sensory, structured approach that tends to work for students with dyslexia, and emphasizes phonics-based instruction. The program uses paid, trained tutors to work with students during the school day.

In both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, the district reported that students who participated in Beyond Basics saw, on average, more than one-and-a-half year’s worth of reading growth.

The contract extension proposal comes as the district seeks to provide targeted intervention for students multiple grades behind reading level.

DPSCD students performed slightly below pre-pandemic measures on M-STEP, Michigan’s standardized test during the 2021-22 school year. (M-STEP results from the 2022-23 school year are expected to be released in September.) In English, 9% of third grade students scored at or above proficiency, compared with 11.9% in 2019.

But the district’s declines in reading proficiency also reflect broader state and national trends. The percentage of Michigan third graders a year or more behind in reading went up 20% in the 2021-22 school year, according to an annual report from Michigan State University’’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative on the number of students eligible for retention.

Beyond Basics is one of several interventions DPSCD uses to improve literacy. The district’s literacy plan also includes hiring full-time academic interventionists, professional development on Orton-Gillingham instruction, and the district’s Let’s Read program, which connects adult volunteer tutors with early-grade students to help them improve their reading comprehension.

Current and upcoming windfalls of cash also will help DPSCD address the literacy needs of its students. Michigan’s K-12 school aid budget for the upcoming school year allocated $94.4 million from the state’s literacy lawsuit settlement to the district. And DPSCD officials intend to use part of a philanthropic donation from billionaire MacKenzie Scott to hire 73 academic interventionists at select schools in 2023-24.

At Friday’s meeting, Vitti also introduced a $720,000 contract renewal with Brainspring to provide tutoring for virtual school students and professional development. The company has worked with the district since 2019.

The Beyond Basics and Brainspring contracts will go before the full board on Aug. 8.

This past school year, Beyond Basics tutored 589 students across high schools and K-8 schools, according to a district report shared at the committee meeting. That’s down from the 2021-22 school year, when roughly 620 students participated in the program.

The program has faced some public controversy in the past year. Last July, Rachel Vitti, a longtime literacy advocate and the wife of Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, resigned as a director of Beyond Basics. Her departure followed a Chalkbeat story that reported on the district’s contract with the tutoring service.

In the 2023-24 school year, Beyond Basics will work in eight schools, all of which participated in the program this past school year. The district will fund the program with its own grant funds at these schools

Brewer Academy
Bunche Preparatory Academy
Fisher Magnet Academy
Henderson Academy
Marion Law Academy
Mason Academy
Priest Elementary-Middle School
Thirkell Elementary-Middle School

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Teachers sue over Tennessee law restricting what they can teach about race, gender, and bias

2023-07-26T18:58:23+00:00

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Tennessee’s largest teacher organization has joined with five public school educators to legally challenge a 2-year-old state law restricting what they can teach about race, gender, and bias in their classrooms.

Their lawsuit, which was filed late Tuesday in a federal court in Nashville by lawyers for the Tennessee Education Association, maintains the language in the 2021 law is unconstitutionally vague and that the state’s enforcement plan is subjective.

The complaint also charges that Tennessee’s so-called “prohibited concepts” law interferes with instruction on difficult but important topics included in the state’s academic standards. Those standards outline state-approved learning goals, which dictate other decisions around curriculum and testing.

The lawsuit is the first legal challenge to the controversial state law that was among the first of its kind in the nation. The law passed amid a conservative backlash to America’s reckoning over racism after the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis and subsequent anti-racist protests.

Rep. John Ragan of Oak Ridge, one of the Republican sponsors of the legislation, argued the law was needed to protect K-12 students from being “indoctrinated” with social concepts that he and other lawmakers considered misguided and divisive such as critical race theory. That academic framework, which surveys of teachers suggest are not being taught in K-12 schools, is more commonly found in higher education to examine how policies and the law perpetuate systemic racism.

Tennessee’s GOP-controlled legislature overwhelmingly passed the legislation in the final days of their 2021 session, just days after the bill’s introduction. Gov. Bill Lee quickly signed it into law, and later that year, the state education department set rules for enforcement. If found in violation, teachers can be stripped of their licenses and school districts can lose state funding.

Only a small number of complaints have been filed and no penalties levied during the law’s first two years on the books. But Ragan has introduced new legislation that would widen eligibility for who can file a complaint.

The lawsuit seeks to overturn the law and asks for a court order against its enforcement.

The complaint claims the statute fails to give Tennessee educators a reasonable opportunity to understand what conduct and teachings are prohibited.

“Teachers are in this gray area where we don’t know what we can and can’t do or say in our classrooms,” said Kathryn Vaughn, a veteran teacher in Tipton County, near Memphis, and one of five educators who are plaintiffs in the case.

“The rollout of the law — from guidance to training — has been almost nonexistent,” Vaughn added. “That’s put educators in an impossible position.”

The lawsuit also charges the law encourages arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement and violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which forbids any state from “depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”

“Laws need to be clear,” said Tanya Coats, president of the teachers group known as TEA, which is leading the litigation.

She said educators have spent “countless hours” trying to understand the law and the 14 concepts banned from the classroom — including that the United States is “fundamentally or irredeemably racist or sexist;” or that an individual, by virtue of their race or sex, “bears responsibility” for past actions committed by other members of the same race or sex.

TEA says the ambiguity of those concepts has had a chilling effect in schools — from how teachers answer a student’s question to what materials they read in class. To avoid the risk of time-consuming complaints and potential penalties from the state, school leaders have made changes to instruction and school activities. But ultimately, it’s students who suffer, Coats said.

“This law interferes with Tennessee teachers’ job to provide a fact-based, well-rounded education to their students,” Coats said in a news release.

The 52-page lawsuit gives specific examples of how the ban is affecting what nearly a million public school students are learning — and not learning — daily across Tennessee.

“In Tipton County, for example, one school has replaced an annual field trip to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis with a trip to a baseball game. In Shelby County, a choir director fears that his decades-long practice of teaching his students to sing and understand the history behind spirituals sung by enslaved people will be perceived as ‘divisive’ or otherwise violative of the Ban,” the suit says. Other districts have removed books from their curriculum as a result of the law.

The governor’s office typically does not comment on pending litigation, but Lee’s press secretary, Jade Byers, provided this statement on Wednesday in response to the lawsuit: “The governor signed the legislation because every parent deserves transparency into their child’s education, and Tennessee students should be taught history and civics with facts, not divisive political commentary.”

Tennessee targeted anti-CRT policies early

Tennessee was among the first states to pass a law limiting the depth of classroom discussions about inequality and concepts such as white privilege.

In March, Tennessee’s education department reported that few complaints had been filed with local school districts based on the law. And the department had received only a few appeals of local decisions.

One was from the parent of a student enrolled in a private school in Davidson County. Because the law does not apply to private schools, the department found that the parent did not have standing to file an appeal under the law.

Another complaint was filed by a Blount County parent over the book “Dragonwings,” a novel told from the perspective of a Chinese immigrant boy in the early 20th century. The state denied the appeal based on the results of its investigation.

However, Blount County Schools still removed the book from its sixth grade curriculum. And the lawsuit described the emotional toll of the proceedings on a 45-year teaching veteran who was “entangled in months of administrative proceedings, with her job on the line, because of a single parent’s complaint about an award-winning work of young adult literature that the Tennessee Department of Education approved and the local elected school board adopted as part of the district’s curriculum.”

The department also declined to investigate a complaint from Williamson County, south of Nashville, filed soon after the law was enacted. Robin Steenman, chair of the local Moms for Liberty chapter, alleged the literacy curriculum “Wit and Wisdom,” used by Williamson County Schools in 2020-21, has a “heavily biased agenda” that makes children “hate their country, each other and/or themselves.”

A spokesman said the department was only authorized to investigate claims beginning with the 2021-22 school year and encouraged Steenman to work with Williamson County Schools to resolve her concerns.

Department officials did not immediately respond Wednesday when asked whether the state has received more appeals in recent months.

Meanwhile, critics of the law worry about new legislative efforts to broaden its application.

Under the state’s current rules, only students, parents, or employees within a district or charter school can file complaints involving their school. Ragan’s bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Joey Hensley of Hohenwald, would allow any resident within a public school zone to file a complaint.

But critics argue such a change would open the door to conservative groups, like Moms for Liberty, to flood their local school boards with complaints about instruction, books, or materials they believe violate the law, even if they do not have direct contact with the teacher or school in question.

The prohibited concepts law is separate from 2022 Tennessee law that, based on appeals of local school board decisions, empowers a state panel to ban school library books statewide if deemed “inappropriate for the age or maturity levels” of students.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comments from the governor’s office and one of the plaintiffs.

Marta W. Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

How Philadelphia is rolling out its first big curriculum shift in 7 years to teachers and schools

2023-07-24T18:57:29+00:00

Anna Spencer is about to begin her first full year teaching middle school math in September, starting her career just as Philadelphia invests tens of millions of dollars in brand new curricular materials.

She was one of 450 teachers who gave up two hours of their summer for a voluntary training on the new math resources. District officials say the $20 million curriculum from Imagine Learning will promote deeper understanding by students, instead of merely emphasizing process and procedure. And Spencer left the training energized.

“Students will be learning through problem solving rather than being told what to do,” she said.

The Philadelphia school district is planning to spend $70 million of pandemic aid on new textbooks, lesson materials, and other instructional resources that will start rolling out next school year, beginning with math. But how well teachers will be prepared to use them, and the impact they will have on classrooms, are issues still up for debate.

At its May meeting, in addition to the $20 million for Imagine Learning, the Board of Education voted to spend $20 million for an English language arts program called StudySync from McGraw Hill. The board also approved $5 million on new materials for English language learners and $5 million for new special education materials (A resolution to spend up to $20 million on science materials was withdrawn but is expected to be taken up later, bringing the total potential expenditure to $70 million.)

Anyone at the meeting hoping to learn more about the new instructional materials would have left disappointed, however. No district official gave any presentation about the new resources. And no board members asked questions about the resources before voting to approve them. The process underscored ongoing concerns about the district’s transparency.

In a letter to families and a subsequent press release, Superintendent Tony Watlington called the spending on new curricular materials a “historic investment” in the city’s children.

But some teacher preparation experts questioned whether there will be adequate professional development or teacher training to help new teachers and veterans get up to speed. (The English language arts materials will be phased in for the 2024-25 school year.)

“It’s really essential that the investment in teacher learning is deep” and involves something more than an optional webinar or a two-hour workshop, said Patrick Sexton, executive director of teacher education programs at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. Many of Penn’s graduates go on to teach in Philadelphia schools.

The district invited feedback about updating curriculum during March and April and received some 3,000 responses, according to district spokesperson Marissa Orbanek. But that hasn’t stopped questions about the curriculum’s suitability, and whether teachers will be limited in their ability to help students in the same class who are at different levels of proficiency.

Nyshawana Francis-Thompson, the school district’s chief of curriculum and instruction, told Chalkbeat that the new materials represent “a significant shift from what we were doing in the past” and “will require a significant change for our teachers,”

“This is not an approach where the teacher stands in front of the classroom and … says ‘do step one, step two, step three,’” she said.

While district leaders worked with teachers and others to create an updated “academic framework” in core subjects in 2020, it hasn’t bought new materials since 2016, Francis-Thompson said. That framework lays out expectations for each grade level and lays out best practices.

More continuity for Philadelphia students across grades

Since 2016, in many subject areas, schools were able to choose between two or more different sets of curriculum resources. But now, through Watlington’s strategic plan known as Accelerate Philly, district officials are hoping to achieve more instructional continuity.

For all grade levels, “there will be one resource across the board,” Francis-Thompson said.

However helpful the voluntary professional development sessions are for teachers like Spencer who participated in them over two weeks in July, the 450 teachers who took part in them represent just a fraction of those who will be teaching with the new materials.

Officials stressed that such sessions are not the sum total of training and support that will be offered.

Sexton, from Penn, said that he considered the district’s initial voluntary training “a good first step,” and agreed that Imagine Math is “aligned with what we teach our [teachers-in-training] to do,”which is “going for deeper understanding. It’s looking not just for answers, but the thinking behind the answers,” he said. He also said the “culturally responsive” component of the math materials will help build support with parents.

Still, he said, it is important to consider “how are we looking at veteran teachers as learners, not as just implementers of curriculum,” Sexton said.

That’s where teachers like Eileen Wager come in. She’s been teaching for 13 years and is the “math lead” at Duckrey Elementary School in North Philadelphia. As such, she will be responsible for ongoing training for teachers at her school with the new materials.

She agreed with district officials that the new curriculum materials are focused on the students rather than the teacher. She noted a big change involves dividing students into groups so they can collaborate on problem-solving. In that model, the teacher works with one group while the others work independently.

Many teachers use this strategy now, but not all teachers are at ease with it, she said, even though “we’ve learned that having students split into small groups for hands-on activities is effective. I’m hoping this curriculum will be helpful in the long run in getting teachers comfortable with that.”

“Our math scores, as a country and as a district, have been in the toilet for years,” Wager added. “What we’ve been doing hasn’t worked. We need to be open to this new thing.”

According to the latest Philadelphia “district scorecard,” only 17% of students met the math proficiency standard on state testing in 2021-22, down from 22% in 2018-19.

Helping students reach a deeper understanding

Spencer, who will be teaching seventh grade at Bregy Elementary School in Southwest Philadelphia, said the two-hour training was helpful. Like Wager, she supports the use of small groups as part of the new math curriculum.

“I think it will be really really beneficial for students to have meaningful, deep understanding of content, versus rote memory or mimicking what the teacher is doing,” she said.

At the training session, teachers reflected on their own math experiences, discussed what they want their students to remember, and talked about the new curriculum’s philosophy and goals. Then they got a look at the new materials.

Spencer had two main questions during the training. Would the curriculum limit teachers’ agency by offering a daily script or rigid timeline? And what resources would it provide for working in a classroom where many of the students might be grade levels behind in their skills?

Ultimately, Spencer said the training convinced her that she could “switch things up if I need to.” She also said she thought the curriculum was nimble enough to allow her to help students who need additional help.

“The curriculum gives a list of prerequisites for each lesson,” she said. “We can see what students are supposed to have mastered [and can] review skills they’ve missed.”

Lola Sergeant, a five-year teaching veteran at Mayfair Elementary School who will teach seventh grade this fall, noted that the district’s academic framework calls for a more “conceptual” approach to math to deepen student understanding.

She said that dealing with students who are at vastly different levels “is an ongoing challenge,” but added: “I think this curriculum will do a better job of it, because it’s embedded more differentiation.”

Annemarie Hindman, a professor of early childhood education and educational psychology at Temple University, said the district’s emphasis on continuity through the new materials is an admirable goal.

But in practice, she said, teachers and school leaders are going to need a lot of support and buy-in to put these materials to work for their students, especially any changes to the reading materials.

“There is no curriculum package, no matter how scripted, that can help you work with every individual kid,” Hindman said.

Francis-Thompson said she understands these concerns, and said the district must ensure there’s “ongoing professional learning,” coaching, and other strategies in the coming years.

Spencer, for her part, is optimistic the new materials will be a boon for her as a new teacher.

“I trust what they’re trying to do,” Spencer said. “It’s a good starting point for me.”

Dale Mezzacappa is a senior writer for Chalkbeat Philadelphia, where she covers K-12 schools and early childhood education in Philadelphia. Contact Dale at dmezzacappa@chalkbeat.org.

Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.

Wondering about tutoring and if your child would benefit? Here are some answers to your questions.

2023-07-20T18:46:52+00:00

Leer en español.

As educators look for ways to help students as they recover academically from pandemic interruptions, tutoring can play a key role.

But across the country, many leaders are seeing that some of the students who need the help the most aren’t taking advantage.

So, as parents, what questions should you be asking about tutoring and whether your student can benefit? Here are answers to some common questions.

When should I consider tutoring for my child?

Rhonda Haniford, associate commissioner of the school quality and support division at the Colorado Department of Education, said the first thing to keep in mind is that different tutoring programs are designed to achieve different goals.

While parents might think tutoring is only to help students who are struggling academically, sometimes programs are designed instead to keep students engaged, accelerate their learning, or hone in on specific skills or needs.

If a parent believes their child is struggling academically, Haniford said they should look at what their school offers.

“First, I would say meet with the school and talk about what they’re seeing,” Haniford said. “Talk about what’s working, what are the child’s strengths as well as where are their needs. And can tutoring help? It depends on what the tutoring program is designed to accomplish.”

Parent Keri Rodrigues said her five sons’ report cards showed good grades and that her boys were doing well. But when she asked them to read to her at home, she noticed two were struggling.

“These were things I could see,” Rodrigues said.

Rodrigues is co-founder of the advocacy group National Parents Union. She advises parents to trust their instincts and ask questions when they believe their children might be struggling. That means starting with more conversations with teachers.

When talking with teachers, Rodrigues said, one of the most important questions to ask is whether your child is reading at grade level, and if not, what is being done to get them there.

“Report cards often are not telling us this information,” she said.

Ashara Baker, a mother to a rising second grader and also a leader with National Parents Union, advises parents that if their child attends a school that has low state test scores, they should consider tutoring even if it seems like their child is doing well.

What questions should I ask to know if this might be a good tutoring program?

Haniford said the first step is to make sure that the goals of the tutoring program match your child’s needs.

After that, she said, parents should ask if their school has a diagnostic assessment of their child. Most schools do, she said. That information can guide tutors to a student’s needs and to build on their strengths.

Rodrigues likes to remind parents that they don’t need to be well-versed in education curriculum to start asking questions. She suggests asking if a program is using evidence-based practices, which are strategies that are based on research and have been proven to work, and if their reading programs are based on the science of reading, the research about how children’s brains learn to read.

“If you hear things like balanced literacy, that might be a problem,” she said. Balanced Literacy is an approach to teaching reading based on a debunked philosophy that reading is natural and requires encouragement. “Even if you just remember they should say ‘science of reading,’ you shouldn’t be intimidated.”

Some research shows that “high-dosage” tutoring programs may be most effective for students who need academic help. Usually that involves in-person instruction a few times a week.

Baker is leading an effort to get New York schools to make high-dosage tutoring available in public schools.

She said good communication is important. Her local district advertised a summer enrichment program, and her daughter attended. Baker knew her daughter was taken to get a library card and to the farmers market, and she heard about how much fun the kids had with water balloons. But Baker said she didn’t know the program was meant to be a form of tutoring.

“It can be fun, but you have to be checking in: How are we doing? Are we making progress?” Baker said.

She also suggests asking if tutors are trained and certified and finding out how many students are working with each tutor. Small groups are best, she said.

Haniford agrees about small groups. She said the most successful programs have no more than six students per tutor.

“They have a clear purpose and vision for what they want to accomplish, and it’s not a catch-all with too many students, because then students are not getting individualized attention,” Haniford said.

How do I know if my child is getting the most from their tutoring?

Baker suggests that parents make sure the tutoring program their school uses, or that they select from outside groups, does some testing that will measure improvement or where more help is needed.

The tutoring program she pays to help her daughter outside of school now gives parents regular reports about how things are progressing and how parents can help maintain the progress at home.

Jennifer Castillo, new principal of Boston P-8 in Aurora, said that the school has tutoring run by an outside group, but uses the school’s own teachers that are already familiar with their students.

“Having those relationships is very important,” Castillo said. “They know where those student’s gaps are, they know the reasons students are there. I think it’s important for the tutors and the student to be able to go to their parents and show that progress. After a month, I’m seeing an increase in scores or ability or confidence, whatever the issue. As a parent, hopefully you don’t have to ask in a strong partnership.”

Castillo said that if the program you’re considering has tutors who aren’t teachers in the school, parents might ask if there’s a way for the tutors and teachers to communicate with each other so that the tutoring help is aligned with what is happening in the classroom.

Should I wait to get my child into a tutoring program?

“There’s always that tug of should I wait a little longer? Maybe it was a rough year. Maybe it was a rough teacher,” Rodrigues said. “Things don’t get easier the more you wait. They get harder.”

This is especially true for younger children who need extra help to learn to read. Being able to read will help students learn more complex subjects later.

Haniford and Castillo believe parents should clarify why their child needs a break — is there a social or emotional issue, for example — and to look at various options to address the issue.

“Kids don’t need a break from learning,” Castillo said. Learning can happen all day, she added. “But we need to ensure they’re engaged and it’s not just sitting and listening. Taking the tutoring outside, making it more hands-on, or making it more applicable might help.”

Castillo also recommends that students understand the importance of tutoring and the benefits they should see themselves.

“The students have to want to be involved,” Castillo said. “Letting them have some ownership will help as well.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

NYC’s rising graduation rates bucked national trends. A little-known grading policy may hold clues.

2023-07-10T10:00:00+00:00

When high school teacher Rachel King welcomed a new cohort of 10th graders to her classroom in the fall of 2021, she made a discovery: a number of her students had never completed their coursework from the previous year.

At the time, the 36-year-old taught English at The Urban Assembly Institute of Math and Science for Young Women in downtown Brooklyn. It was her 13th year teaching and her third at the all-girls middle and high school, which serves predominantly Black and Latino children from low-income households.

When schools first shifted to remote learning in March 2020, it quickly became clear that students were struggling to log on to their classes and complete assignments. Thousands lacked access to devices, WiFi, or a quiet place to work. As worry spread that many could get left behind, education department officials announced new academic guidelines. Attendance and testing requirements would be waived for the remainder of the year. No student would fail a course.

If a high schooler was not on track to pass a course by the end of a marking period, they would receive a grade of “NX”— equivalent to a “course in progress”— on their transcripts rather than an “F.” The NX would serve as a placeholder, giving them additional time to make up missing assignments and demonstrate mastery of the course material. In the meantime, they would progress to the next semester or grade. Once they completed missing work, their NX would be retroactively converted into a passing grade.

The education department promised that this would provide greater flexibility and extend empathy to students who were struggling in the face of a major public health crisis.

Reflecting back on the policy, many educators worry it misleadingly inflated graduation rates and left some kids academically unprepared. Many teachers felt their hands were tied and that the system — which they were a part of — failed to support the most vulnerable students.

King initially felt torn about the policy. She wanted to give her students every possible chance to succeed. But she was nervous it would give students a reason not to turn in their work.

In June of 2020, almost 30% of all New York City high schoolers had received an NX in at least one class, according to previously unreported Department of Education data obtained by Chalkbeat and the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism. With the city’s problematic rollout of its remote summer school program — where a large swath of students never logged on at all — only 3.6% of NXs were converted into passing grades citywide.

According to King, though, her school had successfully supported students through the summer. So that first year most— if not all—of her students were able to clear their NXs.

But as the policy was extended through June of 2021, what was supposed to be a temporary fix eventually became a problematic fixture.

So in the fall of 2021, King and many other teachers greeted thousands of students who had yet to pass their previous year’s classes.

By the end of that school year, at least 95,000 high schoolers across the city – just over 33% – had received at least one NX, according to data received through a Freedom of Information Act request. Disproportionately these were students of color, students in temporary housing, and students with disabilities. About 40% of all Black and Latino high schoolers received at least one incomplete, a rate about twice as high as white students. And almost half of all students with disabilities did not pass at least one class.

Of roughly two dozen teachers across 17 schools in all five boroughs surveyed by Chalkbeat/Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, the majority said that the work required to convert NXs into passing credits was often minimal and low in rigor. Support from the education department never came, many educators said.

Ultimately, many of the city’s most vulnerable students were pushed through to the next grade level with few supports, no direct instruction, and little work completed, according to the teachers who were surveyed.

A number of teachers said the NX policy preserved the perception that students were doing okay academically. For instance, while graduation rates across the country generally stagnated between 2019 and 2021, New York City’s improved by six points. For students with disabilities, the rate jumped even more: just over nine points.

Yet, as New York City’s graduation rates climbed, so too did the rate of chronic absenteeism. In the 2020-21 school year, nearly 33% of students missed 10% or more school days. Typically, chronic absenteeism is a predictor of poor academic performance since missed school means missed learning time.

Nathaniel Styer, education department spokesperson, said that students still had to meet state graduation requirements. “The NX grades had nothing to do with graduation rates,” he said.

But changes to those requirements gave the NX policy more power.

Pre-pandemic, high school students in New York State had to pass four required exams and accumulate 22 units of academic credit to receive a Regents diploma. During the pandemic, these statewide requirements were loosened with the temporary lifting of Regents testing. Instead, students just needed a passing grade in the course that would have culminated in a Regents. With the NX policy, New York City made it easier to accumulate credits and graduate. While graduation rates across the state climbed, the city’s did so at a faster rate.

“They lowered an already low bar,” said David Bloomfield, an education professor at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

Bloomfield acknowledged that students needed flexibility during a time when families’ lives were in upheaval. But he said the city’s actions were tantamount to “turning its back on all of these students and saying ‘We’ve got too much to handle during this pandemic. We’re just going to put our heads down on the desk and wave our arms forward for you to just get through.’”

Teachers felt pressure to keep passing rates up

The NX, or “course in progress,” policy was not new, even though few teachers had ever heard of it. It was intended to be for a small population of students experiencing an acute crisis, such as a health emergency. The education department expanded its use to unprecedented levels during the pandemic.

Suddenly, many teachers were responsible not only for their new course loads, but also for all of the students who had not passed the previous year. Students, too, were responsible for their current course loads while also trying to make up past work.

Education department officials had pledged to provide schools with the resources necessary to support students through this unprecedented time, such as staffing and devices. Of the 25 teachers surveyed, only three were aware of support provided to their school regarding implementation of the NX policy, other than electronics.

Officials did not respond to questions regarding what support the education department had provided to schools. They did not answer questions about what was required of students to recover these credits.

The majority of teachers surveyed said their students only had to complete independent work, such as packets or brief online assignments, in order to pass. A few teachers said they did not know what work was assigned to their students who did not pass courses; once they assigned the NX they never received updates about their students’ progress.

Over half of the respondents reported that the students who received NXs did not receive direct instruction from a teacher or complete meaningful work in order to receive their credits.

It appears that once a student with an NX completed the work necessary to pass the course, any record of that NX was cleared from the transcript, making it difficult for future teachers or professors to know which students might need additional support.

Some teachers described tacit pressure from school administrators to keep their passing rates up, despite the lack of completed work. One Brooklyn science teacher alleged that his principal explicitly told staff to pass all middle schoolers outright, discouraging them from giving out NXs in the first place, even if the students had never attended class.

A number of teachers also reported that, while they did not like the policy outcomes, they were not sure what other options existed for the city. One administrator said that the city provided him with policy updates, superintendent check-ins, and support with use of resources that students and teachers could use to make up work. His school relied largely on an online learning platform to recover credits.

A Staten Island history teacher reported that her department was asked to create a packet of work for all high school students with NXs. Once these packets were distributed, she never saw them again. Students were asked, instead, to give them to the school administrators. They then graded the students’ work, rather than returning it to the teachers. Administrators either instructed teachers to change the NXs to a passing grade or went into grade books and did so themselves.

Many teachers acknowledged lowering their own expectations, feeling like they had no other choice given the circumstances. More than 8,700 New York City children lost a parent or caregiver to the coronavirus, according to the COVID Collective.

A high school history teacher in Queens said that when she gave her students NX grades they returned to her for an additional class the next year. But the coursework this time, she said, was “a joke.” Because the course asked for no student-teacher engagement, she said she never even met some of her students.

“They didn’t come to class. I could bump into them on the street. Unless you told me their name I wouldn’t know them,” she said.

Despite her discomfort with the policy, she said it did work for some students who really struggled. The “course in progress” work allowed the students to move on and gave them a chance to finish high school, even if the work was not comparable to a real course.

Will Ehrenfeld, a high school history teacher at P-Tech, in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, serving predominantly students from low-income backgrounds, said that by the spring of 2021, in a class of 30, only two or three students typically attended live Zoom sessions.

More than a quarter of his students received an NX, he said. Ehrenfeld put a lot of pressure on himself to help kids pass to the next grade level. He wanted them to get the chance to move forward with their lives.

“I don’t want to hold kids back,” Ehrenfeld said, “but I do think it’s worth learning history and learning how to write… A lot of our kids went off to college and really struggled.”

P-Tech teacher Will Ehrenfeld (left) talks with Devin Ballesteros (right), a student at the Brooklyn high school.

Even with the flexibility of the NX policy, more than 1 in 5 high school students did not reconcile their NXs from June 2021 to passing marks.

When asked about what happened to these 61,000 students who failed to convert their NX into a passing grade, an education department spokesperson said, “They might have just taken the ‘F’ and moved forward.” (Not all courses are required for graduation.)

King, the teacher at the Institute of Math and Science, became increasingly frustrated as the year wore on, and she watched the requirements for her students continue to plummet. The city’s expectations fell first, then her school’s, and finally her own, she said.

King said at one point she was told by her school’s administration to use students’ grades on a single assignment as their grade for the entire year. Students quickly caught on. “They knew if they just turned something in, they would pass.” King had six students who never showed up and never completed make-up work. They still passed, she said.

For the first time in her 13-year career, she began toying with the idea of leaving. “I can say this isn’t good for kids one thousand times and nobody is going to care,” she said.

Some students benefited from grading policy, others struggled

Kenneth Johnson, a high school senior at P-Tech, was a strong student before schools were shuttered in the spring of 2020.

He successfully balanced his course load and his love for track and football. His favorite class was math. After the transition to remote learning, he struggled to keep up. He finished out the year with multiple NXs.

Kenneth Johnson.

In the fall of 2020, Johnson moved to New Jersey to live with his father and play football at the local high school. Because the NX policy did not exist there, he was unable to recover his missing credits. After moving back, he returned to P-Tech. “That’s where the NX portion came in,” he said. “It really helped me to get back on track.”

He said the work he completed was not equivalent to an entire year’s worth of course material, but it was still challenging. “You had to be on point with it, still like a regular class,” he said. “It was a cool concept. Allowing the kids who didn’t take the remote [learning] as seriously as they should have to redeem themself.”

Earlier this year, Johnson enlisted in the Army. Because of test scores, he qualified for a math-based job, and was able to move up a rank.

For other students, though, it was more detrimental.

TJ Kor had a number of NXs by fall of 2020 when he was a sophomore at William Cullen Bryant High School in Queens. While the make-up work was not rigorous, it required his attention on the weekends and after school. He became overwhelmed.

Kor was so behind from all of the missed instruction, he would benefit from repeating the entire grade, his mother argued. The school disagreed, which frustrated his mother, Helen Kor. She wondered, does an NX really satisfy the needs of students? The school told her that when students are forced to repeat grades they suffer, she said. Some studies support that idea.

Kor’s mother eventually transferred him to an independent school for his junior year. “He recognizes he’s not alone. There’s lots of people who are trying to make up the credits they lost during the pandemic.”

For one teacher, the final straw

From the start, the 2021-22 school year was atypical for King. One of her normal teaching duties had been replaced with a course exclusively for students who had received an NX the previous spring. She was on the books as their teacher of record, but she had never met a number of them. “I didn’t know what they looked like, what they sounded like, had not seen any work from them. Nothing. The NXs were truly the ones who were like, I forgot this person was on my roll.”

King struggled to get her students to show up for the first period make-up course. She created assignments, such as paragraphs analyzing TedTalks, that students could do independently. She sent them end-of-unit projects from the year before and asked them to at least complete those. Some did, others did not. As time went on, the tacit pressure to pass them mounted.

Her regular classes felt more challenging too. “I had 10th graders who could not, in an entire hour, produce four to six sentences.”

Then, one morning while biking to school, King was hit by a car. For the many days she could not be in school because of her injuries, another teacher covered her NX course. Her students continued to miss the class. As time went on, she felt that if she did not pass them, the next teacher would. The entire operation was built to fail, she said.

By winter break, King thought, “I don’t know how much longer I can put up with this.” And that, she said, was when she cleared her NXs and passed all of her students. The move felt unethical, but she was defeated and unsure of what other option she had.

Looking back, King felt empathy for the decision makers, for the city, for those who were making policy choices throughout the pandemic. She recognized what a difficult time this was, filled with confusion and uncertainty. But, it also exposed the deeper systemic fissures that had gone unchecked for so many years. For her, it was the final straw.

By March 2022, she had quit.

Amanda Geduld reported this story as a Stabile Investigative Fellow while at Columbia’s Journalism School. She was previously an English teacher in New York City.

Detroit’s $94 million ‘right to read’ lawsuit settlement is finally coming through for DPSCD

2023-07-07T19:37:10+00:00

It has been more than three years since Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer promised the Detroit school district $94.4 million to settle a 2016 lawsuit alleging that the state denied the city’s schoolchildren a basic education by failing to teach them to read.

Now that money is finally on its way to Detroit.

The funds were included in the $21.5 billion K-12 school aid budget that the Democratic-controlled Legislature passed last month and Whitmer is expected to sign.

Under the settlement terms, negotiated in 2020, the money will go toward increasing reading instruction and support for students in the Detroit Public Schools Community District to address longstanding challenges with literacy. DPSCD officials have already shared proposals to use the money to hire academic interventionists to provide one-on-one support to students struggling with reading.

“Every child in Michigan deserves access to a quality public education regardless of their ZIP code,” Stacey LaRouche, press secretary for Whitmer, said in a statement. “Governor Whitmer has worked to reverse decades of disinvestment in our state’s K-12 schools by securing more funding in every aspect of a child’s education to ensure that they have what they need to be successful.

Here’s a look at how the legal case arose, what the settlement provides, and how the district is preparing to spend the money.

Settlement grew out of ‘right to read’ lawsuit

The federal case settled in 2020 is called Gary B. v. Whitmer, but it dates back to the period when the Detroit school district was under state oversight during Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration, and was originally filed as Gary B. v. Snyder.

The plaintiffs were seven Detroit public school students who alleged that they were denied the opportunity to have a quality education because of poor building conditions, a shortage of textbooks and other learning materials, and poorly qualified teachers.

In the 136-page lawsuit, students describe learning in classes of 50 or more children, inadequate education for English language learners, and rodents and cockroaches in classrooms.

The lawsuit specifically called out Michigan’s deployment of emergency managers to control the city’s public schools between 2009 and 2016. Those managers created conditions so awful, the plaintiffs alleged, that students were denied what they claimed was their constitutional right to a basic reading education.

Reading scores among Detroit students have ranked among the lowest in the nation over the past decade and a half. In fourth- and eighth-grade reading, the Detroit district’s test scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress have ranked near the bottom statewide and nationwide.

The lawsuit sought to establish a constitutional right to literacy for all students, but the plaintiffs agreed to a settlement in 2020 and dropped their bid to establish that right. The settlement awarded some money to each of the plaintiffs and to the district, and required the governor to propose legislation to provide more money to the district to support literacy efforts. The legislation failed to clear the Republican-led Legislature in 2021 and 2022, but it passed this year under Democratic leadership.

The legislation requires the district to spend the $94.4 million by Sept. 30, 2027.

The settlement money is small but significant

Community members, school officials, and education experts welcomed the settlement, though some argued that the $94.4 million earmarked for Detroit’s literacy initiatives is a small sum in relation to the needs that the lawsuit cited, which spanned everything from textbooks to school buildings. A 2018 audit estimated that the district’s building repair needs alone would grow to $1.2 billion by 2023.

But the district has been able to tap its share of federal COVID relief aid to address building needs and fund a $700 million facility plan. And the settlement money will help the district free up money in its general fund for other priorities, such as retaining contracted nurses, offering one-time staff bonuses to help reduce teacher turnover, and sustaining summer school and after-school programming that had been funded by COVID relief aid.

“More than $94.4 million is needed to get things back where they belong, but it is a monumental victory for a struggle that certainly did not start with this lawsuit,” said Mark Rosenbaum, the lead attorney for the right-to-read lawsuit.

Molly Sweeney, director of organizing for Detroit education advocacy group 482Forward, applauded the Legislature’s approval of the funding, saying that “this is hard-earned money for the community.”

482Forward was among the community groups that advocated for the settlement agreement.

“This is community money, and this should have community input,” Sweeney said. “We should be able to have a say in how it’s spent.”

Two task forces will address Detroit education challenges

In addition to providing money for the district — an initial $2.7 million and the $94.4 million from the legislation — the settlement requires the Michigan Department of Education to provide guidance to schools on the best practices for K-12 literacy education.

The settlement also promised the creation of two task forces to address literacy and educational challenges in Detroit, the Detroit Literacy Equity Task Force and the Detroit Education Policy Committee.

The literacy equity task force is charged with conducting annual evaluations of Detroit literacy and providing state-level policy recommendations to the governor. It will convene a series of town hall meetings over the next year and provide recommendations to the DPSCD school board on how the funds should be used.

The educational policy committee will make recommendations to the governor about Detroit’s education system. Its work will be overseen by the Community Education Commission, a nonprofit created by Mayor Mike Duggan in 2018 to address barriers to accessing quality schools in Detroit.

The district has early plans for how to use the money

Anticipating lawmakers’ approval of the settlement funding, DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti has already outlined some early strategies on how the district plans to spend the money.

“We are awaiting the recommendations from the Literacy Task Force on how to use the funds,” Vitti said in an email. “We will certainly consider their recommendations but are not required to abide by them.”

Among the district’s top priorities: hiring more academic interventionists, increasing literacy support for high school students, and expanding teacher training on how to help students who are several grades below reading level.

The settlement requires that the district spend its money on programs that follow evidence-based literacy strategies. But it allows for spending on a range of initiatives that could support student learning, such as reducing class sizes for K-3 students, upgrading school facilities, and providing students with more reading materials.

Under Vitti, DPSCD has prioritized staff training on Orton-Gillingham, a multisensory teaching method typically used for students with dyslexia or other reading challenges, as well as hiring academic interventionists to work one-on-one or in small groups with students struggling to read and with English language learners.

Even after the settlement money is spent, Vitti said, the district would continue to find different funding sources to fund academic interventionists, a position he considers “a centerpiece of our literacy support.”

Literacy task force has begun working

The settlement requires 15 members to be assigned to the Detroit Literacy Equity Task Force:

Two DPSCD representatives selected by the superintendent and approved by the board
Two teachers selected by the Detroit Federation of Teachers
One paraprofessional selected by the Detroit Federation of Paraprofessionals
Three DPSCD students
Three DPSCD parents or caregivers
Two Detroit community members
Two literacy experts selected by the task force’s DFT, DFP and DPSCD members

Lakia Wilson-Lumpkins, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers and co-chair of the task force, says the group began meeting privately as early as 2022 for exploratory discussions about what to do with the money.

“In our initial meetings, we discussed possibilities in terms of supplemental resources, technologies, adaptive equipment, books,” Wilson-Lumpkins said. “Ninety-four million dollars seems like a lot of money, but it is not. We definitely want to improve facilities, improve materials, improve training, and once you do all those things for 50,000 students I think $94 million will be well spent.”

The task force is required to host six public meetings before April 30, 2024, to get community input on how the money should be spent. Then by June 30, the group will need to submit recommendations to the DPSCD school board.

The recommendations “are not mandatory, but nobody expects a tug of war on this,” said Rosenbaum. “The school board and Superintendent Vitti have been responsive to the community.”

In approving the settlement, Michigan Senate lawmakers included a clause that requires the district to explain how it intends to use community input to guide its spending.

DPSCD is required to host at least one community meeting to discuss its spending plan, Vitti said, and district officials will introduce the plan to the school board’s academic and finance committees before it comes up for a full board vote.

But he added that the district would like to move fast to allocate the money once it’s released to DPSCD.

“The School Board would likely approve use of the literacy lawsuit funding by the first (2023-24) budget amendment, which takes place after the fall count period” in October, Vitti said.

“We want to start using the funds as soon as possible, so we are eager to consider the recommendations from the Task Force.”

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana families will no longer be charged textbooks fees. Here’s what to expect.

2023-07-05T11:00:00+00:00

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For years, a small district of 1,100 students just east of Indianapolis aimed to ditch the fees that had created barriers for students and burdens for their families.

But officials at Charles A. Beard Memorial schools knew if they took on the costs, they’d have to sustain them long term, said Superintendent Jediah Behny. So they started small — first eliminating entrance fees for students to school sports events — before eventually dropping the fees for textbooks and materials in 2020.

“We wanted to eliminate the likelihood that some kids were getting something that others weren’t,” Behny said.

Beginning this school year, after a law passed in the 2023 legislative session, all Indiana schools will be required to follow the district’s example and stop charging families for curricular materials, including textbooks, iPads, and Chromebooks.

The change, championed by Gov. Eric Holcomb, is meant to lighten the load on Hoosier families, who reported paying hundreds of dollars every year for their students’ course materials. Indiana had been among the last handful of states that still allowed schools to charge these fees.

The law provides $160 million for curricular materials, but a per-student amount has yet to be determined, Indiana Department of Education officials said. The department will calculate this number by dividing the total amount that all schools report for curriculum costs by how many students are enrolled at each public school, and how many qualify based on socioeconomic status at each private school.

Education advocates agree the change benefits families, but say the state must support schools with the financial burden.

With a new school year rapidly approaching, they say more guidance is needed on how much schools will receive to make purchasing decisions and also on what counts as curricular materials under the new law, which broadly includes books, computer software, digital content, and hardware that will be consumed by a student over the course of a year.

Only time will tell if the total allocation is sufficient, said Denny Costerison of the Indiana Association of School Business Officials. It’ll be up to the General Assembly to increase the funding if necessary, which likely won’t happen until the next biennial budget session in 2025.

Schools will receive funding as a lump sum in December, according to an FAQ issued by the department.

“Textbooks don’t get cheaper, they get more expensive,” said Terry Spradlin of the Indiana School Boards Association. He noted that when Indiana first considered dropping textbook fees in the 1990s, the cost estimate was around $100 million.

The state already covers the cost of textbooks for students who qualify for free and reduced priced meals at a cost of around $39 million per year.

For all students, a per-pupil figure of about $162 would likely cover most districts’ elementary and middle school costs, said Spradlin, but fall far short of the costs for high school courses. Spradlin said that example amount came from an IDOE memo, but the department didn’t confirm.

Any excess from the lower grades could be used to pay for secondary school courses, but schools may also need to turn to their education fund dollars to cover shortages, he said. Federal emergency dollars are also an option, albeit one that expires in September 2024.

It’s important to remember that general funds must also cover the bulk of schools’ operating and personnel costs, said Keith Gambill of the Indiana State Teachers Association.

“You need to be able to provide the funding they need to operate and make sure those programs are fully realized without jeopardizing important items, which includes salaries,” Gambill said. “That’s where things can get tricky, especially for schools on a leaner budget.”

According to the FAQ, curricular materials include materials in advanced placement, dual credit, and career technical education courses, but not dual enrollment courses. Schools are allowed to charge families for lost or damaged items, and can offer insurance for technology.

Some additional guidance might be needed for items like parking passes and student identification cards, said Spradlin, as well as for co-curricular programs. Performing arts, for example, can include a variety of costs for instruments and their upkeep, as well as attire and transportation to school events.

If the course is required, or if students receive a grade for it, then it’s likely considered a course that schools can’t charge for, said Costerison. The education department’s FAQ directs schools to consult with their legal counsel for further questions about what counts as curricular material.

Charles A. Beard Memorial schools will be able to offer fee-free music programs to students this year after building a stock of instruments over the last several years, said Behny, the superintendent.

He said the new law will provide the final nudge for the district to drop the last of its fees for its cooperative programs, but added that the new funding alone may not be enough for districts just starting to eliminate fees.

Covering textbook fees cost his district around $87,000 in the first year of the program. This year, they spent around $110,000 to cover fees for 1,100 students, money saved through attrition and watching supply costs.

“It was much easier to do than I thought it would be,” he said.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

New Brooklyn high school aims to create social justice-focused design professionals

2023-06-30T18:10:57+00:00

Design Works High School, opening this fall in downtown Brooklyn, has a mission: to create socially conscious design professionals.

Students at the new social justice-oriented school will spend their freshman year studying how housing and environmental issues affect their community. They will also learn about the politics of poverty and inequality. Then they will choose among three specialties: housing equity, tech equity, and design equity.

“When CUNY is holding a big talk about water, and how safe water is an equity issue, we want our young people to not just be invited to come to see the talk, but to be able to go toe-to-toe with those experts,” said Corinth Hunter, who has served as project coordinator for the new school and hopes to lead it as principal.

Hunter said having students focus on the language and literature of topics, such as one’s privilege and position, is imperative, particularly in their first year. She wants students to understand logically what these terms mean before they begin offering solutions.

The school’s three tracks could lead students to careers in urban planning, software engineering, and interior design.

Bank Street College of Education, Pratt Institute, and New York City’s education department are opening the doors this fall to Design Works High School, or DWHS. Birthed from the 2019 Imagine NYC Schools competition, which had over 200 entries, the new school originally planned on having a freshmen class of 80. However, after a growing waitlist of 200 students and counting, it has bumped the number to 90.

Bank Street President Shael Polakow-Suransky said one of the stronger selling points for prospective parents and students has been the school’s direct pathway to a promising design career. Hunter said another selling point has been the degree of intimacy she and others have offered incoming students before the new school year even begins.

As part of the participatory learning practice for Design Works High School, students and teachers share ideas on a wall at Pratt Institute.

An outreach plan rooted in community participation

DWHS is building its intimate setting through a community-centered tactic called participatory practice. Essentially, students and community members will work together to decide the problem and solutions plaguing their everyday lives instead of students discussing problems and solutions by themselves.

Pratt Institute President Frances Bronet said, “We are not NYU, we are not Columbia. We are a small school of 5,000 students, but we are committed to participatory practice, and that’s what sets us apart.”

According to its website, participatory research experts at TakeRoot Justice say that “local groups are the experts on what their communities need to thrive,” while NYU Steinhardt has a report saying participatory practice benefits students by teaching them how to have a voice and weigh solutions that impact their community.

In that spirit, Hunter, her team, and Impacct Brooklyn, a nonprofit focusing on housing equity support for Brooklyners, went to community events, block parties, and high school fairs in District 13, which includes some of Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Navy Yard, and Bedford Stuyvesant. From October to December, they hit the pavement to get the word out about DWHS.

Hunter started a Mailchimp newsletter, and while visiting community events, she would encourage people she met along the way to sign up. While the school wasn’t yet up and running, Hunter used the newsletter as a tool to collect data from interested parents and students by adding surveys inquiring about preferred start times and what topics students enjoyed learning the most. This outreach strategy helped Hunter build relationships with students and parents well before the school’s opening.

“There’s an attraction to a small school that listens,” she said.

An educator and students brainstorm together during a student design workshop at Pratt Institute.

After gathering information about students and teachers through her Mailchimp efforts, Hunter and her staff have been contacting families that have accepted a spot at DWHS who would qualify for free and reduced price lunch and after-school programs to inform them of other resources, and then supported families through those applications. Some of these programs include Pratt’s Design Initiative for Community Empowerment and its Young Scholars program.

DICE focuses on creative thinking and problem-solving through studio classes in design. Pratt’s Young Scholars offers mentorship and college readiness guidance over a three-year period.

Social justice meets design curriculum through local partnerships

Given the school’s relationship this year with Pratt Institute, a top design college, school officials believe that the three career tracks will offer a concrete pathway to higher education opportunities.

The school’s day-to-day schedule will be similar to a regular public school day, with some differences. Three times a week, students will have “design time” where their core classes will be 75 minutes instead of 45 minutes. Hunter says the goal is to allow students to create instead of just discussing how to solve problems.

To make sure no student falls behind academically, teachers will hold office hours at the end of each day to address students who might need extra time on a specific topic.

Because of its mission to center social justice, Hunter said the school also is committed to providing mental health support to students who could develop burnout. Hunter acknowledges that many students have struggled since the COVID-19 pandemic and that social justice work can be emotionally difficult work.

Students’ daily advisory time will be focused on addressing potential burnout, she said. Hunter has already been developing a partnership with counseling in schools and organizations running community circles. The school is also laying the groundwork for partnerships with arts-related groups such as the Brooklyn Academy of Music, BRIC Arts Media, and the Center for Urban Pedagogy.

Hunter hopes that prioritizing both social equity and design collectively will encourage students to experience more pride in where they come from and feel more confident in providing solutions to problems they could be experiencing themselves.

“There are schools out there that can create the best coder, the best designer, but if they don’t have that social justice lens, those students are just furthering the status quo,” she said.

Eliana Perozo is a reporting intern at Chalkbeat New York. You can reach her at eperozo@chalkbeat.org.

The ‘Tennessee 3’ created a historic teachable moment. Will schools be allowed to teach it?

2023-06-16T19:34:07+00:00

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When Wyatt Bassow and Ava Buxton missed classes one morning this spring to see democracy in action in Tennessee, they witnessed history that they acknowledged probably wouldn’t be fully taught at their high school less than a mile away.

Justin Pearson, one of two young Democratic lawmakers who were dramatically expelled from office just a week earlier by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, was taking his oath of office again that day outside the state Capitol in Nashville after being voted back in by officials in Shelby County.

A few days earlier, Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville had been reinstated after a similar vote by his city’s council.

Both men had been ousted from the legislature for staging a protest on the House floor urging gun reforms after a mass school shooting in Nashville. The votes temporarily robbed some 140,000 Tennesseans in the state’s two largest cities of their representation.

“What I’ve learned these last few weeks is that democracy is incredibly fragile,” said Bassow, a senior at Nashville’s Hume-Fogg High School, as he cheered Pearson’s reinstatement in the shadow of the Capitol building.

“But because of the power of the people,” he added, “we were able to fix this.”

Less certain, the students said, is whether the controversial ouster of the two young Black Democrats by the House’s all-white GOP supermajority would be fully discussed at their school, or any public Tennessee school, as part of a course in U.S. government, civics, history, contemporary issues, or social studies.

While Republican leaders maintain the ouster was not racially motivated, the racial optics were undeniable, as was the supermajority’s suppression of legislative voices with whom they disagreed.

Cameron Sexton, a Republican from Crossville, is the speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives.

Meanwhile, Tennessee is at the front of a conservative-driven wave of censorship about what can and cannot be taught in K-12 schools.

A 2021 state law restricts classroom discussions about systemic racism, white privilege, and the ongoing legacy of slavery. Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who signed the law, has championed civics education that emphasizes American exceptionalism and plays down the origins of present-day U.S. injustices.

School libraries are under scrutiny too, especially for materials that have to do with race and gender. A 2022 law gives the state unprecedented authority to overrule local school boards and remove certain materials from libraries statewide. And a 2023 law puts book distributors and publishers at risk of criminal prosecution if materials they provide to Tennessee schools are deemed obscene.

“We definitely have noticed that a silencing is happening in our schools.” —Ava Buxton, student

“We definitely have noticed that a silencing is happening in our schools,” said Buxton, also a senior at Hume-Fogg, when asked whether the expulsions of Jones and Pearson had been discussed in her classes.

“Thankfully, our teachers are wonderful and intelligent educators who do their best to give students the space we need to have important conversations,” she continued. “But I think these conversations would go much deeper if our teachers didn’t have the fear of these new laws hanging over them.”

The rise, fall, and rise of the Tennessee Three

The expulsions of the two Black lawmakers came during the dramatic last weeks of a tumultuous legislative session gripped by large citizen protests over Tennessee’s lax gun laws, after an armed intruder killed three children and three adults at The Covenant School in Nashville on March 27.

Frustrated that House Speaker Cameron Sexton was not allowing them to voice the concerns of demonstrators during debates, Pearson, Jones, and Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville took their protest to the House floor, where Jones and Pearson alternately used a bullhorn to shout “Gun control now!” and “Power to the people!”

In the process, the trio broke the chamber’s rules of decorum. GOP-sponsored ouster resolutions accused the so-called Tennessee Three of “knowingly and intentionally bringing disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives.”

(From left) Reps. Justin Jones of Nashville, Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, and Justin Pearson of Memphis speak at a press conference on April 4, 2023, about GOP-sponsored resolutions to kick the three Democrats out of office.

Ultimately, Republican representatives voted overwhelmingly to kick out the two young Black men, while Johnson, who is older and white and was less vocal during the protest, kept her seat by a single vote.

The last time the House had expelled multiple members was in 1866, when six representatives were thrown out for conspiring to deprive the chamber of a quorum during a special session to ratify the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Two others have been expelled in more recent times, one for soliciting a bribe, and the other for sexual misconduct.

By contrast, the ousters of Jones and Pearson over their peaceful protest of gun violence — now the No. 1 killer of children and teens in America — seemed heavy-handed to their supporters. The House could have chosen simply to censure them for breaking House rules of decorum instead of kicking them out altogether.

In a subsequent four-page rebuke, the nation’s professional organization for social studies teachers denounced Tennessee’s House as attacking foundational principles of democratic and republican norms. Intentionally or not, the state was sending Tennessee students a message that the rights to free speech, peaceful protest, and holding their elected officials accountable are “reserved for those who have a specific view or perspective,” the National Council for the Social Studies wrote.

“Just as disturbing,” the group continued, “this action sends a message to the larger community that civil discourse and active citizenship will result in punishment rather than in finding consensus in ways that uphold the principles of democracy and the functioning of our republic … (which) will have a long-term impact on our students’ faith in the democratic process and our constitutional principles.”

Tennessee’s living history drama was filled with teachable moments

Political science and social studies experts say it’s hard to narrow down the events in Tennessee this spring to one teachable moment.

Tens of thousands of citizens descending on the Capitol to protest gun violence after a school shooting and the subsequent expulsions and reinstatements of Jones and Pearson are rich runways for academic inquiry. Among the issues: freedom of speech, legislative rules of decorum, the enduring influence of racism on public policy, and — as Bassow, the Nashville student, articulated — the fragility of democracy.

Students protest outside the Tennessee State Capitol on April 3, 2023, during a demonstration against gun violence and the state’s lax gun laws after a deadly school shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville.

John Geer, a political science professor who helped to launch the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy, heartily agrees with Bassow.

“The teachable moment is that democracy fundamentally rests on genuine competition among political parties,” said Geer. “But because of supermajorities in our state legislatures, the minority party has no real influence and is left to scream or complain. They’re not part of the governing process. There’s no give and take, no compromise. Meanwhile, the majority party has so much power that they don’t need to negotiate, and that leads to excesses.”

It didn’t take long for resources to become available to help teachers broach the controversies in Tennessee as well as in Montana, where that state’s House speaker silenced Democratic Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a transgender lawmaker who refused to apologize for telling colleagues they would have “blood” on their hands if they supported a ban on gender-affirming care for youths.

Facing History and Ourselves, a nonprofit group that creates resources about current events to spawn thoughtful classroom discussions, zeroed in on two issues in its lessons: how to discuss politics in non-polarizing ways and the implications of using rules of decorum to censure legislators.

“What norms should guide our conversations about political issues?” asks the group’s lessons designed for middle and high school students.

“How could rules around speech be used to silence people?”

Parameters have narrowed on what teachers can teach

The availability of resources doesn’t mean such questions are being regularly asked in Tennessee classrooms, however.

The state’s public school teachers don’t have much wiggle room on what they’re allowed to teach. They’re also under increased scrutiny over the resources they can use.

“Tennessee civics is really nowhere in the standards. If something isn’t in the standards, it’s probably not going to be taught.” —Bill Carey, Tennessee History for Kids

Teachers are guided by hundreds of state-approved academic standards that set learning goals by subject and grade, and that dictate decisions around curriculum and testing. And social studies teachers already are hard-pressed to cover all of the standards for their subjects during a single school year. Even if they do, only a few courses offered in grades five, eight, and 12 include standards that might lend themselves to discussions about the Tennessee Three.

“Tennessee civics is really nowhere in the standards,” said Bill Carey, who sells resources for educators through his nonprofit Tennessee History for Kids. “And if something isn’t in the standards, it’s probably not going to be taught.”

Social studies lessons, in particular, are monitored closely by parents and activists.

In 2015, some complained that some Tennessee teachers were “indoctrinating” students into Islam in their seventh-grade world history classes, prompting state officials to order an early review of those standards.

More recently, amid a conservative backlash to anti-racism protests after a white policeman killed Black American George Floyd in Minneapolis (an incident that prompted a federal investigation into systemic racism on the police force), Tennessee was among the first states to enact a law intended to restrict K-12 classroom discussions about race, racism, and gender.

Specifically, the 2021 law prohibits teachers from discussing 14 concepts that the state has deemed divisive, including that the United States is fundamentally or irredeemably sexist or racist, or that an individual is inherently privileged, racist, sexist, or oppressive because of their race or gender.

Educators have complained that the law and the state’s rules for enforcing the statute aren’t clear about exactly what teachings cross the line. But teachers found in violation could have their licenses suspended or revoked, while their school districts could face financial penalties.

“To be honest, I just didn’t mention this in class. I am just overly cautious with what I cover in class for now.” —Tennessee social studies teacher

The potential fallout has influenced small but pivotal decisions that educators make every day in Tennessee and in other states that have passed similar laws targeting so-called critical race theory: how to answer a student’s question, which articles to read as a class, how to prepare for a lesson, which examples to use.

That includes whether to discuss the Tennessee legislature’s vote to expel Jones and Pearson, which made national headlines.

“To be honest, I just didn’t mention this in class,” said one Tennessee social studies teacher who asked not to be identified, for fear of retribution. “I am just overly cautious with what I cover in class for now.”

Students ‘come up with all these great questions’

Mark Finchum, executive director of the Tennessee Council for the Social Studies, says the law — and a related climate of fear — has had a chilling effect on teachers who might normally contemplate lessons about the Tennessee Three, or perhaps about the insurrection at the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. But it also depends on the teacher.

“If you’re a new teacher who is teaching in an area of the state where you feel insecure, you may not want to go there,” Finchum said. “But if you’re an experienced teacher and feel strongly about these events and how your students can learn from them, you may go ahead.”

Erika Sugarmon falls in the latter category.

One Friday at White Station High School in Memphis, students showed up to Sugarmon’s weekly current events discussion with lots of questions about the expulsion. The day before the legislative vote, many White Station students had walked out of school to show support for gun reforms called for by the Tennessee Three.

“The kids come up with all these great questions. Sometimes there’s not an answer,” said Sugarmon, a veteran educator who teaches courses in U.S. government.

Protesters listen from the gallery of the House of Representatives at the Tennessee State Capitol on April 3, 2023, while demanding gun reform and justice for The Tennessee Three.

But it’s important to give students a safe and constructive space to discuss hard things, added Sugarmon, who is also an elected official on the Shelby County Commission, where she cast a vote to reinstate Pearson to his seat.

One student in her class brought up racism, she said, prompting a conversation about why Tennessee lawmakers have sought to ban some books and squelch classroom discussions about racism.

“Students have been very vocal about not just what happened with Pearson, but with state laws in general,” said Sugarmon.

She encourages them to explore source documents to formulate their own options.

Evidence-based discussions are the way that teachers should take up politically charged topics with their students, Vanderbilt’s Geer said.

“The evidence should be your guidepost,” he said, “while avoiding injecting ideology into the classroom.”

“Yes, facts need to be interpreted,” Geer added. “But if we can agree on a basic set of evidence, we can have a conversation. And that’s an important part of democracy.”

Maya Logan, a rising senior in Memphis at Germantown High School, talked about the lawmakers’ expulsions with her friends, but didn’t discuss the event as part of her 11th-grade American history class. Just the same, the deadly shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School, which prompted the protest and led to the expulsions, was a big deal to her. And as a young Black person, she related to Pearson and Jones, who are among the youngest members of the House.

Logan hopes this year’s events at the state Capitol will resurface as discussion topics during her senior year when she takes a U.S. government class. She has important questions. And she’s looking for answers.

“These are people,” she explained, “that are setting things up for us for our futures.”

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Laura Testino is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Contact her at ltestino@chalkbeat.org.

NYC’s literacy mandate: Why one reading program is gaining the most traction

2023-05-31T10:00:00+00:00

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Under NYC’s aggressive literacy push announced earlier this month, officials are mandating all elementary schools use one of three reading curriculums.

One is proving to be far more popular than the others.

Thirteen of 15 local superintendents charged with selecting their districts’ reading curriculum in this first phase of the rollout picked Into Reading, a program published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

The education department vetted all three of the mandated reading programs, including Wit & Wisdom and EL Education, officials said. And all three received high marks from the independent curriculum reviewer EdReports.

So why is Into Reading far and away the most popular option among superintendents?

Curriculum experts and department insiders pointed to a series of interlocking factors that may have helped Into Reading elbow out the competition. The program is widely perceived as easier for teachers to implement, especially with little time remaining before deploying it in September. Plus, Into Reading has a Spanish version, which may appeal to superintendents who oversee many dual-language and bilingual programs.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt may have also benefited from a savvy marketing strategy, current and former department employees said. When the pandemic forced school buildings to shutter in March 2020, the company quickly made a slew of free digital materials available to the city’s public schools, including Into Reading and its Spanish counterpart.

“It was a huge help. We were able to make sure that schools had the digital resources they needed during remote learning and hybrid learning,” said a current education department employee familiar with the city’s literacy efforts who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Within two years, the education department had added Into Reading to its approved list of curriculum offerings. That meant if principals choose Into Reading, the cost was subsidized, though they were still free to use their own budgets to purchase other curriculums.

“Houghton Mifflin made a strategic decision during the pandemic and they hoped it would pay off,” the official said. “And it did.”

EL Education, one of the other programs included in the new mandate, was also on the approved list at the time. All three curriculums covered by the new curriculum mandate, including Wit & Wisdom, will be similarly subsidized.

A spokesperson for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt downplayed its decision to make materials free as a key driver of superintendents’ decisions to mandate their product. “There were already hundreds of schools across the city using HMH reading resources,” Bianca Olson, a company spokesperson, wrote in an email. “These partners have seen strong results and they want to continue that momentum in support of student achievement.”

A city education department spokesperson noted that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt was one of more than a dozen vendors that provided free digital resources during the pandemic. But officials have generally not collected or published comprehensive curriculum data over time, making it difficult to ascertain the full impact of the company’s strategy.

The education department also declined to say how much they are projected to spend on Houghton Mifflin Harcourt materials and training now that Into Reading is being widely mandated, saying they are still working on creating cost estimates.

Focus turns to ‘science of reading’

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s move to make its materials free came at an opportune moment. Before the pandemic struck, many schools were already in the process of reconsidering their reading curriculum choices, multiple curriculum experts said, pressured in part by a small army of literacy coaches dispatched to schools.

A growing movement backed by years of research, known as the “science of reading,” was persuading more school leaders to back away from “balanced literacy” — an approach that sought to foster a love of literature by allowing students ample time to independently read books of their choosing. It also sometimes included dubious methods, such as encouraging students to use pictures to guess at a word’s meaning instead of focusing on the letters and sounds themselves.

“Every school that I was in was in the midst of changing,” said Heidi Donohue, an early literacy expert at Teaching Matters, an organization that works with city schools to improve reading and math instruction. “They were really talking about, ‘Is the curriculum high-quality? Is it meeting the needs of our kids?’”

More recently, schools Chancellor David Banks has declared that balanced literacy is not an effective approach, often singling out a curriculum developed by Lucy Calkins at Columbia University’s Teachers College — one of the most popular reading curriculums in the city’s public schools. (Heinemann, the publisher of Calkins’ curriculum, is also a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.)

NYC Chancellor David Banks stands at a podium, with Mayor Eric Adams standing off to the left at Tweed Courthouse on June 27, 2022.

Some observers said they were not surprised that Into Reading has become a popular choice in New York City, since it is also widely used elsewhere. An Education Week survey found that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s reading offerings are among the five most popular early reading programs in the country, in large and small districts alike.

Others emphasized that its lessons may seem easier to unpack: Donohue noted that many lesson plans from the teachers manual can fit on two pages. Experts also said Into Reading has common DNA with curriculums that schools have used for years that are structured as anthology-style textbooks with passages written specifically to teach reading skills. (In education jargon, those programs are often referred to as “basals.”)

“A basal-type program is going to have much more structure in the teaching, in the lesson plan itself,” said Esther Friedman, who directed the city education department’s literacy efforts until 2020. Although Friedman said the other two programs also have detailed teacher guides, Into Reading may feel “a little bit more manageable.”

In Brooklyn’s District 16, which covers a large chunk of Bedford-Stuyvesant, teachers got a head start. About two years ago, nearly all of the district’s elementary schools adopted Into Reading, and the new superintendent, Brendan Mims, plans to keep the program in place.

Even though the district’s schools have already used Into Reading, Mims said there’s still room for improvement. “We haven’t hit that bar yet,” he said, in terms of implementing it as effectively as he thinks is possible. He’s hopeful that a more centralized approach to training will help. “Now, teachers and principals and district staff can work together to make sure that they’re getting what they need,” he said.

No curriculum checks every box

Into Reading has the potential to reshape reading instruction across hundreds of elementary school classrooms. That number could grow as more than half of superintendents aren’t implementing the curriculum mandate until September 2024.

Curriculum experts offered mixed feelings about the popularity of Into Reading. Nearly all said that it has many strong elements, including challenging readings, and a broad array of lessons that build vocabulary, spelling, and grammar skills.

But some also said in an effort to sell the curriculum to the widest array of districts, Into Reading is jam-packed with different strategies and resources, similar to other anthology-style programs. That will require teachers to be selective about which lessons to teach.

“Teachers really have to plan for this, and they have to understand that they’re not going to use all of the resources,” Merryl Casanova, a literacy coach who works with schools in the Bronx, previously told Chalkbeat.

Donohue, of Teaching Matters, said the program can be used effectively, but there are also elements of it that feel “watered down.” She said the texts and vocabulary tend to be slightly less challenging, and the other two curriculums include deeper student discussions and units with more sophisticated themes.

The other two programs “bring a higher quality of text and expectation for kids,” Donohue said. A New York University report also found that Into Reading materials are not culturally responsive, though Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has disputed that characterization and some educators told Chalkbeat the materials do speak to the diversity of New York City’s student body.

Other observers said that EL Education and Wit & Wisdom are somewhat more focused on exposing students to nonfiction in an effort to boost their background knowledge of topics they’re likely to encounter in the future, a strategy meant to boost students’ ability to understand texts about a wide range of subjects.

Still, experts emphasized that all three curriculums come with tradeoffs. And much of the success of the literacy mandate may rest on whether educators buy into the changes — which can be tricky given there was not a public input process. The quality of the training they receive is also critical to the program’s success.

“Really none of the three [curriculums] give a teacher all of the tools for teaching what needs to be taught,” Friedman said. “That has to come from the professional development.”

With just over three months until the next school year begins, there is limited time to fully prepare.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Passing a budget, praising a plan, telling a charter school no: Philadelphia’s long board meeting

2023-05-26T16:17:26+00:00

At a jam-packed meeting running deep into Thursday night, Philadelphia’s Board of Education adopted the district’s budget, reviewed Superintendent Tony Watlington’s proposed strategic plan, rejected a charter school application, and more.

But while Watlington presented a hopeful vision for the district through his strategic plan, dubbed “Accelerate Philly,” the running theme of the meeting was doing more with less. Officials said without more funding and resources, it would be nearly impossible to accomplish some of their loftiest goals.

Asked by a board member if the district has the staffing to make all of the programs in his strategic plan a reality, Watlington replied: “The short answer is no.”

“We don’t have the resources and the infrastructure” to accomplish everything the district needs to do, Watlington said. He added his administration is looking at how they can “massage” the resources the district has “before we ask for more,” from the state.

Still, board member Leticia Egea-Hinton said Watlington’s five-year strategic plan “certainly fills me with not just hope, but expectation” that the district can make gains in student achievement, safety, and well-being.

Board praises strategic plan work from educators, students

Watlington presented to board members the same summary of his five-year strategic plan his office published on Wednesday. After members of the public implored the superintendent and the board to release the plan to the public before discussing and voting on it, the board delayed its vote on whether to adopt “Accelerate Philly” from Thursday’s meeting until June 1.

One of the plan’s most notable elements is its year-round school pilot; Democratic mayoral nominee Cherelle Parker supports a move to year-round schooling in some form. Other proposals in Watlington’s blueprint include:

Replacing all security cameras at the 150 schools that have them.
Piloting a controversial “Opengate weapons detection” system for middle schools.
Expanding the Safe Path Program where adults are hired to monitor the streets surrounding schools to ensure students can walk home safely.
Recruiting and retaining certified school nurses for all schools.
Launching a “two-way communication system” to respond to parent and community member inquiries. Watlington said that many community members have complained they would reach out to the district and never hear back. Under the new two-way system, Watlington said, everyone who reaches out should expect a response.

The plan also proposes expanding the ninth grade On-Track (also referred to as Success Networks) program in an effort to boost graduation rates and reduce the number of students who drop out. According to Watlington, 3,609 students have dropped out of Philadelphia schools this academic year so far. As of October 1, 2022, total enrollment in Philadelphia public schools was 197,288, according to district data.

Board President Reginald Streater and other members largely praised the plan on Thursday and acknowledged the “sweat equity” from educators, students, administrators, and community members that went into writing the plan.

Board member Lisa Salley asked how the district will track its progress putting the plan into action. Watlington said he will create a new team within his office and will employ “external folks” to “advise a small and minimal staff” who will make sure the plan is carried out.

Watlington said he intends to give an update every January on how the district is making progress on the plan.

Board member Chau Wing Lam, speaking first in Chinese, also drew attention to the fact that there is nothing in the plan about “cultivating the diversity of the students in our system.” Lam said she would have liked to see specific attention paid to improving the district’s delivery of language offerings.

New $4.45 billion budget funds teachers, counselors

Watlington’s long-term vision got an early boost from the board’s Thursday vote to approve a $4.45 billion budget for fiscal 2024 that includes funding to:

Hire additional counselors for the highest-need schools.
Add 15 new safety officer positions.
Hire more general education teachers and special education teachers.
Purchase the new two-way communications system Watlington has touted among other costs.

Still, district officials said the money they have is not nearly enough to fund the district’s needs. Estimates from the Education Law Center and Public Interest Law Center have said “fair funding” for the city’s schools would require an additional annual funding of $1.1 billion and $318 million from the state and city, respectively.

And making progress on all of Watlington’s proposals in his strategic plan will become more difficult as the district approaches an anticipated fiscal cliff after 2024 when federal COVID relief money is scheduled to run out, Chief Financial Officer Michael Herbstman warned.

Millions in spending for new curriculum, tech, admissions

The board also voted to approve more than 70 separate items, including:

$50 million in contracts with various vendors for new curriculum in math and language arts.
$72 million for Apple and PC computers for all district instructional staff, school leaders, students and staff.
$289,000 for Accenture, LLP to conduct an audit on the district’s much-maligned lottery admission process at selective schools.
$500,000 to Teach For America to hire new teachers.
Millions more for summer programming, special education services, and other items.

The full list of action items can be found on the board website here.

The board also voted to approve an agreement with the city to reopen West Philadelphia’s Sayre Pool, which has been at the center of a citywide debate over swimming access for Black and brown children.

Board rejects charter high school application again

Notably absent from the strategic plan presentation was any board discussion of charter schools.

As written, “Accelerate Philly” does not include any proposals, programs, or policies specific to charter schools, although some initiatives appear to be broadly inclusive of all schools under district purview.

Charter expenditures in the district are increasing at “a much greater rate” than expenditures on traditional public schools, board member Joyce Wilkerson noted.

Watlington subsequently said the “elephant in the room” is that charter enrollment is rising as traditional public school enrollment is falling.

However, the school board voted Thursday to deny Global Leadership Academy International Charter High School’s application to open a standalone high school this August. The board cited issues with curriculum and dissatisfaction with the performance of other charter schools in the city under the Global Leadership Academy (GLA) name.

This is the second time the board has denied GLA’s application to open a high school. The school revised and resubmitted its application in April.

Peng Chao, the acting director of the district’s Charter Schools Office, said despite applying to open the new school for the 2023-2024 academic year, Global Leadership Academy did not “identify a school leader or include updated information regarding staffing a brand new charter school.”

There is a “growing concern about the viability of those start dates,” Chao said.

Chao also said the two current GLA K-8 schools in Philadelphia had “mixed outcomes” when it comes to academics. The application said the proposed high school should be evaluated as a separate entity from those schools.

Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana’s new ‘science of reading’ law requires districts to adopt research-backed curriculum

2023-05-25T21:01:35+00:00

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Indiana has joined a growing number of states that require schools to use curriculum materials that emphasize phonetic instruction when teaching children how to read.

A new state law, which passed with bipartisan support and was signed by Gov. Eric Holcomb on May 4, requires school districts to adopt a curriculum that’s aligned with what’s commonly called the science of reading.

Districts are also forbidden from adopting curriculum that relies primarily on using context clues and pictures for literacy instruction, an approach known as the three-cueing model. In addition, teachers licensed after June 2025 to teach a content area involving literacy instruction in prekindergarten through fifth grade must earn a new literacy endorsement to prove they are proficient in the science of reading standards.

The new law comes amid concern from lawmakers and education officials in Indiana and nationwide about elementary school students’ reading ability — an issue exacerbated by the pandemic. Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner said last year that literacy instruction and the use of phonics varies from classroom to classroom. Elsewhere, New York City recently required elementary schools to adopt a phonics-based reading program, and Illinois advocates said students there have struggled to read because schools haven’t relied on the science of reading.

Below, we break down how Indiana defines the science of reading, what the new law actually says, and what it all means for students, teachers, and schools.

What is the science of reading?

The new state statute defines the science of reading as a “vast, interdisciplinary body of scientifically based research” that requires the “explicit, systematic” use of five elements in literacy instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Phonemic awareness means being able to understand that different sounds form words, said Brandon Sherman, a research project manager in the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis School of Education. Phonics is the ability to break down that word into its different phonemes, or sounds.

State law defines “science of reading” as research that also has a record of success and increases competency in those five elements, as well as oral language skills, writing, and spelling. The research also informs how proficient reading and writing develop, why some students may have difficulty with reading, and how to effectively teach reading to all students.

But the term itself has different meanings to different people, Sherman said.

Do Indiana students struggle with reading?

Just 33% of Indiana’s fourth graders were proficient in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress last year, while 31% of eighth graders were proficient in reading. Those scores were roughly in line with the national average. Eighth grade reading scores dropped from their pre-pandemic level in 2019, although the fourth grade scores were statistically about the same as in 2019.

Last year, 81.6% of third graders were proficient on the state’s IREAD exam in 2019; schools may hold back students who don’t pass the test. That’s a decline from pre-pandemic scores. In 2019, for example, 87.3% of students were proficient on the IREAD.

But many students of color have scored much lower on the IREAD than the statewide average. In Indiana, 64.1% of Black students and 69.6% of Hispanic students were proficient on the 2022 IREAD.

What does Indiana’s science of reading law do?

The law requires school districts and charter schools to adopt curriculum or supplemental materials that are aligned with the science of reading by the 2024-25 school year. The state board of education must also develop academic standards for reading based on the science of reading by 2024-25.

It forbids districts from adopting curriculum that is primarily based using context, pictures, or syntax clues to teach students to read.

The law also requires teachers who teach literacy in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade to receive a literacy endorsement through the state if they receive their teaching license after June 30, 2025. School districts are required to offer extra pay for teachers who have the literacy endorsement. The amount of additional pay is up to the district.

The endorsement requires 80 hours of professional development aligned with the science of reading, plus a written exam to demonstrate that educators are proficient in “scientifically based reading instruction skills.”

The state board will adopt the exam, and will establish the procedure for current teachers who wish to add the literacy endorsement to their license.

Teacher preparation programs in Indiana must also use a curriculum that instructs teaching candidates on the science of reading by July 2024. The state education department will develop guidelines for this requirement, and will conduct a review of all accredited teacher programs to ensure the programs adhere to this requirement.

What will change about students’ reading lessons?

This depends on the district.

For example, some districts reported using a curriculum that aligns with the Orton-Gillingham approach, which has systematic lessons on phonics, according to its website.

Others report using the Into Reading curriculum by HMH, which lists phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension as among the components of reading instruction.

The state education department will provide a list of curriculums that are based on the science of reading for districts to consider when reviewing whether their current curriculum complies with the law.

In Marion County, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township says it does not believe it needs to change its curriculum, which includes the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Curriculum, but is awaiting state education department guidance.

Perry Township, which uses the HMH Into Reading curriculum, said its own investigation concluded that all components of science of reading were heavily supported in the curriculum, although there was less use of phonemic awareness in grades 3-5.

“We have reinforced this area through additional training of our teachers in Orton-Gillingham and through the focus of The Science of Reading components during our Professional Development (cluster) time,” a Perry Township spokesperson said in a statement.

The Metropolitan School District of Pike Township did not specify which curriculum the district uses, but said it provided K-2 educators the opportunity to participate in training in LETRS, a professional development tool that says it is based on the science of reading on its website. A spokesperson said the district will provide professional development to ensure its curriculum aligns with science of reading principles.

“When we go through our next curriculum adoption process, we will intentionally select materials that meet the needs of our learners, while adhering to all IDOE [Indiana Department of Education] criteria,” a Pike Township spokesperson said in a statement.

Will Indiana provide new funding for science of reading and literacy?

The state’s biennial budget for 2024-25 allows up to $20 million to fund science of reading initiatives from the state education department each year.

The department can distribute this money to districts for literacy coaches to train teachers in the science of reading, or to use for efforts that increase instructional time, such as summer literacy programs or high-dosage tutoring for struggling readers. Districts can also use this funding to cover the cost of teachers to obtain the new literacy endorsement.

The state’s budget also provides up to $10 million each fiscal year for literacy achievement grants to school districts and charter schools.

This funding is in addition to the $111 million the state announced it would use to train teachers in the science of reading last year.

What’s driven recent interest in literacy instruction?

The so-called “reading wars” over the best approach to teaching literacy date back to at least the 1920s, Sherman said. Some researchers say the debate in the U.S. originated more than 200 years ago.

But the issue became more prominent in recent years due to reporting by American Public Media about school districts’ use of disproven methods of literacy instruction; its coverage of literacy includes the “Sold a Story” podcast. Mississippi also brought attention to the science of reading after embracing the approach and increasing its reading scores in a turnaround effort deemed “the Mississippi miracle.”

The reemergence of literacy instruction as a major issue has also highlighted disagreements between supporters of different teaching methods. For example, researchers and advocates frequently contrast the science of reading with “whole language” instruction, which emphasizes contextual clues to help students learn to read.

Sherman says that historically in the U.S., the popularity of different instructional methods for literacy has waxed and waned.

“We see that again focusing on systematic phonics is the emphasis,” he said. “And then the pendulum kind of goes the other way. And this is where we see whole language. And then the pendulum goes again and we see phonics come back in.”

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Marion County schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

NYC’s Summer Rising program rejected 45,000 applicants, launching scramble for child care

2023-05-24T21:50:38+00:00

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Roughly 45,000 children have been shut out of New York City’s free, popular summer program, education department officials said this week.

The program, which runs between six to seven weeks for most students, provides academics during the morning and enrichment activities in the afternoon for children in grades K-8 across the five boroughs from July to August.

Like last year, a total of 110,000 seats were available this year, with a portion held open for students mandated to attend summer school. During a City Council hearing this week, the education department’s Chief Operating Officer Emma Vadehra said there are 94,000 seats available for 139,000 applicants. Officials initially reported that 30,000 families did not receive spots.

It’s possible that some of the rejected applicants will have to attend the program anyway for academic reasons and will get a seat that has been set aside. Still, many of those families, who were notified earlier this month that they didn’t get seats, are likely scrambling to find summer programs for their children before the school year ends on June 27.

“The basic challenge is that demand outstripped supply pretty dramatically,” Vadehra told City Council members. “And so there’s different ways that could have looked, but we just didn’t have enough seats in the program for the number of kids and families that really wanted this program despite the fact that it is the largest summer program we’ve had – and the largest in the country.”

Two of those unsuccessful applicants were Alejandra Perez’s 5- and 10-year-old sons, who should have been prioritized for seats because they attend an after-school program run by the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development, through a community-based organization that helps oversee Summer Rising.

Perez, a lifelong East Harlemite, paid $2,250 last summer for six weeks of child care, which she can barely afford again this year.

But in mid-May, about three weeks after applying, she was informed via email that her sons, who attend a charter school in East Harlem, didn’t get in. While she can probably rely on a relative to care for her older son, she is scrambling to find free or affordable care for her 5-year-old.

“I am still trying to find a program,” she said. “By the act of God, maybe I’ll get an email like, ‘Hey, we found you a spot!’”

Some children with priority did not get spots

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio established the program two years ago with federal relief dollars as the city clawed its way out of the pandemic, attempting to provide children with a bridge back to school after remote learning. It differs from summer programs in the past: It’s open to any child, including those in charters and private school, not just those who are mandated to attend summer school.

The program, though bumpy with its initial roll out, has grown in popularity. This year, city officials made a couple of key changes to the application process. While still open to the same number of children, applicants were allowed to rank choices for Summer Rising sites instead of the first come, first served process last year. Additionally, students who attend after-school programs subsidized through the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development, or DYCD, were supposed to be prioritized for seats, like Perez’s children. That’s in addition to students living in temporary housing, children in foster care, and children with disabilities who must have services year round.

Perez had ranked three Summer Rising sites close to her home. Perez said the application did not ask if her kids were in an after-school program. According to an education department spokesperson, Perez’s children didn’t receive a spot because there was likely a lot of demand at the sites she chose.

When she asked someone from the after-school program why her sons didn’t get into Summer Rising, they didn’t have an answer — except that none of the kids in the program who applied got in, Perez said. (A representative for their SCAN-Harbor Beacon after-school program did not return a request for comment.)

During the City Council hearing this week, officials said that just over half of the seats that have been filled went to students in the priority groups. Of those, 29,000 spots went to students who were in DYCD-run after-school programs, 16,000 went to students in temporary housing, 3,000 seats to children with 12-month individualized education programs, or IEPs, and another 1,000 to students in foster care. (Last year, Summer Rising had 12,000 students in temporary housing, 2,700 students with 12-month IEPs and 1,000 students in foster care.)

New seats won’t be added, but filled seats might open up

Vadehra said they’re not planning to add seats — emphasizing that this program is being supported by federal dollars that are set to run out next year — and there is no wait list for seats. But they are expecting an unspecified number of spots to open up, either because fewer students will be mandated to attend summer school or because families may decline a seat they’ve been offered. The education department is working with DYCD to figure out how to make families aware of empty seats in June and how they can apply for those, she said.

In the meantime, parents are scrambling to find options that seem few and far between — and too pricey.

Perez’s rejection email from the education department included a link to other DYCD programs that might be available. She said she has called every local community-based organization near her home for some type of programming with no luck.

“At this point I am just emailing everyone,” she said.

Tia Jackson, who lives in Central Harlem, knew she would potentially need to scramble for summer options if her son didn’t get into Summer Rising, so she signed him up for a YMCA program near her home. Her planning came in handy: Her son did not get a Summer Rising seat.

While he doesn’t fall into any of the priority groups, her son, who is autistic, also has an individualized education program. The YMCA program has staff who can assist him if he needs extra support, Jackson said. She will be reimbursed up to $2,250 for summer care expenses through the state’s Office of People With Developmental Disabilities, but that only ensures four weeks of summer programming for her son. He’s planning to visit his aunt in Florida for one week, and she will pay out of pocket for child care for an additional week.

She feels thankful for having a “Plan A and Plan B.”

“I feel like the way they rolled out the program to start was very late, and it wasn’t the best for working parents, typically because when you think about summer camps most applications for summer camp start in February and March,” she said. “We didn’t get the Summer Rising notification until April.”

The department spokesperson did not explain the timing of the Summer Rising application, except to say there are several factors that impact the timeline.

Both of Loretta Bencivengo’s children got into Summer Rising last year, likely because she submitted her application as soon as it opened during the previous first come, first served model. This year they didn’t get spots, said Bencivengo, who lives in Windsor Terrace.

The most affordable alternate option she’s found so far is with the local YMCA for a $5,000, eight-week program for both of her children, which she equated to two months of rent. Many places don’t have space this late in the spring, she said.

“All those slots are filled up in January and February,” she said of private programs. “If that’s the case, why not put this application out in November and December so that you can open an appropriate amount of slots?”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois set to roll out a new literacy plan aimed at changing how students are taught to read

2023-05-19T19:48:28+00:00

The Illinois general assembly has passed a bill requiring the State Board of Education to create a literacy plan for public schools with the hopes of changing how reading is taught and to help students struggling with reading.

The Senate voted 56-0 to pass the bill — SB 2243 — Friday afternoon.

Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, a Democrat who serves the city’s West Side and Western Suburbs, was a lead sponsor of several literacy bills over the years. She was on the floor Friday asking the Senate to vote in favor of SB 2243.

“Every child deserves the instruction and support that meets their needs to become a proficient reader,” said Lightford in a press release. “This initiative moves Illinois off the sidelines and into the action to fight for every student to have access to the literacy instruction they deserve.”

In 2022, only 29.9% of the state’s students between third grade and eighth grade met or exceeded state standards in reading on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness exam. That represented a 7.5 percentage point drop from 2019. Research has found that students who aren’t proficient in reading by third grade are more likely to drop out of school.

Under SB 2243, the state board must develop and adopt a comprehensive literacy plan by Jan. 31, 2024 and create a rubric by July 1, 2024. Local school districts could use the rubric to evaluate their reading lesson plans. In addition, the bill requires the state to develop training opportunities for educators by Jan. 1, 2025.

Future elementary school teachers who plan to teach students in first through sixth grade will also be tested on their knowledge of literacy on a content-area exam student teachers are required to take before they receive a license. That will begin by July 1, 2026.

The next step is for Gov. J.B. Pritzker to sign the bill into law.

The Early Literacy Coalition — a group of organizations across the state advocating for evidence-based literacy instruction — has been pushing the state to create an evidence-based reading curriculum for schools that includes teaching students the relationship between sounds and letters, like phonics. Some public schools use a now-debunked approach called “balanced literacy” which is based on the idea that reading is a natural process and mixes some phonics into “whole language” instruction. One of the leading proponents for this approach has since revised her recommended curriculum to include phonics and the science of reading.

Jessica Handy, executive director of Stand for Children Illinois, was one of the lead advocates drafting language with state lawmakers for several literacy-focused bills over the last couple of years. On Friday, Hardy said that she’s excited to see SB 2243 head to the governor’s office after negotiations with legislators.

“We can really see a tremendous amount of momentum to adopt a comprehensive literacy plan that is inclusive, that takes into account every student needs to become a strong reader and writer,” said Handy.

The State Board of Education has already taken steps toward creating a literacy plan. During Wednesday’s board meeting, the board announced plans to release a draft ]literacy plan next month. Last fall, the board held a literacy summit where many participants supported the state creating a literacy plan.

“I do absolutely see literacy as a civil right in this country that has been denied to so many,” said board member Donna Leak during Wednesday’s board meeting.

A team of educators, administrators, parents, community organizations, and experts in literacy, special education, and bilingual education are working on the draft literacy plan, state education officials said Wednesday.

After presenting a first draft of the plan during the June 21 board meeting, the state board says it will hold a listening tour during the summer, and create a second plan by the fall with more public hearings. They expect to meet the lawmakers’ deadline and finalize the literacy plan by the beginning of next year.

Illinois is not the only state revisiting how reading is taught in schools. Since 2019, over 20 states have passed bills to change how states teach literacy by requiring schools to teach phonics.

This year, states including Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, and New Mexico passed laws that require schools to teach evidence-based reading instruction, ensure that teacher preparation programs are training students on the science of reading, and require the state to create standards for literacy and create a rubric to vet curriculum.

Civil rights icon Ruby Bridges says reading festivals can counteract book bans

2023-05-16T16:56:50+00:00

In elementary school several years ago, Olivia Shackelford read about how 6-year-old Ruby Bridges endured racial slurs, ostracism, and death threats for integrating an all-white elementary school in New Orleans in 1960.

Groups such as Moms for Liberty that try to get books about race banned from schools say that reading such stories can traumatize children.

But Bridges’ story didn’t traumatize Olivia, her mother said. Instead, it energized her desire to learn more about the history of racism in America and the sacrifices of people like Bridges.

“She read about Ruby Bridges and the impact she had on integration, and she was obsessed, for years, with meeting her,” said Stephanie Shackelford, who brought Olivia, now 13, and her two other daughters, Cassidy and Blue, to the Ruby Bridges Reading Festival at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis on Saturday.

“We’re from Cabot, Arkansas, and found out that this was going on in Memphis, so she finally got a chance to meet her.”

As Tennessee, Florida, Texas and other states remove books that recount painful periods in history from school shelves, Bridges said that book festivals like the one that bears her name will be key to helping children like Olivia learn about the history of racism in America.

According to a report by PEN America, a group that champions freedom of expression through literature, 1,477 instances of book banning occurred in the first half of the 2022-23 school year, up 28% from the previous year.

And while Florida and Texas led with the most bans, Tennessee law is also making it easier for local authorities to ban books — including titles like Bridges’ own “Ruby Bridges Goes to School,” which a parents group in Williamson County objected to.

Bridges spent part of Saturday afternoon signing her newest children’s book, “I Am Ruby Bridges: How One Six-Year-Old Girl’s March to School Changed the World,” and others. Before that, she spoke to reporters about how her story wound up being the target of book bans, what must be done to combat them, and why stories like hers are especially important during this time.

Here are some highlights:

On her first book, “Ruby Bridges Goes to School,” becoming the target of book bans:

“I try to write my books in an uplifting way. My books have been truthful, and I do uplift everyone who was involved (in her integration effort): my teacher, who was white, my psychologist, who was white, the federal marshals who supported me, the people around the country who supported me.

“(But) they said the reason my books were being banned was because it made young white kids feel bad about themselves. So, for them to say that, that’s ridiculous. So, when they started targeting me, I couldn’t ignore it. Then I got a call from Congress asking me if I would speak about it.”

(Bridges spoke against Texas book bans during a House Oversight Committee hearing in 2022).

“Once my books are pulled down, you probably should expect that a lot more would follow. But if you’re banning my books because they’re too truthful, then why don’t we start having a conversation about the books that we force our young people to study, like the textbooks we know omit so much of the truth?

“So, if we’re going to ban my books, let’s take them all off the shelves and start anew.”

On what parents and communities should do to fight book bans:

“I think this festival speaks to that. We need to all come together to make sure books are available to kids, and to grow more reading festivals.

“I believe that if we’re going to get past our racial differences, we can’t do it alone. There was a time when we, as African-Americans, couldn’t be caught with a book, or couldn’t let people know we knew how to read. But we’ve come a long way from that, and it seems like we could be heading in that direction again if books are being banned.

On why the racism she endured as a 6-year-old is important to children’s understanding of history:

“I was recently asked to speak at a conference based on history. I was thinking about what I wanted to say about history. Then I thought about how I had to get on a plane to travel from Louisiana to D.C.

U.S. marshals escort Ruby Bridges to William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960.

“I thought about how I arrived and made it safely, but someone in another plane didn’t (because of a plane crash).

“When that happened, they had to send a plane crew to the wreckage, to go through that wreckage, and to find that little black box.

“Can you imagine what those people must have seen going to that site, going to that wreckage, to get that little black box? Why was that box so important? It was the history that little black box held to make sure that I, on the next flight, would arrive safely.

“If history works for something like that, what makes us think it won’t work for racism — to rid us of racism? If we tell the truth — good, bad, or ugly — if we teach that it happened, then maybe history will move us past our racial differences.”

On how being a civil rights icon propelled her to become a writer and literacy advocate:

“I never dreamed that I would become an author myself, but writing my own story made me realize that I didn’t just want to give books away to kids, but to inspire them to write. I hope this festival can help do that.”

Bureau Chief Tonyaa Weathersbee oversees Chalkbeat Tennessee’s education coverage. Reach her at tweathersbee@chalkbeat.org.

Reading instruction is getting an overhaul in NYC. Here’s how that could affect your school.

2023-05-12T21:22:42+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

Chancellor David Banks is planning the most aggressive overhaul to the way New York City schools teach students to read in nearly 20 years.

The changes, announced this week, will require the city’s elementary schools to adopt one of three reading programs over the next two years. They must also phase out materials from a popular “balanced literacy” curriculum developed by Lucy Calkins, a professor at Teachers College, which has been used by hundreds of elementary schools in recent years.

“A big part of the bad guidance was rooted in what has been called balanced literacy,” Banks said this week. “We must give children the basic foundational skills of reading.”

But what is balanced literacy, anyway? And how are the new curriculums different?

Here’s how the changes could impact students in grades K-5:

What reading strategies is the city moving away from?

For years, many New York City schools embraced a philosophy of reading instruction as a natural process that can be unlocked by exposing students to literature. The idea was that by filling classroom libraries and giving students freedom to pick from them, they would develop a love of reading and absorb key skills to decipher texts.

In many classrooms, teachers offered mini-lessons on topics like how to find a text’s main idea. Then students were often sent to select a book of their choice, geared toward their individual reading level, to read independently and apply skills from the lesson they’d just heard. If a child had trouble identifying a specific word, they were often encouraged to use accompanying pictures to guess at its meaning, a practice that has been discredited.

Critics said the approach lacked sufficient instruction on the relationship between sounds and letters, known as phonics. In response, supporters of the model sprinkled more of it in. That compromise is known as balanced literacy. Balanced literacy was pushed into schools by the city’s education department in 2003, and it has remained popular.

Before the pandemic, roughly half of city elementary schools that responded to a curriculum survey were using a balanced literacy program called Units of Study, developed by Calkins, an investigation by Chalkbeat and THE CITY found. (Calkins has since updated the program, including a greater emphasis on phonics, though most schools will not be allowed to keep using it.)

In practice, instructional approaches often differ from school to school — or even classroom to classroom — with teachers often piecing together lessons from a hodgepodge of different sources. The city’s goal is to ensure all schools have access to, and actually use, high-quality materials.

What is the approach to phonics?

Balanced literacy has increasingly come under fire from a range of experts who point to long-standing research that shows many students won’t pick up reading skills without more systematic instruction on the fundamentals of reading.

Now, all elementary schools are being required to adopt city-approved phonics programs, explicit lessons that drill the relationship between sounds and letters. Those programs are typically delivered separately from a school’s main reading program and are shorter in length, often about 20-30 minutes.

Teacher Lauren Litman delivers a phonics lesson at P.S. 236 in the Bronx.

Even before the latest mandates, most schools were already delivering some phonics, though observers said getting schools to use the same approaches will help streamline training and oversight.

“Many, many schools have adopted a coherent phonics approach over the past few years, but the difference is we’re now organizing the infrastructure … to be able to work together around a common playbook,” said Lynette Guastaferro, CEO of Teaching Matters, an organization that works with about 160 New York City schools to improve reading and math instruction.

What’s the philosophy behind the new curriculums?

In addition to phonics lessons, all elementary schools will be required to use one of three reading curriculums: Wit & Wisdom, from a company called Great Minds; Into Reading from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; or EL Education.

Many curriculums focus on reading strategies, such as how to find a text’s main idea or how to draw conclusions from it. But the three required curriculums build students’ background knowledge in science and social studies.

The idea is that a student’s ability to understand what they’re reading depends on how much prior knowledge they have of the subject at hand. In one famous experiment conducted in the 1980s, researchers found that children who were not strong readers but knew a lot about baseball were just as capable of summarizing what they’d read about a baseball game compared with stronger readers. (A recent study offers fresh evidence that the knowledge-building approach may be effective, though research is limited on whether knowledge-based programs outperform skills-focused curriculums.)

Kate Gutwillig, a fourth and fifth grade teacher at P.S. 51 in Manhattan, previously used Calkins’ balanced literacy program but in recent years transitioned to EL Education and now uses Wit & Wisdom.

She said she appreciated EL Education’s social-justice oriented lessons, including one where students unpack the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and also read a novel about a girl who must flee Mexico with her family and winds up in a farm labor camp in California. More recently, she taught a Wit & Wisdom unit focused on the heart’s role in the circulatory system and the way it’s used figuratively to refer to love and other emotional qualities.

“They’re thriving, they’re doing so well with it,” Gutwillig said of her students. Unlike the balanced literacy program where students picked their own books, students are all reading from the same books at the same time. “It helps to build community,” she said.

Some advocates argue that Into Reading doesn’t have as strong a focus on knowledge building compared with the other two programs, in part because it includes such a wide range of materials, but it has still received high marks from curriculum reviewers.

Which curriculum is your school likely to use?

Thirteen of the 15 districts expected to adopt one of the three approved reading programs this September have selected Into Reading. That curriculum uses an anthology-style textbook with texts specifically designed to teach reading skills. Some observers said the lessons tend to be scripted, and department officials said its “teacher friendly” approach made it a favorite among the local superintendents charged with picking a curriculum for their district’s schools.

“The lessons are laid out so the teacher can walk in and teach them,” said Heidi Donohue, an early literacy expert at Teaching Matters. Into Reading tends to move more quickly through multiple texts each week, she said, whereas Wit & Wisdom and EL Education tend to stay on one text or unit for longer stretches.

Into Reading “has everything that teachers would want,” said Merryl Casanova, a literacy coach who works with schools in the Bronx, pointing to materials that focus on grammar, spelling, reading comprehension, discussion strategies, and more. But that can also be “very overwhelming,” she said. “Teachers really have to plan for this, and they have to understand that they’re not going to use all of the resources.”

Into Reading has received some criticism for not reflecting the diversity of New York City’s student population, which is predominantly Black and Latino. A New York University report found that the program “used language and tone that demeaned and dehumanized Black, Indigenous and characters of color, while encouraging empathy and connection with White characters.”

Officials at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which publishes Into Reading, have disputed that characterization, arguing that the report focused on a small sample of materials. The city’s education department said schools may also supplement the curriculum with other materials that are designed to be culturally responsive.

All three curriculums have passed muster with EdReports, an independent curriculum reviewer.

Which schools will be covered by the mandate first?

Many schools among the first 15 districts covered by the mandate already use their district’s approved curriculum or are in the process of doing so, city officials said.

The city’s remaining 17 districts will not fall under the mandate until September 2024. City officials said some schools may receive exemptions, which have not yet been revealed, though they emphasized that they expect the number will be small.

Here’s what each district has selected so far:

Into Reading
Manhattan District 5
Bronx District 12
Brooklyn districts 14, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, 32
Queens districts 25, 26, 29, 30
Select schools in District 75, a citywide district for students with more complex disabilities

EL Education
Bronx District 11

Wit & Wisdom
Brooklyn District 19

How long will it take to see changes?

Experts and educators said that curriculum changes often take years to fully take root, and may depend on how committed teachers and school leaders are to the changes. (The city’s principals union, for instance, has pushed back against the mandate.)

At P.S. 236 in the Bronx, educators began transitioning to Wit & Wisdom in 2020 after using Calkins’ Units of Study for years. Lauren Litman, a second grade teacher, said educators have been learning how to deploy texts that students often find challenging and figuring out how to edit the curriculum down to be manageable.

“We’ve kind of gotten into a better rhythm of how to scale down the lessons because there is a lot of information,” she said.

How quickly teaching practice changes may also depend on how effective the city’s training is — and there’s limited time to help educators learn new materials before September.

“Any new curriculum is going to take time for us to get the routines and the systems and the things in place that are going to make it work for the school,” Donohue said. “No curriculum is going to be the quick fix.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

NYC forces elementary schools to use one of three reading programs in massive literacy push

2023-05-09T20:09:40+00:00

New York City’s elementary schools will be required to use one of three reading curriculums, a tectonic shift that education officials hope will improve literacy rates across the nation’s largest school system.

Beginning in September, elementary schools in 15 of the city’s 32 districts will be required to use one of three programs selected by the education department, Chancellor David Banks and Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday. By September 2024, all of the city’s roughly 700 elementary schools will be required to use one of the three. Chalkbeat first reported the plans in March.

The new mandate won support from the teachers union, whose leaders expressed faith in the city’s efforts to train thousands of teachers on new materials. Training for the first year is expected to cost $35 million, though city officials declined to provide an estimate of the effort’s overall price tag, including the cost of purchasing materials.

Meanwhile, the plan earned a strong rebuke from the union representing principals, who have long had wide latitude to choose which materials their teachers use. That freedom has allowed school leaders to use programs that vary widely in their approach and quality, Banks has argued.

The chancellor has frequently called for a more systematic approach, citing lagging reading scores. About half of the city’s students in grades 3-8 are not considered proficient readers based on state tests. The results are even more stark among certain subgroups: Fewer than 37% of Black and Latino reached that threshold and the numbers significantly are lower for students with disabilities and those still learning English.

“They aren’t reading because we’ve been giving our schools and our educators a flawed plan,” Banks said during the announcement at Brooklyn’s P.S. 156. He added: “It is really an indictment on the work that we do.”

Now, city officials will require one of three reading programs: Wit & Wisdom, from a company called Great Minds; Into Reading from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; or EL Education. They charged superintendents of each district to select their schools’ curriculum. Thirteen of the initial 15 districts are planning to use Into Reading. Some schools are already using these curriculums, and city officials did not say how many will have to switch.

What curriculum is your school’s district planning to use?

EL Education
Bronx District 11

Wit & Wisdom
Brooklyn District 19

City officials said they selected the first 15 districts based in part on how many schools in each district were prepared to make a curriculum change. Notably, some of the city’s most affluent districts (Manhattan’s districts 2 and 3, and Brooklyn’s District 15) will be in the second phase of the rollout. Those districts include many schools that use balanced literacy approaches, including Lucy Calkins’ curriculum, so sweeping changes in those neighborhoods could spark more pushback from educators and school leaders.

All three curriculums have met quality expectations set by EdReports, an independent curriculum reviewer. And they also met the group’s standards for helping students build background knowledge by exposing them to more content in topics like science and social studies, something many experts say is an important ingredient for building reading comprehension skills.

But some of the curriculum materials have also faced criticism. A review from New York University found that Into Reading is not culturally responsive and “used language and tone that demeaned and dehumanized Black, Indigenous and characters of color, while encouraging empathy and connection with White characters.”

Asked about those findings, Deputy Chancellor Carolyne Quintana pointed to the education department’s own culturally responsive materials that can supplement the other reading programs “to better reflect the range of ethnicities and cultures that we have here in New York City.”

The new initiative builds on previous efforts to bolster literacy instruction, including a requirement that schools use city-approved phonics programs, which help students master the relationship between sounds and letters. Education officials have also launched programs to reach students with dyslexia, including a standalone school dedicated to students with reading challenges that will launch in the fall.

Adams, who has repeatedly pointed to his own struggle with dyslexia in school as a motivation for improving literacy instruction, acknowledged that the city’s efforts will take time to come to fruition, likely stretching beyond his administration.

“Is it going to be perfect? No,” the mayor said. “But dammit, we’re going to try.”

Retraining teachers in the shift from ‘balanced literacy’

City officials are pushing schools to move away from a framework known as “balanced literacy” which places a greater emphasis on exposing students to books of their choice to help them develop a love of reading rather than explicit instruction on foundational reading skills.

Balanced literacy was pushed into schools in 2003 under Chancellor Joel Klein and has enjoyed support from successive school chancellors.

But even as a growing chorus of experts have pointed to research showing the importance of teaching foundational reading skills, a balanced literacy program written by Lucy Calkins at Teachers College has remained in hundreds of elementary schools in recent years, an investigation by Chalkbeat and THE CITY found. (Calkins has revised her materials to include more of an emphasis on phonics.)

Many advocates felt relieved when Banks took the helm of city schools and issued a blunt assessment of balanced literacy and Calkins materials, arguing the approach “has not worked.” And literacy experts have widely cheered the city’s plans to mandate a smaller set of reading choices, effectively preventing schools from using balanced literacy programs like the one written by Calkins.

But a new curriculum alone is unlikely to dramatically improve student learning. Much of the plan will hinge on how effective the city’s training is and whether educators buy in to the changes. Meanwhile, curriculum shifts often take years to execute, and there is little time to train thousands of teachers who will be expected to transition to new materials beginning in September.

Education department officials are gearing up training efforts and will pay teachers extra this summer and during the school year to help them prepare, though it’s unclear how much training most teachers will receive before the rollout begins. They also noted each school will have access to more than three weeks worth of training and teachers will receive “job-embedded coaching.”

Michael Mulgrew, president of the teachers union, said he’s seen the city’s training plans come into focus in recent weeks and lent his support, flanking Adams and Banks during the announcement.

“It’s all hands on deck — everybody has to work together,” Mulgrew said in an interview, though he noted that many of his members are “pessimistic” about being forced to adopt new materials. “It should have never been a school system where every school was left on their own to do whatever they want.”

Having fewer curriculums will make it easier to provide teacher training, proponents of the change argue, since superintendents can focus on supporting schools with one curriculum instead of a hodge-podge. And if students switch schools, particularly students who live in temporary housing, they’ll be much less likely to start from scratch with a new program.

“Right now professional learning is like random skills led by fly-by providers,” said Evan Stone, executive director of Educators for Excellence, a teacher advocacy group that has pushed for more standardized curriculums. “Now teachers can become true experts in a core set of tools.”

Principals union worries about buy-in from schools

Still, the changes have met resistance from the city’s principal union, whose members’ freedom to choose instructional materials will be curtailed. And some educators have also expressed frustration that they will no longer be able to use approaches that they believe are working for their students. Other veteran educators have seen education initiatives ebb over time and worry they’re being asked to make a change that will ultimately be scrapped in a few years.

Henry Rubio, president of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, issued a statement criticizing the department for its lack of outreach in developing its plan, saying that his union repeatedly asked why city officials did not engage parents, teachers, and principals on the shift.

With superintendents choosing their district’s curriculum without giving schools a chance to evaluate them, Rubio cast doubt on whether the move will “earn essential buy-in within their communities.” He also worried that the timeline was too short for many principals, who have been focused on end-of-year activities and planning for summer school.

“This is a massive overhaul of how we teach children to read, and the DOE has provided little detail on how thousands of educators will be adequately trained by September,” Rubio said. “Perhaps more importantly, why have half the districts been given well over a year to adequately prepare while the other half are forced to rush through this vital training?”

Education department officials said there may be some exemptions to the mandate, but emphasized that they will be limited in scope and only apply to a small number of schools.

Some teachers are hoping their schools will qualify for exemptions. At P.S. 236 in the Bronx, the school has been transitioning to Wit & Wisdom from Calkins’ balanced literacy curriculum called Units of Study. Teachers there have been learning how to implement the new lessons, which include more difficult texts and less independent reading time when students read books of their choosing.

And while the school is not in the first wave of those expected to change curriculums, they worry that they’ll be forced to start fresh with a new program depending on what their superintendent selects for their district, even though they’re already using one of the city’s approved programs.

“That would be a lot of work and a lot of wasted effort,” said Susan Mackle, a second grade teacher.

The city is also planning to require more standardized curriculums in other parts of the system. About 178 high schools will begin using a standardized algebra curriculum called Illustrative Math. And early childhood programs will be expected to use a program called The Creative Curriculum.

Amy Zimmer contributed.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

This Colorado elementary school nearly closed. A math makeover helped it stay open.

2023-05-05T20:59:26+00:00

In 2019, Minnequa Elementary in Pueblo was on the brink of closing because of low test scores and declining enrollment. Today, the school is off the state’s “watch list,” has the state’s top “green” school rating, and recently won a $50,000 award for exceptional growth in math.

So, how did a school where only 8% of students scored proficient on state math tests in 2019 change course?

Principal Katie Harshman says it was a combination of factors, including a good math curriculum, regular coaching for teachers, constant data analysis, and a shift to having some upper elementary teachers focus only on math, while others teach reading and writing. Using state grants and federal money the school receives because it serves many students from low-income families, Minnequa also tapped outside experts, including the Relay Graduate School of Education and a math consulting group called 2Partner.

Harshman and her team say the yearslong math push has given students a better understanding of key concepts, pushed them daily to articulate how they solve problems, and pumped up their math confidence.

Minnequa students now post some of the highest rates of academic growth in the state, showing more year-over-year progress on standardized tests than the vast majority of their Colorado peers. Those gains are what earned Minnequa and 11 other Colorado schools state “Bright Spot” awards this spring — each coming with $50,000 in leftover COVID relief funds.

Educators and policymakers statewide are pushing to improve math instruction after sharp declines in scores on state and national tests during the pandemic. This spring, lawmakers passed legislation to offer after-school tutoring in math, expand teacher training, and encourage schools to choose high-quality math curriculum. State leaders also paid to provide a digital learning tool called Zearn Math to Colorado schools.

The work that has unfolded at Minnequa over the last five years illustrates how effective instruction can translate into student achievement.

Harshman and her colleagues say there’s more to do. While the share of students who are proficient on state math tests has more than tripled to 26% in four years, It’s still below the state average.

“We’re not done. We’re still going to keep going,” said Leslie Ortega, a fourth grade math teacher at Minnequa.

Still, after the threat of closure, the school’s progress is gratifying.

“It’s been like the light at the end of the tunnel,” Ortega said. “It just shows us what we as a whole school can accomplish.”

Coaches step in

A few weeks before state tests were given this spring, Harshman stood in the back of a fifth grade classroom watching carefully as the teacher reviewed fractions. She noticed that students weren’t answering in full sentences as they should, and as they would be expected to on parts of the upcoming test. Harshman caught the teacher’s eye, brought her hands together and pulled them apart — a reminder that students needed to stretch out their responses into complete thoughts.

“It’s a very silent signal. It’s nothing dramatic,” she said.

This kind of real-time coaching — by Harshman, the school’s math coach Christy Vasquez, and outside consultants — has become the norm at Minnequa over the last several years.

The idea is to provide on-the-spot feedback through a whispered suggestion, a quick side conversation, or a few minutes of co-teaching so teachers can practice immediately.

“I’m not there to be like, ‘Ah-ha! Gotcha!’ I’m just there for support,” said Vasquez, who started as a teacher at Minnequa six years ago and took the math coach job last year.

Jeanette Valdez, a fifth grade teacher who grew up in Pueblo and lives just two blocks from Minnequa, said it’s been nerve-wracking at times to have so many people stop into her classroom to observe and coach — sometimes even top district administrators.

“I told myself that all they’re there for is to make me better and that’s my whole reason for being a teacher,” she said.

All the feedback — a coach was in her classroom practically every day last year — has helped her improve, she said.

These days, when students work on math problems independently, she’s in “aggressive monitoring” mode. That means she’s walking through the classroom to watch how students are solving problems and exactly where they’re getting stuck. Previously, she’d watch students work, but wasn’t checking for anything specific.

“I had to learn to be all up in their business …. and to really hone in on what it is I’m looking for,” she said.

Creating math specialists

One of the biggest changes at Minnequa in recent years has been having some teachers in third through fifth grade specialize in math instruction — a practice often called departmentalization.

That means teachers like Ortega and Valdez teach math to all the students in their respective grades, while colleagues take on literacy instruction.

“I think it’s the best. I really do,” said Ortega. “I’m able to focus on one subject. I’m able to really dig deep into the math data and the math lessons.”

She said the switch has also given her more time for planning each day — 80 minutes, up from 40 previously. And while five years ago, she might have spent planning time cleaning her classroom, Ortega said Harshman ushered in a different expectation — that teachers use the time to look at data on each student’s strengths and needs.

Alongside the departmental structure, consultants have helped teachers organize their daily math block so students are actively doing math most of the time rather than listening to the teacher. That has meant tweaking the school’s math curriculum, EngageNY, which the school adopted about six years ago when it was rated “red,” the state’s lowest rating.

Vasquez, Minnequa’s math coach, said the curriculum is high quality, but contains a lot of material. Consultants for 2Partner helped teachers identify the most critical parts and pare down the program’s long teacher-led lesson introductions.

Brianna Mazzella, a consultant with 2Partner who’s worked with Minnequa staff for four years, also dissects Colorado math standards with teachers to ensure they’re covering key pieces and building a solid foundation for the next big skill.

In April, she met with a fifth grade teacher to talk about long division, a skill students will be expected to master in sixth grade. They talked about the need in the last month of school to ensure students have a conceptual understanding of what division is, the language of division, and how estimation and knowledge of place values can give meaning to the rote rules that students also learn.

Mazzella said she wasn’t surprised by Minnequa’s math growth on state tests or that it earned a green state rating last fall. She knew how much work teachers did and saw the results in student work.

With a closure threat like the one Minnequa faced, she said, “You either rally or you don’t, and that building rallied.”

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Student use of artificial intelligence software stirs discussion in Michigan school districts

2023-04-27T22:48:45+00:00

The Detroit Public Schools Community District is updating its technology use policies to address concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence tools on student learning.

An early draft of the revised language says that the use of artificial intelligence and natural language processing software tools “without the express permission/consent of a teacher is considered to undermine the learning and problem-solving skills that are essential to a student’s academic success and that the staff is tasked to develop in each student.”

Unauthorized student use of such tools is a “form of plagiarism,” according to the draft language, which appears in the staff technology use policy but applies to students.

Newly powerful artificial intelligence software has generated a wave of publicity in recent months, for creating a photorealistic illustration of Pope Francis in a puffy white coat, for example, or composing fake pop songs purportedly by Drake and The Weeknd.

It has also stirred debate among school officials and educators about the impact, and risks, in the classroom. One tool — ChatGPT — can write essays and solve mathematical equations based on a user’s prompts, and across Michigan, educators are looking at the potential for misuse.

“It’s really relevant to what’s happening to the district,” DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said of the policy at a school board committee meeting Wednesday. “There’s a lot of conversation about tools that students now have access to that are sort of changing the landscape of writing and essays and classroom assignments.”

The DPSCD policy draft language doesn’t ban the use of programs like ChatGPT outright. Rather, it says that students can use these tools to conduct research, analyze data, translate texts in different languages, and correct grammatical mistakes, as long as they have teacher permission.

Ausha Mia, a senior at Detroit’s Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High School, said she hasn’t used or learned about ChatGPT or other artificial intelligence tools, but she would favor the district setting restrictions on how students use that technology.

She considers plagiarism to be the No. 1 problem at MLK, with some of her teachers deducting points from every student’s grades if other students are found to have cheated on an assignment. In other cases, they’ve just thrown away students’ papers.

MLK robotics teacher Carrie Russell said that her students have not caught on to ChatGPT, but that “it’s only a matter of time” before they do. Many are already savvy with other AI-powered apps such as Photomath and WolframAlpha, Russell said.

Meanwhile, districts in New York City and Los Angeles have gone further, blocking student access to ChatGPT on district computers and networks, while other districts continue to weigh the pros and cons of the technology.

In Michigan, educators are considering how artificial intelligence tools might be used to enhance teaching. In the Hemlock School District, three school administrators recently published a book titled “43 Ways to Be Less Lame as an Educator” about improving teaching with the assistance of ChatGPT. Hemlock Superintendent Don Killingbeck said the district is already planning to share tips and tools regarding artificial intelligence with its educators in a district professional development session this fall.

Dearborn Public Schools is “still evaluating the benefits, risks and implications of AI software such as ChatGPT,” said district spokesperson David Mustonen, adding that the issue has been “a topic of discussion at several meetings involving our principals, instructional leaders and information technology staff.”

Tom Lietz, an associate director with the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals, is optimistic about how AI can be used in the classroom. Commonplace learning tools, he said, such as Khan Academy are already incorporating AI software into their study guides.

“What’s really exciting about AI tools is the possibility for AI to provide real opportunities for student support,” Lietz said. “I think the big fear is, this is either going to replace teachers, or it’s going to make cheating rampant. And I think both of those are understandable concerns. But as time has proved, teachers and people are smarter and can adapt to it.”

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

As Illinois children struggle to read, lawmakers want the state to create a literacy plan

2023-04-24T22:26:50+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and statewide education policy.

Illinois may soon have to create a statewide literacy plan aimed at helping students learn how to read.

Several bills regarding literacy — backed by a coalition of education advocates, teachers, and parents — are currently moving through the state legislature. The bills would require the state board of education to create a literacy plan for school districts, create a rubric for districts to judge reading curriculum, and provide professional development for educators.

The Illinois Early Literacy Coalition has raised alarms about the lack of science of reading, which include phonics, in schools around the state. Some local schools use an approach called “balanced literacy,” which is based on a philosophy that reading is a natural process and mixes some phonics into “whole language” instruction.

That approach has come under fire in recent years, with some families and students taking action against school districts for not teaching students how to read. A group of Michigan students sued the state in 2020 for not providing them with a proper education. In recent years, a number of states, including Connecticut, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Delaware, have passed laws requiring phonics.

Members of the Illinois coalition have spoken at the State Board of Education’s monthly meetings and worked with legislators to create and push bills in Springfield this session. With just a month left of the legislative session, two of the six bills the coalition helped write are moving closer to passage.

The first bill, which has similar versions in the Senate and House, would require the State Board of Education to adopt a literacy plan for school districts by Jan. 31, 2024. The second bill, called the Literacy and Justice For All Act, would require the state board to create a rubric for districts to evaluate literacy curriculum and create professional development for educators.

The early literacy coalition and state officials spoke at a press briefing on Monday about the state of literacy in Illinois and how the bills will change how school districts teach literacy.

State Rep. Laura Faver Dias, a first-year lawmaker representing neighborhoods on the west side of Chicago, said she is sponsoring the Literacy and Justice For All Act in the House because she saw how the lack of science-based reading impacts students. Faver Dias taught high school history in Chicago Public Schools and said her students were not fluent readers. As a young teacher, she struggled with how to support them.

“There’s an ineffective reading curriculum that encourages students to guess from pictures and context clues, rather than decoding the words,” Faver Dias said. “By the time the students had come to me in high school, the words were more complex and the pictures were gone.”

Illinois test scores from the 2021-22 school year show that only 29.9% of students from third to eighth grades met state standards in reading, a 7.5 percentage point drop from 2019. Over the last year, parents, educators, and advocates have been pushing the state to focus on literacy.

If students are not proficient in reading by the end of third grade, they are four times more likely to drop out of school or fail to graduate, according to a national study.

This is a concern for parents such as Louise Dechovitz, a parent in Avoca School District 37. Dechovitz said her son has struggled with reading since kindergarten and required extra help during the school day. Still, Dechovitz said, he wasn’t improving.

When Dechovitz raised concerns, she said at the press briefing on Monday, she was often told not to worry, she just needed to keep reading to him and find books he liked. When her son was younger he loved story time, she said, but when he tried to read to himself he flipped through the books, simply reciting the words he memorized at school.

“Then he would throw the book across the room in anger,” she said. “He couldn’t decode those words”

In fourth grade, Dechovitz’s son failed his state exam and was falling further behind in reading, comprehension, spelling, and writing.

Dechovitz, whose family put in a lot of time and money to help her son learn how to read, said her son’s experience has fueled her advocacy around literacy. She wants to ensure that all children have access to effective literacy strategies.

Stony Brook University to spearhead Governors Island climate center

2023-04-24T18:26:46+00:00

This story was originally published on April 24 by THE CITY.

Governors Island may be isolated within New York City, but it’s poised to become a globally connected hub called the New York Climate Exchange, with a New York public university in charge.

Stony Brook University, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system, will spearhead a new 400,000-square-foot climate change research and education hub, the Trust for Governors Island announced Monday, anticipating 2028 as the opening date.

The Trust’s selection of the Long Island research institution culminates a two-year search for a steward. The project will transform a southern chunk of the island and is expected to usher in more frequent ferry service along with new open space for the public.

Stony Brook, working in partnership with other academic institutions, nonprofits, companies and community groups, aspires to use the hub as an idea incubator in New York City, then employ those concepts more widely.

“New Yorkers can come and authentically engage in issues of climate in a way that arms them with solutions that they can take back to their communities,” said Clare Newman, president and CEO of the Trust for Governors Island.

“It’s about creating really new ideas and technology that helps New York adapt to the climate crisis quickly, and then ultimately seeing that spread around the world because as we know this is a global problem,” Newman said.

The New York Climate Exchange will host academics working on climate projects — such urban resiliency and energy resources — along with students of all ages for educational programs and workforce training. It will have an incubator program for up to 30 businesses each year, as well as an accelerator program to launch initiatives that support communities especially affected by climate change.

The Trust selected Stony Brook’s proposal out of a dozen contenders. The SUNY school ultimately beat out two other teams of finalists: one led by CUNY and The New School, and another led by Northeastern University.

Newman said Stony Brook seemed the most able to bring together science and innovation with policy, advocacy and engagement work in order to see fast deployment of solutions.

Partners for engagement

Stony Brook University is teaming up with an array of partners that includes grassroots New York City community groups as well as other research institutions and private firms.

Academic partners Georgia Institute of Technology, Pace University, Pratt Institute, and University of Washington are on board, as are Boston Consulting Group and IBM.

The Manhattan nonprofit group Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES) is also on board to shape engagement efforts and programs.

Damaris Reyes, executive director of GOLES, hopes her organization’s involvement in the Exchange will benefit both the New Yorkers in her flood-prone neighborhood — which Hurricane Sandy hit hard — and the larger efforts to advance climate-related solutions. Reyes took her staff to Governors Island for a retreat in late 2020, and it was a day she remembers as “glorious.”

“When you’re there, you don’t really feel like you’re in the city, and those are experiences that I hope to translate to young people in my community and seniors,” she said. “I really have a vision that the Exchange will be a place where people can come learn.”

Other partners include CUNY, SUNY Maritime, New York University, the nonprofit WE ACT for Environmental Justice and the union SEIU Local 32BJ.

Stony Brook University President Maurie McInnis said that collaboration with partners beyond the academic realm is essential to developing workable responses to climate threats.

“To actually get to solutions, we need to figure out how to work across sectors,” McInnis said. “We need to … bring together community groups, higher education, policymakers and corporations to really design together, come up with solutions that will work and more quickly get those into the market, get them into the communities where they can make a difference.”

With a footprint in a place New Yorkers flock to for relaxation and recreation, the Exchange will also host free exhibitions and activities for Governors Island visitors, said McInnis.

Some of those programs will take place with partners even before the center’s expected 2028 opening.

McInnis envisioned exhibits that, for example, help people “think through the choices of whether they use plastic or glass or how long of showers they take, or what kinds of lights they are employing,” or get them thinking about “the absolute vital importance of protecting our waters and our oceans.”

With the development will come an additional 4.5 acres of new public open space as well as more frequent ferry service — with boats to run from Manhattan every 15 minutes instead of every half hour, starting in 2024.

Sustainable center

Located in the southeastern part of the island, the 400,000-square-foot campus will consist of labs, classrooms, an auditorium, housing for faculty and students, and hotel rooms, in both newly constructed buildings and renovated historic ones. All energy will be generated onsite, with systems to make use of rainwater and divert most waste away from landfills.

Newman pointed out that those elements align with the ethos of Governors Island, which is already home to sustainability efforts like the Billion Oyster Project and a compost learning center.

The center will also feature elevated buildings with floodable ground floors. As a low-lying land mass in New York Harbor, Governors Island remains vulnerable to effects of climate change, including storms and sea level rise. It saw nearly 14-foot-high storm surges during Hurricane Sandy, but is left out of a federal coastal protection plan.

The climate center — one of the first projects as part of a 2021 rezoning to allow for commercial development on part of the island, including hotels, offices and retail — will cost about $700 million, with $150 million committed from the city and Trust, $50 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies, plus $100 million from the Simons Foundation, a philanthropic group created by hedge fund manager and mathematician Jim Simons. The institutions involved in the Exchange must cover the rest of the development’s price tag.

‘Steps towards equity’

The Exchange will work closely with Governors Island-based New York Harbor School — a public high school with a curriculum focused on the maritime industry — and other New York City public schools to offer college-level courses and career development to students, as well as field trips and summer camps.

“The key thing is integrating industry, the workforce development partners and academia so that the training programs can be nimble and responsive,” Newman said.

Other workforce programs will take place in partnership with green jobs organizations working on offshore wind, solar energy and building retrofits, among other climate interventions.

“I do appreciate the idea that the city is looking to make Governors Island a place for environmental justice and workforce opportunities,” said Tonya Gayle, executive director of Green City Force, a nonprofit that teaches young public housing residents about sustainability through hands-on projects and plans to partner with the climate center. “The city is making intentional steps towards equity in all the things that we’re doing, including the sustainability of the city and being a model for replication for others.”

The administration of Mayor Eric Adams has supported the climate center’s development as part of his economic recovery efforts and anticipates it will create 7,000 permanent jobs.

Math can be intimidating. Here’s how the National Teacher of the Year shares stories to reach students.

2023-04-19T22:25:15+00:00

Six years ago, teacher Rebecka Peterson started spending a lot of extra time sitting and listening to her students.

Peterson, who teaches math at Union High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and was named the National Teacher of the Year on Wednesday, starts off the school year by sharing personal successes and struggles with her students. That includes what it was like to grow up as an immigrant of Swedish-Iranian descent who moved around a lot as a kid and got teased when she was learning to speak English.

Then she meets with each of her students over the course of several weeks, inviting them to tell her about whatever they’d like for at least 15 minutes. Peterson credits the exercise with helping more students pass her calculus class.

“I learned to show up, to receive whatever they entrusted to me,” Peterson wrote in her Teacher of the Year application. “Their stories brought me to my knees — nearly every student had undergone some form of adversity or trauma, often more monumental than anyone realized.”

Like many math teachers, Peterson knows what it’s like to fill in gaps for her students who missed out on instruction during the pandemic. But COVID teaching has stuck around in other ways for her, too.

When many of her calculus students were learning virtually in fall of 2020, Peterson created over 100 video lessons that allowed students to watch her solve problems, then stop to answer problems on their own. Before she went on sabbatical this year, Peterson was still assigning her students those videos to watch at home so they could spend more time in class working on problems together.

“I do math with them, not at them,” she wrote.

After news of her award broke, Chalkbeat spoke with Peterson about why math gets a “bad rap,” how she checks in on her students’ mental health, and why knowing more about her students helps her be a more patient teacher.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

I wanted to start by asking you about what it means to be honored as a high school math teacher. Math has been getting so much attention in the news right now as being something a lot of kids are struggling with. How might you add to the conversation, especially at a time when the country is paying close attention to how high schoolers are doing in math?

Math can get kind of a bad rap sometimes. For me, and every mathematician I know, mathematics is so beautiful. When we really get into the rhythm of it, we’re transported. But I think, oftentimes, there is so much content to teach, and our kids don’t get to feel that. That’s a conversation that I think we need to be having, about making sure that our teachers have the time and space to be able to showcase what math really is all about — which is creativity and collaboration and problem-solving.

The Gates Foundation, for example, did this study that showed a lot of folks think that math needs to be more relevant and tied to what students can see in the real world. [The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a supporter of Chalkbeat.] As a calculus teacher, do you feel like you need to make your math more relevant for your students?

The beautiful thing about calculus is it is so ubiquitous. We use it to figure out the average value of a Bitcoin over the last month, or model population growth, or if I’m drinking a cup of coffee right now, with my caffeine tolerance, when will my body allow me to fall asleep? I’m very lucky in that calc is already so applicable.

But I’m all for creating more pathways for our students to be able to see that application earlier on. We’ve had this track of Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, since I think 1892. It’s time to explore some more math pathways for our students so that they truly all feel like they are mathematicians. Because that is what I believe to my core — that every person is a math person.

You teach at a large urban high school, and many of your students come from low-income backgrounds. In your own math classrooms, how has the pandemic affected what you need to do for them and what they may be struggling with?

Kids have changed since the pandemic. There is this fascinating study out of Stanford. It suggests that perhaps we are now teaching an entire generation of students whose brains have been rewired a bit. And I think that we can’t ignore that.

For me, it’s really important that I connect to my students, that my students feel connected to me, and they feel connected to each other. That looks like teaching my students breathing techniques so they have that in their toolkit when they start to feel dysregulated. Doing gratitude journaling, helping them be the author of their own stories, and doing mental health check-ins — these small daily acts we do as teachers to open space for our students to be vulnerable allows them to know that we’re on their side and that we have been through a lot.

One of your teaching approaches is that you often ask students to share more about their backgrounds with you so that you can create that connection. Can you tell me more about why that’s been an effective tool for you in math?

With math, it can be a very intimidating subject for students. I have to push them pretty hard to do some really quite rigorous mathematics. If I am going to be able to do that, then they have to trust me. They have to know that I am on their side, that I’m not going to ask them to do something that they can’t eventually accomplish. That starts with being real and being vulnerable with them.

The first day of school, I share stories — both joys and sorrows — of my life. I think every single high schooler, at some point, has felt like an outsider. For me, it’s important to share those moments where I felt like an outsider, so that they understand that I know what that’s like, and I don’t want them to ever feel that in our space.

Then I just welcome them to come share their story. They’re invited to sign up for 15-minute time slots — before school, after school, during lunch — to tell me whatever they want. We talk about their family, their pets, their jobs, their clubs, their background with math and with school. Especially post-pandemic, those are heavy weeks. It’s a lot to sit with over 100 stories one-on-one. And it takes about 10 weeks to sit with every student, but once those 10 weeks are over, there is just this palpable change in the classroom.

Can you say more about that?

When I learn their story, I’m softened, and it empowers me to elevate their voice, and it empowers me to work even harder on their behalf because I know where they’re coming from. I think it makes me more patient. I come to the understanding that oftentimes a behavior that I’m not in love with in the moment is because there is a deeper story going on.

When you share things about yourself, what do students most connect with?

I think what really resonates is that I’m an immigrant, I’m the daughter of medical missionaries, so I moved a lot growing up. And not just to another state, we moved continent to continent. Moving that much, you feel like an outsider looking in. A lot of my students are immigrants, they are first-generation Americans, but even those that aren’t, they know what it’s like to be an outsider.

Every high schooler knows what it’s like to feel like they have to perform, they have to act, they have to earn their spot. That’s how I felt, oftentimes, growing up. And that’s exactly how I do not want them to feel in my classroom.

Kalyn Belsha is a national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

This Detroit teacher’s mission: Bring back school libraries

2023-04-17T17:33:46+00:00

Josie Silver didn’t hand-select her classroom at Detroit’s Palmer Park Preparatory Academy, but she found it awfully coincidental that the room used to be the school’s library.

Nearly two years ago, at her former elementary school in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, Silver used grant funding from the nonprofit First Book to supply her second grade classroom with books. Since then, she’s actively been wrestling with how to instill an early love of reading in her students. Her goal for the near future: Create a fully functioning library at Palmer Park, where she teaches first through third graders.

“The absence of libraries is an atrocity,” Silver said.

“I cannot believe how many schools — not just in Detroit, but in Michigan — do not have functional libraries. I do see them as like an artery of the school.”

As an early elementary teacher, Silver regularly considers how to meet the academic and personal needs of her students as the district works to support children who may have fallen several grades behind in reading during the pandemic.

Last fall, Silver was named a Michigan Collaborative Teacher Leader. Each year, the program, co-led by the Education Trust-Midwest and Teach Plus, picks 20 educators across the state to meet with lawmakers, share their classroom expertise, and learn more about statewide education policies.

Josie Silver is a first through third grade teacher at Palmer Park Preparatory Academy in Detroit.

Silver spoke with Chalkbeat about work-life balance, graduate school, embracing phonics in the classroom, and adjusting to teaching in a Montessori program at Palmer Park.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How and when did you decide to become a teacher?

I actually have a bachelor of science in environmental studies. The way the teaching licensure program works was that at the elementary level you could add a licensure to any major. I would tell people in all my teaching classes, ‘Well, I’m never actually going to be a classroom teacher. I’m going to do outdoor education stuff or something.’ And then, once I was actually in the classroom, it was like, ‘I really like this’.

Were you set on doing early education?

I would say that I feel really confident and comfortable in the early [elementary grades]. I think there’s something about younger students that is really earnest. They’re very excited to learn. And if you pump them up, they are 100% with you. Being able to teach students at a time in their life when they’re generally really excited about reading, excited about math, excited about, honestly, pretty much everything — you can help them meet challenges ... and you can also help them develop their own identity

You previously taught at Durfee Elementary-Middle School before moving to Palmer Park Preparatory Academy this school year to work in their Montessori program. What brought about the shift in schools?

I taught for three years in the city. And then I went back to grad school for two years at [University of Michigan]. So last year was my fourth year teaching but my first year teaching in the pandemic. Last year was one of the first years teaching second grade that I felt like I was not able to meet all of those really different needs of my students using whole-group instruction.

That was really, really hard, and it felt like I was doing a disservice to my students who maybe were significantly behind grade level. They were totally capable, but they just hadn’t been to school during the pandemic, and that’s why they were behind. What really interested me about the Montessori program was not only the amount of student independence and choice but that each learner is on their own individual learning path. Yes, they may be working on similar activities, but it is so much easier to give each student what they need, at their level, to really build a foundation before trying to jump them ahead five steps that they’re not quite ready for.

How do you feel about the challenge for educators like yourself to make up for reading deficiencies students may be coming into your classroom with?

Especially last year, there are times when you just have to step back and recognize that there are deep systemic issues that I’m not going to be able to solve within my classroom. But I’m going to do as much as I can for the student. While they’re in my care, l am their advocate. I can empathize with things that are going on at home with their family — maybe financial instability or difficulties with transportation or things like that.

I also recognize that I really need to impress and stress how important going to school is and the work that students do there, not only because they’re young and they’re learning but also because it has long-term ramifications for their life. I think one thing that I did way more last year, or at least tried to do last year, was to be in touch with parents and give parents updates on their student’s progress all the time.

I feel like one way to feel like you’re building a stronger community, which would lead to higher academic outputs, is through building strong relationships with families who may have not always had a good relationship with school themselves.

I wonder sometimes for teachers that going the extra mile with families, how do you find a balance?

After teaching for three years, I was in grad school for two years, and that felt like a really nice break. And one thing that I noticed was how much freer I felt. I didn’t realize I’ve been carrying around the weight of worrying about a lot of my students all the time and thinking about them and what they’re going to do. I think there’s a social-emotional weight that teachers carry that is often invisible, and we don’t realize that we’re always holding onto — that definitely creates burnout.

What was the impetus behind going back to school?

I felt like I had some experience teaching but didn’t always have time to dig into research and didn’t have time to reflect on my practice. Going back to school really gave me that time.

The reality is you’ve got stolen moments in a coffee room with your colleagues, or you get a few [professional development] days a year. And during those days, you’re like, ‘Man, I wish I could go do stuff in my room.’ And so, for me, I needed to almost just disconnect from the classroom, and that was the easiest way for me to be thoughtful in my reflection.

What were some of the biggest misconceptions that you brought into teaching?

I definitely had never truly taught phonics until last year. I wasn’t really trained on how to teach phonics in my school program. So I think this past year — really digging into all of the articles coming out about the science of reading and how people are restructuring phonics — that’s been a huge difference.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your classroom (or your school)?

My [third grade] students had been in kindergarten when they were first pulled out of school. When we went on our first field trip, a lot of them had never been on a school bus, and they were so excited. They had never had a picture day. I remember doing an activity around Martin Luther King Jr. Day last year about the dreams people have for the world. But several of them in my classroom were, like, ‘I dream that COVID is gone.’ And they were drawing people without masks. Because to them, COVID was such a significant portion of their life thus far.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received, and how have you put it into practice?

I think that people stressing to me that I can’t carry all the baggage a student comes with in my classroom, but I can teach them strategies and make school the safest place it can be for learning and living. I can try to check in with resources, but I can’t carry food insecurity, housing insecurity, too many siblings living in the same house, and things like that. I can focus on giving them as much care and attention as I can at school so that they can thrive academically.

Are there certain areas where you hope to leave an impact?

I would really like to be a part of creating a functional library at our school again. I know I can’t make funding for a librarian appear, but I am working to figure out how we can use both students and maybe volunteers so the burden isn’t imposed on staff.

It’s crazy to me that we look at literacy rates around the city, and we talk about curriculum, and I think those are important, but what about libraries? I think that they’re hugely important within schools, and I would really like to be a part of building ours back. I know several DPSCD schools that have done that in the past couple of years. Hopefully, that becomes a larger trend.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Meet the principal of NYC’s first district school exclusively for students who struggle to read

2023-04-12T22:28:04+00:00

In September, New York City’s education department plans to open the city’s first traditional public school exclusively devoted to students with dyslexia and other reading issues.

The new school, called South Bronx Literacy Academy, is the culmination of years of advocacy from a handful of parent advocates who watched their own children flounder without adequate reading instruction and argued the city does not have a systematic approach to reading instruction.

Their goal was to coax the city to build classrooms similar to what’s offered at private programs, like The Windward School, which specialize in intensive literacy instruction but are often out of reach for families without the time or resources to secure private tuition reimbursement from the city.

Parents Jeannine Kiely, Ruth Genn, Emily Hellstrom, Akeela Azcuy (left to right) helped push the city to launch a school geared toward students who struggle with reading.

The group helped persuade the city to launch a pilot program this school year to test out a version of the model in an existing public school, P.S. 161. And they even started their own nonprofit, the Literacy Academy Collective, which has helped support the effort.

Now, pending likely approval from the city’s Panel for Educational Policy on April 19, the city is planning to transform the pilot program into a fully-fledged school (a charter school on Staten Island has a similar mission).

Chalkbeat recently caught up with South Bronx Literacy Academy’s inaugural principal, Bethany Poolman, to learn more about her vision, how the school plans to serve students who are behind in reading, and why the city wants to create a school specifically for students with literacy challenges.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tell us just a little bit about yourself. How did you get interested in leading a school geared toward serving students with reading challenges?

Yeah, so I’ve been with the DOE for 18 years. I taught in District 9 in the Bronx for 10 years at a middle school [as a] special education teacher. I had a lot of students who really struggled to read who were really behind grade level. I was Wilson trained [a more structured approach to literacy instruction], I applied for an outside grant at one point. I received like $15,000 from a company and I started a breakfast club program. And I was essentially doing structured literacy practices before they were termed structured literacy.

Bethany Poolman

I had kids coming in before school doing these [Orton-Gillingham] practices [a structured approach to literacy instruction], looking at breaking apart words, word cards, pseudo word reading and things like nonsense words. I really was interested in helping kids that were unable to read or really far behind grade level to catch up to become proficient readers.

And then fast forward. I was an assistant principal in the South Bronx in District 7 for seven years. I had the opportunity to learn and grow the admin side of the work. And when this opportunity presented itself in District 7, that I know and love, it was just an awesome opportunity.

Tell me a little bit about this particular school’s design. What makes it different from a traditional elementary school? I know, for instance it’s starting with students in second and third grade.

What we’re doing is we’re taking what in other schools are tier two and tier three intervention practices. When I say that, I’m talking about students who [struggle] get pulled out or get put into small groups and they receive additional supports, additional services to help them close the gap. And we’re taking those practices that are in other schools often in tier two and tier three, and we are making them part of our tier one model. So tier one being instruction that everybody receives.

So, in terms of foundational reading skills and what we know works in terms of the science of reading, we are ensuring that kids have at least 90 minutes a day of foundational skills as their tier one literacy instruction.

In addition to that we’re also bringing social emotional skills and strategies and executive functioning strategies — thinking about things like time management, organization, prioritization, skills that children need in order to access the information in order to tap into their learning, and so we’re bringing those as well to tier one.

In terms of how you achieve that more intensive kind of small group model for all students — what does that take?

There are some points we’re still working out with the Department of Ed, but all of our classrooms are ICT [Integrated Co-Teaching] classrooms. So all classrooms will have two teachers. Budgeting modifications are still being worked out. But we’re looking to have speech and language pathologists and occupational therapists next year. Instead of our speech and language pathologist working in isolation down the hall in their office pulling children out, they’ll be pushing in as the integrated language teacher within the classroom.

Is there a specific curriculum you all plan to use for reading instruction?

I think we’re still working with the Department of Ed to make final decisions on our curriculum. We are partnered with the Literacy Academy Collective and The Windward School and they are using PAF [a curriculum also known as Preventing Academic Failure]. So we are planning to continue our work with PAF, which is an Orton-Gillingham based program.

What’s the goal of launching a school specifically designed for students who struggle with reading? Is it mostly just about the 60 to 80 students who are projected to enroll next year or is there a broader goal here in terms of sharing practices with other schools?

The truth is that all kids deserve to learn to read. We do believe that is a civil right and so we want to ensure that our children are given the tools to be successful and to become proficient readers. I think there are many initiatives that are being performed by the Department of Ed right now to address that.

And I think, you know, there’s a lot of great things happening across the whole city. I think we are unique because we are the first standalone district public school [devoted to students who are struggling readers]. We are really a school that is designed for students who have been struggling and have been struggling for a while, right. So kids that may have been in an intervention pull out model, and just need more, and who need more intense support. We’re working in partnership with everything that’s already happening across the DOE, and we’re just serving a specific population that may need more.

To be admitted to South Bronx Literacy Academy, “a student must either present formal documentation of dyslexia, or demonstrate a pattern of reading challenges consistent with dyslexia through an assessment process conducted by the DOE.” Given that it can be time consuming and expensive to get a dyslexia diagnosis, and many parents of young children may not know that their children are struggling readers, how will you ensure that the school won’t end up serving families who have resources and know how to navigate those systems?

The Department of Ed specifically placed this school in the Bronx, right in the South Bronx in District 7. It’s an effort to ensure that students [who] may not have access to all the same resources as other students get first dibs, if you will, at this opportunity.

We don’t expect many students to have that formal diagnosis. We are creating an additional resource for students that need additional support that’s not District 75 [a specialized group of schools that serve students with more complex disabilities].

Given that second and third grade aren’t super common entry points, how are you imagining students getting funneled to the school?

Parents will choose this option. No one is funneling children anywhere. Parents choose if this is an appropriate place where they would like to apply for their child to be first and foremost. We are trying to make sure that we spread the word and I think it will take time. I think families will trust us more once we’re established, and we have a proven track record of success. We are trying to spread the word and make sure both internally in the DOE and externally with families that we’re an option for them.

Will the school have specific set asides for students with disabilities or low-income families or anything like that?

So priority is given to students residing in the Bronx. So anyone within the city can apply but priority is given to any student with again, we’re an ICT-based model. So all of our classrooms are inclusion, co-taught classrooms, so we will have seats for both students with IEPs and students without IEPs [individualized education program for students with disabilities].

Our class size is 18, so we [have] smaller class sizes to also ensure reading supports. And so, if our class size is 18, we can have no more than 11 [general education] students and no more than seven special education students. But we are looking to serve the families that want to support their children. [An education department spokesperson said 40% of the school’s students will have disabilities, but there are not specific targets for other student groups.]

A major premise of special education is that students with learning challenges should be in classrooms with typically developing students as much as possible, but it also seems like a premise of this school is that it is intended to be the case that 100% of the students there have reading challenges. I’m wondering how you’re thinking about inclusion in that context and why the school wasn’t set up to be more of a mix of students with reading challenges and students without reading challenges?

It’s important to understand it’s an iterative process. We have the pilot work this year. We’ve been really pleased with some of the progress monitoring growth that’s coming out of the pilot, It’s a new endeavor — we want to get back to the basics and back to some solid reading instruction for kids that need that.

Part of the hope is that by addressing some of these issues sooner — by pulling in the [general education], and giving them more intensive reading supports, we don’t need to mislabel children. We don’t need to say the only process, the only avenue, is for this child to get an IEP and to, you know, receive this traditional set of services. We can provide support and help them reach proficiency.

Is the goal to grow beyond second and third graders?

At scale, the school will be serving students in second to eighth grade. So we’ll start with second and third and then we’ll grow year over year and expand up to eighth grade. Schools like Windward they’re pretty clear: that they take students in, they’re putting out a fire, right? They teach them how to read and then they reenter them back into community or independent schools as quickly as possible.

I’m curious how you’re going about finding teachers and what kind of training you’re expecting your teachers to have?

The Literacy Academy Collective have been amazing partners in this work, and we didn’t really get to talk about that, but they, you know, they’re a nonprofit founded by parents of students with dyslexia. They really understand this teacher training piece. And so they have been working in partnership with DOE to ensure that over the summer, teachers work alongside Windward teachers and receive at least the initial training and support that’s required to get started in this.

Is it those teachers who are doing the pilot now who are going to be teachers at the [new] school?

It’s a new school, so everyone needs to apply. It has yet to be posted, so when it’s officially posted, any licensed teacher can apply.

Anything else you want to share?

I’m really excited for this work. I’m grateful that the DOE has given me this opportunity. I’m grateful that the [Literacy Academy Collective] is here, in partnership with the work, and I think we’re just gonna — bleep it out I don’t know — we’re gonna make a really kick ass school. It’s gonna be a great place for kids.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Educators: Help us investigate the reading and math curriculums NYC plans to mandate

2023-04-03T21:38:50+00:00

New York City may soon require hundreds of public schools to change how they teach reading and math, marking a significant shift from the freedom schools have long enjoyed in choosing their own materials.

The city has not yet publicly announced any changes. But sources familiar with the education department’s plans said the city is planning to roll out three reading curriculums in nearly half of the city districts next school year with the rest to follow the year after that. The reading curriculums include: Wit & Wisdom, from a company called Great Minds; Into Reading from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; and Expeditionary Learning, from EL Education.

The city is also rolling out a standardized algebra curriculum from Illustrative Mathematics in at least 150 high schools, sources said.

Some city classrooms already use these curriculums, but many more could soon be required to adopt them. Chalkbeat wants to hear from educators who already use them to learn more about their strengths and weaknesses.

If you’re a teacher or school leader who has experience with any of the curriculums mentioned above, please fill out this form to tell us more. And if you haven’t used those curriculums, you can still use the survey to let us know what questions you think we should investigate about the city’s curriculum plans.

If you are having trouble viewing this form, go here.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago wants schools to adopt a new $135 million curriculum. It is getting high marks and pushback.

2023-03-31T11:00:00+00:00

When Andrew Avila landed his first teaching job at Chicago’s Bronzeville Classical Elementary in 2021, he got to work creating lesson plans for his students, who would be returning to in-person learning amid the pandemic.

The newly minted science teacher had access to Skyline, a new online curriculum created by Chicago Public Schools. It offered a wealth of materials and ideas connecting science to his students’ experiences. A lesson on thermal energy, for example, explained how air conditioner units increase summertime temperatures in Chicago.

Chicago teacher Andrew Avila, who uses Skyline at Bronzeville Classical Elementary, has occasionally felt overwhelmed by the volume of resources on the platform.

But at times, Avila felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of lessons and other materials, housed on a digital platform that could be tough to navigate.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m drinking water from a firehose because there are so many resources I can turn to,” Avila said.

CPS is betting big that Skyline — the unprecedented $135 million trove of lessons in math, reading, science, social studies, and other subjects — will help students bounce back from COVID’s profound academic damage.

The curriculum remains voluntary for schools, but the district has started pressing campuses that have not yet adopted Skyline to prove they have other quality curriculums in place.

An analysis by Chalkbeat and WBEZ found that roughly half of the district’s campuses report using Skyline for at least two subjects, with the highest adoption rates at schools that serve predominantly low-income Black students. In other words, Skyline is shaping the learning of tens of thousands of students, including some of Chicago’s most vulnerable, amid a high-stakes pandemic recovery.

District leaders say that by ensuring students get lessons that reflect their grade levels, Skyline helps teachers speed up learning rather than constantly backtracking to material students should have learned earlier. Some educators praise Skyline for offering rich resources that help novice educators such as Avila hit the ground running and seasoned ones rejuvenate their teaching.

But others say the curriculum is not ready for prime time. A wonky digital platform can make it hard for teachers to navigate a slew of lessons and assignments that many say can be overwhelming. In some subjects, student materials include dense blocks of text with few visuals that can especially challenge struggling learners.

The district says it is continually strengthening the curriculum — created in-house with help from several curriculum companies — with input from educators and students, including recent improvements to the online platform. Still, some educators remain wary of a centralized curriculum in a district that has traditionally given teachers leeway to design their own lessons.

Getting the Skyline rollout right is enormously important, say curriculum experts such as David Steiner at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Education. He notes that many teachers are routinely pulling materials off the web, acting “like DJs for playlists of instructional materials” — a task that’s unfair to lay on overworked educators and one that leaves students’ education to chance.

“In this moment of fragility and uncertainty, we need to reduce the zone of ‘anything goes’ and chaos, and, ‘This is my unique curriculum and my unique classroom,’” he said.

How a uniquely Chicago curriculum originated

In Chicago, wealthier schools have often been able to buy quality learning resources while low-income campuses made do with cobbled-together or outdated materials and books.

Former Chicago schools chief Janice Jackson saw a solution: a curriculum bank filled with high-quality lessons in every subject. She said it could tackle massive disparities in academic achievement across the city’s 500-some district-run campuses. What’s more, by developing it in-house, experts could tie in Chicago’s history and present day, making it more engaging for students.

The district enlisted five companies to help develop and implement the lessons and built-in assessments, with input from some Chicago teachers. It came to draw heavily on federal COVID-19 relief dollars to foot the six-year, $135 million bill. Ultimately, Skyline — and the technology it relies on — became some of the priciest items the district bought from outside vendors with pandemic recovery dollars.

Chicago formally launched Skyline in the summer of 2021, a couple of weeks before Jackson stepped down.

Javee Hernandez teaches her sixth grade students social studies using the new Skyline curriculum at Bronzeville Classical Elementary School.

That summer, Javee Hernandez — a veteran social studies teacher at Bronzeville Classical whose classroom is across the hall from Avila’s — joined principal Nicole Spicer and other school leaders in deciding whether to adopt the new curriculum. Bronzeville Classical, a test-in school on the South Side where students learn a grade ahead of their age, had opened just a few years earlier, in 2018.

The administration felt the school’s math and reading coursework was strong, but social studies and science could benefit from a revamp. Enter Skyline.

“This was a free, high-quality, rigorous option,” said Spicer. “Skyline became a resource that really was a no-brainer for us.”

The district has offered schools like Bronzeville a slew of incentives to opt into Skyline: free books and math supplies, dollars to spend on science lab equipment, expanded access to technology. But even as Bronzeville has embraced Skyline, other schools have been more cautious.

Schools skipping Skyline must defend their choice

One elementary school principal who left the district last year said she was asked to make a case that her school’s English language arts curriculum passed muster.

She and her teachers largely agreed the school would benefit from adopting Skyline in the later grades; after two years of pandemic schooling, educators felt drained and ready for a break from the labor-intensive process of designing lessons from scratch. But in the earlier grades, the principal compiled test scores and other data to argue that her teachers should be allowed to continue using their own lessons. The district agreed.

“They don’t come out and say, ‘You have to do it,’” the principal said. “But if you can’t prove your school is using a high-quality curriculum, then the pressure is on to adopt Skyline.”

Chalkbeat and WBEZ are not naming several school leaders who did not have district permission to speak with the media; the former principal asked to remain anonymous to avoid burning bridges with the district.

A high school principal said she asked most of her teachers to take last school year to “tinker” with Skyline and do the extensive professional development the district offers. But she has mandated it for a few teachers who did not have robust lesson plans and struggled in the classroom.

This year, the district asked schools to evaluate their curriculums across the board against a district rubric that defined what made for a quality curriculum and recently shared results with principals: Roughly 20% of campuses do not have quality curriculums in reading, math, or social studies, and about 10% do not have one in science.

Mary Beck, the district’s head of teaching and learning, said the district is now working with those campuses to make a plan.

“If you don’t have a high-quality curriculum, what’s your plan to get to a high-quality curriculum?” she said. “Skyline is obviously the example, but not the only example.”

The number of schools adopting Skyline is growing each year. As of January, as many as 432 schools were using the curriculum for at least one subject, roughly 83% of all district schools.

In elementary schools, the English curriculum is the most popular and math is the least (not including world languages, which are not offered by all campuses).

Majority Black schools have adopted the curriculum at the highest rates. Campuses that serve mostly white students — only about two dozen districtwide — have been slowest to embrace Skyline, Chalkbeat and WBEZ found.

In Chicago, 432 schools have adopted Skyline for at least one subject, with majority Black schools using the curriculum at the highest rates.

Skyline adoption has also been slower at high schools, though some high-needs South and West side campuses were early adopters across all subjects.

A couple of principals told Chalkbeat and WBEZ they opted in mostly just to get the free resources from the district.

The high school principal said her school adopted Skyline in all subjects, but buy-in varies.

On one end of the spectrum, science teachers at her school really like the curriculum, which draws heavily on the well-respected curriculum called Amplify Science, and have rolled it out faithfully.

On the other end, English teachers dabbled but ultimately returned mostly to lessons they had developed previously. Social science teachers found the materials too challenging for struggling readers; some are picking and choosing parts to incorporate.

Some teachers struggle to navigate Skyline

Caprice Phillips-Mitchell, the chair of the Chicago Teachers Union elementary steering committee and a kindergarten teacher at Fort Dearborn Elementary School on the South Side, said she hears from a number of teachers who are unhappy with Skyline. And this school year, she experienced some of the problems herself.

Phillips-Mitchell said parts of the Skyline curriculum are too challenging for students or require prior knowledge teachers need to fill in. Because online lessons and assignments are not “user friendly,” teachers say they are printing out the lessons and making copies. Sometimes when teachers try to go back to a lesson, it is gone and replaced with something new.

She said her school was told it must adopt Skyline. That meant she had to stop using an English language arts curriculum she and other teachers liked. Phillips-Mitchell says she believes schools serving low-income students of color are facing more pressure to adopt Skyline.

“Why give anyone a curriculum that’s not really ready to be rolled out?” she said. “Do you do it in some of these Black and brown communities that may not have such a voice?”

The Chicago Teachers Union applauds the district’s effort to create a curriculum bank. But chief of staff Jen Johnson said it is problematic that some teachers are being told that it’s mandatory, while district leaders insist it is not.

“The unevenness of implementation means that teachers are experiencing dramatically different messages,” she said. “We do not support this being some kind of citywide mandated curriculum that takes away important teacher autonomy.”

Johnson said staff need more planning time to consider and digest a new curriculum in order to buy into it and implement it well. She often hears about problems with the online interface or mistakes in the materials. For example, one social studies lesson somehow omitted an entire state.

Teachers and educators across the district interviewed by Chalkbeat and WBEZ echoed the concerns about the platform and what many said is an overwhelming amount of resources. The platform is designed by a company named SAFARI Montage.

The former elementary school principal said she understands the good intention of offering teachers a wealth of resources to choose from, but “Skyline is overly packed with lessons. It’s really too much information for teachers.”

A couple of educators told Chalkbeat and WBEZ that because the Skyline platform was frustrating to use, they instead accessed math materials directly on the website for Illustrative Math, the curriculum that the district adapted for Skyline — essentially defeating the purpose of having a district math curriculum.

A current West Side elementary principal said his teachers largely moved away from using the Skyline reading curriculum in the early grades — with his blessing — because of some of these frustrations. His school sprang for a different early literacy curriculum this year.

Other educators say some of the materials for students have dense text and few engaging visuals. Much of the curriculum is translated into Spanish, but there are questions about how well-suited the lessons are for English language learners. And some teachers say it can be too challenging to make the lessons accessible for students reading below grade level, especially at the high school level.

Bronzeville Classical Principal Nicole Spicer believes that Skyline has made her teachers’ jobs easier and made lessons more engaging for students.

At Bronzeville Classical, teachers and Spicer, the principal, say they can relate to some of these concerns. But they also feel strongly the district has been listening and making helpful changes — and overall, Skyline has enriched their teaching and made their work easier.

Earlier this winter, sixth graders in Hernandez’s classroom learned about how rugged mountain geography influenced the early engineering of the ancient Inca people. She took the Skyline lesson on the topic and made it her own, creating engaging slides with stunning images of the Andes mountains.

Skyline, Hernandez says, has helped her cut down significantly on the time she used to spend on nights and weekends looking for lesson materials online.

Later, students explored design and engineering by the Spartans and ancient Greeks — culminating in a discussion of how these long-gone cultures influence design in present-day Chicago, such as its Soldier Field.

“They’re able to make that connection with the past and the present, which is really neat,” Hernandez said.

Javee Hernandez’s adoption of Skyline has saved her time on curriculum development over nights and weekends.

Beck, the teaching and learning head, says the digital curriculum was designed to be revised and improved quickly in response to teacher and student feedback. District leaders meet regularly with a steering committee of 120 teachers to get ongoing feedback. Beck said the district worked with SAFARI Montage to improve the platform and revamped some courses and units. It’s now focusing on upgrading materials meant for students.

Isabella Kelly, a member of a districtwide student advisory group, said fellow students had both positive feedback and suggestions for improving Skyline during a focus group on the science and French curriculums she hosted last spring.

Kelly, an Ogden High senior and student leader with the group Mikva Challenge, said students found the lessons engaging and loved the opportunities to collaborate on projects and work in small groups. But they also sometimes struggled navigating the online platform.

“The biggest challenge they faced was learning along with their teachers,” she said. “They wanted a little more assistance.”

Skyline is a key tool for academic recovery, district leaders say

In a recent webinar, district leaders reminded principals that rolling out a new curriculum is a heavy, time-consuming lift, and urged them not to get discouraged by the “growing pains,” as Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova put it.

By keeping lessons and assignments squarely on grade levels, the curriculum can play a key part in COVID academic recovery, officials have said. It’s encouraging teachers to avoid constantly reteaching material from earlier grades — an approach shown to hamper academic catchup. That’s challenging work, Beck acknowledged, but the schools can layer other support, such as a specialized program for struggling readers called Wilson.

Beck said Chicago has worked with a group of curriculum experts to continually evaluate Skyline and better understand its impact on student outcomes, but that’s still a work in progress. The University of Chicago is studying whether the curriculum is paying off in early literacy improvements.

Steiner, at Johns Hopkins, says he is generally skeptical of the enormous energy and expense that go into creating an in-house curriculum in all subjects given the quality of off-the-shelf curriculums — especially if the district makes it voluntary. But he said rallying around a strong curriculum, particularly the collaborative work of teachers adopting it as grade level or subject matter teams, can be powerful for urban districts such as Chicago.

Some educators say that in a district where top leadership has been in flux for years and initiatives come and go, they are reluctant to buy into Skyline in a big way.

But Chkoumbova said the district knows adoption is a “long and hard process for schools,” and Skyline is here to stay.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Sarah Karp covers education for WBEZ. Follow her on Twitter @WBEZeducation and @sskedreporter.

NYC to mandate reading curriculum for elementary schools and high school algebra, sources say

2023-03-28T23:00:17+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for our free New York newsletter to keep up with NYC’s public schools.

New York City education officials plan to take a stronger hand in what curriculums educators can use in their classrooms, a move that could represent a major shift in how the nation’s largest school system approaches teaching and learning, Chalkbeat has learned.

The education department recently began laying the groundwork for superintendents to choose from three reading programs to use across their districts. It is also launching a standardized algebra program in many high schools. The plans have not been announced publicly, but were confirmed by four education department employees familiar with the city’s literacy efforts and multiple school leaders.

Principals historically have enjoyed enormous leeway to select curriculums. Proponents argue this allows schools to stay nimble and select materials appropriate to their specific student populations. But some experts, and even the city’s own schools chancellors, have argued that the approach can lead to a tangle of instructional practices that can vary widely in quality from classroom to classroom.

Now, officials are taking steps to rein in the city’s free-wheeling approach to curriculum. Beginning next school year, elementary schools in about half of the city’s 32 districts will be required to use one of three reading programs: Wit & Wisdom, from a company called Great Minds; Into Reading from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; or Expeditionary Learning, from EL Education.

By September 2024, city officials are expected to require all elementary schools to use one of those three options, according to an education department official familiar with the city’s plans.

Local superintendents will determine which curriculum is appropriate for their elementary schools, and some principals said they’ve already learned their superintendent’s selection. Separately, the city is rolling out a standardized algebra curriculum from Illustrative Mathematics at more than 150 high schools.

Still, the planned shift has already prompted pushback from some principals and their union. And some observers and education department officials wonder whether elements of the policy will ultimately change or be dialed back.

Standardized curriculums draw cheers and jeers

Schools Chancellor David Banks has made literacy a centerpiece of his administration and has demonstrated he’s willing to issue top-down curriculum directives.

This year, Banks required all elementary schools to use an approved phonics curriculum, which schools often deploy in 30-minute blocks, on top of their reading curriculum. Now, many schools may be required to overhaul their fundamental approach to reading instruction, something Banks has repeatedly said would be necessary to address poor reading outcomes. Roughly half of students in grades 3-8 are not reading proficiently according to state tests.

School leaders and experts said the effort to standardize reading curriculums has some clear benefits. If there are fewer curriculums deployed across the city’s sprawling network of elementary schools, the education department can play a stronger role in making sure high-quality materials and training are available to more teachers. And when students or teachers switch schools, there’s less need for them to start from scratch with new materials.

“I’m in favor of more universality,” said Susan Neuman, a literacy expert at New York University and member of the education department’s Literacy Advisory Council. “It allows teachers to begin to collaborate more and develop a shared language. We haven’t had that.”

But the policy change is also raising alarms.

Some department administrators say there has been limited communication about how carefully those three curriculums were chosen. One of the curriculums, Into Reading, was criticized in a NYU report for not being culturally responsive. There have also been scarce details about how thousands of educators will be trained on new instructional approaches. Others noted that educators and families have had little opportunity to provide input.

One central education department administrator who spoke on condition of anonymity said more standardization isn’t bad in theory, but implementing a new curriculum that educators haven’t yet taught comes with challenges.

“It’s like telling a basketball coach to go coach football,” the administrator said. “I’m not sure there are the instructional supports needed to make it successful.”

The move would also require elementary schools to abandon a controversial curriculum called Units of Study, written by Lucy Calkins of Columbia University’s Teachers College, multiple department administrators said. Hundreds of elementary schools used that curriculum before the pandemic hit, according to an investigation by Chalkbeat and THE CITY.

A growing chorus of experts, including Banks, have dismissed the approach as ineffective for many young children, but some schools still believe they are getting results with it. Requiring schools to ditch Calkins’ curriculum would represent a dramatic change on many campuses and is likely to spark fierce resistance.

Henry Rubio, the president of the Council of School Supervisors & Administrators, said officials at his union have asked the education department whether they will provide exemptions from the curriculum mandate for schools that have a strong track record. They have not yet received a reply but plan to meet with department officials this week.

The union, which represents principals and other administrators, has also raised concerns about a looming deadline early next month for purchasing materials. Though multiple officials said they expect the education department to pay for new reading curriculum materials, rather than requiring principals to pay for it out of their budgets, some school leaders are not sure whether they’ll be able to continue using their existing curriculums next year and whether they should be preparing to buy materials, Rubio said.

“We believe it may already be too late for many schools to begin the preparation and training necessary to effectively launch new curriculum in the 2023-2024 school year,” union officials wrote in a newsletter to members last week. “CSA continues to escalate principals’ objections about superintendents mandating curriculum to the Chancellor’s team. As instructional leaders, principals know what is best for their school community.”

A spokesperson for the city’s teachers union did not reply to a request for comment.

Details on instructional changes remain scarce

Kevyn Bowles, principal of New Bridges Elementary School in Brooklyn, said his school currently uses the Units of Study curriculum created by Calkins and that elementary schools in his district would be required to transition to Into Reading. Calkins’ curriculum is popular in part because of training that schools can pay for from Teachers College that provides extensive coaching to educators.

“I do want to be fighting for schools to have curricular autonomy,” Bowles said. “Teachers put a lot of work into turning the program into actual plans and practice, and so switching to something new without understanding why is just going to be pretty globally unpopular.”

Other school leaders said a more standardized approach could hold some promise. Matt Brownstein, an assistant principal at P.S. 330 in Queens, said his school already uses Into Reading, which is also the curriculum that the superintendent there plans to mandate.

Although Brownstein acknowledged that the curriculum does not include many texts that reflect the experience of New York City’s diverse student body, he said he appreciates that it includes materials in Spanish, which the school uses in its dual-language program.

Brownstein noted that switching curriculums will be a disruptive process on some campuses, and he can see arguments for schools retaining more flexibility. But teachers are generally not given the resources they need to design quality curriculum materials, and providing a more standardized set of options could yield dividends, he said

“Considering all the variables, is it the right move?” he asked. “Probably.”

An education department spokesperson, Nathaniel Styer, did not respond to questions about the curriculum mandates, including the rationale for them, how many schools would be required to change, or how the city plans to train educators in time for the fall.

“We are currently engaging educators, parents, and advocates on how to address proficiency rates with urgency and best ensure that our students and our educators have what they need to succeed,” Styer wrote in an email. “We will have more to say after our engagement.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney contributed.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

How literacy and the ‘science of reading’ get a big lift from bus drivers at an Indiana school

2023-03-27T11:00:00+00:00

Indiana’s 2023 legislative session is under way, and state legislators have introduced more than 100 new education bills and bills impacting schools and students. For the latest Indiana education news, sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free newsletter here.

On a recent Thursday morning at KIPP Indy Unite Elementary in Indianapolis, a bus driver doubling as a tutor held up a flashcard to two elementary school students.

“What is this?” she asked.

The flashcard featured an illustration of a table. The students, a boy and a girl, piped up with answers.

“A door,” the girl said.

“No, that’s a table,” said the boy, earning a nod of approval. The tutor asked the pair another question: What letter does the word “table” start with, and what sound does it make?

The students quickly identified the letter. But taking its sound out of context proved more challenging. The tutor gave the students a few moments to guess before articulating the word herself.

“T-t-table,” she said, emphasizing the phoneme. The students repeated after her, connecting the letter “T’ with its sound.

At KIPP Indy Public Schools in Indianapolis, using bus drivers as tutors was an unusual idea spurred by the pandemic. In October 2022, when struggles with reading among K-3 students prompted the school to find solutions, KIPP started the program. Each morning, students are pulled out of class into the hallway for 10 to 20 minutes to practice literacy skills such as sight words and phonics.

It’s one approach to teaching using the science of reading, a body of research about how children learn to read. While some reading programs teach students to read by guessing a word based on a picture or using context clues, schools in Indiana and across the country are increasingly adopting curriculum that directly teaches the relationship between sounds, letters, and words.

In 2022, national reading and math exams showed only 33% of Indiana fourth graders and 31% of eighth graders were proficient in reading. These scores are similar to nationwide scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which revealed 37% of students performed below NAEP’s basic standard. The results underscore students’ struggles in reading that educators and lawmakers say is partially due to inadequate, outdated methods of teaching.

The consequences of flawed reading instruction go beyond test scores. Third graders who are not proficient in reading are four times more likely to not graduate high school on time or drop out completely, according to the Indiana State Board of Education’s Indiana Student Achievement Report.

Educators and lawmakers alike want to counter such trends. A major financial investment and a series of bills in the Indiana statehouse look to provide science of reading instruction to teachers, and some support mandating the science of reading within the state.

Science of reading emphasis grows in Indiana

Since 2011, Indiana has largely allowed school districts to decide which core reading program to use.

But one teaching method has been the target of significant criticism recently. The “three-cueing model,” which encourages students to make educated guesses at words using context clues, has been largely disproven by cognitive scientists but is still widely used by schools around the country.

Andrea Setmeyer, national chapter coordinator for The Reading League Indiana, said schools have traditionally failed to separate word recognition and reading comprehension.

“We’ve relied on strategies like guessing or looking at the first letter and thinking ‘what would make sense here?’ and those strategies are not what skilled readers do,” Setmeyer said. “What we need to do is look at those as two separate components that we’re building simultaneously.”

Karrianne Polk-Meek, director of the Literacy Center at the Indiana Department of Education, said the science of reading focuses on five key elements: phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

“Over time, some curriculum that has been used or different structures that have been used really reinforced some of the elements, but not necessarily all five,” she said.

Several states have already implemented or are looking to implement the science of reading in schools, many of which have shown significant improvements in reading rates.

Nearly a decade ago, Mississippi fourth graders ranked 49th in the nation for reading proficiency. But after the state hired literacy coaches and focused instruction around the science of reading, it was ranked first in the nation for reading gains by 2019.

While the research behind the science of reading has been around for decades, Setmeyer said such knowledge has often been confined to fields like cognitive psychology and linguistics, rather than education, where teachers could benefit from it.

But following encouraging results from states like Mississippi — and American Public Media’s “Sold a Story” podcast, which investigated authors who push disproven teaching methods — the science of reading is gaining traction.

Last August, Indiana announced a $111 million investment in literacy through a partnership with the Lilly Endowment. The investment — the state’s largest-ever commitment to literacy development — supports training educators in science of reading instruction, and incorporating science of reading methods into undergraduate teacher preparation programs.

The Indiana Department of Education also launched a partnership to place reading coaches in 54 schools across the state to support K-2 teachers as they lead instruction rooted in the science of reading. Currently, 43 schools are participating in the pilot program, and more are being recruited for the 2023-24 cohort, Polk-Meek said. (KIPP is not part of the program.)

Indiana mulls changes to teacher prep and licensing

Lawmakers are considering whether to go a step further.

Senate Bill 402, authored by GOP Sen. Aaron Freeman, would prohibit schools from using the three-cueing model and require them to adopt curriculum based on the science of reading. The bill would also require people to pass foundational reading exams to get a teaching license.

Freeman, who has two children under 13, said he was inspired to write the bill after seeing the struggles students like his own faced when it comes to reading.

“These kids are not going to learn by guessing,” he said. “They’re only going to learn if they have phonemic awareness, if they’re able to sound words out, break words down.”

If Freeman’s legislation, which has passed the Senate, becomes law, it would go into effect for the 2024-25 school year.

Other proposed bills also address the science of reading: House Bill 1558 creates a science of reading grant fund, while House Bill 1590 includes teacher preparation and licensing requirements for the approach.

The second bill underscores that putting the science of reading into practice across the state would mean not only a shift in how students learn, but how teachers learn, too.

Kelly Williams, an assistant professor of special education at Indiana University-Bloomington, said she was taught outdated research during her training in the mid-2000s.

“There was kind of this general consensus of, if you expose kids to enough books and find what they’re interested in, you’ll be able to get them reading,” Williams said. “That’s really problematic — we’ve got teachers coming out who are not being trained in what best practices are or what research actually supports.”

Williams said there should be an emphasis on language comprehension, not just knowing what a word is. Reading is not fully natural, she said — students must be taught to read.

KIPP began using the science of reading in 2021 after assessing pandemic-related academic gaps.

Ruth Wells, foundational literacy manager at KIPP, said the science of reading makes education cohesive by tying together how language is developed in the brain and how students learn words and sounds.

“That gives teachers the ability to, one, pinpoint where their students may have gaps, but also a spoken sequence to follow to make sure they are teaching what they know their students need,” Wells said.

To truly comprehend text, Wells said, students must be able to decode words, not just identify which word might fit using only context clues.

Data from KIPP showed 74% of kindergartners have met mid-year goals after being taught using science of reading-based practices — an 8% increase from before the program. Among first graders who received that instruction, 70% met the goals, a 21% increase, and 46% of second graders met them, marking an 11% increase.

Teachers and drivers join forces to teach science of reading

Each summer, teachers at KIPP participate in training where they learn why the science of reading is important. During the training sessions, they can practice portions of their lessons to receive real-time feedback from other educators.

“Our teachers are learning to be experts and we do a lot of development with our teachers, but again, there are different levels to kiddos,” she said. “Our tier–1 instruction can be as strong as anything, but if a kiddo comes to us and needs that extra support, we need to be able to supply it.”

Bus driver Tracie Johnson has been with the tutoring program since its start. In addition to tutoring Monday through Thursday, Johnson gives her students a test each Friday to gauge their growth and identify areas of progress or struggle earlier than formal state tests can provide results.

This also gives teachers more time to teach the actual curriculum rather than worry about testing, which can take hours.

Using data from state literacy tests such as IREAD along with weekly classroom tests, teachers identify students who could benefit from extra review. From there, bus drivers build activities with the help of teachers based on the specific skills each student needs to practice. These activities often include using flashcards, coloring sight words, and trying to beat the clock in fluency races.

Each grade level is given a benchmark per year — 100 sight words for kindergarteners, 200-300 for first graders and 500 for second graders.

“If a student is a kindergartener and he’s still struggling with letter names or letter sounds, our bus drivers would be working with those particular students who didn’t get it the first round and maybe the classroom instruction has moved forward,” Wells said.

At a time when hiring bus drivers and other school staff has been difficult, the tutoring program has also helped the school retain drivers, thanks to the increased connection they feel with students, Wells said. Plus, they clock in for the role, earning more money in addition to what they get for their regular routes.

KIPP’s strategy would not be guaranteed to work for every school for a variety of reasons. Union rules that could affect such instruction differ among districts and states, for example. And participation could depend upon whether drivers receive pay increases.

Eight drivers are currently participating in the KIPP program, with many more undergoing training. There has been over 300 hours of tutoring in the program so far.

Johnson enjoys working with the students, and it’s particularly rewarding when they finally get a word or concept correct, she said. Before the program, many of her students could not even spell basic words like “the,” she said.

Now, those students speak up to offer correct answers to her questions.

The best part of the job, Johnson said, is connecting with her students for longer than a bus ride. When they run to her each morning to give her a hug, she’s reminded of the difference she’s making in their education.

“That’s the highlight of my day,” she said.

Contact Chalkbeat Indiana at in.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee bill would widen who can complain about teaching of banned concepts

2023-03-17T21:17:43+00:00

Few complaints have been filed — and no penalties levied — since 2021 when Tennessee enacted a controversial law that seeks to regulate discussions on race and gender in K-12 classrooms.

But that could change under new GOP legislation that state lawmakers are scheduled to take up next week.

The bill, filed by Rep. John Ragan of Oak Ridge and Sen. Joey Hensley of Hohenwald, would allow any resident within a public school zone to file a complaint under Tennessee’s so-called prohibited concepts law, which restricts teachers from discussing 14 concepts that the legislature has deemed divisive.

Currently, only students, parents, or employees within a district or charter school can file complaints involving their school, which can lead to disciplinary action. If the state determines that educators have violated the law, teachers can even be stripped of their licenses and school districts can lose state funding.

The proposed change, which observers have dubbed “Prohibited Concepts 2.0,” could open the door to conservative groups like Moms for Liberty to flood their local school boards with complaints about instruction, books, or materials they believe violate the law, even if they do not have direct contact with the teacher or school in question. The organization, with chapters in seven Tennessee counties, has channeled the frustrations of conservative mothers to target issues like mask mandates and curricula that touch on LGBTQ rights, race, and discrimination.

Ragan says investigations should weed out unfounded claims and that he’s more concerned about “taxation without representation.”

“These people are taxpayers who are footing the bill for schools,” he said, “so they should have the right to file a complaint.”

However, the law’s detractors say the change would make a dangerous policy even more dangerous.

“This will place an even greater burden on district personnel to have to chase down complaints,” said Gini Pupo-Walker, state director for the Education Trust in Tennessee. “And it’s going to have another chilling effect on what teachers can teach and how they teach it.”

The legislation is the latest effort by Tennessee conservatives to tamp down on classroom discussions that veer into ideas like systemic racism, sexism, and gender identity, even as the law has generated few formal complaints thus far.

Critics say it’s another attempt to weaponize public education in the current political climate by using charged words such as “indoctrination” to stoke parents’ fears and inflame disagreements about which classroom discussions are appropriate and which ones cross the line.

Few appeals filed, no penalties levied so far

Tennessee was among the first states to enact a prohibited concepts law amid national fury from conservatives about critical race theory, an academic framework that’s sometimes studied in higher education to examine how policies and laws may perpetuate systemic racism.

After reviewing more than 900 public comments about the new law, the state education department developed enforcement rules for everything from how to file and investigate a complaint to how to appeal a decision and what penalties that teachers and districts could face if found in violation of the law. Those rules also set who is eligible to file a complaint.

Since the rules went into effect in late 2021, the department has received two appeals of local decisions, according to spokesman Brian Blackley.

One was filed by a Blount County parent over the book “Dragonwings,” a novel told from the perspective of a Chinese immigrant boy in the early 20th century. The state denied the appeal based on the results of its investigation, Blackley said.

The second was from the parent of a student enrolled in a private school in Davidson County. Because the law does not apply to private schools, the department found that the parent did not have standing to file an appeal under the law.

Blackley said the department was only authorized to investigate claims beginning with the 2021-22 school year and encouraged Steenman to work with Williamson County Schools to resolve her concerns.

State rules were set after lengthy public comment process

Steenman was also among hundreds of Tennesseans who wrote the department in 2021 about its pending rules. She asked the state to widen eligibility to file a complaint under the new law.

“Under this rule, our current complaint gets tossed out again (because) I’m not a parent of a currently enrolled student,” she wrote. “Never mind that I am speaking on behalf of hundreds of parents of currently enrolled students! And what about grandparents? How many grandparents are in this group in the defense of their grandchildren?”

Others urged the state to limit eligibility to those who interact directly with the educators they might complain about — criteria that the department went with in its enforcement rules.

But Ragan, the House bill’s sponsor, contends the department missed the mark on complaint eligibility.

“I wrote the original bill. I established the legislative intent. They ignored it,” he told Chalkbeat. “This newest bill would carry out what I originally intended.”

To address concerns of unfounded complaints, the bill says a resident who files a complaint must have “actual or constructive knowledge of the violation.”

Asked whether he’s concerned that time-consuming investigations could distract district personnel from their core duties, Ragan was unapologetic.

“Our system of government is not constrained by how long it takes or how tough it is on employees to do their job,” he said. “That’s what we hire them for.”

His legislation also would require districts and the state to publish on their websites the outcomes of their investigations, as well as “the department’s rationale for upholding or overturning” an appeal.

A chilling effect

The bigger goal, Ragan says, is to encourage teachers and school leaders to review and adjust their instructional practices before a complaint is filed.

While he has called for “facts-based teaching based on the state’s academic standards,” The Education Trust views Ragan’s bigger goal as essentially censorship.

“As a former history teacher, I can say that this law has teachers thinking very carefully about a whole list of topics in their classroom going forward,” said Pupo-Walker. “Portraying slavery in a neutral fashion or the Holocaust in a neutral fashion seems completely absurd, but that is the expectation of lawmakers who support this kind of legislation.”

For instance, after investigating the parent’s complaint in Blount County, the Knoxville-area district announced last August that excerpts from the novel “Dragonwings” would be optional for sixth grade teachers to include in instruction this school year.

In Williamson County, where local complaints about “Wit & Wisdom” led to a months-long review of English language arts curriculum in the its elementary schools, the district removed one fourth grade book, the Newbery Award-winning “Walk Two Moons,” and made “instructional adjustments” to seven other texts.

“Ultimately, this process is tearing at the fabric of connections between schools and communities and their families. It implies that you can’t trust teachers with your children,” said Pupo-Walker.

“Parents know implicitly that’s just not the case with the teachers in their children’s schools,” she added. “But this onslaught of bills is undermining people’s confidence in the intention and the integrity of our educators. It’s destructive.”

You can track the bill on the General Assembly’s website.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Online tutoring company Paper loses statewide contract in New Mexico

2023-03-17T17:45:27+00:00

In a swift reversal, New Mexico will no longer offer students virtual tutoring through Paper after state education officials said the company had failed to get enough students the academic help they needed.

New Mexico hired Paper last fall to provide on-demand virtual tutoring to students who attend high-poverty elementary and middle schools across the state. But Chalkbeat has learned that top officials at the Public Education Department, or PED, canceled the state’s contract after just three months, citing issues with how quickly Paper was able to enroll students in tutoring and how often students used those services.

“It is clear to the PED that this service is not providing the results in terms of engagement, support, or delivery of service to the State’s students,” New Mexico’s then-interim secretary of education, Mariana Padilla, wrote to Paper in a Feb. 20 letter terminating the state’s contract.

It’s unclear how many students Paper enrolled in tutoring, and the company did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

New Mexico plans to replace the company with in-person tutoring, but has yet to get that up and running — leaving many students with a gap in support at a critical time for academic recovery. The about-face marks one of the highest-profile examples yet of a retreat from on-demand virtual tutoring, a model that exploded in popularity during the pandemic as schools found it challenging to staff and schedule tutoring sessions in person.

Paper, in particular, became a go-to provider for many of the nation’s largest school districts, including in Los Angeles, Boston, and the Las Vegas area, as well as the states of Mississippi and Tennessee. But reporting by Chalkbeat and other news outlets has raised questions about the utility of Paper’s virtual tutoring — which is primarily conducted over text-based chat and does not include video or live audio — especially for younger children, English language learners, and struggling readers.

In earlier interviews with Chalkbeat, Paper’s CEO Philip Cutler said his company was aware of some districts’ concerns and had stepped up outreach and added ways for students to communicate with tutors. Paper’s promise, he argued, remained its ability to serve large numbers of students.

New Mexico’s decision suggests that hadn’t yet happened. Allison Socol, a vice president at The Education Trust, an education civil rights group, said it’s commendable that officials made a change if they realized the on-demand virtual help wasn’t working.

“That doesn’t always happen,” Socol said. “This is a good moment to take stock of the interventions that districts and schools put in place in a moment of crisis and urgency and whether those are the right things.”

As COVID relief funds dwindle, education leaders should be looking at what’s working, Socol said, as well as “what isn’t working and what should we disinvest from so that those dollars can be allocated to things that will actually make a difference for kids.”

New Mexico signed a contract in late November with Paper worth up to $3.3 million funded by federal COVID relief funds. The state asked Paper to focus on the some 220,000 students in preschool to eighth grade who attend Title I schools, which serve higher concentrations of children from low-income families.

The contract set modest goals for the company, asking Paper to enroll at least 2,200 students in tutoring by the end of this month and to tutor at least 11,000 students by the end of the contract in September 2024. The state wanted each of those students to receive at least 20 hours of tutoring.

State officials wouldn’t say how far off Paper was from meeting those targets. A spokesperson for New Mexico’s education department, Kelly Pearce, said in a statement that the “PED’s partnership with Paper did not meet the needs of New Mexico’s students. As soon as this was determined, the contract was closed.”

It’s also unclear how much money the state spent on services it now says were inadequate. Pearce declined to answer questions about how much New Mexico has paid out to Paper. In her termination letter, Padilla indicated that Paper’s performance had been an issue since the beginning of the contract and that the state had previously expressed concerns. (Leadership at the education department had also been in flux during that period.)

Elsewhere, school leaders have had similar issues. In Hillsborough County, Florida, for example, the school district got a more than $500,000 refund from Paper after the company reached only a fraction of the students it had projected.

That hasn’t been the case everywhere, though. The Mississippi education department’s contract with Paper is still in effect and the state hasn’t had any concerns about the company’s performance, spokesperson Jean Cook said in an email.

In New Mexico, Paper beat out 17 other tutoring companies to win the state contract as part of a months-long competitive process. The state said it was open to a range of tutoring providers — including in-person, virtual, or a combination of the two — but Paper edged out its competitors in large part because it said it could do the job for the lowest price.

Some observers question why New Mexico officials thought opt-in online tutoring would be a good fit in a state where internet access has improved but is still limited, and where schools serve large shares of English learners, who often have trouble using Paper’s text-based platform.

Emily Wildau, a research and policy analyst at the nonprofit New Mexico Voices for Children, says that after chronic absenteeism shot up in the state during the pandemic, many students would benefit from more consistent tutoring that’s part of their school day.

“That kind of opt-in tutoring model is really good for the kids who are already doing pretty well,” Wildau said. “It’s not going to help the kids that are the farthest behind, who need the most attention in our state and who need to be re-engaged.”

In the meantime, students and families don’t have access to any tutoring through the state’s initiative. (Though the state continues to run a separate virtual tutoring program taught by New Mexico teachers for some 375 students in algebra I.)

In January, Lisa-Ashley Dionne signed up to get tutoring through Paper for her two daughters, who attend a Title I elementary school that was eligible for the extra help. But the service went away before her kids could use it.

Dionne wanted her fourth grader, who spent her entire second grade year online, to be able to work with a tutor on her Spanish conversation skills, since she attends a dual language school. She’s hoping Paper’s replacement will be more interactive.

“I’m just hoping for more of that conversation — just the back and forth interaction where they can engage more with the tutor,” she said.

Kalyn Belsha is a national education reporter based in Chicago. Contact her at kbelsha@chalkbeat.org.

This Bronx art teacher shows students how to harness social media to build job skills

2023-03-14T12:05:00+00:00

Metropolitan Soundview High School had no art program when Cheriece White took a job there 10 years ago.

So she created her own.

The art and technology teacher initially designed a curriculum around digital storytelling and then transformed it into a multimedia art curriculum that included iMovie, storyboarding, illustration, children’s books, and front-end web design. The students gravitated to the web design part, wanting to know more about designing websites for their own business ideas. That prompted White to shift again, developing a curriculum on social media design and content creation.

“With how social media, graphic design, and technology are growing into every aspect of normal living, it is super important to have students practice these skills for their own benefit,” she said. “They are going to engage in social media and technology anyway, so why not teach them how to make money from it through design?”

White not only sees visual arts and graphic art as “great emotional outlets for kids this age to express themselves in a healthier and positive way.” She also wants her art course to provide a “tangible” way for them to become young entrepreneurs.

She wants her students to be college- and career-ready, as well as “small business ready.”

She’s hopeful that it’s working. Former students have gone on to create a cupcake company, a dog-walking business, a baseball clinic, and an Etsy digital download business. A group of current students who already have their own clothing brand recently told her how their social media following increased significantly after applying some techniques they learned in class.

White was the Bronx’s grand prize winner of the 2022 FLAG Award for Teaching Excellence, which honors educators who inspire creativity and passion. For winning the prestigious award, White’s school received $10,000, which she used to buy easels, paint, brushes, canvases, pallets, and markers for her monthly “paint and snack sessions” with students. She ordered some technology, including software licenses and Apple Pencils for drawing digital illustrations.

She also received $25,000 in unrestricted funds. White, who had a baby shortly after winning the award, used some of the prize money to invest in her son’s 529 college savings account and also plans to use some of it to further her own education in the growing field that she’s trailblazing.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How and when did you decide to become a teacher?

My little brother, 12 at the time, is the one that changed my career path [from media marketing] to what it is today. He asked me why I looked so sad. I told him all I wanted to do was graphic art and prove how important it was to learn these skills with how the use of computers was growing. But it was 2009, companies were closing, and there were no jobs. He said then why don’t you become an art teacher?

I explained that the type of art that I wanted to teach was not offered. He said, at 12, “Well, why don’t you become the teacher you never had and create the type of art you want to teach? Prove them wrong and show them the world needs your art.” I went back to school, received my master’s in K-12 art education, and started my hunt for a school that believed in my vision and would give me a chance to execute the curriculum that I wanted to build.

How do you fuse art and technology, and why? Why do you think these skills are so important for students to learn right now?

In my class, it’s important to introduce the foundations of visual arts, like elements of design, principles of design, and color theory, with graphic design platforms that lead to content creation to launch small businesses. Students are extremely engaged with social media but don’t know how powerful of a tool it can be if used to represent a brand or service.

While learning about color theory, students learn about color psychology and how that affects marketing design. While learning composition and layout, they are practicing their mathematic skills by measuring margins, bleeds, and pixel-to-inches conversions. While designing a logo, students also practice project-based learning and design thinking. The combinations are endless, and the result is a student that is well-rounded in all aspects of visual art, technology, and marketing design.

What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?

My favorite project-based lesson that I love to teach is logo design and branding. Students find a way to impress me by creating these beautiful logos that would match their target audience. Seeing all these beautiful portfolios come together for different businesses that they can actually do in real life just warms my heart.

I also recently coupled with a STEM teacher to make a STEAM unit and do a Shark Tank lesson together. This is a lot of fun because the students then take all of their designs from my art class and their inventions from their STEM class and start to pitch judges, like our principals and guidance counselors. The students take the challenge head-on and produce amazing interactive slide decks. This year, the winners will receive an iPad.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your classroom or your school?

I teach in a very low-income area, and many students definitely have the burden of that on their shoulders. When it comes to having the correct finances for things for school or school trips, some students just can’t participate because they don’t have the funds. Also, there is a lot of violence outside of our walls that we like to shield them from or show them that there’s a better outlet to release your anger or stress.

Some students have to work jobs in order to provide for their families, and certain students still may be in shelters but are embarrassed to let us know that they may need some help. And some students may not have enough money for their next meal, so they stay after school so they can have the free lunch and after-school lunch for dinner. This truly breaks my heart and is one of the main motivators in why I started my curriculum: To show them that they could start a business without any money and pull themselves out of a situation as long as they have the skills necessary to do so.

Cheriece White, on far right (in gray shirt), stands with the cheerleading squad she co-founded, the James Monroe Eagles.

Tell us briefly about the cheerleading squad you helped found and how they got to go to Nationals.

I and two other coaches started the first-ever cheerleading team at James Monroe Campus. We called ourselves the James Monroe Eagles. This was by far the proudest moment in my career as an educator. Our team was spectacular and won first place in our division at regionals. This won us a bid to go to Nationals at Disney World in Orlando.

However, the cost to participate was way too much for our kids’ families. So I put together a video of our kids asking for help to go, made a GoFundMe for them, and within 72 hours, we raised over $30,000! New York City news outlets came to wish us luck, and we invited the community to wish us farewell and good luck. Some students had never been on a plane before, let alone to Walt Disney World. To see the kids be in shock looking at a palm tree or feeling the warmth in February in a tropical climate brought tears to all of our eyes. We won seventh in the nation, but that whole experience made all of us feel like we were in the first place.

Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.

Illinois students are required to learn Black history. But what’s being taught varies.

2023-03-13T23:02:22+00:00

Ashley Kannan, an eighth grade history teacher at Oak Park Elementary School in District 97, had long thought about piloting a Black studies course. He even created a lesson plan during the summer of 2020. Then, a conversation with a student convinced him to take the leap.

The student liked his lectures, she told him, but thought the history class that Kannan normally teaches was boring.

That inspired Kannan to run with the course that fall. Students in his Black Studies course learn about topics such as the Black church, the Great Migration — when Black Americans migrated from the South to the North for jobs and other opportunities — and Black political figures such as Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil rights activist from Mississippi.

Not long after he started to teach the class during the 2020-21 school year, Kannan said, he noticed his students were more engaged with the material.

“I have much more buy-in. I love how my Black students, in particular, can’t tell the difference between my African American studies class and my American history class,” said Kannan, who teaches a diverse group of students. “Like they just see it as one in the same and it’s so beautiful.”

In Illinois, a 1990 state law requires schools to teach a unit of African American history. But more than 30 years after the Illinois law passed, gaps in the teaching of Black history remain. The law lacks an enforcement mechanism, and does not include a way to track when Black history is taught during the school year and what students are learning about it; there are no required textbooks or curriculum.

All that has left teachers like Kannan to create their own lesson plans and to push their districts to strengthen the curriculum to include key points in Black history.

Still, the Illinois law represents a sharp contrast to what is happening in Republican-led states such as Florida, Tennessee, and Texas, where legislators have passed so-called “anti-critical race theory” bills that limit how race and gender issues are taught in classrooms.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for example, has spoken out against the College Board’s new Advanced Placement course on African American studies, calling it “indoctrination.” DeSantis has labeled plans to incorporate topics such as Black queer studies, the abolition of prisons, and intersectionality “a political agenda.”

In his State of the State address in February, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker pushed back against DeSantis and others seeking to limit the teaching of African American history. Pritzker said a virulent strain of nationalism across the country is leading to pushes for censorship and attacks on school board members and librarians.

“It’s an ideological battle by the right-wing hiding behind the claim that they would protect our children,” said Pritzker, “but whose real intention is to marginalize people and ideas they don’t like.”

Illinois requires Black history in schools

In Illinois, the teaching of Black history has been encouraged rather than limited. In 2021, the state updated its law on Black history to include topics such as the history of Black people before enslavement, the reasons why Black people were enslaved, and the American civil rights movement.

The Black History Curriculum Task Force — created by the Illinois general assembly in 2018 — also recommended in 2021 that Black history be woven into U.S. history courses, and asked for clear guidelines on what should be included in a mandated curriculum.

In addition, the task force asked the state to find a way to enforce the mandate without standardized tests, and to set up a committee of educators from every grade level to create an assessment.

Task force member Bryen Johnson, the state affiliate political organizer with the Illinois Federation of Teachers, said ensuring that districts comply with curriculum mandates has to be a priority.

The report from the task force in April 2021, features survey results asking districts to report how they are teaching Black history. Out of the 617 districts in the state that completed the survey, 77% reported complying with the state law requiring a unit on Black history.

“The topics included in history courses shouldn’t be dependent on where you live or what district you attend,” said Johnson. “Complying with this law isn’t optional and those tasked with making sure districts are in compliance should reflect that.”

Champaign teacher turns to The 1619 Project

For Kim Tate, a fifth grade teacher in the Champaign Unit 4 school district in central Illinois, the importance of teaching Black history came into greater focus in 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic and the uprising against police brutality following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky.

As a Black woman watching the Black Lives Matter protests during the summer of 2020, Tate felt people devalued Black life because they do not understand the history of Black people in America.

During 2020, Tate had informal conversations with her colleagues about developing a Black studies curriculum for her students; while the state requires a unit of study, there isn’t a guideline for what students should know. One of their main debates: “What should Black studies include?”

The uprisings against police brutality that took place across the country, and Tate’s district’s plans to update social science curriculum in the fall of 2020, motivated her to apply to write a unit on Black history. She applied to be a part of The 1619 Project Education Network by the Pulitzer Center in 2022.

During Tate’s time in the program, she wrote a lesson plan based on The 1619 Project, an examination of the legacy of slavery by New York Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones.

The project, which takes its name from the date the first enslaved African arrived in the British colony that is now Virginia, has become a flashpoint in the conservative attacks on the teaching of race and Black history.

“I really thought her work was so powerful for really offering a different narrative than we had typically heard about history and the importance of black people to this nation’s story,” Tate said.

Tate started to teach the curriculum to her fifth grade class early this year. The unit she developed is called “No Longer Silent: The Genius Within Us.” In the unit, Tate’s students read books by Zora Neale Hurston, a Black American writer, anthropologist, and filmmaker who wrote about issues facing Black people, and became a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance.

Hurston’s work especially resonated with Black girls in Tate’s classroom.

“My Black girls last year connected with Hurston’s work during the Harlem Renaissance and her colorful personality,” said Tate.

But Tate has noticed all of her students engaging more in the material.

“I’ve noticed that the students’ ability to engage in perspective-taking and to have empathy has increased,” Tate said. “So I have fewer conflicts and personal conflicts and fewer behavior issues.”

Chicago teacher struggles to use district’s history curriculum

While Tate had a smooth transition teaching Black history, some Illinois teachers struggle to incorporate Black history into a strict district curriculum.

The National Teachers Academy in Chicago had a robust Black history curriculum for several years, according to sixth grade social science teacher Jessica Kibblewhite. The curriculum examined Black history in America and across the globe by including topics such as how African explorers contributed to the creation of currency in the Middle East.

However, after Chicago Public Schools rolled out the $135 million Skyline curriculum in 2021 and created new standards for each grade and subject, Kibblewhite said her school’s lesson plans have taken a back seat.

Kibblewhite, who sits on the district’s Skyline social science review committee, said she thinks Skyline’s Black history unit lacks depth and breadth.

As a white teacher who works with Black students, Kibblewhite said it’s important for students to see themselves in history books.

“Students don’t learn anything unless they’re deeply engaged,” said Kibblewhite. “If students don’t see themselves in characters in text or historical figures that look different from them, they’ll be less likely to be engaged.”

In a statement to Chalkbeat Chicago, Chicago Public Schools said it is committed to providing a culturally responsive social science education throughout the school year. The district said Black history is taught across all subjects, not just in history.

“This work is also at the core of CPS’ Three-Year Blueprint which aims to ensure that CPS students are not only academically prepared to succeed after high school, but also socially, emotionally, and culturally prepared to be successful members of our Democracy,” said a spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools.

What’s next for Black history in Illinois

Next year, Oak Park and River Forest High School will be one of the first high schools in Illinois to pilot the AP African American studies course, as part of the College Board’s national rollout of the program.

But in the meantime, teachers such as Kannan are finding ways to teach Black history in their classrooms.

Kannan, in his 26th year as a teacher, said it was easier for him to create a curriculum than other teachers because of a supportive school district and his lengthy experience. However, he said it would be more difficult for younger teachers who lack professional development and mentoring.

“The state needs to make a considerable financial commitment to investing in induction paths that lead to mentoring and that allow our teachers of color to not only be not only be recruited but to thrive,” said Kannan. “I don’t think there’s any other way for this to happen.”

Tate, the teacher in Champaign, has heard from white colleagues who feel uncomfortable teaching Black history. Since the state’s teacher workforce is over 80% white, Tate said that the state will need to find a way to support teachers in educating students about Black history.

“We got to figure out a way to bridge that gap, because each year we’re not teaching students about Black history and about the legacy of Black people in this country,” said Tate. “We are really robbing all students of important knowledge that can help them be better citizens.”

With greater access to devices, NYC teachers are folding more tech into instruction

2023-03-13T18:49:10+00:00

Before the pandemic, U.S. history teacher Travis Malekpour hesitated assigning his students work in the classroom that required a computer. He knew not every student had a laptop or tablet.

Three years later, Malekpour, who teaches in Queens, doesn’t think twice about assigning and grading in-class work that requires a device.

After COVID shuttered campuses in March 2020, forcing schools to pivot to remote learning, the city spent more than $360 million to buy 725,000 iPads and Chromebooks. That seismic shift made devices more accessible to students than ever before — and has now pushed some teachers to fold technology more often into their lesson plans.

“Having students who now have tablets and laptops they bring to school definitely changes the game a little bit,” Malekpour said.

The city’s education department has embraced some virtual education models, including a hybrid high school program that mixes virtual instruction with in-person activities. They’ve also used federal relief dollars to fund virtual courses for students at small schools that can’t provide such classes. More recently, schools began using computer programs to prepare students for upcoming state English and math tests, angering some educators and families who want children to be interacting directly with instructors, Gothamist reported.

But there appears to be little official guidance from the department for schools navigating a post-remote learning world. A spokesperson said they encourage using “21st century teaching practices” and provide students with “personalized, flexible learning.”

Officials also offer professional learning for teachers on teaching in remote or hybrid environments.

Some students find reliance on technology frustrating

There is some evidence that older students prefer instruction that doesn’t lean on technology. Sixty-five percent of American teens ages 13-17 said they preferred returning to full in-person instruction after the pandemic, while 18% preferred a mix between in-person and online, according to a survey last year from Pew Research Centers.

Most of those surveyed didn’t seem to struggle profoundly when required to use technology: Of the 22% of teens who said they sometimes had to complete homework on their phones, just 1 in 5 said it made finishing assignments “a lot harder.”

But for some children, technology can make learning frustrating.

About half of Eva Lang’s classes at a Manhattan high school require using laptops daily. The 15-year-old said she finds it distracting when her classmates are playing video games instead of doing the assignment.

Submitting assignments online can be convenient, Eva said. However, when her teachers post homework to Google Classroom without first discussing it in class, she sometimes has to ask questions via email, which can go unanswered. Some teachers make online assignments due the night before the next class — meaning she can’t complete it on the way to school if she wanted to focus on more complicated homework the night before.

Other times, the due date is a Friday night.

“It’s never, like, a really long assignment, but you know Friday nights are when you’re done from school or [ready] for the weekend, and you don’t want to be worrying about homework,” Eva said.

Many parents, too, have expressed concerns about increased screen time during the pandemic. One 2021 study of more than 5,400 children, which looked at screen use during the pandemic, saw a link between more screen time and worsening mental health, including feelings of stress. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy noted in 2021 that while some studies have found that online platforms can lead to worsened mental health, there is not enough robust research to make a conclusion.

Some teachers find creative uses for technology

With more devices in students’ hands, Malekpour, the Queens teacher, feels comfortable asking them to complete online assignments for a grade while in class, such as answering a sample U.S. History Regents exam question using Google Form or typing up a short essay response to a prompt.

But if he’s teaching about political cartoons, he’d have them draw their own examples on paper.

Even before the pandemic, one Brooklyn science teacher knew of free, interactive lab activities available online that seemed useful when the school couldn’t afford materials for hands-on experiments, or for understanding more dangerous concepts, such as radioactivity.

But the teacher, who requested anonymity because she was not free to talk to the press, couldn’t always use those virtual labs because not all students had a laptop or a phone.

Now, for the first time in her two decades of teaching, she has a laptop cart in her classroom, meaning her students can do virtual labs in addition to hands-on experiments, she said. This week her students used a virtual lab to study different states of matter. With the click of a button, they could change matter from gas to liquid to solid by controlling the temperature.

“Before, you would just teach it,” she said. “This way, they find out for themselves — rather than just being told, they explore.”

Tom Liam Lynch, vice president of education at the United Way of NYC and a former education technology professor, said a “fundamental conversation” that needs to happen around the role of technology in schools must start with what high-quality instruction looks and feels like for students.

Frustrations like Eva’s, the Manhattan student, represent a situation where it might not be working well, Lynch said.

“In those moments [the teacher’s] focus is on getting an assignment up and getting into the classroom, and they’ve lost touch around the fundamental question of, ‘Why am I doing this in the first place? How is this going to make a child feel?’” he said.

For some teachers, remote learning didn’t impact how they teach now. Despite the education department’s investment in technology, there are still students who don’t have access to devices or the internet. The city is currently attempting to count up all devices that schools have in their possession.

Not every student has access to a laptop during the school day at the Bronx high school where Steve Swieciki teaches social studies. His use of computers in class has, in part, relied on whether he’s in a room with a laptop cart during that period.

When he does use computers, it’s for simpler work, such as reading a news article in class. He may toggle between having students read and discuss an excerpt from a textbook or providing that excerpt in Google Classroom and requiring students to answer questions about it as homework.

But that’s how he taught even before COVID.

He shared a recent example of how he lightly folds technology into a lesson: For an intro-to-law class, Swieciki recently had students use laptops to read two news articles about artificial intelligence. To pique their interest, he first had them read a New York Times story that detailed a conversation between a reporter and a Bing chatbot, who told the reporter it was in love with him — shocking and hooking the students to the topic.

Then, he had them pull up an Axios article about how lawmakers are seeking to regulate artificial intelligence.

Students spent the next class participating in a Socratic seminar, where they debated the role of government in regulating artificial intelligence.

The lesson went so well that Swieciki pivoted from what he had planned to teach in his following lesson.

“I’m actually putting off what I initially had planned for tomorrow and extending the discussion another day,” he said.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City public schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Retention rule in reading law could hold back over 2,700 MSCS 3rd-graders, official warns

2023-03-10T23:35:39+00:00

More than 2,700 third-graders in Memphis-Shelby County schools are at risk of being held back under Tennessee’s retention law for struggling readers, a MSCS official told the board’s Academic Performance Committee Thursday.

The numbers are based on students’ performance on the i-Ready reading proficiency diagnostic assessments that are administered nationally and were given to MSCS third-graders last winter.

Those assessments serve as predictors of how students will perform on the English language arts section of the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program test, or TCAP, which is the sole criterion used to identify students for retention under the state’s stricter reading law passed in 2021.

Of the 6,748 MSCS third-graders who took the winter tests, 4,196 students scored below a cutoff that would call for further intervention under the retention law, according to data presented by Jaron Carson, chief academic officer for MSCS.

Of those 4,196 third-graders, 1,409 would be exempt from the retention law because of a disability or an individualized education plan, or because they are English language learners.

That leaves 2,787 MSCS third-graders who could be held back this year if the winter assessments accurately predict their scores on the spring TCAPs, Carson said.

But Carson also presented recommendations to the committee to reduce the likelihood of retention for those students. They included pushing for a change in the state law to allow third-graders to take the English language arts section of the TCAP three times.

Suggested dates were April 17-21, June 12-26 and July 8-19.

Right now, students in grades 3 to 5 take the TCAP from April 17 to May 2. The state Education Department will also hold a TCAP retake for third-graders from May 30 to June 2.

In Mississippi, which has been lauded for boosting its ranking for the fourth-grade reading proficiency rate from 49th in the nation to 29th, third-graders get three chances to pass its reading assessment test. Carson cited Mississippi’s successes in making his recommendations.

Another recommendation was to give third-graders unlimited time on the third-grade English language arts test, or more time to complete certain sections.

The recommendations come amid growing concerns about the impact of the law in Tennessee, and a flurry of efforts in the legislature to revise it. Three weeks ago, critics of the law gathered at First Congregational Church in Memphis and voiced worries about the law, including what they saw as unfairness that a single test would determine whether a child is promoted, and the lack of tutors available to help students who needed to catch up.

But Gov. Bill Lee has stuck by the law with the stricter retention policy, which he pushed for during a special legislative session on education in 2021 to deal with the impact of the pandemic.

MSCS board member Amber Huett-Garcia, who attended the meeting at the church and who has spoken with lawmakers about possible revisions, didn’t sound optimistic about the chances of Carson’s recommendations being adopted.

“About 2,700 students are likely going to get a retention letter, and we have to be prepared to navigate that process,” she said.

Bureau Chief Tonyaa Weathersbee oversees Chalkbeat Tennessee’s education coverage. Contact her at tweathersbee@chalkbeat.org.

Tutoring help reaches few students despite nationwide push

2023-03-10T11:30:00+00:00

This story is a collaboration with the Associated Press.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for our free newsletter to keep up with how public education is changing.

David Daniel knows his son needs help.

The 8-year-old spent first grade in remote learning and several weeks of second grade in quarantine. The best way to catch him up, research suggests, is to tutor him several times a week during school.

But his Indianapolis school offers Saturday or after-school tutoring — programs that don’t work for Daniel, a single father. The upshot is his son, now in third grade, isn’t getting the tutoring he needs.

“I want him to have the help,” Daniel said. Without it, “next year is going to be really hard on him.”

As America’s schools confront dramatic learning setbacks caused by the pandemic, experts have held up intensive tutoring as the single best antidote. Yet even as schools wield billions of dollars in federal COVID relief, only a small fraction of students have received school tutoring, according to a survey of the nation’s largest districts by Chalkbeat and The Associated Press.

In eight of 12 school systems that provided data, less than 10% of students received any type of district tutoring this fall.

A new tutoring corps in Chicago has served about 3% of students, officials said. The figure was less than 1% in three districts: Georgia’s Gwinnett County, Florida’s Miami-Dade County, and Philadelphia, where the district reported only about 800 students were tutored. In those three systems alone, there were more than 600,000 students who spent no time in a district tutoring program this fall.

The startlingly low tutoring figures point to several problems. Some parents said they didn’t know tutoring was available or didn’t think their children needed it. Some school systems have struggled to hire tutors. Other school systems said the small tutoring programs were intentional, part of an effort to focus on students with the greatest needs.

Whatever the reason, the impact is clear: At a crucial time for students’ recovery, millions of children have not received the academic equivalent of powerful medication.

“It works, it’s effective, it gets students to improve in their learning and catch up,” said Amie Rapaport, a University of Southern California researcher who has analyzed students’ access to intensive tutoring. “So why isn’t it reaching them?”

The Indianapolis school district last year launched two tutoring programs that connect students with certified teachers over video. One is available to all students after school, while the other is offered during the day at certain low-performing schools.

District officials say a trial run boosted student test scores. Parents give it high marks.

“The progress that he made in just a couple months last semester working with his tutor was kind of far beyond what he was grasping and doing at school,” said Jessica Blalack, whose 7-year-old, Phoenix, opted in to after-school tutoring.

Jessica Blalack watches as her son Phoenix, 7, works with a tutor on his laptop in his Indianapolis home.

Still, the two programs combined served only about 3,200 students last fall, or roughly 17% of students in district-run schools. Two additional tutoring programs operate at a handful of schools.

Only 35% of the students who registered for after-school tutoring last fall attended more than one session, according to district data.

Indianapolis Public Schools spokesperson Marc Ransford said the district is working to improve attendance and hopes to enroll more students in tutoring next school year. It’s also trying to accelerate student learning in other ways, including with a new curriculum and summer school.

Shaan Akbar, co-founder of the firm Tutored by Teachers, which runs the video tutoring programs, said his team is focused on maintaining quality.

“Trying to shoot for scale quickly is a recipe for disaster,” he said.

Nationwide, schools report that about 10% of students are receiving “high-dosage” tutoring multiple days a week, according to a federal survey from December. The real number could be even lower: Just 2% of U.S. households say their children are getting that kind of intensive tutoring, according to the USC analysis of a different nationally representative survey.

Schools trying to ramp up tutoring have run into roadblocks, including staffing and scheduling. Experts say tutoring is most effective when provided three times a week for at least 30 minutes during school hours. Offering after-school or weekend tutoring is simpler, but turnout is often low.

Harrison Tran, a 10th grader in Savannah, Georgia, struggled to make sense of algebra during remote learning. Last year, his high school offered after-school help. But that wasn’t feasible for Harrison, who lives 30 minutes from school and couldn’t afford to miss his ride home.

Without tutoring help, he started this school year with gaps in his learning.

“When I got into my Algebra II class, I was entirely lost,” he said.

Relatively low family interest has been another challenge. Though test scores plunged during the pandemic, many parents do not believe their children experienced learning loss, or simply are unaware. The disconnect makes it more important to offer tutoring during school, experts say.

“Parents just aren’t as concerned as we need them to be,” said USC education professor Morgan Polikoff, “if we’re going to have to rely on parents opting their kids into interventions.”

Even when students want the help, some have been let down.

In Maryland’s Montgomery County, 12th-grader Talia Bradley recently sought calculus help from a virtual tutoring company hired by the district. But the problem she was struggling with also stumped the tutor. After an hour trying to sort it out, Talia walked away frustrated.

“My daughter was no farther along,” said Leah Bradley, her mother. “Having an option for online tutoring makes sense, but it can’t be the primary option if you’re looking for good results.”

Repeated in-person tutoring tends to be more effective than on-demand online help, but it’s also harder to manage. District rules add complexity, with safeguards like tutor background checks and vendor bidding rules slowing the process.

In Wake County, North Carolina, the school district began planning a reading tutoring program last summer. The program did not launch until November, and district officials said last month that volunteers are tutoring fewer than 140 students — far fewer than the 1,000 students the program was designed to reach.

“We’re always looking to serve more students,” said Amy Mattingly, director of K-12 programs at Helps Education Fund, the nonprofit managing that program and another serving about 400 students. But, she added, it’s important to “see what’s working and make tweaks before trying to scale up and serve everyone.”

Sixteen states have established their own tutoring programs using a collective $470 million in federal COVID aid, according to an analysis by the Council of Chief State School Officers. But even those statewide programs have reached a limited number of students.

Ohio awarded $14 million in grants to more than 30 colleges and universities to provide tutoring in local schools. They served just 2,000 students statewide last fall, according to a state spokesperson, who said the goal is to eventually reach 10,000 students.

Some districts defended their participation numbers, saying tutoring is most effective when well targeted.

In Georgia’s Fulton County, 3% of the district’s 90,000 students participated in tutoring programs this fall. Most of the tutoring was offered by paraprofessionals during the school day, with one hired to give intense support in each elementary school.

The district says time and staffing limits how many students can get frequent, intensive tutoring.

“We don’t want to water it down, because then you don’t get the impact that the research says is beneficial for kids,” said Cliff Jones, chief academic officer for the system.

Others worry too few are getting the help they need even as programs continue to grow.

This school year, about 3,500 students are getting reading tutoring from the North Carolina Education Corps. Meanwhile, in fourth grade alone, more than 41,000 students statewide scored in the bottom level on a national reading test last year.

“Who we are serving,” said Laura Bilbro-Berry, the program’s senior director, “is just a drop in the bucket.”

Patrick Wall is a senior reporter covering national education issues. Contact him at pwall@chalkbeat.org.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Marion County schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Collin Binkley is an education reporter for the Associated Press.

Bill to clarify Tennessee school library law would exempt classroom book collections from scrutiny

2023-03-01T00:34:44+00:00

When Tennessee enacted a 2022 law requiring each public school to publish a list of its library books online for parents to see, many educators were surprised later when state officials said the law applies to teachers’ classroom book collections, too.

Now two Democratic lawmakers have proposed legislation to clarify that Gov. Bill Lee’s Age-Appropriate Materials Act was intended to scrutinize books in traditional school libraries, not collections that teachers keep in their classrooms to encourage reading.

The goal of the proposal, says Sen. Jeff Yarbro, is to shield teachers from having to spend their personal time cataloging their classroom collections, which often include hundreds of books. It’s a task that Yarbro views as burdensome and unnecessary — and which he worries could backfire if exasperated teachers opt to box up their books and take them home to avoid the hassle.

“I am hopeful we can work with folks on both sides of the aisle to remove this absurd burden from our teachers,” said the Nashville lawmaker, who is scheduled to bring his bill before the Senate Education Committee on March 8.

Teachers who are trained to teach children to read should be trusted to provide high-quality, age-appropriate books in their classrooms, Yarbro said.

That’s the way that Alice Irvin sees it, too. A second-grade teacher in Franklin, south of Nashville, she’s taught for 30 years, holds a master’s degree in early childhood education, participates in continuing education, and gets evaluated annually by her district.

“As a highly trained teacher, I find this law insulting,” said Irvin, who has 1,300 titles in her classroom collection. “My library center is the heart of my classroom. Over the years, I’ve purchased hundreds of high-quality children’s books for it.”

Governor called for greater transparency in school libraries

When Tennessee’s Republican governor proposed a review of school library books for age-appropriateness during his 2022 state address, he said the purpose was to “ensure parents know what materials are available to students in their libraries.”

But after the GOP-controlled legislature approved Lee’s proposal, a subsequent memo from the state education department’s attorney said a school library also includes “materials maintained in a teacher’s classroom.”

The law’s expanded scope, announced as the new school year was starting, surprised even lawmakers who had debated the measure just months earlier.

“I serve on several House education committees and don’t recall classroom book collections ever being brought up during our discussions about this bill,” said Rep. Sam McKenzie, a Democrat from Knoxville.

Yarbro said he hopes the department’s decision to interpret the law broadly was not “politically tainted” by recent Tennessee laws that aim to restrict what teachers can teach and students can read, especially related to race and gender.

Sen. Jeff Yarbro is co-sponsoring a bill that would exempt classroom book collections from Tennessee’s 2022 school library law.

Through his bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Darren Jernigan of Old Hickory, he also wants to preempt the challenges of complying with and enforcing the law as it relates to classroom book collections.

“Our early childhood teachers have a hard enough job without the state legislature putting up a bunch of hoops for them to jump through,” Yarbro said. “We’re seeking a common sense solution so that teachers aren’t put in the position of potentially running into legal or compliance issues every time they bring a new book to their classroom.”

“That would just be dumb,” he added.

School leaders have been working on compliance

Last fall, Hamilton County Schools and Murfreesboro City Schools were among several districts that directed teachers to begin cataloging their book collections right away so that schools could publish those lists early in the school year. But most districts spent several months studying the issue and exploring digital tools to help teachers create their inventories.

Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools sent guidance over winter break directing teachers to use an online platform called Libib to catalog and publish their lists of classroom library materials by the end of the school year.

“We have not asked any teachers to remove or prohibit access to classroom materials while the cataloging process is ongoing,” said district spokesman Sean Braisted.

Knox County Schools sought feedback from its educators before developing a cataloging app and a process to streamline publication of book lists, with some help from the district’s educational assistants, said spokeswoman Carly Harrington. “We expect cataloging will be completed by March 10, prior to leaving for spring break,” she added.

Other districts, like Irvin’s in Franklin, purchased a scanning app for iPads and used classroom aides to scan books for teachers beginning in January.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools did not respond to multiple requests from Chalkbeat for information about its compliance plan for classroom book collections.

Many teachers and parents haven’t been happy with the process.

“I spent half of my day scanning my library and sorting the books and a good chunk are gone due to them not scanning, being older, etc.,” wrote Natalie Vadas, a special education English teacher at Nashville’s Murrell School, in a Feb. 20 tweet. “How sad that THIS is how we have to spend our time.”

Leslie Wallace said her 8-year-old son came home upset in January when his Knox County teacher announced that students might have to start bringing their own reading books to school because of a new law.

“He loves to read and he said, ‘Mom, if they want us to learn how to read, why are they taking our books away?’” Wallace recounted to Chalkbeat.

“It was a good question,” she said.

To track the legislation, visit the General Assembly’s website.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

NJ Gov. Phil Murphy announces statewide expansion of AP African American course

2023-02-14T23:32:26+00:00

New Jersey will expand Advanced Placement African American Studies courses to 26 schools statewide, including six in Newark, starting next school year.

Gov. Phil Murphy made the announcement at Science Park High School on Tuesday while discussing the history of slavery with students in the school’s African American History class. Currently, Union County Vocational Technical High School is the only New Jersey school that offers the AP course.

“We want to expand the story and tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, even when it hurts,” said Murphy, a Democrat. “Our people of all races and ethnicities will be stronger for it, our society will be stronger, our country will be stronger and better for it.”

Currently, Newark offers an African American History curriculum that includes lessons on the contributions and struggles of Black people in the United States. Students learn about ancient Africa, the enslavement of African people in the U.S., and the struggle for civil rights, among other topics. The curriculum was created in 2020 thanks to a push from advocates who demanded Newark schools devote more time to African American history.

Much like Newark’s curriculum, the recently released College Board framework for the course will explore the “Origins of the African Diaspora” as well as “Movements and Debates.” In August, College Board rolled out the AP course across 60 schools nationwide as part of the first stage of its two-year pilot program with an initial draft framework. Next school year, the pilot expands to hundreds of high schools nationwide, including New Jersey. Pilot students take the first AP African American Studies exam in the spring of 2024 and all schools can begin offering the course during the 2024-25 school year.

But after disapproval from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican leaders, College Board released its official course framework earlier this month and removed much of the criticized content from the initial draft, including Black queer studies, reparations, and an example of the writings of poet and activist Amiri Baraka, father of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, among other notable activists.

“This begins with Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida. And it’s unacceptable and frankly shameful,” Murphy said.

Murphy’s news comes nearly a month after DeSantis blocked the new course from being taught in Florida public schools, alleging it violated a state law that restricts how race and racism are taught.

“There are people who have fought, even lost their lives to make sure that there were not just African American studies but women’s studies, Chicano studies, Asian studies,” Baraka said. “And it just doesn’t make sense that the College Board would limit the universal ideas that are available in this country.”

Now, Newark and other districts in New Jersey that include the new course will have to decide if they will incorporate much of what the College Board removed.

Murphy said it’s up to districts “to build back into the curriculum, as they see fit.”

Additionally, New Jersey leaders will have to address inequities among students of color who take AP courses in the state. During the 2020-21 school year, less than half of Black and Hispanic juniors and seniors across the state took at least one AP or IB class, compared to 41% of white students and 68% of Asian students.

Acting Commissioner of Education Dr. Angelica Allen-McMillan and Superintendent Roger León were also in attendance Tuesday as they heard from Alnazir Blackman, who teaches the African African American History class at Science Park and will teach the AP course at the school next year.

“As painful as this might be, including for nonblacks in this country, we have to face this history straight up,” Murphy said.

Jessie Gomez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, covering public education in the city. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.

Hundreds of NYC elementary schools used a Teachers College reading curriculum Banks said ‘has not worked’

2023-02-14T10:00:00+00:00

This is part of an ongoing collaborative series between Chalkbeat and THE CITY investigating learning differences, special education and other education challenges in city schools. Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s daily newsletter and THE CITY’S Daily Scoop newsletter to keep up with our reporting.

Shortly after taking office, schools Chancellor David Banks took aim at one of the most popular reading programs in New York City public schools, one that had been long embraced by his predecessors. The curriculum, created by Lucy Calkins at Columbia’s Teachers College, “has not worked,” he declared. “There’s a very different approach that we’re going to be looking to take.”

Banks, along with Mayor Eric Adams, has vowed to reshape the way elementary schools teach children to read. Backed by a growing chorus of literacy experts, city officials argue the Teachers College approach hinges too heavily on independent reading without enough explicit instruction on the relationship between sounds and letters, known as phonics, leaving many students floundering.

Data obtained by THE CITY and Chalkbeat reveal for the first time how deeply enmeshed the curriculum has become in classrooms serving the city’s youngest students — and how difficult it could be to unwind.

Of nearly 600 public elementary schools that responded to a 2019 curriculum survey, 48% said they were using the Teachers College reading program alone or in conjunction with other curriculums, according to figures obtained through a public records request that took the city’s education department nearly three years to fulfill. It was by far the most popular reading program at the time.

Officials have begun to address what they see as some of the curriculum’s biggest shortcomings. Beginning this school year, the education department mandated that every school select a supplemental phonics program in grades K-2 on top of their existing reading curriculum. They’re also rolling out training to school leaders about how children learn to read and best practices for literacy instruction.

But the city has not formally requested that schools abandon Teachers College or some of the most questionable practices associated with it, such as prompting students to use pictures to guess what words mean instead of sounding the letters out, often referred to as three-cueing. A department spokesperson declined to answer questions about how the city is monitoring whether schools are making changes in their classroom practice.

“Even with the phonics mandate, there are still schools not doing what Banks has asked them to do, and it’s unclear what the accountability situation is,” said one education department employee with knowledge of the city’s literacy efforts who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Since school leaders have near complete freedom to pick their own curriculums, and many teachers have received training directly from Teachers College, observers say classroom practice will likely be slow to change. Although some schools have moved away from Teachers College on their own since the survey was conducted, others continue to use it.

“Can you imagine if someone told you that everything you’ve been taught in school and everything you’ve been doing for the past 20 years is flawed?” said Monica Covington-Cradle, the senior manager of literacy and implementation at the AIM Institute for Learning & Research, an organization that helps schools understand the research and improve instruction. “This is not easy work, and this is not fast work.”

Teachers College curriculum widely used

At the heart of the Teachers College method is the idea that children can learn to read by being exposed to literature and having plenty of time to practice independently. Teachers typically deliver about 10 minutes or less of a mini-lesson such as how to find a text’s main idea.

They then send students to fan out, often curled on the classroom rug, to choose books at their own reading level. Educators shuttle between children to check their progress, either individually or in small groups.

A significant chunk of students, particularly those who have support for reading at home, have no trouble learning to read under the Teachers College model, and multiple educators said they appreciated that the program treats students as thinkers who should be encouraged to develop a love of literature. But research shows that reading is generally not a natural process that children can pick up independently and that explicit lessons to help students sound out words are essential.

Those phonics lessons were absent from the Teachers College curriculum, said Timothy Shanahan, a professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, who co-authored an influential critique of the curriculum in 2020.

“It’s really inadequate and that would be one of the reasons kids wouldn’t be doing as well as they could be,” he said.

Although many schools use outside phonics curriculums in addition to the Teachers College program, those weren’t necessarily well-integrated with the rest of a school’s reading curriculum, and many schools did not emphasize it. Shanahan said the lack of explicit phonics disadvantages students with disabilities and those in high-poverty schools whose families may not have the time or resources to plug gaps at home or with outside tutoring. “That’s terrific if you can afford that and have the time, but it doesn’t work for a lot of families.”

The Teachers College model, often defined as “balanced literacy,” was the approach schools across the city were pushed to adopt in 2003. The schools chancellor at the time, Joel Klein, later said it was one of his biggest regrets. Calkins, author of the Units of Study curriculum that is supported by Teachers College, has also acknowledged some of its flaws and rolled out updates. The approach’s shortcomings have been gaining more widespread attention through the “Sold a Story” podcast.

Banks argues that balanced literacy programs have contributed to poor reading outcomes. Roughly half of students in grades 3-8 are proficient in reading, according to state tests. But there are large gaps between racial groups: More than two-thirds of white and Asian American students are considered proficient, but fewer than 37% of Black and Latino children are.

The data obtained by THE CITY and Chalkbeat show that schools in virtually every corner of the city were using the Teachers College curriculum in 2019.

An analysis of the survey data did not find any correlation between the share of low-income students at a school and its reading curriculum. Still, Teachers College was more prevalent in some districts than others, including wealthier districts such as District 2 in Manhattan and District 26 in Queens, but also in high-poverty ones like District 12 in The Bronx and District 4 in East Harlem.

The figures come with some caveats: The curriculum survey only included schools that were part of the previous administration’s Universal Literacy program, meaning about 200 elementary schools weren’t surveyed, nor were charter schools and schools in special education District 75. An education official familiar with the city’s literacy efforts said it’s probable that those 200 schools were even more likely to use Teachers College, meaning the survey figures may understate the percentage of schools across the city that were using it.

Also, of the 280 schools that reported using Teachers College for reading instruction, 63 reported also using at least one other curriculum, making it difficult to know how widely Teachers College was deployed on those campuses.

Because schools have so much control of their own curriculums, education department officials often lack a systematic grasp of what materials schools are using, which can also vary classroom to classroom. The city has not conducted a new survey of school curriculums since 2019, department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer acknowledged.

City officials claimed that the number of schools using Teachers College has fallen significantly based on purchasing data. But Styer declined to share a list of schools still using Teachers College materials. He also noted the purchasing data does not distinguish between what specific materials schools bought from Teachers College, which can include curriculums other than reading.

A Teachers College spokesperson wrote in an email that the number of New York City public schools that pay for more intensive training on the curriculum has remained steady over the past five years at roughly 150 schools. (Principals may still use the curriculum without committing to a formal training program with Teachers College.)

Teachers College rolled out a new version of the curriculum for students in grades K-2 in late 2022 that includes a heavier emphasis on phonics along with “decodable books” that are meant to give students practice with words they have been practicing in their phonics lessons, according to a Teachers College spokesperson.

The curriculum’s publisher, Heinemann, declined to say how many New York City schools have purchased updated Teachers College materials, which cost $425 per classroom kit. (City education department officials said the Teachers College phonics program is “not based in research” and was not on the city’s approved list of phonics programs schools are expected to select from.)

Chalkbeat and THE CITY reached out multiple times to each of the 280 schools that were using the Teachers College reading curriculum in 2019 in an attempt to confirm whether they’re still using it. Only 19 responded. Of those, 16 said they have since moved on to a different curriculum.

A switch to phonics: ‘It really works’

Some school leaders began moving away from the Teachers College curriculum years before the education department’s leadership began casting doubt on it.

“We realized it was taking our kids much longer to get the basics down, and that’s because the program was designed — it seemed to work for the kids that had a subset of skills coming in,” said Melessa Avery, principal of P.S. 273 in East New York, which began transitioning away from Teachers College five years ago. “The rest of them struggled for so long, and we needed to see faster progress.”

At Avery’s school, which sits at the corner of two public housing developments and two low-to-middle-income apartment complexes, many of the kids enter the school system behind on their learning, she said. Three years ago, her school added a phonics program called Fundations, which the education department has been encouraging schools to use, alongside another reading program.

“It really works. It’s really scripted. It takes the kids from the very early sounds through the blending, the sounding out of the words,” said Avery. “It’s like a prescription for teaching the kids how to read.”

Other schools began transitioning away from Teachers College more recently.

Spurred by media attention to the problems with balanced literacy and an education department training focused on how students learn to read, Principal Darlene Cameron began moving her school away from the Teachers College curriculum.

“Over the past year I’ve realized I need to focus and make my teachers focus on phonics,” Cameron said, noting that nearly every other school leader she knew used Teachers College or some form of balanced literacy. Students at Cameron’s East Village elementary school now receive at least 30 minutes of phonics in the early grades, up from about 10-15 minutes.

P.S. 63 Principal Darlene Cameron, pictured last year, has moved her school away from the Teachers College reading program.

Still, there are elements of the Teachers College program that the school has been reluctant to give up, including time for independent reading, which teachers sneak in when students are eating breakfast or at the end of class periods. “The idea that you could choose your own books and read independently at length — our kids loved that,” Cameron said.

And it isn’t always easy to nudge teachers to give up practices they’ve been using for years. The school previously invested tens of thousands of dollars a year in Teachers College training that encouraged strategies such as word guessing that Cameron said are no longer appropriate. “Like many things, people have to hear something more than once for it to sink in,” she said. “I have been going through my own journey for a year and a half now.”

But other veteran principals have been reluctant to give up Teachers College, arguing that they’ve seen the pendulum swing back and forth with different approaches to reading and are not convinced sweeping change is needed.

“In education, what seems to happen is people throw the baby out with the bathwater,” said a Bronx principal who spoke on condition of anonymity. “There’s no one program or curriculum that solves all.”

The principal said her school has embraced the new Teachers College materials that place a greater emphasis on phonics, including the new “decodable” books that include words students should already be able to sound out. “They’re being thoughtful at [Teachers College] about this research and where those gaps are,” she said.

Still, the principal acknowledged that the curriculum continues to encourage students to look at pictures to understand what words mean, a practice that many experts argue is counter-productive.

Multiple principals said they continue to use the Teachers College program in part because of the intensive training that they can purchase, which is popular with many teachers. They also argue it’s more comprehensive and hands-on than what’s offered by other curriculum vendors or even the education department.

“They come on site, they do data dives with teachers, they help rework lessons for students with disabilities,” the Bronx principal said of the Teachers College training. “The staff development makes the curriculum come alive.”

Bigger instructional changes on the horizon

Despite Banks’ criticism of balanced literacy and Teachers College, there has not been a top-down effort to move schools away from it — something that many observers said would be difficult to pull off given the autonomy principals expect over curriculum in their schools.

In District 4, which covers East Harlem, and where a majority of elementary schools surveyed said they were using Teachers College in 2019, Superintendent Kristy De La Cruz said she is wary of pushing schools toward a specific program and noted community buy-in is crucial.

“I do try to encourage [schools] to use curricula that’s meeting the needs of their young people, but I also am hesitant to endorse any curriculum,” De La Cruz said. “I want to make very clear that it’s not like I’m saying [Teachers College] is good or bad. It’s like, how are we using it? And how are we supplementing? Do we have a phonics component?”

Some parents whose schools have used Teachers College said they were disappointed the city wasn’t moving more quickly to push schools toward alternatives and worry that students will receive subpar instruction.

“Why would you keep something that was proven to not work?” said Jessica Simmons, a Brooklyn mom and former principal who shelled out over $4,000 for literacy tutoring as her son struggled at a school that was using the Teachers College program. “It’s hard to think we’re all participating in a system that is not using the most up-to-date research on how kids read.”

Top education department officials have hinted that they might take more steps to encourage schools to adopt different approaches to reading instruction. Asked during a recent state hearing whether the city planned to outright ban certain practices such as teaching students to guess what words mean based on pictures, Banks said “that’s where we’re going.”

Still, he acknowledged that not all schools will necessarily go along with changes.

“I do get some pushback from some schools, who have been using this as an approach and it feels like it works for them,” he said. “So I have not tried to simply have a one-size-fits-all.”

“We’re going to continue to drive this until we reach a point where every single student in New York City has the benefit of the right approach to the teaching of reading,” Banks added. “If they do not, nothing else that we do even matters.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Tyre Nichols’ death in Memphis creates another tragic teaching moment for Facing History & Ourselves

2023-02-10T18:15:08+00:00

The nonprofit group Facing History & Ourselves, which operates in more than 100 countries, provides educators with curriculum and resources to help students understand the lessons of history to combat bigotry and hate. It has operated in Memphis since 1992, and has reached more than 121,000 students in that time.

It also guides educators in using current events to spawn thoughtful discussions, help students think critically about difficult issues, and understand that they have agency in shaping those issues.

One of the current events students are discussing is the death of Tyre Nichols. The 29-year-old skateboarder, photographer and FedEx worker died days after being brutalized by Memphis police officers during a traffic stop on Jan. 7. Five officers have been charged in his slaying, which sparked protests throughout the city and nation.

Michele Philips is executive director of Facing History & Ourselves’ Southeast region, and is based in Memphis. Philips spoke with Chalkbeat about the role Facing History & Ourselves instructors will play in helping Memphis students grapple with Nichols’ death.

The interview has been lightly condensed and edited for clarity.

How is Facing History & Ourselves taught in Shelby County schools?

Facing History & Ourselves is in 80% of the middle and high schools, and grades 6 to 12. It looks different in each school. We have a Facing History & Ourselves elective, in which students can get a semester credit for social studies. About 30 schools have that course. Then we have a lot of teachers in English and Language Arts to teach “To Kill A Mockingbird,” but use it to teach the history of lynching and mob mentality, as opposed to just the coming-of-age of Scout.

Again, the purpose of Facing History & Ourselves is to use the lessons of history to confront bigotry and hate. We feel like that’s more important than ever now, and we’re sticking to our script.

I noticed on your website that you have a mini-lesson on the long, troubled history of law enforcement and Black people. One of the essential questions it presents is the challenge of teaching that history without stereotyping law enforcement. How does Tyre Nichols’ death complicate that?

It can complicate it, but we try to help students see each other’s total humanity. We help them recognize they can be agents of change through seeing each other’s humanity. I keep thinking about how our students today are going to be the community leaders, are going to be the police officers, the professionals, the decision makers of tomorrow. The practice of seeing each other’s total humanity starts with our students.

How would your instructors talk to students who are disillusioned and upset after seeing the Nichols video?

We don’t talk to them. We listen to them. We really let them sit with that, because the last thing we want to do is minimize their pain. Our teachers are really skilled at listening, and letting the students talk. We don’t want to say that it’ll be all right, because it may not be all right. I think our teachers have done that, not pushing a student who is angry or sad to talk about it, because they may not be ready to talk about it.

As you know, back in 2021 the Tennessee legislature passed a law restricting how lessons on race are taught. How is this affecting your instructors — especially when students are bound to have questions about race and police brutality in the wake of Nichols’ death?

I knew you were going to ask that. As you know, learning history is nuanced and complex, but it’s well within the ability of our students to understand with guidance from caring educators who are coached and trained on how to teach with empathy and accuracy.

That’s what we do. We have always been committed to teaching history with all of its honesty. The first thing that you do in a Facing History class is to teach the teachers how to build a safe and reflective classroom, so that the students get to learn each others’ stories, so that when you have a difficult conversation, we’re much more capable of being able to understand and hear each other.

What they teach is within the state standards of Tennessee. But I’m not going to tell you that it hasn’t had a chilling effect on some of our teachers. Some have been anxious and nervous. I’m not going to sugarcoat that.

How are your instructors working to tamp down that chilling effect, especially in this moment we’re in?

I think that our teachers are committed to slowing down and talking about (Nichols’ death) in a process that really humanizes the students, so they can reflect and have conversations. So far, we haven’t had a pushback.

There are ways to do this. Let me give you an example. In August, when we had the situation with the shooter (19-year-old Ezekiel Kelly was charged with killing three people in a citywide shooting spree), I went to Central High School and listened to Mary McIntosh’s Facing History & Ourselves class, and sat there and listened to her unpack the fear those kids had around that shooting that happened in August. She slowed it down, and got them to free-write it in a journal, just dump it all out, and gave them agency to be able to talk to each other.

Again, if you start with building that safe and reflective classroom, where every voice matters, that helps.

A 2021 study published in The Quarterly Journal of Economics found that inner-city high school students in Los Angeles who were exposed to high levels of police violence were more prone to struggle academically in school, or to drop out. Do those findings surprise you?

Unfortunately, no. I think the trauma that is happening to our young people, even seeing it over and over again, is trauma. We frequently work with our instructors on building a culture of care, because (violence) does have a ripple effect of them doing worse in school.

Looking at the historical case studies of policing in this country is also helpful, because then you can see the legacies of where this comes from, and also see what we need to do. And what I keep coming back to is what we need to do will come from these students, because they’re going to be the future leaders.

One of the students I spoke with regarding Tyre Nichols’ death told me he was becoming desensitized to police brutality and that he almost sees it as inevitable. What can your instructors do to help youths understand that this doesn’t have to be the case?

I’m glad you asked that, because we don’t believe that history has to be inevitable, and that we’re doomed to repeat it. We believe history is made by human beings, and we don’t have to repeat that. Our slogan is “People Make Choices and Choices Make History,” and if we can get our students to see each others’ humanity, we don’t have to repeat that.

Bureau Chief Tonyaa Weathersbee oversees Chalkbeat Tennessee’s education coverage. Contact her at tweathersbee@chalkbeat.org.

NYC to introduce pilot program on ageism for high schoolers

2023-02-08T21:32:36+00:00

New York City officials are launching a new effort to curb discrimination against the city’s oldest residents — by educating some of its youngest.

A pilot curriculum jointly operated by the city’s Department for the Aging and Department of Education will introduce the concept of “ageism” to students at 13 Brooklyn high schools, with the goal of eventually expanding citywide.

Creators of the new pilot program say young people are uniquely positioned to learn about the harmful effects of age discrimination because they may have experienced a version of it themselves.

“If you see how you are marginalized and disenfranchised and hurt” by ageism, said Department for the Aging Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez, “you would think about doing that to someone else.”

NYC Department for the Aging Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez

The goal of the pilot program, she added, is to bring “the two bookends of our city, the youth and older adults … in conversation.”

The city’s Department for the Aging has for years been searching for ways to spread awareness about ageism, which Cortés-Vázquez defines as discrimination based on age that can “disenfranchise” and “marginalize” its targets, while keeping them “economically disadvantaged.”

The department, in partnership with a new citywide council on older New Yorkers created under Mayor Eric Adams, weighed the idea of campaigns focused on industry leaders or equipping older New Yorkers with tools to advocate for themselves. But an experience last summer working with teenage interns ultimately convinced department officials to focus their efforts on students.

The summer interns got a crash course in the harms of ageism, and came out with a more nuanced understanding of how to approach the older adults in their lives, Cortés-Vázquez said.

“We asked, ‘Did being here change the way you thought?’” Cortés-Vázquez recalled.

The student interns responded with “such heartfelt statements [as], ‘I used to take my grandma for granted, I never really spoke to her except about grandmotherly things,’” Cortés-Vázquez said.

Department for the Aging officials found a willing partner in Michael Prayor, superintendent of high schools in South Brooklyn. Prayor had already launched an anti-discrimination curriculum, and said the new pilot program will fit neatly into that framework.

Prayor said the appeal of the anti-ageism pilot was “personal.”

“I think of my own father who’s 93-years-old, and I want him to live in a society where he is still respected, loved, and cared for as a senior citizen,” he said. “One of the best ways to go about creating a society that supports and reveres the elderly is to start with educating our young people.”

The resource guide created by the department for the aging distinguishes between “structural” ageism in institutions like healthcare, and interpersonal ageism, which can include dismissive comments and stereotypes.

The guide also includes suggestions for lessons, including oral history projects where students interview older adults about their lives, and videos that debunk some common stereotypes about older adults, especially around their physical fitness.

Cortés-Vázquez said that she hopes to gather feedback from the pilot program and eventually expand the resource guide to every school in the city.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Advanced Placement debate feels high-stakes for teachers of African American history

2023-02-02T19:16:30+00:00

Keziah Ridgeway has taught African American history at Northeast High School in Philadelphia for four years, calling it a “labor of love.”

“I say it is a labor because it is very daunting teaching African American history,” she said. “It’s a lot of trauma — a lot of events that can make you uncomfortable.”

Still, Ridgeway added, “It’s something that needs to be done.”

More teachers across the country are likely to confront this challenge in the years to come as the College Board rolls out its first Advanced Placement course in African American studies.

Already, the course has been thrust into the political fray. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state’s schools wouldn’t teach the class, alleging that it violated a 2022 state law that restricts how race and racism are taught. He and other state officials pointed to the inclusion of subjects like Black queer studies, the debate over reparations for slavery, and the Black Lives Matter movement in criticizing the curriculum.

Then, after the College Board released a final curriculum framework Wednesday that removed much of the criticized content, some protested that the course had been watered down — while educators who are piloting the class and others like it stressed the vital role it can play in schools.

“I compel anyone who has questions about this course to actually take the time to read the curriculum, spend time in classrooms, and talk to students,” said Melissa Tracy, a teacher at Odyssey Charter School in Delaware who is teaching a pilot version of the AP course this year. “What many students will tell you is, ‘This is the first time in my entire educational experience where I actually get to learn this content — because I was never taught it.’”

Tony Green, a teacher at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland, California who is participating in the pilot, said it’s a more comprehensive course than any high school class that has preceded it.

“This is the ideal situation for a teacher who’s teaching African American studies, because the resources have already been gathered,” said Green, who has taught Black history for decades.

The College Board has denied that DeSantis or any states influenced the revision process, saying the changes were pedagogical and based on feedback from educators, the New York Times reported.

National curriculum decisions are rare

Curriculum revisions, especially to a new course, aren’t unusual, noted Tambra Jackson, a professor and dean of the School of Education at Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis who focuses on social justice in education. The College Board’s process of convening scholars and teachers at the high school and college levels to construct the course wasn’t unusual either.

“If this would have happened without the political fanfare, we might not be giving it that much attention,” she said.

What is different now is the intensity of the Republicans’ focus on how race and gender are taught in schools, and the way figures like DeSantis have turned critiques more often hashed out in state standards committee hearings into a political spectacle. Eighteen states have legislated or imposed changes to how race and racism can be taught since January 2021, according to Education Week’s tracker. Many have also restricted discussion of sexism and LGBTQ content. Schools also have faced a new wave of challenges to the availability of school library books.

“The political context where we’re in right now — there is this very direct, extreme focus on any kind of social awareness, on any kind of social action that focuses on how human beings in this country have been dehumanized, and there is an attempt to water down that history,” Jackson said.

“Because of all of that, on Feb. 1, the first day of Black History Month, the announcement that this curriculum has been revised, and the revision excludes really important, key people and thought leaders — it is disheartening,” she said.

The curriculum framework for an AP course is in many ways a particularly vulnerable target for political opposition, since it is a rare piece of public schooling in America that is nationally standardized. Generally state bodies adopt standards that guide teaching of various subjects, while local school districts and school leaders choose textbooks and curriculum, and individual teachers make daily choices about what materials to use and topics to emphasize.

Textbooks in California and Texas, for example, vary in their treatment of topics like Reconstruction, the period immediately following the Civil War. And debates about topics like sex education, climate change, and evolution have flared in parts of the country for decades.

Debates about teaching Black history have a long history

In a number of cities, including Newark and Philadelphia, African American history is a curriculum staple.

Philadelphia has required all students to take an African American history course since 2005 in order to graduate. There, officials don’t shy away from teaching upsetting history. The district’s soon-to-be-updated curriculum will include a unit on one of the most fraught racial incidents in the history of Philadelphia: the city’s standoffs with Black activists who were part of the MOVE organization. In 1978 a police officer was killed in a shootout; in 1985, the bombing of the MOVE house by the police resulted in the deaths of 11 people, including children.

“Our official position is that we encourage teachers to approach controversial issues in the classroom,” said Ismael Jimenez, the district’s director of social studies curriculum who taught history in the district, including that course, for 12 years.

Established courses in many districts emerged from decades of activism and come with their own history of debate about how they should be taught. Last year, Detroit’s public school district chose new curriculum materials for its elective African American history course that the superintendent noted emphasized “strength, joy, and achievement,” without the frequent overemphasis on slavery as the starting point of Black history.

In Newark, New Jersey, where a 2002 state law required the teaching of African American history, the district didn’t offer a complete middle and high school curriculum on the subject until 2021 – nearly 20 years later.

Bashir Muhammad Ptah Akinyele teaches history and Africana studies at Weequahic High School in Newark and now uses the district’s Amistad curriculum. “I’m appreciative of the conversation. I think it’s needed,” he said of the debate about the AP course content. “But it’s not something new.”

Whether to give space to figures some find radical is always a piece of that discussion, even in places with legal protections, he said. In other states, he knows those battles are even tougher.

“There’s still a struggle to factually document the history of Black people in this country,” he said. Often when schools introduce the subject, he said, “They want something safe, comfortable.”

Green said he wasn’t surprised to see the course spark national backlash, adding that historically, introducing an African American studies curriculum has “always been a struggle.”

He pointed to student movements in the late 1960s, where protestors clashed with university officials and police in an effort to establish ethnic studies programs. “It was definitely attacked,” he said of African American studies at the time, adding the efforts came under fire from local conservative leaders. “There was bloodshed behind the introduction of that curriculum.”

The College Board’s new curriculum suggests that many of the topics now gone from the course framework can still be the focus of student projects — with a sample list of topics including, for example, “Gay life and expression in Black communities,” and “Reparations debates in the U.S./ the Americas.” Tracy and Green, who are teaching the pilot AP course, both noted that a curriculum doesn’t dictate every move teachers make in a classroom.

“There’s still a lot of built-in flexibility,” Tracy said. “Although there may not be a very specific lesson on Black Lives Matter, there still is an opportunity for students to research it. And at the end of the day, I don’t know how you can not talk about it. How do you talk about the Black freedom struggle without talking about Black Lives Matter?”

To Jackson, Ridgeway, and others, the revisions remain disappointing — and suggest the organization folded to political influence.

“For a long time, before cities and school districts began to teach ethnic studies and African American history, our students were subjected to a history that was very much whitewashed,” Ridgeway said. “Removing these things is unacceptable. It waters down our history and it hides the truth from our students.”

What is still heartening, Jackson said, is that the years ahead could see more students than ever getting a deep exposure to the topic.

“The fact that we now have an AP African American history course, I think it’s a wonderful thing,” she said. “I think students will take it, they will be engaged, they will be excited about the content, they will share it with their friends, and their friends will want to take it.

“When people have access, it opens up new curiosities.”

Dale Mezzacappa contributed reporting.

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering national issues. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

Repeal of retention rule in 3rd-grade reading law advances in Michigan Senate

2023-01-31T22:54:36+00:00

The Michigan Senate took a big step toward undoing an unpopular GOP-backed rule requiring districts to flag poor readers in third grade to be held back for a year.

The Senate Education Committee on Tuesday voted 5-1 to advance legislation to repeal the retention rule in Michigan’s Read by Grade Three law. Earlier Tuesday the House Education Committee heard testimony on similar legislation and could vote it out of committee as soon as next week, putting one of Democrats’ top education priorities on the fast track to the House and Senate floors.

The legislation has broad support among Democrats, who control both chambers, but amendments are possible, particularly from lawmakers who might use the bill as a vehicle for bipartisan reforms in the way students are screened for dyslexia.

GOP opponents of the bill say repealing the retention rule would water down Michigan’s academic standards. But even some Republicans back the repeal effort, including state Sen. Ruth Johnson of Holly.

“There’s no skill as vital to success in life as reading but I don’t believe that a student should be held back in third grade just because they’re struggling to read,” Johnson said at Tuesday’s hearing. Instead, she said, they should be given tutoring and other help to succeed.

Sen. Dayna Polehanki, the committee’s chairperson and sponsor of the bill, said that help will be available.

“All of the supports a student would have received repeating the third grade will now be extended to a student in their fourth grade year,” said Polehanki, a Democrat from Livonia and a former teacher.

Those supports include individualized reading improvement plans, progress monitoring, read-at-home plans, and daily small-group instruction. All of those provisions would remain in state law, along with requirements for literacy coaches and professional development for teachers, Polehanki said.

State Superintendent Michael Rice testified before both committees in favor of ending the retention rule.

“Let’s eliminate the punitive, and let’s start building on the more positive to support our children,” Rice told members of the House Education Committee.

Retention is ineffective, unpopular with teachers, and damaging to students’ self-efficacy, said education researcher Katharine Strunk, who testified before both the House and Senate committees. Strunk is executive director of Michigan State University’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative, a research partner of the Michigan Department of Education.

The retention rule hasn’t had the effect lawmakers envisioned when they passed the reading law in 2016 as a way to identify struggling readers, provide individualized help, and hire literacy coaches. The law took effect gradually, and 2021-22 was the first year third-graders were retained because of it.

Because the law allows broad exemptions, fewer than 1% of students flagged for retention actually repeat third grade. Most of them are exempted from the requirement, because of their status as English language learners or special education students, or simply because their parents and school administrators agreed that it was in the students’ best interest to promote them to fourth grade, Strunk said.

The time spent working out such agreements would be better spent on actually improving students’ reading skills, Rice told the House committee.

The retention rule “is a well-intentioned reform but it does not, in fact, meet its mark,” he said. Repealing it “doesn’t preclude retention in those rare cases where it might be a good circumstance. It simply means that the default is no longer retention.”

Spokespeople for House Speaker Joe Tate of Detroit and Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks of Grand Rapids did not immediately respond to questions about whether and when they might schedule floor votes on the repeal bill.

Johnson, who supports the bill, abstained from Tuesday’s vote, saying she intends to support the legislation if a provision is added to ensure that parents are notified about their children’s reading difficulties.

Republican Sen. John Damoose of Harbor Springs, who cast the lone no vote in the Senate committee, opposes the repeal, saying it would weaken educational standards and limit accountability.

In the House committee, too, Republican opponents of the bill said they see the retention rule as a useful tool.

State Rep. Brad Paquette, a Republican from Berrien Springs and a former teacher, said the threat of retention should remain in the law, because it could motivate students to work harder.

“I know when I was young and I had the specter of ‘Oh, you might get held back,’ that really was a good kick in the pants,” he said during the committee hearing.

Rep. Jaime Greene, vice chairperson of the House committee, said retention helps ensure that children have basic reading skills before they move on to fourth grade.

“We have one of the lowest reading levels in the country, so if we’re not going to retain them, what are we going to do?” asked Greene, a Republican from Richmond. “We’ve got to do something.”

Rice and Strunk said there’s a lot that can be done.

“More time in small groups or one-on-one with a qualified educator who is focused on literacy instruction is what we know to be the most impactful,” Strunk said.

In her State of the State address last week, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer proposed a plan to provide individualized tutoring for students in all grades and all subjects. She is expected to lay out details when she presents her budget on Feb. 8.

She also proposed expanding the Great Start Readiness Program, Michigan’s public preschool, to all 4-year-olds.

“I do think we should weave preschool into the fabric of our public education system far more extensively than it is now,” Rice told the House committee Tuesday. Enrollment shouldn’t be mandatory, but it’s “enormously important” for every 4-year-old in Michigan to have access to preschool, he said.

He also asked lawmakers to provide more education funding that could be used to reduce class sizes in low-achieving districts with high poverty, to offer more professional development in reading instruction, to help students with dyslexia, and to provide programs after school and in the summer.

Democrats’ effort to repeal the retention rule could open the door to other reading reforms, including a renewed emphasis on phonics. That approach teaches children to sound out words and apply rules of spelling and pronunciation.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

CUNY phases out its last ‘remedial’ course, capping yearslong shift

2023-01-11T20:16:44+00:00

New York City’s public community colleges, for the first time in decades, assigned no new students this year to “remedial” classes, marking a major milestone in how the system supports students with academic gaps.

For more than 50 years, the City University of New York’s community colleges would assess students’ math and English skills when they enrolled and assign those who didn’t meet CUNY’s cutoff to “remedial” courses. These courses didn’t confer credits, but served as prerequisites to regular college classes, and students had to pay for them before they could start working towards a degree.

The remedial courses became a critical first step — and often an insurmountable hurdle — for tens of thousands students seeking degrees each year.

As a growing body of research questioned the effectiveness of the traditional remedial education model, CUNY and other colleges across the country have looked for alternatives. Now, instead of non-credit-bearing prerequisite courses, CUNY’s community colleges are using a “corequisite” model, where students in need of academic support enroll directly in credit-bearing classes, getting extra help at the same time, either through extra repetition built into existing class time, or supplemental lessons outside class time.

“Replacing the outdated remedial approach with a more effective, equitable and evidence-based system is an important advance in our ongoing mission to provide all our students with educational opportunity and the support they need to succeed,” said Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez.

The city university system began phasing out remedial classes at its community colleges in 2016, nearly two decades after CUNY stopped offering remedial courses at its four-year colleges. That earlier transition, around 2000, coincided with the end of open admissions at the senior colleges guaranteeing seats for all high school graduates regardless of grades or test scores. The community colleges continue to have open admissions. They play a key role in CUNY’s mission to serve New York City, enrolling a higher proportion of Black, Hispanic, and working students, and more students who qualify for Pell grants than its four-year colleges.

Remedial courses attract intense debate

Remedial courses have for decades occupied a central, and controversial, place in the city’s public university system, which now serves roughly 243,000 students.

When CUNY moved towards an open admissions policy around 1970, remedial classes became an important tool to ensure students who entered college with academic gaps could handle the rigors of CUNY’s four-year colleges.

After the pendulum shifted again in the late 1990s, and those schools began imposing tighter admissions standards, they largely shed their remedial courses. But at CUNY’s community colleges, remedial courses remained widespread. As of 2016, 78% of students entering CUNY’s community colleges were assigned to at least one remedial course, with the largest number needing additional math support, university officials said.

“About half who started those classes did not pass them,” said Donna Linderman, CUNY’s Associate Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs. “They either withdrew or failed them on the first attempt. Very few passed or moved on.”

One internal CUNY review from 2016 found that students assigned to remedial math courses were only half as likely to earn an associate degree within three years as peers who didn’t take remedial courses.

University officials and researchers pointed to several potential problems with the traditional remedial structure. Some students, discouraged by having to spend money on courses without making progress towards a degree, dropped out. In certain cases, students had to take a sequence of remedial classes that spanned multiple semesters, increasing the likelihood they would drop out along the way, officials said.

“Students were losing motivation to continue studying because they were stuck on remedial,” said Liana Erstenyuk, a lecturer in math at Borough of Manhattan Community College. “They are studying and working, they have families, other responsibilities, but there is no motivation to earn the credits.”

On top of that, CUNY officials suspected they may have been overidentifying students for remedial classes, sometimes assigning them to courses they didn’t actually need.

Traditionally, CUNY used a combination of students’ scores on high school Regents exams, SAT results, and performance on CUNY placement exams to determine who needed remedial courses.

But in recent years, the university system began considering a wider range of factors including high school grades, giving students a chance to retake placement tests, and changing cutoff scores, officials said.

As a result, the percentage of new community college students assigned to remedial education was nearly cut in half since 2016 to around 40% this year, officials said.

A new model shows promising results

Perhaps the biggest shift in how CUNY approaches remedial education is the shift to a corequisite model, where students with academic gaps can immediately enroll in credit-bearing courses.

That approach has grown in popularity across the country in recent years and has shown some promising results.

CUNY officials point to multiple advantages to the corequisite model. Students can earn credits right away, decreasing the chance they’ll lose motivation and drop out. Colleges can also ensure that needed academic remediation directly relates to the classes students are taking, since it’s embedded in those courses.

For example, students in the Borough of Manhattan Community College’s nursing program can get math and arithmetic remediation by practicing calculations around medication dosages.

Mark Kroboth, a 59-year-old student studying nursing at BMCC, said he started his degree feeling rusty in math, but has appreciated the chance to practice directly in the context of his nursing studies.

“If it was just math, and it wasn’t applied to what my goal is, I might probably check out a little bit,” he said. “But this class really connects you to where you’re going to.”

As a late-life career changer, Kroboth said he’d feel discouraged if he had to take a remedial math course that didn’t earn him any credits.

“That would have just been ridiculous,” he said. “I couldn’t even imagine going back into that.”

The challenge of corequisite courses is finding ways to build in support while still getting through all the normal material. CUNY officials said that there are multiple ways to accomplish that, including extra sessions outside of class hours or devoting chunks of in-class time to practicing the fundamentals.

Erstenyuk, the BMCC math lecturer, said she often records video recaps of basic math concepts that she asks students to review before class, then checks at the beginning the period to ensure everyone understands.

CUNY officials say the shift to corequisite courses isn’t far along enough to be able to definitively measure its success, but point to some hopeful early signs. The percentage of associate degree students who earned math credits in their first year jumped from 36% in 2016 to 50% in 2020, CUNY officials said.

The shift in remedial courses comes as the university system faces a slew of other challenges, including a major pandemic enrollment drop at the community colleges. CUNY officials said they’re also aware they may be getting more incoming students with academic deficits because of high school learning loss and disruption during the pandemic.

But Linderman, the academic affairs vice chancellor, said that’s all the more reason to push ahead with revamping remedial education.

“An underlying principle of the corequisite model is making students know we think you’re capable,” she said. “We don’t want to entangle you in a course that might take multiple semesters. At its most philosophical level…it’s a huge motivator for students.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

New York City schools blocked ChatGPT. Here’s what other large districts are doing

2023-01-06T22:54:06+00:00

School districts in Los Angeles and Baltimore have joined New York City in blocking access to ChatGPT, a new artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, as other districts evaluate the benefits and risks that accompany the new technology.

The program has spurred vibrant debate among educators in recent weeks, who have looked to the new technology with both fear and excitement over its potential impact on schools.

For some, the chatbot’s ability to generate complex and measured responses to academic prompts makes it a frighteningly powerful agent for cheating and plagiarism. Concerns earned ChatGPT a ban on all devices and networks in the nation’s largest school district.

New York City schools cited “negative impacts on student learning, and concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of content,” adding that “the tool may be able to provide quick and easy answers to questions, [but] does not build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success.”

Districts in Chicago and Philadelphia have not moved to block the program, spokespeople said.

The program, created by OpenAI, allows users to enter prompts and then generates responses using machine learning. That has some fearing it could offer students an easy out when faced with, for example, a high school English essay prompt.

Still, others have labeled the initial outcry alarmist and looked to the chatbot as an enticing new tool for teachers and schools. That potential has sparked some interest in Cobb County, Georgia.

“Like most technological tools, ChatGPT can support student learning, when used effectively,” a spokesperson for the local school district said. “In the hands of a high-qualified Cobb County teacher, it could be a valuable tool to supplement a student’s understanding of academic content and could help students develop critical thinking skills.”

With schools around the country beginning to evaluate ChatGPT, here’s where some of the nation’s largest school districts stand:

Los Angeles Unified School District in California

Last month, the district preemptively blocked access to ChatGPT on all networks and devices to “protect academic honesty, while a risk/benefit assessment is conducted.”

“In the meantime, we will continue to provide robust and relevant training and instruction in digital citizenship and computer science education for all school communities,” a district spokesperson said.

Chicago Public Schools in Illinois

ChatGPT is not blocked on school networks and remains under district review for potential risks to students.

In a statement, a spokesperson said Chicago Public Schools was “committed to providing students with a rigorous and engaging educational experience that incorporates technological advances. This includes tools that help students explore budding career pathways.”

School District of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania

ChatGPT is not blocked by the school district, a spokesperson said.

Baltimore County Public Schools in Maryland

In a statement, a spokesperson said “Baltimore County Public Schools has not created or changed policy as a result of ChatGPT, but we did block the site on student devices and browsers earlier in the school year.”

Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland

A spokesperson for the school district said ChatGPT is not currently blocked, but added it is under review.

Jefferson County Public Schools in Kentucky

Access to ChatGPT is not restricted at Jefferson County Public Schools, but the district said it is “constantly reviewing all websites, chatbots and other technologies to determine their value to student learning.”

“We make every effort to stay informed about emerging technologies and how they might impact our students’ learning, positively or negatively,” a spokesperson said. “To date, we have not had any concerns expressed to us about ChatGPT.”

Orange County Public Schools in Florida

The district has not made any policy changes regarding ChatGPT, but said staff “regularly monitors district devices for unauthorized programs or usage and responds accordingly.”

Northside Independent School District in Texas

The district has not taken any steps to block ChatGPT, but said it “continually evaluates numerous websites for instructional merit and has a web filter and other tools in place that can help address those that contain any content deemed harmful or disruptive to the instructional process.”

Julian Shen-Berro is a reporter covering national issues. Contact him at jshen-berro@chalkbeat.org.

NYC education department blocks ChatGPT on school devices, networks

2023-01-03T23:32:44+00:00

New York City students and teachers can no longer access ChatGPT — the new artificial intelligence-powered chatbot that generates stunningly cogent and lifelike writing — on education department devices or internet networks, agency officials confirmed Tuesday.

The education department blocked access to the program, citing “negative impacts on student learning, and concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of content,” a spokesperson said. The move from the nation’s largest school system could have ripple effects as districts and schools across the country grapple with how to respond to the arrival of the dynamic new technology.

The chatbot’s ability to churn out pitch perfect essay responses to prompts spanning a wide range of subjects has sparked fears among some schools and educators that their writing assignments could soon become obsolete — and that the program could encourage cheating and plagiarism.

“Due to concerns about negative impacts on student learning, and concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of content, access to ChatGPT is restricted on New York City Public Schools’ networks and devices,” said education department spokesperson Jenna Lyle. “While the tool may be able to provide quick and easy answers to questions, it does not build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success.”

Individual schools can still request access to the site if they’re planning to study the technology behind the chatbot, a department spokesperson said.

The program, created by the organization OpenAI, uses machine learning to come up with its own custom-made responses to specific prompts. It can pull and compile historical facts, write in specific styles, and make convincing logical arguments — all with nearly perfect grammar (unless a user gives a prompt to add grammatical errors).

That’s posing some thorny questions for educators who rely on independent writing assignments to build and assess students’ understanding and critical thinking skills.

One high school English teacher argued in The Atlantic that the chatbot spells the “end of high school English.”

The program still has limitations, sometimes coming up with inaccurate conclusions or even including offensive language.

It’s unclear if or how many other districts are banning the program. Several other large school districts did not immediately respond to Chalkbeat’s inquiries about how they’re handling ChatGPT. But the decision from the nation’s largest school system could well influence how other districts act.

The education department’s ban will only cut off access to the chatbot in some settings. Students can still get on the site on non-education department devices or internet networks.

Adam Stevens, a longtime New York City history teacher who started his career at Paul Robeson High School in Brooklyn and now teaches at Brooklyn Tech, believes that blocking the program is counterproductive. He compared the fears now swirling around ChatGPT to those that emerged around Google.

“People said the same thing about Google 15 or 20 years ago when students could ‘find answers online,’” he said.

The program could even prove useful in some cases, Stevens added, generating a “baseline” response to an essay prompt that the class could analyze together and figure out how to improve upon.

Stevens argued that the best way to discourage students from using ChatGPT and building up their critical writing skills is by “assigning them work that is inviting them to explore things worth knowing,” and moving away from teaching formulaic writing based on strict rubrics.

“We’ve trained a whole generation of kids to pursue rubric points and not knowledge,” he added, “and of course, if what matters is the point at the end of the semester, then ChatGPT is a threat.”

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Are Michigan teachers exempt from public records laws? A judge’s ruling raises concerns.

2022-12-21T20:42:58+00:00

A judge ruled last week that public school teachers aren’t subject to Michigan’s public information law even though they are public employees, a ruling some fear could make it easier to shield government records.

Oakland County Circuit Judge Jacob James Cunningham made the ruling in a case that centers on parent Carol Beth Litkouhi’s request for materials related to Rochester Community School District’s history of ethnic and gender studies class.

The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation filed the lawsuit on behalf of Litkouhi and plans to appeal.

In his ruling, Cunningham noted that Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act only includes school districts — not individual employees — in the definition of a “public body,” and that the law considers records public only if they are “prepared, owned, used, in the possession of, or retained by a public body in the performance of an official function.”

Litkouhi’s public records request was one of many filed statewide in recent years by Michigan parents who claimed they were concerned about how classes are taught and wanted more input in textbooks and supplementary materials.

While the Thursday ruling only applies to the Rochester case, the Mackinac Center’s Stephen Delie said it could be used to shield other records produced by lower-level government employees from the public.

The ruling may create a loophole that allows records to be deemed private as long as they are maintained by individual public employees, not the public entity, said Delie, the Midland group’s director of transparency and open government.

That could allow a police department, for instance, to argue that records are private because they are held by an employee, not the overall administration, he said.

“If this is read very, very broadly, it tremendously limits FOIA for all except state executive agencies,” Delie said.

“If other lower courts take a look at this decision and begin following it, I think it’s going to be much more difficult not only for parents like our client, but for journalists and for concerned citizens to be able to gain access to all sorts of records, not just school records.”

The case arose when the district provided Litkouhi a copy of topics taught in the course in 2021 and claimed that was the only responsive record “knowingly in RSCD’s possession,” according to the judge’s order. The district claims teachers are not a member of the administration and are not a public body.

Litkouhi, who won a seat on the Rochester school board last month, told Bridge this fall that she wanted to “restore our district’s focus on academic excellence and transparency and partnerships with parents and accountability.”

School district spokeswoman Lori Grein told Bridge in a statement that the district “values and appreciates” the district’s teachers, administrators, and support staff who work to teach students skills to “contribute to a diverse, interdependent and changing world.”

“Rochester Community Schools continues to focus on the education, growth, safety, and wellness of our students, staff and school community,” she said.

Delie said he is not aware of cases similar to the Mackinac case in other states.

It’s unclear how many states deem school materials public records. New York state law defines a school record as “any information kept, held, filed, produced or reproduced by, or for” the school, which includes reports, books, manuals, pamphlets, and more.

In Ohio, school districts are considered public bodies subject to open records laws. But copyright laws may prohibit the release of textbooks, DVDs and other materials, and districts do not have to produce records if they don’t already exist, according to the Ohio School Boards Association.

In Michigan and some other states, school employees’ personal correspondence is exempt from public disclosure.

In 2007, three Howell Public Schools teachers — who were also members of the Howell Education Association — asked the court to clarify if their personal emails addressing union matters were subject to public records requests.

In January 2010, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in the teachers’ favor, finding that personal emails do not count as public records just because “they were captured in a public body’s e-mail system’s digital memory.”

Similarly, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that emails sent by the state’s public school teachers are not public records, even if they are sent via work accounts on school-owned computers.

“In determining whether a document is a record under (Wisconsin’s public records law), the focus is on the content of the document,” the court ruled. “To be a record ... the content of the document must have a connection to a government function.”

The nature of personal emails from public school employees is different from textbooks and teaching materials teachers use in a classroom, Delie argued.

“Here, the materials that we were pursuing were curriculum materials,” he said. “That’s, in my mind, fairly clearly connected to the core function of educating children.”

Yue Stella Yu and Isabel Lohman are reporters for Bridge Michigan. You can reach Yu at syu@bridgemi.com; Lohman can be reached at ilohman@bridgemi.com.